Public Lecture

Speaker: Dr. Richard Fogarty, an assistant professor of History at the University at Albany, SUNY

Lecture Title: Race and War in France: Colonial Subjects in the French Army, 1914-1918

When: Wednesday, April 7, 2pm
Where: 5th floor, Wimberly Library, FAU Boca Raton campus
Campus Sponsors: Phi Alpha Theta History Honors Society, Department of History, and Office of International Programs

Free and open to the public.

Bio and blurb: Dr. Richard S. Fogarty is the author of the prize-winning Race and War in France: Colonial Subjects in the French Army, 1914–1918 which won the prestigious first book award from Phi Alpha Theta, the National History Honors Society.  During the First World War, the French army deployed more than 500,000 colonial subjects, many of them Muslim soldiers from North Africa, to European battlefields. The struggle against a common enemy associated these soldiers with the French nation, but racial and cultural differences left them on the outside. Race and War in France investigates French conceptions of race and national identity at the time as reflected in the attitudes and policies directed toward these soldiers.  A widely praised account, the book was described as a “elegant” and “extraordinarily informative,” by the American Historical Review.

Dr. Fogarty earned an M.A. in history from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Santa Barbara.  An award-winning and experienced teacher, he has lectured widely in Europe and the United States on the history of modern France, European imperialism, the First World War, and race relations in the modern world. He teachers a the University at Albany, State University of New York.