LAWRENCE — Although European politicians were eager to go to war in what became World War I, an Army War College military history professor will come to Kansas University to say that ordinary Europeans weren’t so enthusiastic about going to war. Using letters, diaries and memoirs of ordinary citizens, Michael Neiberg says Europeans were not only not willing to march with the guns of August, they were shocked and disgusted as their leaders turned a minor diplomatic crisis into a continental bloodbath. He said that European civilians descended into the nationalist hatreds that became the hallmark of the Great War only after the fighting became so bloody and bitter and after intense propaganda took its toll. He recently finished the book, “Dance of the Furies: Europe and the Outbreak of World War One.” He will speak 3-5 p.m. Sunday at 1001 Malott Hall at KU. The talk is free and open to the public. The 100-year anniversary of the start of World War I is August.
Tuesday, April 1, 3 p.m.
