TOPICS
OFFERED FOR SPRING
2015
Please note that the
books listed for
each course are only possible candidates.
Do not buy any until the pre-meeting and a decision on the
common reading is
made.
Classes
start January 5th and end April 30th.
Holiday
periods are adapted to by individual class voting.
1.
(ART)
20TH CENTURY
ARTISTS
Our common reading is
Always Looking: Essays
on Art, by John
Updike. Discussions could focus on the artists in each essay
as well as their
contemporaries. Some artists in this book: Gilbert Stuart,
Monet, Klimt, Miro,
Magritte. There are some illustrations in each essay. All
these artists have
very interesting bios and their paintings have made an
important impact on art
appreciation all over the world.
Common
Reading:
Always
Looking: Essays on Art, by John
Updike and Christopher Carduff (November 2012)
2.
(AST) ASTORIA: THE
JAMESTOWN
OF THE WEST
Two years after the Lewis and Clark
expedition ended,
an ambitious entrepreneur and a visionary President
collaborated on a plan to
establish an American colony on the Pacific Coast. John Jacob
Astor set out to
establish a global trade network based at the mouth of the
Columbia River in
what is now Oregon. Jefferson envisioned a young United States
from coast to coast.
This is the tale of the two-pronged
expedition that
was launched to achieve those goals. It is every bit as
exciting and
fascinating as the Lewis and Clark expedition. S/DG members
will find ample
topics for Presentations – John Jacob Astor, his background,
the
importance of the fur trade, the geography traversed by land
and by sea, the
colony of Astoria, the men who undertook the journeys, the
impact on the
fledgling United States.
All of this is told in a gripping
narrative by
historian Peter Stark, a prolific researcher and writer of
historical
non-fiction. You won’t be bored.
Common Reading: Astoria: John Jacob
Astor and Thomas
Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth, Ambition
and Survival
by Peter Stark (March
2014)
3. (BSN) THE
BEST AMERICAN
SCIENCE AND NATURE WRITING
2013
This S/DG has been part of the
Omnilore curriculum at
least twice, in 2011 and 2012, based on the collections for
those years. The
series began in 2000; each year has had a
different guest editor, with tim
Folger as the series editor.
For 2013
the guest editor is Siddhartha Mukherjee, author, of course,
of The Emperor
of all Maladies.
Dr. Mukherjee has chosen 27
articles, several of
which first appeared in magazines such as the New Yorker,
Scientific
American, and Orion; other essays are from Outside
Magazine, N.
Y. Review of Books, the New York Times,
N. Y. Times
Magazine, Harper’s, Atlantic and even Playboy. So they are science,
but written for
magazines read by the general public.
Each covers a very different topic
from the ocean to
space, and from machines to viruses, and they seem to run
10-15 pages in
length.
The best thing about the class (I
participated in the
other two) is how much one learns about different topics, much
as from TED
classes and Documentaries.
The format for the class would
probably best resemble
that of a short story S/DG.
27 essays
would be spread out over the 8 classes, so presentations would
be short and
would supplement the common reading.
Common Reading: The Best American Science and
Nature Writing 2013 edited by
Siddhartha Mukherjee and Tim Folger
(October 2013)
4. (BUP)
THE
BULLY PULPIT
This S/DG travels back 100 years to
explore the
origins of “muckraking journalism” and how it helped make
America a better
country. In The Bully
Pulpit,
Pulitzer Prize winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin describes a
turbulent time
in U.S. history: legislative deadlock paralyzed the country;
there had been no
greater disparity between poor and rich; sensational mergers
produced giant
corporations that resisted federal regulation; the influence
of money in
politics was profound; nasty little foreign wars involved us.
The nation was
unraveling while reform was in the air. The time: the cusp of
the 20th century.
The work of a prodigious researcher
and splendid
storyteller, The Bully
Pulpit is
three books in one: biographies of Teddy Roosevelt and William
Howard Taft and
a history of the unique impact of the press on the nurturing
of the nascent
Progressive movement. Goodwin’s telling of the complex and
moving relationship
between Roosevelt and Taft explores the human condition,
greatly expanding what
those who have studied Roosevelt thought they knew of him and
prompting others
to learn about - and grow to respect - Taft.
Learn how the muckrakers pushed
government to shed
its laissez-faire attitude toward robber barons, corrupt
politicians, and
corporate exploiters of our natural resources, and how they
helped usher in the
Progressive era.
Common
Reading: The
Bully
Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft and the Golden
Age of
Journalism, by Doris
Kearns Goodwin (2013)
5. (DOC) THE DOCUMENTARY MOVIE
Not long ago, if you wanted to see a
documentary
film, you had to take a course, go to a movie festival, or
catch it on
PBS. Nowadays we
can find documentaries
on our TVs through the magic of the Internet, Netflix and
other on line sources
or from our libraries. While your basic Hollywood studio movie
is primarily
made to make money, a documentary is the expression of its
creator's personal
passion. This
S/DG will explore the
world of modern masters of the documentary.
Presenters will choose a film that class members can
view at home before
each class session, and then present for discussion whatever
facets of the film
they choose – the contents or subject, the techniques, the
background,
the directors focus on the subject, and its effect on public
opinion. Many
Omniloreans after taking this class have
been amazed at the diversity of what is available and how many
of these films
are unexpectedly enriching.
No
Common Reading.
The
British publication The
Economist is
known for its
informative and thought-provoking reporting on political and
economic
developments around the world. In this S/DG, we will discuss
articles selected
from four key areas (America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East,
and Africa) plus
the occasional “Special Report” of the last two issues as
catalysts for
informed and lively discussion on the burning topics of our
time. The Economist
is available as a magazine subscription, a web site, or as
Apps for your I Pad
or smart phone. All Articles selected are easily accessed
online at no cost at www.theeconomist.com.
Common Reading:
Current issues
of The
Economist.
Europe is writing their own rules
for how a modern
society should provide economic security, environmental
sustainability, and
global stability. This SDG will examine how well Europe is
doing in five major
areas: economic strength, with Europe now the world's
wealthiest trading bloc,
nearly as large as the U.S. and China combined;
health care and other workfare support for families and
individuals; use of
renewable energy technologies and conservation; success of the
various national
democracies; and regional networks of trade, foreign aid, and
investment that
link one-third of the world to the European Union. In addition
to comparing
difference between Europe and the United State the differences
among various
nations in Europe and the historical and cultural bases for
these differences
provide many opportunities for interesting presentations.
Common Reading:
Europe's
Promise: Why the European Way is the Best Hope in an
Insecure Age, by
Steven Hill
(January 2010)
8. (FSH)
YOUR INNER
FISH
Neil Shubin,
paleontologist
and professor of anatomy, tells the story of our bodies
as you’ve never heard it before. In his preface to his book Your Inner Fish: A
journey into the 3.5
billion-year history of the human body he states, “The
best road maps to
human bodies lie in the bodies of other animals.” With lively
enthusiasm and
clarity he goes on to teach his anatomy students that the best
guide to the
nerves may be in sharks, to limbs, in fish and that reptiles
are a guide to the
structure of the brain. “The bodies of these creatures are
often simpler
versions of ours.” His paleontological discovery and study of
fossil fish gave
him insight into the invasion of land by fish over 375 million
years ago and
subsequent development of life on land. Join this fascinating
and original
anatomy lesson and never look at your body in the same way
again.
Presentations might be based on
paleontology, fossil
hunting, the various animals studied, Darwin, Evolution,
studies and scientists
cited in the ample “Notes, References and Further reading”
section at the back
of the book
Common
Reading: Your Inner Fish; a Journey into
the 3.5 Billion-year History
of the Human
Body, by Neil Shubin (January
2009)
9. (HOW)
HOW NOT TO
BE WRONG
Not a math book but an introduction
to mathematical
concepts. The author shows how mathematical facts can be
divided into
four quadrants: simple and shallow, simple and profound,
complicated and
shallow, or complicated and profound. This book "hangs
out" in
the simple and profound quadrant: dealing with not "mere
facts" but principles which can be
considered as
"go-to-tools" on a utility belt.
The book exams these tools in five
sections:
linearity, inference, expectation, regression and existence
and deals with
specific mathematical techniques that can help you not to be
wrong.
Common
Reading: How
Not To Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking by Jordan Ellenberg
(May
2014)
10. (IDM)
INTUITION
AND DECISION
MAKING
Most people trust their
intuition when
making many decisions while behavioral research has shown that
for certain
situations most people are wrong.
In a 2011 book Daniel Kahneman
presents recent
research on when we can and cannot trust our intuition. This Nobel Prize
winner’s research shows that
there two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is
fast, intuitive, and
emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more
logical. He exposes
the extraordinary capabilities—and also the faults and
biases—of
fast thinking, and reveals the pervasive influence of
intuitive impressions on
our thoughts and behavior.
The class
will explore how everyday decisions can be best understood by
knowing how the
two systems work together to shape our judgments and
decisions. Topics
for presentations could include
anchoring to earlier knowledge, the law of small numbers, similar
research by others in the field of behavioral research, etc.
Common
Reading: Thinking, Fast and Slow,
by Daniel Kahneman (October 2011)
11.
(IMM) IMMIGRANT
VOICES
Join us as we explore
the experience of
21st-century immigrants to the United States through a
collection of short
stories. The eighteen stories collected
in Immigrant Voices
highlight the complex
relationships of immigrants in the United States at the
beginning of the
twenty-first century with their families, friends, new
surroundings, and home
countries. The
anthology
represents most of the major 21st-century immigrant
populations in America.
Contributors range from well-established authors such as Aleksander
Hemon, Junot
Diaz and Yuyun Li to those still
early in their careers; 11 of the
18 writers are women. The authors themselves have made many of the
same kinds of
transitions as the characters they portray, and they offer
fresh perspectives
on the immigrant experience. Co-edited by award-winning author
Achy Obejas and cultural studies
scholar Megan Bayles and
published by the Great Books Foundation, this
anthology addresses the perennial questions about society and
the individual
that the authors of the Great Books have pondered for
centuries.
With immigration playing
such a major
role in public discourse and political argument, the stories
included in this
anthology are sure to encourage lively class discussions. The
book includes a
brief biographical note on each of the authors and suggested
discussion
questions for each selection.
Common
Reading:
Immigrant Voices: 21st Century Stories,
edited by
Achy Obejas and
Megan Bayless (March
2014)
12. (IND) INDIAN
GIVERS
Did you know that the democratic
system that our
founding fathers devised for the new republic was based, not
on Greek
democracy, but on the Iroquois Nation’s legislative system.
Native peoples’ gifts to the Europeans were numerous,
foodstuffs such as corn,
beans, tomatoes, avocados, turkeys; pharmacological products;
paved roads;
vulcanized rubber, and many more. This
book is highly readable and entertaining; you’ll never look at
Native Americans
the same again. Presentation
topics
might include details on any of their contributions, various
tribes and their
specific gifts, or how the settlers incorporated these ideas
into their own way
of life.
Common Reading: Indian
Givers: How Native Americans
Transformed the World by Jack Weatherford
(August 2010)
13. (JMA)
JAMES MADISON: A
LIFE RECONSIDERED
This new biography of James Madison
explores the
astonishing story of a man of vaunted modesty who changed the
world. Among the
Founding Fathers, Madison was a true genius of the early
republic.
Outwardly reserved, Madison was the
intellectual
driving force behind the Constitution and crucial to its
ratification. His
visionary political philosophy and rationale for the union of
states—so
eloquently presented in The Federalist papers—helped shape the
country
Americans live in today.
With Thomas Jefferson, Madison
founded the first
political party in the country’s history—the Democratic
Republicans. As
Jefferson’s secretary of state, he managed the Louisiana
Purchase, doubling the
size of the United States. As President, Madison led the
country in its first
war under the Constitution, the War of 1812. Without precedent
to guide him, he
demonstrated that a republic could defend its honor and
independence—and
remain a republic still.
Common Reading:
James Madison: A Life Reconsidered, by Lynne Cheney (May 2014)
14.
(LAN) LOS ANGELES
NOIR II
Many Omniloreans made their first
acquaintance with
the Editor of the Los Angeles at the Omnilore Halloween Forum
where she was a
most interesting speaker. Denise Hamilton is an award-winning
journalist,
best-selling author, top contender for the most prestigious
book awards, former
Fulbright scholar and, not least, a native of Los Angeles.
The short stories in this collection
are high-quality
stories from such genre masters as Raymond Chandler and James
M. Cain, and
outshine the typical all-original anthology in the series.
Hamilton has been
wise to select lesser-known works by legendary writers,
guaranteeing that the
volume will appeal both to fans unfamiliar with the stories
and readers new to
their hard-edged prose. The two best come from the pens of
husband and wife
Ross Macdonald and Margaret Millar. Macdonald's Lew Archer
looks into an
actress's disappearance in his taut Find
the Woman,
while Millar's The People Across the Canyon, about a young
girl who forms an
unhealthy attachment to some new neighbors, offers an
unconventional look at
the darkness in the human soul. With the exception of Walter
Mosley's Crimson
Shadow, the tales in the final modern section fall short by
comparison.
In taking this course, there is no
requirement to
have taken the original one.
Common
Reading:
Los
Angeles Noir 2 – The Classics, edited by Denise Hamilton
(April 2010)
15. (MAP)
MAPS FOR PEOPLE
WHO LOVE GEOGRAPHY...AND THOSE
WHO DON’T!
Common
Reading:
Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of
Geography Wonks by Ken
Jennings (April
2012)
16. (MEM)
THE SEVEN SINS OF
MEMORY
Memory is one aspect of
the mind without
which we cannot conduct our daily lives. The memories we
retain throughout life
establish our sense of self and shape our character. In our
common reading,
Harvard professor of psychology Daniel Schacter
presents a fascinating account of the memory’s quirks and
lapses, including
transience, absent-mindedness, memory blocking,
misattribution, suggestibility,
bias, and persistence, all of which can cause frustration,
embarrassment, and
even harm. These lapses are illuminated
by fascinating case
reports and the results of clever experiments with
volunteers. Through
our reading and discussions we will gain insights how memory
operates in our
own personal experiences. Presentations can address new
advances in the study
of aging and memory, the persistence of painful memories and
ways of deleting
them, false or invented memories, ways of boosting memory, or
any other related
topic.
Common Reading:
The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and
Remembers by
Daniel L. Schacter
(May 2002)
17. (POL)
POLITICAL
ORDER AND
POLITICAL DECAY
In 2011, Omnilore offered an S/DG on
The Rise of the
Modern State. As
its common reading, the
S/DG used The Origins
of Political Order:
From Prehuman
Times to the French Revolution, the first of two volumes
in which Francis
Fukuyama addresses the history of the modern state. Now Fukuyama has
just published the second
volume, which explores the development of the modern state
from the Industrial
Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy.
Together, the two volumes provide one of the
most
important works of political thought in at least a generation.
Taking up the essential question of how
societies develop
strong, impersonal, and accountable
political
institutions, Fukuyama follows the story from the French
Revolution to the
so-called Arab Spring and the deep dysfunctions of
contemporary American
politics. He examines the effects of corruption on governance,
and why some
societies have been successful at rooting it out. He explores
the different
legacies of colonialism in Latin America, Africa, and Asia,
and offers a
clear-eyed account of why some regions have thrived and
developed more quickly
than others. And he boldly reckons with the future of
democracy in the face of
a rising global middle class and entrenched political
paralysis in the West.
Common
Reading:
Political
Order and Political Decay:
From the
Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy
by Francis Fukuyama (September 30,
2014)
18. (RUS) RUSSIA AND
THE RUSSIANS
How did Russia become the country we
know today? Why
didn’t it develop in a way similar to the
countries of western Europe? What geopolitical
considerations governed
Russia’s foreign policy?
How did Russia
degrade from being a dominant power that defeated Napolean
in 1814 to a humiliated and backward nation after losing the
Crimean War in
1856? This class
will study the history
of Russia from the first meetings of Rus
Vikings and
Slavs in the 6th century up to the emergence of
Vladimir Putin. The
class will delve into the economic, political
and sociological effects of serfdom in Russia and how they
have influenced
Russian policies long after the demise of serfdom. The causes of
economic weakness in the
Russian Empire (1721-1917) and how they were addressed are
also studied. The
class will also delve into the many
reasons for the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917. In addition, the
Bolshevik Revolution and the
rise of the Communist movement are studied.
The proposed text, “Russia and the Russians: A History”, was
written by Geoffrey Hosking,
a professor of Russian history at the University of London and
provides a
well-organized chronological narrative.
Other
presentation topics include the following.
·
Peter The Great
·
The Romanov
Family
·
Tsar Nicholas II
·
Russia and
Ukraine
·
Joseph Stalin
·
Vladimir Lenin
·
Vladimir Putin
Common Reading: Russia and the
Russians: A
History, by Geoffrey Hosking (Aug. 2011)
Other
references and sources for presentation topics include the
following:
·
Wikipedia Link
– Serfdom in Russia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serfdom_in_Russia
·
Empire: The
Russian Empire and Its Rivals, by
Dominic Lieven
(2013)
·
The Bolsheviks in Power: The First Year of
Soviet Rule in Petrograd, by Alexander Rabinowitch
(2008)
http://books.google.com/books?id=BEoBCGJ4VqYC&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false
19. (SCW)
SPANISH CIVIL WAR
Even before WWII began,
an important
conflict was challenging the stability of the European
continent. During
the 1930’s, the Spanish Republic
collapsed and the outbreak of the only mass worker revolution
in the history of
Western Europe. This
SD/G will use “The
Spanish Civil War” by Stanley G. Payne as a starting point to
discuss the
complex nature of the Spanish revolution and politics, while
examining the
development of Franco’s counter-revolutionary dictatorship. Issues to be covered
by the book discussion
and possible presentations would be how the military developed
and changed
following WWI, how the non-intervention policy of other
countries impacted the
war, and the role of the German, Italian, and Soviet
intervention. Other
possible topics include:
Journalism and the media coverage; writers and
artists works from this time.
Common Reading: The Spanish Civil War
(Cambridge
Essential Histories), by Stanley G.
Payne (July 2012)
20. (SFV) SHIP FEVER
Ship Fever is
a collection of stories (including one novella) by Andrea
Barrett. It was
first published in 1996.
Here is a quote from the book
jacket: "Beautiful
stories about the wonder and work of science....In
Barrett's hands science is transformed from hard and known
fact into malleable,
strange, and thrilling fictional material." Boston Globe
There are eight stories. The eighth story is
the novella Ship Fever
which
describes the influx of Irish immigrants to Canada. Most of them are ill
with typhus and the
facilities are, to say the least inadequate.
The first story, "The Behavior of
the
Hawkweeds" refers to the work of Gregor
Mendel
and his experiments with hybridization. The
second story, "The English Pupil, concerns Linnaeus, the
Swedish botanist.
The Third story is
titled "The
Littoral Zone" with no specific reference to a known
scientist, but
centers around oceanography and an affair between two
scientists who are
married to other people. "Rare Bird" is set in 1762 and its
scientific subject is ornithology, although it is woven into
the conflict
between the male and female characters in the world of
science. "Soroche" takes place in
Chili. It is
about a memory of a family trip there. The wife becomes ill
and is treated by a Dr.
Sepulveda who tells her the story of Darwin in Tierra del
Fuego.
"Birds with No Feet" concerns the
adventures
of Alex Carriere who travels in
South America
collecting specimens. There
he meets
Wallace, Darwin's contemporary and the competition that ensues
on the way to
the Theory of Evolution. "The
Marburg
Sisters" is set in the 20th Century. It is
concerned
with oenology.
I believe this collection of stories
is perfect for
an Omnilore S/DG. It
offers the aspects
of fiction (character development, conflict, and setting)
along with
fascinating references of actual scientists.
If two presenters chose each story,
one could
concentrate on the scientists referred to in each story while
the other
discussed the literary aspects of each story.
Common Reading: Ship Fever:
Stories, by
Andrea Barrett (November
1996)
21. (SHK) SHAKESPEARE: ALL THE WORLD’S
A STAGE …
The Omnilorean
New Globe
Theater plans a January-April season, returning to our usual
pattern and
reading one each of the Bard’s Histories, Comedies, and
Tragedies. With players
standing and with a few props, we propose to do reading
walk-throughs of Henry
IV Part 2 (continuing our excursion through the 8
contiguous History plays, this
being the 3rd), and a
comedy and a tragedy to be chosen during pre-meeting
planning in December.
In this SDG you will
learn how to
research all perspectives of Shakespeare’s works — sources of each play upon which the
Bard builds rich
characters and enhances the plots, how to play each character
“in character,”
themes, symbols, images, motifs, commentary on issues of the
day, and all
manner of rhyme and
reason. Class members
each serve on one play’s Board of Directors, responsible
for casting
roles for the repertory and leading discussions based on the
research —
optionally adding videos, music, and costumes. For a glimpse of how
we live the Bard in this
S/DG, check out http://omnilore.org/members/Curriculum/SDGs/14c-SHK-Shakespeare
to view the Fall Shakespeare class’s website of links to
references relevant to
our plays and downloadable organizing artifacts.
There are no
prerequisites, theatrical or
otherwise. You
will find that the Bard
of Stratford-on-Avon will teach us, just as he’s taught others
for four hundred
years. With plenty for the novice as well as the veteran, it
is a foregone
conclusion members will leave
this class with a fuller understanding of the masterful story
construction,
realistic characters with depth and humanity, and the rich,
evocative language
which have earned William Shakespeare the title of greatest
writer in the
English language.
Common
Reading: Selected Plays
22. (SMA) THE END OF
WORK
IN THE SECOND
MACHINE AGE
Digital technologies in the near
future will perform
many tasks once considered uniquely human - redefining work
as we know it. We stand to realize an immense bounty in the
form of dazzling
personal technology, advanced infrastructure and
near-boundless access to
cultural items that enrich our lives. Amid this bounty will be
wrenching
change. Will the change be for the good? In this
issues-oriented S/DG we will
attempt to understand and evaluate the likelihood of predicted
change and then
evaluate the effects and policy alternatives that will need to
be addressed.
In our common reading, the authors
first take us
through the technological developments that continue to shape
our lives. They
then discuss impacts of these developments and finally discuss
policy
recommendation for dealing with these changes. Drawing on our
text and
supplementary materials, we will explore technology and its
potential to change
our lives. Presentations
might include
the overall impact on employment (kinds and numbers of jobs
available), who the haves and
have-nots will be, or individual
technologies that are already changing how we live our lives. Join us as we look
at the potential for
change and how we as a society must make sure it is for the
better.
Common
Reading: The Second Machine Age:
Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant
Technologies
by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew
McAfee (Jan.
2014)
23. (SPZ)
SPINOZA: THE RENEGADE
JEW WHO
GAVE US MODERNITY
Baruch Spinoza was excommunicated by
Amsterdam’s Jewish
community in 1656 when he was
only twenty-three
years old. At the
time, he was already
germinating a secularist challenge to religion that would be
as radical as it
was original. He went on to produce one of the most ambitious
systems in the
history of Western philosophy, so ahead of its time that
scientists today, from
string theorists to neurobiologists, count themselves among
Spinoza’s progeny.
In Betraying Spinoza, Rebecca Goldstein, a MacArthur
Fellow, sets out to
rediscover the flesh-and-blood man often hidden beneath the
veneer of rigorous
rationality, and to crack the mystery of the breach between
the philosopher and
his Jewish past. Goldstein argues that the trauma of the
Inquisition’s
persecution of its forced Jewish converts plays itself out
in Spinoza’s
philosophy. The excommunicated Spinoza, no less than his
excommunicators, was
responding to Europe’s first experiment with racial
anti-Semitism.
Possible topics for presentation might
include the
environment in which Spinoza lived, more about his philosophy,
critiques of his
philosophy, and Spinoza in literature and popular culture.
Common
Reading:
Betraying
Spinoza: The
Renegade Jew Who Gave Us
Modernity by
Rebecca Newberger Goldstein (August 2009)
24. (WMN)
YOU’VE COME A LONG WAY, BABY:
50 YEARS OF
WOMEN
IN AMERICA
In 1960, American women had to get
their husbands'
permission to apply for a credit card.
In 2008, Hillary Clinton ran as a
serious contender
for the office of President. How did we get from there to
here? That’s the
question we’ll explore in this
class based on a text by Gail Collins, New
York Times columnist and bestselling author.
We’ll travel not so
far back to the days of weigh-ins for stewardesses, a scarcity
of female
professors on campus, and a lack of any
women in the Boston marathon, in combat zones, and in police
departments. Our
reading will cover politics, fashion, popular culture,
economics, sex,
families, and work over the last five decades.
It mixes research with oral histories provided by women
from across the
country. With
topics like birth control,
abortion, maternity leave and equal pay regularly in the news
today, this class
could not be more timely. Let’s reflect on
where we’ve been and ponder
where we’re going.
Common
Reading: When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American
Women
from 1960 to the Present, by Gail Collins (October
2010)
25.
(WSC) WELLINGTON,
THE SUPREME
COMMANDER
The Duke of Wellington was not just
Britain’s
greatest soldier, although his seismic struggles as leader of
the Allied forces
against Napoleon in the Peninsular War deservedly became the
stuff of British
national legend. Wellington was much more: a man of vision
beyond purely
military matters, a politically astute thinker, and a canny
diplomat as well as
lover, husband, and friend. Rory Muir’s masterful new
biography is the fruit of
a lifetime’s research and discovery into Wellington and his
times. The author
brings Wellington into much sharper focus than ever before,
addressing his
masterstrokes and mistakes in equal measure.
Muir looks at all aspects of
Wellington’s career,
from his unpromising youth through his remarkable successes in
India and his
role as junior minister in charge of Ireland, to his
controversial military
campaigns. With dramatic descriptions of major battles and how
they might have
turned out differently, the author underscores the magnitude
of Wellington’s achievements.
The biography is the first to address the major significance
of Wellington’s
political connections and shrewdness, and to set his career
within the wider
history of British politics and the war against Napoleon. The
volume also
revises Wellington’s reputation for being cold and aloof,
showing instead a man
of far more complex and interesting character.
Some presentation topics
might be
these: British
navy, 18th C
India, British East India Co., Anglo-Dutch Wars
Common
Reading: Wellington:
The
Path to Victory 1769-1814, by Rory
Muir
(Dec. 2013)
26.
(WWI) HOW EUROPE
WENT
TO WAR IN 1914
Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book
Prize (History),
The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 is historian
Christopher
Clark’s riveting account of the explosive beginnings of World
War written in
commemoration of the Centennial of this great event.
Drawing on new scholarship, Clark
offers a fresh look
at World War I, He traces the paths to war in a
minute-by-minute, action-packed
narrative that cuts between the key decision centers in
Vienna, Berlin, St.
Petersburg, Paris, London, and Belgrade, and examines the
decades of history
that informed the events of 1914 and details the mutual
misunderstandings and
unintended signals that drove the crisis forward in a few
short weeks.
Presentations might include:
·
alternative interpretations of the cause
·
the legacy of (The war to end all wars)
·
the "Isms" which contributed to the
conflict:
Nationalism, Socialism, Romanticism, Militarism
·
How the
citizenry responded?
Common Reading: The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went To
War In 1914
by Christopher Clark (March
2013)
Possible Supplemental Reading:
·
The Guns of August, by Barbara W. Tuchman
and Robert K.
Massie (August 2004)
·
And Quiet Flows the Don, by Mikhail
Sholokhov (December 1989)
·
The Atlantic
Special Commemorative issue WWI, How The Great War Made
the Modern World, by
various (2014)
·
BBC: 10 Interpretations
of who started WWI