World War I and America: Book Discussion and Movie Series

Join us at the Carnegie Branch!

The Jackson District Library will be hosting a three-month-long look at the First World War and America’s involvement and emergence as a world power. Each month will have one book discussion, around World War I and America: Told by the Americans Who Lived It by A. Scott Berg, and two curated movie showings.

If you are interested in joining the book discussion, please visit the Carnegie Adult Services desk to reserve your copy of the title.

The movies will be curated by A.J. St. Charles to give background on settings, battles, and strategies portrayed. These screenings are open to the public.

WWI and America: Movie Screening 1
Monday, March 5 from 6-8:30 p.m.

• Paths of Glory (1957, Not Rated) a Stanley Kubrick film that follows a French Division as one officer fights both trench warfare and the avarice of his superiors.
• Coward (2012, Not Rated) follows a young Irishmen in the British Army and focuses on what was known then as “Shell Shock” and today as PTSD.

WWI and America: Book Discussion Group 1
Monday, March 19 from 6-8 p.m.

This book discussion will cover the first section (pages 1-351) of World War I and America: Told by the Americans Who Lived It by A. Scott Berg and will cover the following topics:

• The start of the war
• America’s role before declaring war
• Race relations in the United States

WWI and America: Movie Screening 2
Thursday, March 29 from 6-8:30 p.m.

Our second screening will include:

• Flyboys (2006, PG-13) a movie about the Lafayette Escadrille, or the first American fighter pilots, who fought in the French Air Force a year before the United States entered the war.

WWI and America: Movie Screening 3
Monday, April 9 from 6-8 p.m.

Our third screening will include:

• The Lost Battalion (2001, TV-14) a movie about the 77^th Division (the Lost Battalion), part of the 308^th Infantry Regiment, who fought on, against overwhelming odds after being surrounded.

WWI and America: Book Discussion Group 2
Monday, April 23 from 6-8 p.m.

This book discussion will cover the second section (pages 352-612) of World War I and America: Told by the Americans Who Lived It by A. Scott Berg and will cover the following topics:

• America’s early involvement in the First World War
• Internal conflict regarding race and gender
• The home front

WWI and America: Movie Screening 4
Monday, May 7 from 6-8:30 p.m.

Our fourth screening will include:

• Joyeux Noël (2005, PG-13) a movie about the armies of the Western Front coming together to play soccer, exchange gifts, and get to know one another before having to carry on the war.

WWI and America: Book Discussion Group 3
Monday, May 14 from 5:30-7:30 p.m.

This book discussion will cover the third section (pages 613-830) of World War I and America: Told by the Americans Who Lived It by A. Scott Berg and will cover the following topics:

• America’s new role in the modern world
• Continuing issues in race and gender
• Psychological wounds

The program is funded thanks to World War I and America, a grant issued by the Library of America and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.