We will follow the history of coups, revolutions, and invasions during the period 1893-2003, just one hundred and ten years, during which the United States has toppled fourteen foreign governments using different methods, but always without considering the opinion or preference, of the affected populations. From Hawaii to Iraq, we will follow an interesting list of cases analyzed by Stephen Kinzer in his very informative book ‘Overthrow’.
The Long Unraveling of the Republican Brand as the Party of Lincoln
In 1992 Pat Buchanan made a campaign stop at the San Diego-Tijuana border where he called for the US to build a 200 mile physical boundary between the US and Mexico. At the time Buchanan was seeking the Republican nomination for the presidency. Buchanan and his politics seemed to be on the verge of being drummed out of the GOP because his hostility to free trade and NATO and his extremist proposals on immigration as well as his list of woes against cultural decline marked him as an outlier.
Three decades later, Buchanan's ideas may still seem fringe, but there are no longer marginal. Donald Trump's version of those views shows no sign of flaming out. Is this ethnographic-nationalism and pugnacious stance toward cultural 'elites' going to be the signature of the Republican Party from now on? If so, what happened? Not all that long ago the GOP was the party of big business, free markets, 'traditional' family values and anti-communism.
If you are interested in the evolution of conservatism, looking at the tensions within conservatism long before Donald Trump's emergence will draw you to this SDG. We will see why the current incarnation of conservatism of the GOP should not come as a surprise. The flip side - the drama of salvaging the Republican Party as the party of conservatives will also balance our discussions.
The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order 1916-1931
Why would a core book be called The Deluge? A deluge seems to imply a catastrophic event. In this case, this catastrophe involved the world changing. We had a convulsion of nature, an atmospheric river, earthquake disturbance, and a remaking of the world. Old empires were shattered, and new ones emerged.
The core book opens up the world to a new view of American exceptionalism. Why did the rest of the world have to develop democracy? Why wasn't Great Britain threatening the American world order?
World War I is considered by many historians a totally unnecessary war. Yet , it led inexorably to the end of three long existing empires. Another outcome of the Great War was the emergence of the United States as a Super Power and the dawn of what some have called "the American Century."
The new world order that came out of the war was both military and economic in nature. The fragile economic order that evolved ultimately would not hold. The global depression that ensued would help lead the way to another global war.
Using the award-winning book, The Deluge by Adam Tooze as its core book, we will discover how events of over one hundred years ago have a significant impact on the present day. It is beautifully written, packed with delicious facts. Tooze, in this economic history, makes an excellent case that WWI "caused the seismic shifts in the financial and political landscapes." Furthermore, he posits that the failure of the liberal powers to manage this modern world based on military power, political commitment and money would eventually lead to economic instability and, ultimately, to the growth of fascism in Germany, Italy and Japan.
The major factor that might have mitigated these events would have been if the U.S., the one and only Superpower coming our of WWI, had used its unique position to press its position and anchor a new world order. Tooze asserts that the U.S. possessed the proper mind set and the economic and military tools to make such a solution but ultimately not the political will. Thus situation occurred in spite of Wilson's 14 Points.
Civilisation, a personal view by Lord Kenneth Clark
Our SDG consists of thirteen television programs, written and presented by Kenneth Clark in 1969. It is titled Civilisation, a Personal View. After the TV series was broadcast, Clark turned the scripts into a book with the same title. Our course focusses on Western European civilization from the end of the Dark Ages to the early twentieth century. This specific window of interest for Clark was based on the visual arts and architecture; with substantial sections about drama, literature, music, philosophy and socio-political movements.
Quoting from a 2016 biography of Clark by James Stourton, “When David Attenborough, the controller of BBC2, invited Kenneth Clark for lunch in September 1966 ‘to discuss a project’, nobody could have imagined the success of the series of thirteen programmes that would result. Attenborough’s motivation was strategic – to launch colour TV in Britain . . . The BBC was the only television organisation in the world that could have attempted something as culturally and economically ambitious as this – the scale of the production was unprecedented. The research, filming and editing took three years (1966–69); the film crew of twelve travelled eighty thousand miles, visited eleven countries, used 117 locations and filmed objects in 118 museums and eighteen libraries.” The cost was extreme at the time.
We will follow the TV series and book to revisit the powerful birth of Western European culture with both visual cultural representations and written explorations of this history. If you are intrigued by the filming of the series or who this man Kenneth Clark was, you are free to bring that focus to our discussion. Join us for this fascinating journey about what makes Western European culture unique, interesting and powerful, and how Kenneth Clark strove to make Western European cultural objects accessible to many, many people, including ourselves.
Dickens’ Great Novels: Hard Times and Great Expections
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is regarded by many as the greatest of Victorian novelists, as well as far and away Britain’s best-loved and most popular writer. In this eleven week SDG, we will cover two of his best-known novels. In the first three weeks, we will read HARD TIMES, published in 1854, and in the following seven weeks, we will read GREAT EXPECTATIONS, published in 1861. In both these novels, Dickens was at the height of his artistic powers. F. R. Leavis, for one, has described HARD TIMES, which depicts the dystopian existence of an industrial town called Coke, as the novel where Dickens “. . . is for once possessed of a comprehensive vision in which the inhumanities of Victorian civilization are as seen as fostered and sanctioned by a hard philosophy, the aggressive formulation of an inhuman spirit.” Our second novel, GREAT EXPECTATIONS, is the coming-of-age story of Pip, who, born an orphan into a poverty stricken home, is unexpectedly offered the chance to leave his miserable life behind to pursue the life of a gentleman in London after he receives a fortune from an unknown benefactor. But his “great expectations” do not produce great happiness. George Bernard Shaw has ranked it as Dickens’s “most compactly perfect book.” In the final week, we will watch David Lean’s classic film adaptation of “Great Expectations”.
Why not the best --Foreign films ever made
Foreign films give us an eye into other cultures and other ways of seeing the world.
In this SDG we'll enjoy 14 films voted by film critics and directors as the best foreign movies ever made, and explore what makes them great films.
The list of the best is taken from poll of directors and critics conducted every decade by “Sight and Sound” magazine, which is regarded as one of the most important "greatest ever film" lists.
American critic Roger Ebert described it as "by far the most respected of the countless polls of great movies—the only one most serious movie people take seriously."
In addition to watching each of films chosen by critics and directors as among the best, we'll look at the screenplays, and reviewers comments, and read or watch what the directors have said about the films.
Our goals will be:
First, to have fun.
Second, to enjoy watching some really great movies and talking about the stories they tell , and the culture, the settings and times where they take place, the characters, their motivations and their interactions, and what the films tell us about the human condition
In addition-- and to the extent there is interest among our participants-- we’ll offer additional sessions for each movie (attendance purely optional), where we will have a chance to look more closely at the finer points of moviemaking. There, we’ll look closely at the details of these films the way an aspiring screen writer or director (a young Spielberg, or Kubrick or Tarantino or Bergman or Fellini ) might look at how each of these films were put together; and the choices made by the screenwriter, cameraman, location manager, and most importantly, the director made, regarding the plot, the casting, the acting the dialogue, the screenplay, the settings, the camera work, , the lighting, the, the music, the editing, -- and how the director put everything together to make each of these into great film.
We’ll aim to have lively and fun discussions, and end up with a greater understanding of the choices writers, directors, cinematographers make; how these foreign movies reflect the cultures they depict, what they say about the universal human condition. And, and in the final analysis --how sometimes everything can come together to make a movie truly great,
So join us as we watch, discuss and analyze 14 foreign films, critics and directors say are the greatest foreign movies ever made.
Putin
This SDG seeks to examine the life and times of Vladimir Putin primarily using a brand new biography by Philip Short simply titled, Putin. The core book explores in unprecedented depth the personality of its enigmatic and case-hardened leader and challenges many of our preconceptions about Putin and Russia. Short's purpose is to explore Putin's personality, to understand what motivates him and how he has become the leader that he is. The biography examines Putin's working class childhood, his education as a lawyer, his career as a KGB operative, his stint as the deputy mayor of St. Petersburg, his rise under Yeltsen, his becoming prime minister and multiple terms as President. The book also explores Putin's views concerning the USSR and its collapse, capitalism, democracy, the free press, the oligarchs, corruption, Russia's place in the World, NATO, Kosovo, Chechnya, 9/11, the 2016 US election, Georgia, Syria, the Crimea, Ukraine and many others. Since becoming President in 2000, his goal has been to restore Russia's status as a great power. What forces and experiences shaped him? What led him to challenge the American-led world order? These any many other questions will be addressed in this SDG.
Insects!
There are more than 200 million insects for each human on Earth, i.e., more than all the grains of sand on all the world’s beaches. After mating, a female praying mantis notoriously bites off the head of the male; there is an evolutionary advantage for this sexual cannibalism. After identifying its prey and initiating a chase, a lion has one chance in four of capturing that prey; the success rate of a dragon fly is more than 95%. The dragon fly’s great hunting efficiency depends significantly on its marvelous nearly spherical compound eyes and its four independently and rapidly moving wings that allow not only hovering but also flying backwards and upside down. Insect pollinators are responsible for about 35% of global food production, and every third bite of our food is owed to the action of some pollinator.
This SDG will explore the story of insects generally and their basic structure and function more particularly. The core books are entomologist Michael S. Engel’s Innumerable Insects: The Story Of The Most Diverse And Myriad Animals On Earth, which features illustrations from antique books in the library of the American Museum of Natural History, and Marianne Taylor’s How Insects Work: An Illustrated Guide To The Wonders Of Form And Function, From Antennae To Wings, with numerous photos and clear diagrams.
The Making of Asian America
Over centuries, Asian Americans have changed the face of America, and been changed by it, but much of their long history in the US has been forgotten and unknown. Asian American history begins long before the US was even a country. The history of Asian Americans is also immigration history. It is a history of America in a global age. And the history of Asian Americans is a history of how race works in the US. Erika Lee’s comprehensive and sweeping history considers the rich, complicated, and sometimes invisible histories of Asians in the US –from sailors who came on the first trans-Pacific ships in the 1500s, to the Chinese laborers who helped build the transcontinental railroad, to the Japanese Americans incarcerated during WWII, to more recent immigrants and refugees from other wars in Asia and postwar circumstances. While becoming the fastest-growing group in the US, Asian Americans continue to struggle as both “despised minorities” and “model minorities”. In fact, Asian Americans are overrepresented at both ends of the educational and socioeconomic spectrum of privilege and poverty. Obscured by the broad definition of “Asian” and “Asian American” is a diversity of peoples that represents 24 distinct groups. There is not one single story, but many. Both the diversity and the shared experiences reveal the complex story of the making and remaking of Asian America, and its importance in the history of America. With histories of both exclusion and inclusion, Asian Americans are uniquely positioned to raise questions about what it means to be American in the 21st century.
