Donald Kagan, a guest scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Hillhouse Professor of History and Classics at Yale University, will give a University Lecture at Cornell University on Monday, April 1, at 4:30 p.m. in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium of Goldwin Smith Hall.

The title of the free and open lecture is "On the Conclusion of Wars as the Foundation for Peace."

"Donald Kagan is not only one of the leading scholars of ancient Greek history, he is also one of the great students of war and peace," said Barry Strauss, Cornell professor of history and classics and director of the Peace Studies Program, which is co-sponsoring Kagan's visit with the departments of classics and history.

"He has done pioneering work in comparative history, work of lasting importance," Strauss said. "Few historians can match the breadth of his vision or the depth of his knowledge on topics ranging from the Peloponnesian War to the two World Wars to the Cuban Missile Crisis. He is, moreover, one of the best lecturers you will find this side of Plato's Academy."

Strauss said Kagan's lecture will draw comparisons of the ways in which each of the two World Wars came to an end, of the peace that was concluded in each case and the ways in which each peace was enforced, with the purpose of discerning how each of these elements does or does not contribute to a lasting peace.

Kagan taught in Cornell's history department from 1960 to 1969.

The University Lectures were begun at Cornell at the turn of this century by Goldwin Smith to bring the world's foremost scholars to campus. This semester's final University Lecturer will be P.E. Peters, a professor of Near Eastern languages and literatures and history at New York University, who will speak on April 18.