UW to Host ‘The U.S. West Between World Wars’ History Symposium Oct. 10

The University of Wyoming Department of History will host a two-part symposium titled "The U.S. West Between World Wars" Thursday, Oct. 10. The event is free and open to the public.

The first part, which will be held in Room 506 of Coe Library, is slated to take place from 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. The symposium's scholars will explore changes and challenges that emerged in the U.S. West between the two World Wars, from roughly 1917-1941.

While Westerners faced disruptions in the interwar years, the presenters will pay close attention to the continuities, conflicts and adjustments, providing insights into a brief but transformative era in Western and U.S. history.

"While the interwar challenges were grounded in regional conditions, in many cases they reflected national concerns and policies, paving the way for national solutions with some ramifications that linger to the present day," says Renée Laegreid, a UW professor of history. "We invite all who are interested in this topic to attend and learn from this panel of speakers."

Following opening remarks from Laegreid at 9:30 a.m., the first session, titled "Race and Labor in the Interwar West," is scheduled from 9:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m.

Individual presentations include "The Working-Class Struggle in the West between the Wars" by Erik Loomis, a professor of history and director of graduate studies at the University of Rhode Island; "Oklahoma Women Lead the Way into the KKK" by Lisa Barnett, an assistant professor of American religious history at Phillips Theological Seminary; "Persistent Battlegrounds: African American Experiences in the West Between World Wars" by Laura Arata, an associate professor of history and director of public history at Oklahoma State University; and "Mexicans in the US West: 1918-1942" by Daniel Morales, an assistant professor of history at Virginia Commonwealth University.

After a lunch break from 12:15-1:30 p.m., the second session, titled "Changing Dynamics of Land, Power and Military Might," will begin.

Presentations include "Environmental Catastrophe and the Disappearing Horse during the Interwar Years" by Leisl Carr Childers, an associate professor of history at Colorado State University; "The Paradox of Submarginal Land: Federal Power, Conservation and Dispossession in New Deal Oklahoma" by Brendan Thomas, a Ph.D. student at the University of Oklahoma; and "From War Horse to Steel Beast: Military Technology in the Interwar West" by Catharine Franklin, an assistant professor of history at Texas Tech University.

Part two of the symposium begins at 5:30 p.m. in the College of Arts and Sciences auditorium and will feature a keynote presentation by John Barry, award-winning author of "The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History."

He will speak on the origins of the pandemic at a military base in Kansas and how the pandemic that originated in the West led to medical transformations with broad social consequences across the U.S.

Laegreid will interview Barry, allowing him to elaborate on the diverse impacts of the influenza outbreak and the connection between the influenza outbreak and the West. Audience members are encouraged to engage with Barry and ask questions.

Barry is a prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author whose books have won multiple awards. The National Academies of Sciences named his 2004 book, "The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History," the year's outstanding book on science or medicine.

His earlier book, "Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America," won the Francis Parkman Prize of the Society of American Historians for the year's best book of American history. In 2005, the New York Public Library named it one of the 50 best books in the preceding 50 years, including fiction, nonfiction and poetry.

Barry has served on numerous boards, including MIT's Center for Engineering Systems Fundamentals, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Society of American Historians.

His latest book, "Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State and the Birth of Liberty," was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and winner of the New England Society Book Award.

Before becoming a writer, Barry coached football at the high school, small college and major college levels. In 2022, he was inducted into the Tulane University Athletic Hall of Fame.

Currently the Distinguished Scholar at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, he lives in New Orleans.

Support for the symposium comes from contributions from the UW Department of History, the Wyoming Humanities Council, the Wyoming Institute for Humanities Research and the UW Honors College.

For more information, email Laegreid at [email protected].

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