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Learning to Fight, Fighting to Learn: Education in Times of War


A new exhibition is opening at Mudd Library on November 9 at 4:30PM. “Learning to Fight, Fighting to Learn: Education in Times of War” examines higher education in wartime at Princeton and beyond from the French and Indian War to the Vietnam War.

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A gallery of behind-the-scenes photos of our work on the new exhibition.

Since its founding, Princeton University has been shaped by every major war, whether it took place on American soil or halfway around the world. Most colleges and universities in the United States have had to address their role during wartime. Traditional college students are at the prime age of enlistment, and when war loomed, academic institutions looked for the best ways to continue to educate students while also preparing them for combat. The Princeton community has borne the demands of conflict from the colonial period forward. Through the Princeton University Archives and the collections of the Public Policy Papers, this exhibition reviews how education and the pursuit of knowledge evolved over the span of 200 years through the lens of a series of wars.

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A gallery of selected exhibition highlights.

This exhibition will be on display through Reunions 2018.

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