In August 1870 the Prussians and their German allies laid siege to the French city of Strasbourg and bombed the city center, killing and wounding civilian men, women and children. The siege gave rise to the first instance of wartime international humanitarian aid to civilians. This talk examines the experience of that aid from the perspective of the recipients as well as the ethical debates over the city’s continued resistance in the face of overwhelming force.

Rachel Chrastil joined the faculty at Xavier University in 2005, after receiving her Ph.D. in History at Yale University.  Since then, she has written two books on the civilian experience of war, including The Siege of Strasbourg (forthcoming, Harvard University Press).  She has been a Fulbright U.S. Scholar and an invited speaker on humanitarianism, human rights and historical memory.  She currently holds a Xavier University Faculty Fellowship to promote quantitative literacy across the curriculum.