Dr. Brian Newsome, associate professor of history and assistant dean for general education and assessment, recently published an academic article on Maxence Van der Meersch’s novel Invasion 14 and the German occupation of France during World War I. He also presented research on the importance of occupation to World War I and won an award for best article.
Newsome’s article appeared as part of a special issue of the academic journal Historical Reflections, titled “Occupation, Race, and Empire: Maxence Van der Meersch’s Invasion 14.” The special issue focused on “War, Occupation, and Empire in France and Germany,” and was edited by Dr. Jean Pedersen of the University of Rochester.
The article is part of his current and larger project, a new critical translation of Van der Meersch’s novel “Invasion 14,” which is a work of historical fiction about the German occupation of northern France during World War I. Van der Meersch was a survivor of that occupation and drew on his own experience and those of his family to provide a lens of what the occupation looked like. Historical fiction such as this can be an important window to the influence of the real world and the author’s experiences on a work’s setting. Newsome said this area of historical research was neglected for a long time but is increasingly being looked into by scholars. In terms of occupational narratives, France during World War II is the most well-known, but current trends in research focus more on the Northern Fringe of France, Belgium, and East-Central European countries during World War I than they have before.
Newsome’s project focuses on a new critical translation of “Invasion 14” because the original translation was completed quickly. The translation by Gerard Hopkins was published in 1935, only a year after the original novel was published. Because of this, there are errors and misattributions in the translation that misrepresent the original. Revisiting the work and working on a new translation would help create a better representation of the “Invasion 14.”
Newsome also presented a paper titled “Why Occupation Matters to the History of the Great War” for a roundtable discussion at the annual meeting of the New York State Association of European Historians (NYSAEH), held in Geneseo, New York.
The roundtable discussion Newsome participated in consisted of four scholars who spoke briefly about different aspects of World War I and why it matters to history now. Newsome focused on why occupation matters. He used this opportunity to relate the discussion to his article and translation work on Van der Meersch’s novel. The roundtable was not much different from a conference, only his prepared remarks were shorter and the discussion itself was open to much more interaction from the other participants and the audience.
During this conference, Newsome also received the NYSAEH’s Triennial Charles R. Bailey Memorial Prize for best article for another Historical Reflections publication credit, “The Women of the Pavilions: A Case Study,” which appeared in 2012. Anyone who was a member of the organization could submit a paper, and he said he was pleasantly surprised to find out he won.
Writing this article varied greatly from other research projects Newsome has undertaken. The case study focused on whether or not the single-family homes built in the suburbs of Paris during the 1960s and 1970s were a socially isolating development or not. Newsome said he enjoyed the combination of archival research with oral history and interviews with families who had experienced the new housing developments, which was something he had not worked with much before. He said he was grateful for the funding he received from Elizabethtown College because without it he would have been unable to travel to France to conduct his research and interviews.
Newsome said he received help from two student assistants, Alison Burkhardt and Jason Halberstadt. Burkhardt aided him in the research and drafts of both papers, and Halberstadt aided him primarily on “Occupation, Race, and Empire: Maxence Van der Meersch’s Invasion 14.”