Mattapoisett Historical Society and Mattapoisett Free Public Library will be presenting a Lecture Series by Seth Mendell, president emeritus of the Mattapoisett Historical Society. The subject of the series is the Inter-war Years (1918-1939): Witness the Rise of Communism, Fascism, Nazism and Militaristic Japan.
Labeled by some as “the war to end all wars,” the First World War failed in all respects and in many ways sowed the seeds for another World War in only 20 short years. During these years, Lenin and Stalin built the Soviet Communist State. The Italians, humiliated by their losses to Germany during the war, eagerly followed Benito Mussolini in building a Fascist State based on exaggerated nationalism. The German people, broken by defeat in the war and further punished by the allied Powers with heavy reparation payments, were ready to follow a charismatic Adolf Hitler who talked of a master race and a thousand year Reich. In the Orient, the Japanese military faction gained control of the government and in 1936 Japanese forces began invading the Chinese mainland. The League of Nations during the inter-war years was merely a sounding board with no means to enforce its declarations. The League was also minus the United States, which had played such an important role in the defeat of Germany.
This series of six lectures will attempt to analyze the events of the period and the reactions of England, France, and the United States as the structure set up by the Paris Peace Conference and Treaty of Versailles crumbled, sending Europe and the world into another war. The lectures will be held on Tuesday evenings at 7:00 pm at the Mattapoisett Free Public Library, beginning on August 15 and ending September 19. Questions: info@mattapoisetthistoricalsociety.org; 508-758-2844; www.mattapoisetthistoricalsociety.org.
August 15: Seth Mendell’s The Inter-war Years (1918-1939) Lecture Series: The Paris Peace Conference, the Treaty of Versailles and the Weimar Republic.
August 22: Seth Mendell’s The Inter-war Years (1918-1939) Lecture Series: The Formation of the Nations of Eastern Europe and the Development of the Soviet Union.
August 29: Seth Mendell’s The Inter-war Years (1918-1939) Lecture Series: England and the Commonwealth, France and Security and The Italian Fascist State.
September 5: Seth Mendell’s The Inter-war Years (1918-1939) Lecture Series: The United States – Isolation and Depression; The Rise of Nazi Germany.
September 12: Seth Mendell’s The Inter-war Years (1918-1939) Lecture Series: The Conflicts of the 1930s: Japan’s Aggression in China; The Italo– Ethiopian War; the Spanish Civil War.
September 19: Seth Mendell’s The Inter-war Years (1918-1939) Lecture Series: The Approach of War – Nazi Aggression in Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland.