by Phillips Payson O'Brien, Professor at the University of Saint Andrews

En collaboration avec la faculté de Philosophie et Sciences sociales de l’ULB, grâce à la générosité de feu le Baron Jean-Charles VELGE

Thomas BERNS (Doyen de la Faculté de Philosophie et Sciences sociales), Marie GORANSSON (vice-Doyenne de la Faculté de Philosophie et Sciences sociales), Kenneth BERTRAMS (Président du Département d’Histoire, Arts et Archéologie), Pieter LAGROU (Professeur d’Histoire et responsable académique de la chaire) et Baudouin VELGE (représentant du fonds baron Jean-Charles Velge) ont l'honneur de vous inviter à la leçon inaugurale de la Chaire Internationale d’Histoire de la Deuxième Guerre Mondiale 2023-2024. La conférence inaugurale sera suivie de la remise du prix Baron VELGE et d'une réception (R42).

The arguments made in How the War was Won: Air-Sea Power and Allied Victory in World War II (Cambridge, 2015) were outside of the norm when it came to the military history of the conflict. In moving away from the focus on battles and generals, to look at production, logistics and attrition, the book made some pointed comments about how the process of defeating Germany and Japan worked. This lecture will re-examine many of those claims, about equipment, complex systems, and mobility, and offer some ways that we might look at them in the present war.

Phillips Payson O'Brien teaches history and international relations at the University of Saint Andrews. In 2015, he published a major monograph with Cambridge University Press How the War Was Won, focusing on the logistical side of modern warfare during WWII. It seemed appropriate for the eleventh edition of the Chair to change the focus for once from the political, social and cultural aspects of warfare to military hardware, especially since Phillips Payson O’Brien has distinguished himself as a sharp analyst and commentator of the current war in Ukraine, among others through a series of articles in The Atlantic. He has done so with caution and with force, showing that historians can add to our understanding of the present and that, while history might not have straightforward lessons to teach to the present, it can offer a source of inspiration and a set of elements of comparison.

Lundi 18 mars 2024, de 18h30 à 20h30

Auditoire R42.5.503 (DRION)
ULB - Campus du Solbosch - Bâtiment R42 - Niveau 5
Av. Franklin Roosevelt 42
1050 Ixelles

Entrée libre - Inscription souhaitée ici

Personne de contacte : com.phisoc@ulb.be

Pour plus d'informations, cliquez sur le lien suivant : https://phisoc.ulb.be/fr/actualites/international-chair-for-the-history-of-the-second-world-war-2024