Arrr! Military History Lecture on world history of piracy

News from NKU...

Thursday - November 5, 2009
For immediate release...

UPDATE: Doctor Morillo talks with WNKU's Matt Kelley about why pirates are such an appropriate Veteran's Day topic http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wnku/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1574636


HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. - The Northern Kentucky University Military History Lecture Series will present a free public lecture by Dr. Stephen Morillo titled "Barbary Pirates to Somalis: A Veteran's Day Perspective on the World History of Piracy" on Wednesday, Nov. 11, at 3 p.m. in the Eva Farris Auditorium (BEP Center 200).

Between 1801 and 1805, the United States fought its first foreign war since the Revolution. The 35 Americans who died in the struggle against the Barbary States in an effort to suppress piracy in the Mediterranean thus have a claim to be the first of the veterans we honor on November 11. What kind of foe, what kind of war, did they fight? Who are pirates?

If we look at piracy in the context of long-term global patterns of maritime activity, from the time of the Sea Peoples of the late Bronze Age through the predations of Vikings, Edward Teach (aka Blackbeard), to modern hijackers of oil tankers, fundamental continuities come to the fore. This talk honors the veterans of our First Barbary War by exploring piracy as a window onto some deep structures of world history.

So whether you want to know how state-building connects to maritime predation or simply who the Barbary pirates were, climb aboard. Today, off the east coast of Africa and in the South China Sea, piracy has gone hi-tech. Small power boats guided by GPS systems and armed with grenade launchers seem a world removed from Barbary corsairs, or from Jack Sparrow and the swashbuckling image of 17th century Caribbean buccaneers. Are they?

Morillo is the Jane and Frederic M. Hadley Chair in History at Wabash College, where he teaches world history and more specialized classes in pre-modern military history and medieval and early modern Europe. He is from New Orleans, and has a B.A. from Harvard and a DPhil from Oxford, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar. He is author of Warfare under the Anglo-Norman Kings, 1066-1135; The Battle of Hastings, Sources and Interpretations; Cultural Encounters (with Sam Nelson and Tom Sanders); What is Military History? (with Michael Pavkovic); War in World History (with Jeremy Black and Paul Lococo); as well as numerous articles. Morillo is currently writing a world history textbook and a cultural history of warrior elites.

He has a long standing interest in naval and maritime history and has built several ship models.

Co-sponsors of the event include NKU's Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Office of the Dean of Students, NKU Veterans for Education and Transition Support, NKU Veterans Advocacy Committee, the NKU Department of History and Geography and Phi Alpha Theta Historical Honor Society.

For more information, contact the Department of History and Geography at (859) 572-5461. Visitors should park in one of the three parking garages. A reduced fee of $2 is charged - cash only to the attendant.

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