World War II program sees high turnout

Nearly 60 years after it ended, curiosity about World War II remains strong, as attendance at a war symposium last week at Kansas University verified.

More than 200 people attended the two-day program, “Democracy in Arms: The American Soldier in World War II,” held all day Friday and Saturday morning at the Dole Institute of Politics, according to institute officials. Many of those attending appeared to be KU students.

“I think it is one of those things people are interested in,” said Jonathan Earle, associate director of academic programming at the institute. “They never seem to stop wanting to know what it was like to fight in that war.”

The symposium also was held near the anniversary of the date former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole was wounded in combat in Italy on April 14, 1945. Dole will be on campus at the Dole Institute of Politics on April 26 to promote his book about his war experience, “One Soldier’s Story.”

The scholarly symposium featured panels of several historians and other experts on World War II. Topics covered included basic training, the psychological environment of combat, the initial clashes with Hitler.

A lead-in to the symposium was Thursday’s Humanities Lecture in the Kansas Union Ballroom titled, “The G.I. Generation: Sending Americans into Combat in World War II,” by Theodore A. Wilson.

Panel to discuss life on a rural farm

Six Kansas farmers and an agricultural historian will lead a public discussion April 14 on the health of family farms and rural communities.

The farmers will lead a panel discussion, at 3:30 p.m. in Alderson Auditorium at the Kansas Union, is being organized by the Kansas University history department and the Kansas Farmers Union.

“Farmers, Food and Rural Communities in the 21st Century” will be followed by a public lecture, “Every Farm a Factory: The Industrial Ideal in American Agriculture,” a lecture at 7:30 p.m. April 14 by Deborah Fitzgerald, president of the Agricultural History Society. The lecture also is in Alderson Auditorium.

Both events are free and open to the public.