Pebble Hill holiday open house features talk on 1914 Christmas truce

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A holiday open house at Pebble Hill in Auburn will feature a talk on the Christmas Truce of 1914 given by Sebastian Lukasik on Thursday, Dec. 17 at 4 p.m. The historic 1847 Scott-Yarbrough house, known as Pebble Hill, will be open for tours from 3 to 4 p.m.; refreshments will follow the talk, which is open to the public.

On Christmas Eve of 1914, along parts of the Western and Eastern fronts in Europe, a spontaneous truce was declared among the entrenched combatants of World War I. A century later, the Christmas Truce remains one of the best-known, but also one of the most misunderstood episodes of the Great War. This talk discusses the Christmas Truce within its historical context while highlighting how this event reflected broader patterns of violence and combat in the first truly "total" war of the twentieth century.

Lukasik is an assistant professor in the Department of Leadership and Strategy at Air Command and Staff College. He received a Ph.D. in American history from Duke University. His scholarship examines the social and cultural roots of American soldiers’ motivations to serve and fight in the First World War.

For more information on the program, call (334) 844-4903 or visit www.auburn.edu/cah.

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