2015: Chris Capozzola

The Constitution and the First World War: Centennial Legacies for War and Civil Liberties

September 17 is a day of remembrance to honor the 39 courageous men who constructed and signed the U.S. Constitution in 1787. The document gave Americans life, liberty, freedom and prosperity. Each year, the OSU Library hosts an event to remind students and guests about the importance of Constitution Day.

Christopher Capozzola presents "The Constitution and the First World War: Centennial Legacies for War and Civil Libertiesâ€ on Sept. 17 at 3:30 p.m. in the Peggy V. Helmerich Browsing Room.

Capozzola was selected for this year's Constitution Day event because of his knowledge on the cultural and political aspects of U.S. history. He is an associate professor of history at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the author of "Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of the Modern American Citizen." Capozzola is also a winner of the Levitan Teaching Award and serves as the Secretary of Faculty at MIT.

This year's Constitution Day will take a new turn by combining with the "Great War & Its Legacy, 1914-1918" series. David Oberhelman, W. P. Wood Professor of Library Service at Oklahoma State University, is the organizer of the Great War series. He said the idea of combining Constitution Day with the Great War series stems from the mass mobilization of troops and the abridgement of civil liberties under President Woodrow Wilson's administration--two Constitutional issues that are still at the center of national political debates in today's society.

Capozzola's research focus on controversies surrounding the U.S.'s entry into the war is one reason he was selected to speak, Oberhelman said.

"This was our first foreign war," Oberhelman said. "There wasn't the groundswell of support like with World War II, we hadn't been attacked - there was an opposition to the war. To lead to war people were silenced, the press was censored, and there was an abridgement of civil liberties."