November 14, 2017 - Dr. Jonathan Roth - California Lutheran University
The Lundring Events Center, Thousand Oaks Campus
By Bill Betten, Co-Director of the California WW1 Centennial Task Force
RACE AND ETHNICITY IN WORLD WAR I
a public reception of the
Library of America Oral History Project
with lecture presented by
Jonathan Roth, Ph.D.
On a typically brisk, but temperate California evening on Tuesday, November 14, 2017, Dr. Jonathan Roth - California Lutheran University addressed a large audience with a topic he is most capable to speak upon, the racial and ethic relationships, standards, and history of the Great War, or World War One.
The evening was kicked off with a public reception for the Library of America Oral History Project. The project gave those in attendance the opportunity to experience the oral histories of actual WWI veterans as told to their sons and daughters and transcribed by California Lutheran University History students. Local California descendants of WW1 veterans shared their ancestor's stories along with displaying photographs and documents pf the member's wartime encounters.
The program is part of World War I and America, a two-year national initiative of The Library of America presented in partnership with The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the National World War I Museum and Memorial, and other organizations, with generous support from The National Endowment for the Humanities. It was the third activity of a three part series in association with the World War I and America project of the Library of Congress.
Dr Roth gave insights on the wide ethnic field of participants in WW1, and the actual roles those people played in the war. It came as a surprise to many in the audience how far the war actually reached around the world and the many races involved. Dr. Roth pointed out how the war challenged social norms and established a new reality for the many races then under the rule of imperialism.
A History professor at San Jose State University, Dr. Roth is director of the Department's Burdick Military History Project. A graduate of University of California, Berkeley, he attended Georg-August University in Goettingen, Germany on a Fulbright Scholarship and received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in New York. Dr. Roth is a widely published author, and currently serves on the California World War I Centennial Task Force Managing Board in association with the United States World War I Centennial Commission.