Lecture discusses World War I as first modern war

Until the Second Industrial Revolution of the late 19th century, warfare was conducted in much the same way for centuries: open field charges, trench and hand-to-hand combat, and carnage from disease and infections often outnumbering battlefield casualties.

The length of wars was often determined by the amount of limited ammunition and men available.

But with the modern firepower revolution, more efficient transportation, the dawn of air machines and chemical weapons, wars would take on a previously unimaginable potential for horror and devastation.

Shortly after the second World War commenced, Winston Churchill warned of the dangers of “perverted science” in warfare. He rightly saw World War I as the prelude of what was to come.

As we look back 100 years to 1917, when the United States entered World War I, Penelope Blake comes to the Sycamore History Museum to examine World War I as the first modern war, and she will discuss a number of the ways modern inventions, initially designed for the good of mankind, would indeed be perverted, toward its destruction.

Blake has been a professor of humanities and World War II culture for three decades. She has authored two books on the Women’s Army Corp in World War II. In 2005, she was named Faculty of the Year at Rock Valley College and Most Distinguished Alumnus from Northern Illinois University. She has completed post-doctoral coursework in Impressionism and wartime art at the University of Chicago and Northwestern.

Blake teaches at Rock Valley College and is writing a book on Japan’s current political agenda to deny and erase its war crimes during World War II.

This talk complements the Sycamore History Museum’s exhibit, “Adventures To and From Sycamore.” The exhibit explores the story of William Hemenway, a Sycamore resident, who was stationed in France where his company was gassed in the Battle of Meuse-Argonne.

This program will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Sycamore History Museum, 1730 N. Main St. There is a $5 suggested donation.

For information, call 815-895-5762 or visit sycamorehistory.org.