At 2.25 in the morning on 15 April 1912 the stern of the RMS Titanic slid below the icy waters of the North Atlantic taking over 1500 souls with her. In hindsight it is tempting to see the Titanic as a metaphor for Europe on the eve of the Great War, steaming hubristically towards disaster, a microcosm of the continent and symbolic of its relations with the wider world. Today both episodes are treated as tragedies: events about which we know the outcome but are powerless to help the actors. Thus on the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic, and the impending centenary of the outbreak of the Great War, what can an understanding of the liner’s collision with the most famous iceberg in history tell us about Europe one hundred years ago – and Europe and the world today?

Dr Ben Wellings is Deputy-head of the School of Politics and International Relations and Convenor of European Studies at the Australian National University. His current research interests include the links between Euroscepticism and contemporary English nationalism (English Nationalism and Euroscepticism: losing the peace, Peter Lang, 2012) and the diplomatic dimensions to Anzac commemoration. As well as working in academia, Ben has been a curator at the National Museum of Australia, a researcher at the House of Commons and a merchant seaman, helping maintain England’s supply lines to cheap French lager during the mid 1990s.

To watch this lecture on YouTube, please click here.

To view the flyer for this event please see: RMS Titanic and Europe on the eve of the Great.