H. Bruce Franklin, Distinguished Professor from Rutgers University, to
give H. Nicholas Hamner Lecture, April 10-11.
The History department at Western Michigan University annually invites
an esteemed senior scholar give a public lecture, named for and
endowed by Professor Emeritus H. Nicholas Hamner. The event is an
opportunity to make visible the discipline of history within the
campus and the larger community by having a distinguished scholar
address a theme of broad interest.
This year’s lecture will be given by Professor H. Bruce Franklin of
Rutgers University, Newark. One of America's leading cultural
historians, Franklin is the author or editor of eighteen books and
more than 200 articles on culture and history published in more than a
hundred major magazines and newspapers, academic journals, and
reference works. He has given over five hundred addresses on college
campuses, on radio and TV shows, and at academic conferences, museums,
and libraries, and he has participated in making four films. Before
becoming an academic, Franklin worked in factories, was a tugboat mate
and deckhand, and flew for three years in the United States Air Force
as a Strategic Air Command navigator and intelligence officer. He has
taught at Stanford University, Johns Hopkins, Wesleyan, and Yale and
currently is the John Cotton Dana Professor of English and American
Studies at Rutgers University in Newark.
The topic of this year’s lecture is “War Stars: The Superweapon in the
American Imagination,” and is based on a revised new edition of
Professor Franklin’s book of the same name. Sweeping through two
centuries of American culture and military history, Franklin traces
the evolution of superweapons from Robert Fulton's eighteenth-century
submarine through the strategic bomber, atomic bomb, and Star Wars to
a twenty-first century dominated by “weapons of mass destruction,”
real and imagined. Interweaving culture, science, technology, and
history, he shows how and why the American pursuit of the ultimate
defensive weapon—guaranteed to end all war and bring universal triumph
to American ideals—has led our nation and the world into an epoch of
terror and endless war.
The Hamner lecture will take place on Thursday, April 10 at 7:00pm in
the Fetzer Center at Western Michigan University. It is free and open
to the public.
Flyer for the War Stars lecture
In addition to Thursday night’s lecture, Professor Franklin will be
giving an additional talk on Friday, April 11. The subject of this
talk will come from Franklin’s most recent book, The Most Important
Fish in the Sea (Island Press, 2007). In this landmark tale, Franklin
combines his expertise in cultural and environmental history with his
passion for fishing, turning his critically trained eye to the most
important fish you’ve never heard of. Although small and unappetizing,
the Menhaden has shaped America’s natural and national history. Since
the Civil War, the catch of Menhaden has exceeded that of all other
fish put together. With the Menhaden industry now controlled by a
single corporation, there are profound implications for the entire
Atlantic Ocean food chain. Franklin’s passionate story describes the
environmental, cultural, political, and economic impact of this
underappreciated and largely unknown creature.
This lecture will be at 11am on Friday April, 11, also at the Fetzer
Center on the campus of Western Michigan University. It is free and
open to the public.
Questions or requests for additional information should be directed to
Professor Edwin Martini, Department of History, WMU. 4434 Friedmann
Hall. Kalamazoo, MI. 49008-5334. edwin.martini@wmich.edu. 269-387-4487.