Professor Zientek’s research focuses on the experience of trench-fighting in the First World War. He investigates how soldiers mitigated the psychological pressures of fighting by analyzing soldiers’ daily practices and rituals. His current manuscript, Wine and Blood, considers the role that state-sponsored alcohol consumption had in shaping the French experience of the war. He is also interested in using recent research in the neurological and cognitive sciences to help historians make sense of human behavior in the past.
