Union University’s department of history hosted Odd Arne Westad, the Elihu Professor of history and global affairs at Yale University, to deliver two lectures in the G.M. Savage Memorial Chapel for the annual Carls-Schwerdfeger History Lectures on Oct. 14.
Westad’s first lecture, titled “On Major War: The United States, China, and Lessons from the Past”, centered around a theme of understanding how to handle the future by learning from the past.
His second lecture titled, “The Hinge: British Imperial Administrator James Bruce and the Re-ordering of Empire, 1840-1860”, focused on British Imperialism and individual actions.
After a brief introduction by Keith Bates, chair of the department of history, Westad began.
“I think that the most important thing is how important history is to understand what goes on today,” Westad said. “And I think to understand that, you have to have the history, the background for getting to that point.”
His lecture was focused around the question, “How can looking and learning about past events prevent some kind of all-out Great Power conflict?”.
Westad believes that comparing the current and growing conflict between the United States and China to the Cold War is wrong. In his lecture, he argued that it is more in tune with the start of World War I.
Westad argued that U.S. v.s. USSR conflict stemmed from fundamental ideological differences, whereas the United States and China are on common grounds socio-economically and in terms of dreams and wants: job security, family wellbeing and future promise.
Westad also spoke about the similarities between the newly formed Germanic empire in the late nineteenth century and the new modern powerhouse that is China. He believes that if the world continues interacting with China as is, China could follow in the footsteps of the mighty and young Germany in 1914.
“Don’t despair because of that,” Westad said, “Knowing these events is important to know how to prevent them in the future.”
After the lectures, Bates spoke to the value of Westad speaking as a guest lecturer at Union. He believes that inviting guest speakers is essential for students to be able to listen to scholars of a variety of different fields.
“Universities are communities of learning,” Bates said, “and communities of learning take place outside of the classroom as well.”