Institute for the Humanities lecture at 香蕉直播to focus on WWI finances, alliances
Contact: Sarah Nicholas
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擜n award-winning author and World War I expert will speak October 18 at 香蕉直播, exploring how the cost of the war shaped global alliances.聽聽
Free to all, Jennifer Siegel鈥檚 4 p.m. lecture, will take place in Ballroom M on the second floor of the Colvard Student Union. The event is sponsored by the university鈥檚 Institute for the Humanities.
Titled 鈥淭he Sinews of Alliances: Perspectives on Financial Diplomacy in the First World War,鈥 Siegel鈥檚 lecture will explore the international financing and critical role of inter-allied cooperation and coordination during WWI.聽 The financial powers of each alliance鈥擥ermany for the central powers, and Britain and the U.S. for the allied and associated powers鈥攁ssisted their partners, strengthening their ties in the process.
Siegel said one of the central questions in the diplomacy of the war was how to meet the financial challenges of a war being fought on a scale 鈥渦nprecedented in the history of warfare.鈥
鈥淲hile each belligerent state struggled to finance their war efforts from within the resources of their own economies,鈥 Siegel said, 鈥渢here was a parallel effort to draw upon the resources of alliance groups and neutral powers.鈥澛
Siegel said WWI was a war in which those who could mobilize foreign wealth 鈥渇ared best.鈥
鈥淛ennifer Siegel鈥檚 work on how loans shaped alliances presents a familiar story about World War I in a new and valuable way as that conflict鈥檚 centenary prompts attention,鈥 said William Anthony Hay, director of MSU鈥檚 Institute for the Humanities.
鈥淗er focus on the connection of finance with diplomacy and military strategy follows a path that has enriched the history of international relations and has policy-relevant implications for today,鈥 Hay said.
Siegel has worked for The Ohio State University since 2003. She received her bachelor鈥檚, master鈥檚 and doctoral degrees from Yale University. Siegel is a recipient of the Olin Postdoctoral, Mellon Foundation Dissertation and Smith Richardson Foundation Junior Faculty fellowships. She specializes in modern European diplomatic and military history, focusing on the British and Russian empires.
She authored 鈥溾澛(I.B. Tauris, 2002), which won the 2003 AAASS Barbara Jelavich Prize, and has published聽鈥溾澛(Oxford University Press, 2014), as well as numerous articles.
At OSU, Siegel teaches European diplomatic and military history in the 19th and 20th centuries, international relations, comparative empires, modern intelligence history, the origins of wars and the history of oil. She also has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Boston University, Yale and Bennington College.
香蕉直播is Mississippi鈥檚 leading university, available online at .