World War I and World War II figure prominently in the provocative Friends of the UNCG Libraries book discussions scheduled for Spring 2015.
Monday, Feb. 9: Friends of the UNCG Libraries Book Discussion – “Regeneration” by Pat Barker, led by Keith Gorman of the University Libraries 4 p.m., Hodges Reading Room, Jackson Library second floor, UNCG.
Monday, April 20: Friends of the UNCG Libraries Book Discussion – “Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland” by Christopher Browning, led by Karl Schleunes of the History Department (emeritus) 4 p.m., Hodges Reading Room, Jackson Library second floor, UNCG.
“Regeneration” by Pat Barker, which was published in 1991 and was a Booker Prize nominee, was the first novel of a trilogy titled the Regeneration Trilogy. The two other works in the trilogy are The Eye in the Door and The Ghost Road. The novel set in WWI England explores the experience of British officers being treated for shell shock. Drawing on the experiences of Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, the novel examines the issues of duty, masculinity, creative work, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland” by Christopher Browning” is the second book in the spring series. In this non-fiction work, Browning, a professor of history at UNC Chapel Hill, argues that a German reserve police battalion composed of “ordinary men,” middle-aged, working class people, killed tens of thousands of Jews during WW II. “If the men of Reserve Police Battalion 101 could become killers under such circumstances,” he writes, “what group of men cannot?”
Both programs are free, with priority given to Friends of the UNCG Libraries members. If you plan to attend, they ask but do not require that you notify Barry Miller at bkmille4@uncg.edu.
Full story at Friends of the UNCG Libraries blog.
Reposted from UNCG Campus Weekly