The 19th annual Jeans Lecture in History was held last Thursday, April 4, in the Anderson Auditorium at 7 p.m.  The speaker this year was Dr. Christopher Capozzola, an associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose specialty is political and cultural history of the United States from the late 19th century to the present.

Capozzola’s presentation was titled “Uncle Sam Wants You:  World War I and the Making of the Modern American Citizen.”  The presentation was based on his recently published first book by the same name.

The overall theme was influences of World War I on American culture.

It emphasized citizens’ collective sense of “duty” and “obligation” to the government during the war; the early days of the draft and America’s first mass state-issued identification system (the draft card); women’s role on the home front and the position of German-Americans during WWI.

In addition to these topics, Capozzola provided many cases of how the WWI-influenced culture shifts were present in southwest Missouri.  

For example, at the beginning of the war, Joplin erected a giant thermometer at the corner of Fourth and Main streets to measure the United States’ success overseas, Capozzola said.  This corner was known as Liberty Lot and many patriotic speeches and demonstrations took place there.  

In another example, one local woman refused to participate in the “Food Pledge,” and effort by the government to conserve food for the troops, because she didn’t have the right to vote.  

“People really appreciated that he worked in Joplin history and southwest Missouri history, and he didn’t have to do that,” said Dr. Steven Wagner, history professor and coordinator of the Jeans Lecture.  “He did it specifically for us, and I think it made it a lot more relevant to our audience.”

Capozzola received his undergraduate degree from Harvard and went on to complete his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 2002 before becoming a professor at MIT.  In 2014, he will open an exhibition the National World War I Museum in Kansas City.  

The Jeans Lecture is named in honor of Virgil and Virginia Jeans.  At the time of their deaths, contributions were made in their memory to the Missouri Southern Foundation.  This fund supports the annual lecture series.

The United States Department of Education “Teaching American History Grant,” the Southwest Center for Educational Excellence, and the Organization of American Historians also help make the Jeans Lecture possible.