Upcoming Events
Thursday, April 26, 2018 • 7:00 pm • Hoover 110
LECTURE
“World War I and Lancaster Peace Churches”
As the First World War was being waged in Europe, members of Mennonite and Brethren churches on the home front faced military conscription, government surveillance, and intense pressure to buy war bonds. The 1917 conscription law was ambiguous with regard to conscientious objection, although peace church members ultimately found a political ally in Lancaster County Congressman W. W. Griest. In this presentation, Steve Nolt will describe these dynamics and other ways that Lancaster’s peace church people experienced wartime pressures, sought to explain their convictions to their neighbors and to the government, and struggled to know how best to help those suffering from the war’s effects. (This talk, which is cosponsorerd by the High Library, the Young Center, and the Center for Global Understanding and Peacemaking, is held in conjunction with Voices of Conscience: Peace Witness in the Great War, a national touring exhibition exploring the experiences of conscientious objectors during World War I, on view at the High Library.)
Nolt is senior scholar at the Young Center and professor of history and Anabaptist studies at Elizabettown College. He is the author or coauthor of fourteen books on Amish, Mennonite, and Pennsylvania German history and contemporary life and series editor for Young Center Books in Anabaptist and Pietist Studies published by the Johns Hopkins University Press.
Thursday, May 31–Friday, June 1, 2018
CONFERENCE
“The Peace Churches and the Great War: A Centennial Reflection”