Inaugural Ryland Symposium March 1 features discussion of how World War I shaped a legacy for civil liberties and civil rights

University of Richmond is hosting the first Ryland Symposium, which will focus on the legacy of World War I for civil rights and liberties. The event will be held March 1 at 7:30 p.m. in Jepson Hall, Room 118. History professor Eric Yellin will moderate.

“Though often overshadowed by the Second World War in popular memory, historians understand ‘the Great War’ to have been crucial not just to the war that followed but to a new modern consciousness around the world,” said Yellin. “In this inaugural Ryland Lectures symposium, three leading U.S. historians will explore how World War I fundamentally altered the ways Americans understood – and have since understood – collective rights and individual liberty.”

The symposium will feature three noted historians:

• Christopher Capozzola, MIT, author of “Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of the Modern American Citizen.”
• Adriane Lentz-Smith, Duke University, author of “Freedom Struggles: African Americans and World War I.”
• Laura Weinrib, University of Chicago School of Law, author of “The Sex Side of Civil Liberties: United States v. Dennett and the Changing Face of Free Speech.”

The event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Charles and Elizabeth Ryland Fund, established by the Ryland family to fund an annual lecture on Virginia or American history.

For more information, visit the University of Richmond calendar.

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