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Visiting scholar addresses Star Wars weapons

April 10, 2008

KALAMAZOO--Social historian Dr. H. Bruce Franklin will speak on "War Stars: The Super-Weapon in the American Imagination," at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 10, in the Fetzer Center at Western Michigan University. The talk is open to the public free of charge.

The lecture is based on a revised edition of Franklin's book of the same name. Sweeping through two centuries of American culture and military history, Franklin traces the evolution of super-weapons from Robert Fulton's 18th-century submarine through the strategic bomber, atomic bomb and Star Wars, to a 21st century dominated by weapons of mass destruction.

Franklin also will give a public lecture at 11 a.m. Friday, April 11, in the Fetzer Center, based on his most-recent book, "The Most Important Fish in the Sea."

The Dana Professor of English and American Studies at Rutgers University, Franklin is considered one of America's leading cultural historians. He is the author or editor of 18 books and more than 200 articles on culture and history published in more than 100 major magazines and newspapers, academic journals, and reference works. He has delivered more than 500 talks and lectures on college campuses and at academic conferences, museums and libraries. He has offered commentary on radio and television and has participated in making four films.

Franklin's presentations are the 2008 H. Nicholas Hamner Lectures sponsored by the WMU Department of History.

Refer questions to Dr. Edwin Martini, assistant professor of history, at edwin.martini@wmich.edu or (269) 387-4487.

Media contact: Thom Myers, (269) 387-8400, thom.myers@wmich.edu

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