OAH Distinguished Lecturer Profile
Jennifer Keene is a professor of history and the chair of the history department at Chapman University. A specialist in the American experience during World War I, she has written several books on the war: World War I: The American Soldier Experience (2011); Doughboys, the Great War, and the Remaking of America (2001); and The United States and the First World War (2000). In addition, she is the lead author for an American history textbook, Visions of America (2nd edition, 2012), that pioneers a visual approach to teaching the U.S. history survey. Keene serves on the advisory board of the International Society for First World War Studies and is president of the Society of Military History. She has won many awards and fellowships, including Fulbright senior scholar awards to France and Australia. Her research interests include the American soldier experience, African American soldiers, veteran political activism, war culture, and propaganda.
This lecture reinterprets the wartime experiences of Ernest Hemingway, often considered as having an atypical wartime experience, to challenge myths and misconceptions about the American soldier experience in World War I.