Tom Isern, University Distinguished Professor of history, is scheduled to present “Kaiser Bill in the Cow Pasture: The Great War at the Grassroots of North Dakota” Wednesday, Oct. 24, at 7:30 p.m. at the Fargo Public Library, 102 Third St. N.
The event is sponsored by the North Dakota World War I Centennial Commission, with funding from Humanities North Dakota. Susan Wefald, representing the commission, will convene the program and facilitate audience discussion of the effects of the Great War on North Dakota.
"I have taught about the Great War with my American history students for 40 years, and all that time, I also pursued my grassroots research in prairie history. Now, I have the chance to bring the two together,” Isern said.
The broad-ranging talk begins in a cow pasture, in the herd book of a Grand Forks County stockman. From there, Isern describes experiences for North Dakotans during World War I.
He asks such questions as: What did it mean for a North Dakota boy to come home from France "shell shocked?” What did businessman John Wishek do to get himself indicted for violation of the Sedition Act? Who from North Dakota survived the sinking of the Lusitania?
Isern is a specialist in the history of the Great Plains and author of “Kaiser Bill in the Cow Pasture,” a new book from North Dakota University Press, Pacing Dakota.
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