The Lusitania Effect

Lecture and reception to celebrate Max Kade Institute’s 25th anniversary. Frank Trommler, University of Pennsylvania, examines how the 1915 sinking of the British ocean liner Lusitania by a German submarine, with deaths of 128 Americans, led to a rapid deterioration of American-German relations and generated increasing suspicion against German Americans. Analyzes the role of culture in the identity struggle of a nation of diverse interests, ethnicities and belief systems. A reception follows.