The Myths of Verdun - Dr. Paul Jankowski

This lecture was delivered at the National World War I Museum and Memorial's Symposium -- 1916 | Total War -- which was held in Kansas City, Mo. November 4-5, 2016.

For more information about the National WWI Museum and Memorial visit http://theworldwar.org

100 years after the battle of Verdun, so much has been told, re-told, written, sung, and filmed that sorting out the facts from the myths and the realities from the legends has become the essential to historical understanding. Over time, posterity has suffused the origins, experience, and stakes of the battle with multiple meanings. This lecture will consider the myths as well as the realities of the Battle of Verdun.

Paul Jankowski is the Raymond Ginger Professor of History at Brandeis University, where he focuses on modern European and French history, including the history of modern wars and warfare. In 2014 he won the World War I Historical Association Tomlinson Book Award for Verdun: The Longest Battle of the Great War and has since become a highly sought-after source for expert commentary and counsel regarding the meaning and impact of the Battle of Verdun. Jankowski has given talks at the French Embassy cultural service in New York, the French Consulate in Boston, the Public Library in Arlington, Virginia, and the World War I Historical Association in Norfolk, Virginia. Jankowski is the recipient of several awards including the Camargo Foundation Fellowship to France from 1995-96 and a Research Fellowship at the Centre National Research Fellowship, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in 1992.