Category Archives: Museum Videos

From Here to Over There: the WWI Legacy of Fort Dix, NJ – Jamien Parks

On August 27, 2017, our lecture series, “Heaven, Hell or Hoboken: Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of World War I, featured Jamien Parks, veteran and historian for the United States Air Force, currently assigned to the 621st Contingency Response Wing (621 CRW), Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (JB MDL)

Heaven, Hell or Hoboken: Port of Embarkation – Mark Van Ells

On May 7, 2017, our lecture series, “Heaven, Hell or Hoboken: Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of World War I, featured Mark Van Ells, who is the author of America and World War I: A Traveler’s Guide (Interlink Books, 2014), as well as The Daily Life of an Ordinary American Soldier during World War II: The Letters of Wilbur C. Berget (Edwin Mellen, 2008). Van Ells is a Professor of History at Queensborough Community College.

Harlem’s Rattlers and The Great War – Jeffrey Sammons

On November 6, 2016, our lecture series, “Heaven, Hell or Hoboken: Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of World War I, featured Jeffrey T. Sammons is an American historian and professor. His areas of research and interest include African-American history, military history, and sports history. He is the author of Beyond the Ring: The Role of Boxing in American Society and co-author of Harlem’s Rattlers and the Great War: The Undaunted 369th Regiment and the African American Quest for Equality. He is currently a Professor of History at New York University (NYU).

A Seaport at War With Itself – Steven H Jaffe

On April 23, 2017, our lecture series, “Heaven, Hell or Hoboken: Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of World War I, featured Steven Jaffe, a writer and historian specializing in the history of New York City. Jaffe is a curator at the Museum of the City of New York, and has also worked at the Center for Jewish History in New York City, the New-York Historical Society (where he served as Senior Project Historian), and the South Street Seaport Museum. Jaffe graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University and obtained his doctoral degree in history from Harvard University. His work has been published in The New-York Journal of American History, Seaport: New York’s History Magazine, and in Kenneth T. Jackson’s (ed.) Encyclopedia of New York City. Jaffe is the author of New York at War: Four Centuries of Combat, Fear, and Intrigue in Gotham (Basic Books, 2012). 

A City on the Eve of War – Christina Ziegler-McPherson

On November 20, 2016, our lecture series, “Heaven, Hell or Hoboken: Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of World War I, featured Christina Ziegler-McPherson, a public historian in the New York City area. She holds a PhD in history from the University of California, Santa Barbara, is the author of Americanization in the States: Immigrant Social Welfare Policy, Citizenship, and National Identity in the United States, 1908-1929 (University Press of Florida, 2009) and Immigrants in Hoboken: One-Way Ticket, 1845-1985 (History Press, 2011). Currently a Fulbright Scholar doing research in Germany, Ziegler-McPherson’s next book will be Selling America: Immigration Promotion and the Settlement of the American Continent, 1607-1914 (ABC/Clio’s Praeger Press, 2017)

Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of the Modern American Citizen – Christopher Capozzola

On March 12, 2017, our lecture series, “Heaven, Hell or Hoboken: Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of World War I, featured Christopher Capozzola, who teaches courses in political and legal history, war and the military, and the history of international migration at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The author of Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of the Modern American Citizen (Oxford University Press, June 2008), Dr. Capozzola specializes in the political and cultural history of the United States from the late nineteenth century to the present. He graduated from Harvard College and completed his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 2002.

Woodrow Wilson’s Failure of Wartime Leadership – Richard Striner

On December 11, 2016, our lecture series, “Heaven, Hell or Hoboken: Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of World War I, featured Richard Striner, Professor of History at Washington College, author of Woodrow Wilson and World War I: A Burden Too Great to Bear (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2014). Striner has established himself as an expert on presidential power, especially the political life and presidency of Abraham Lincoln, the subject of three of his four books. He is a regular contributor to the New York Times’ “Opinionator” blog and its “Disunion” series on the Civil War.

The Women of Peace and Preparedness: Motherhood and Maternalism in World War I – Lisa Mastrangelo

On February 12, 2017, our lecture series, “Heaven, Hell or Hoboken: Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of World War I, featured Lisa Mastrangelo, PhD, who teaches Composition and Rhetoric and Professional Writing courses at Centenary College, and is the author of World War I, Public Intellectuals, and the Four Minute Men: Convergent Ideals of Public Speaking and Civic Participation. Dr. Mastrangelo is writing a paper on the uses of propaganda in WWI: The Rhetoric of Maternalism: The Use of Motherhood as a Trope in World War I. In addition, she serves as the Vice President for the Coalition of Women Scholars in the History of Composition and Rhetoric.

Illusions and Realities of World War 1 – Thomas Fleming

On October 16, 2016, our lecture series, “Heaven, Hell or Hoboken: Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of World War I, featured Thomas Fleming, historian and historical novelist born in Jersey City, NJ, the son of a World War I hero who was a leader in Jersey City politics for three decades. Fleming is the author of Illusion of Victory: America in World War I (Basic Books, 2004) as well as numerous books about events and figures of the Revolutionary era. A frequent guest on C-Span, PBS, A&E and the History Channel, Fleming was a consultant and commentator on the PBS series, The Irish in America: Long Journey Home, and wrote the companion volume to another PBS series, Liberty: The American Revolution.

The First Attack on the Homeland – Howard Blum

On September 11, 2016, our lecture series, “Heaven, Hell or Hoboken: Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of World War I, featured Howard Blum, historian and author of Dark Invasion, 1915: Germany’s Secret War and the Hunt for the First Terrorist Cell in America, an in-depth look at several German espionage plots leading up to WWI. He also wrote the Edgar Award–winner American Lightning, as well as Wanted!, The Gold Exodus, Gangland, and The Floor of Heaven. Blum is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. While at The New York Times, he was twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. Blum’s current book, The Last Goodnight: A World War II Story of Espionage, Adventure and Betrayal (Harper Collins, 2016) is a New York Times bestseller.