GUILDERLAND — When Dan White was a child, a multi-volume history of World War I was always a presence in his living room.
"It exercised a certain fascination in me," said White, a history professor who is leading several discussions on the war at the Guilderland Public Library.
White, 66, read a lot about World War II as a child "because it just happened," he said. He then studied the first World War.
"I’ve always liked history," he told The Enterprise. The son of German immigrants, White was especially interested in the relations the United States had to other countries.

Thomas Barnes, a reference librarian at Guilderland, helped organize the World War I series. He asked White to be the main speaker in the series after finding him on the Internet.

After White’s first discussion earlier this month, Barnes told The Enterprise that he made a good selection.
"Dan was just great," Barnes said. "He was able to answer questions and recall all this information and put it in an accessible answer without stumbling. It was just amazing to me."
"It was wonderful," White said of his first discussion. "The audience was very engaged. They kept asking good questions. I enjoyed it and found it very satisfying."

Many of the audience members had already read about World War I, White said, so they had a knowledge base.

On four nights of the six-week series, White is giving a prologue to a pre-selected documentary.
"I’ll give a short introduction that tries to alert people to some of the contents of the film they’re going to see," he said. "Then, preferably, I’ll go where questions take me."

The library gives White a set topic to discuss.
"The first one was centered on how President Woodrow Wilson came to believe the U.S. had to enter the war," White said.

White watches the films ahead and, while he knows a lot of background on each subject, does some research.

Each topic he’s been given is relevant to World War I and the topics give him a solid basis, White said.

But, he said, he will elaborate on some areas. For example, he said, on Nov. 3, he will comment on a documentary called Peace Making.
"It focuses heavily on Woodrow Wilson and, particularly, his relationship with his allies and the League of Nations," White said. "That’s all important but, when the discussion comes, I’ll add to that."
Asked why World War I should be studied, White said, "It’s part of our past. I think World War I was the most formative event of the 20th Century, probably because I come to it from a European perspective."

The theme of the library series is important, he said, because it highlights America’s arrival in the war and the beginning of the end for European primacy in world affairs.
"This is partly because of the optimism that came with industrialism and science," White said. "For years, Europeans killed each other and used the benefits of science and technology to do it....The whole idea that the world gets better with progress reveals a different face altogether."
World War I, he said, was "not just the Doughboys climbing out of the trenches."

White, a California native, graduated from Stanford University and earned a doctorate degree at Harvard.

He taught for years at MIT and, in 1977, came to teach history at the University at Albany.

White taught a graduate course on World War I for years. He has also written several books, including Lost Comrades: Socialists of the Front Generation, 1918-1945, and numerous journal articles on the war.

The six-week library series is being funded through a grant from National Video Resources, in cooperation with the American Library Association, and with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Two years ago, the Guilderland library was selected by the same group out of many libraries to receive a grant to produce a program on the 1960’s.

Tonight (Thursday), White will discuss The American People in Wartime, highlighting the effects of the war on the American economy and citizens.

On Nov. 3, he will discuss Woodrow Wilson’s global peace efforts. And, on Nov. 10, White will host After the War — The Turbulent Years, about war’s end and its impact on America.
"It’s a good series and it’s found a good audience," White said.

Other exhibits

In addition to selecting White to speak about World War I, Barnes chose two professors from the United States Military Academy at West Point to lecture about the military aspects of the war.

Colonel Lance A. Betros spoke about the United States mobilizing an army in World War I and Lieutenant Colonel James T. Seidule spoke about the war’s introduction of new weapons, such as the tank, machine gun, grenade, and poisonous gas.

Barnes also gathered World War I artifacts, lent to the library by members of the community, and put them on display in the lobby. They include rifles, uniforms, and other memorabilia, he said.

Someone also loaned an ambulance from that era that is parked in the library’s front lobby, Barnes said.

The library has also selected four films on World War I to include in the series, Barnes said.
Three have already been shown — The Big Parade, described as "an effective mixture of wartime humor, anti-war propaganda, and a love story"; Hell’s Angels, which the library describes as an "extravagant spectacle of the WWI air war"; and Paths of Glory, which the library calls a gripping film about a common soldier and the mistakes of his superiors.

On Nov. 8 at 7 p.m., The Roaring Twenties, about the rise and fall of World War I Doughboys will be played.

Leonard Zapala, director of the Menands Public Library, is presenting the films and leading a discussion on them.
Also, on Nov. 16 at 7 p.m., Charles Gablehouse will lead a discussion, "World War I Aviation and Its Precursors." He will discuss the history behind the film, Hell’s Angels, and talk about famous aviators from that time.