Upper Lake >> It is currently the centennial of World War I (The Great War) which ran from 1914 until 1918. To commemorate and learn more about major historical events such as this, the Redwood Empire Civil War Roundtable has become the Lake County History Roundtable (LCHR).
The first meeting of the LCHR will discuss the origins of World War I, and will be held on Monday at the Tallman Hotel in downtown Upper Lake. The presentations begin at 6:16 p.m.
The presenters for the inaugural history roundtable will be Phil Smoley and Janis Traub, both local amateur historians. They will lay a foundation for the causes of the war, going back to Napoleon going forward, using maps and slides to animate their presentations.
The Civil War Roundtable began in January 2010 to commemorate the sesquicentennial of the Civil War. Since then there have been 60 meetings and more than 110 topics presented by 15 different speakers.
“We covered the causes, every major battle and campaign, major players and consequential events such as emancipation, Reconstruction, and Lincoln’s assassination,” according to co-founder Smoley. “We covered related topics related to medicine, armaments, and technologies related to that time period. We have debated the politics of it and how it has shaped our country. It has been an educational odyssey for all involved. While we will still be having topics related to the Civil War, we thought it time to expand the focus to anything related to world history, and we hope by doing so we can attract wider interest.”
The LCHR is open to everyone and is free. The presentations are geared to be informative to the novice and expert. For more information, contact Zane Jensen at 349-6390 or Smoley at 349-1008.
The Tallman Hotel is located at 9550 Main St. in Upper Lake.
