This SDG will explore the relationship between the United States and India from 1945 until the current day. The core book is A Matter of Trust: India-US Relations From Truman to Trump, by Meenakshi Ahamed. The U.S. and India are two countries that conceptually seem destined to be partners but have for decades held remarkably divergent worldviews and all too often pursued conflicting objectives. Among the issues that must be examined are: Pakistan vs. India, religion, caste, non-alignment, the cold war, the U.S. alliance with Pakistan, China's invasion of India, India's overtures to the USSR, India's domestic policy reforms, the end of the cold war, India looking west, education, Bill Clinton's recognition of India's importance, nuclear proliferation, George W. Bush's overtures to India, the influence of the Indian diaspora, Obama building on the Bush years, the changes brought by Trump and Modi and what may be ahead for each country and their relationship. Meenakshi Ahamed draws on a unique trove of presidential papers, newly declassified documents, memoirs and interviews with officials directly involved in events on both sides. Join Us.
China's Economic Miracle That Wasn't
Deng Xiaoping put it in a nutshell in 1992, when he argued for more joint ventures and more foreign investment: “Capitalist Tools in Socialist Hands.” As he saw it, the party had nothing to fear from more openness, since the means of production, from land, capital, energy, raw materials and labor, remained in the hands of the state. Even after the country joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, the Communist Party could provide the enterprises it favored with cheap land, cheap energy or cheap raw materials, not to mention cheap labor and a currency exchange rate controlled by the state.
In truth, what happened was not only no miracle but something far short of “reform.” Deng set a target growth rate for China’s economy at 7%, with corresponding quotas handed out to state enterprises. The scramble to meet and exceed the state’s targets caused waste in some areas and vast deficits in others. By the early 2000s, roughly 90% of all manufactured products in China were in chronic oversupply. To produce them, China required a constant flow of natural resources that strained global supply chains.
What was the result of the contradictions in the reform policies? Why is the image that emerges very different from the impression that many have of today’s China?. Why do the country’s gleaming cities resemble an impressively shipshape tanker, with the captain and his lieutenants standing proudly on the bridge, but below deck, sailors are desperately pumping water and plugging holes to keep the vessel afloat?
Los Angeles - Myth, Reality and the Movies
Los Angeles, I mean, who would want to live in a place where the only cultural advantage is that you can turn right on a red light? – Woody Allen
People don't live in Los Angeles because we are tied to the same old, same old. We live in Los Angeles because of the intoxicating energy of new beginnings that permeate our city -Marianne Williamson
I see L.A. as a beautiful blonde with dirty underwear. – David Boreanaz
There are so many divergent visions of LA and the majority of these are held by persons who have never visited, let alone resided, in the 4,753 square miles that is both lovingly and ironically known as the City of Angels. How did this come about?
The answer must surely be placed at the inordinately large feet of the media: books, magazines, television and most assuredly the movies. Since the days of silent films an ever increasing cadre of writers and directors have been churning out tales and images of our town that are voraciously gobbled up by citizens from Arkansas to Zanzibar. What was initially birthed by its creators as fiction, because of the power of cinema, becomes embedded in a viewer’s consciousness as a reality even more potent than fact.
This SDG is about examining the multiple images that the movies has cast upon Los Angeles: Are we a city where dreams come true, a noir nightmare, a comedy, tragedy or a musical? Are we the city of the future or in the words of Dorothy Parker “72 suburbs in search of a city.”
Chekhov's Plays and Stories
Anton Chekhov is one of the best known and most influential writers in Russian of the modern period. In this SDG we will read his five most often produced plays - Ivanov, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard. We will begin by reading several of his best known short stories: "The Huntsman," "The Lady with a Little Dog," "At Sea," "Breakdown [An Attack of Nerves]," "The Student," "In the Cart," "The Darling," "Gooseberries" and "Ward No. 6." These works draw on Chekhov's medical background to create tales of searing insight and compassion.
Embers of War: The Fall of a French Empire and the Making of Our Vietnam
We will study the period in Vietnam’s history as it fought to be free of colonialism and some of the key decisions that were made by the governments of Vietnam, France and the United States that figure so heavily in our own history. We begin at the 1919 Versailles Peace Conference, where a young Ho Chi Minh tries to meet Woodrow Wilson to deliver a petition for Vietnamese independence, and we conclude with the death of the first American soldiers whose names are inscribed in the Vietnam War Memorial. We evaluate several questions that shaped not only Vietnam’s history but also America’s. Should America have taken the hand of friendship that was extended by Ho Chi Minh? Were we wrong to support France as strongly as we did? How could the Viet Minh, starting with an army that had a total of 31 men and 3 women ultimately defeat the French? Our core book, which won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for History, traces the path that led two Western nations to lose their way in Vietnam. It is "An epic story of wasted opportunities and tragic miscalculations...and larger than life characters". The author, Fredrik Logevall, is Professor of History in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. We will also have elective supplementary readings including a timeline of events, and excerpts from various experts as well as you tube videos from the National Archives.
When great minds don’t think alike, how should we think about different styles of thinking?
When great minds don’t think alike, how should we think about different styles of thinking?
Temple Grandin is an amazing accomplished woman who has promoted the importance of visual thinking for a long time. Writer, teacher, inventor, this woman also happens to have the “gift” of being on the autism spectrum.
In this SDG we will learn from her and through our exploration about
• How Over the course of time our educational system has been heavily weighted in favor of one category of learners to the exclusion of others, devaluing the visual learner in favor of those who excel with the verbal.
• What are we missing by eschewing the potential of the visual learner?
• Who exactly is the visual learner and how do they enrich our society?
• Why have they been undervalued and what can be gained by tapping into their potential?
• How has the preference for verbal thinking skewed our perspective of intelligence and the ability of people to contribute to society?
• Why do we attribute greater value to the MBA than we do the technical skills?
• What do we lose by excluding the visual thinker?
• “When we fail to encourage and develop the talents and skills of people who think in different ways, we fail to integrate ways of learning and thinking that benefit and enrich society.” (p. 5, Introduction to Visual Thinking, Temple Grandin)
Plato Learners and Explorers please join us during the second 7 weeks of the fall term October 18 to November 29.
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton is arguably the most important figure in American history who never attained the presidency. He was the principal designer of the federal government and the leading catalyst for the two-party system. He was the aide-de-camp for George Washington, a battlefield hero, a member of the Constitutional Convention, the leading author of The Federalist Papers and first treasury secretary. The core book, Alexander Hamilton, is written by Ron Chernow and provides a comprehensive portrait of Hamilton’s life and record of contributions. Hamilton figured prominently in almost every major political episode of the late-eighteenth-century America. There are very few issues of the current day that can be fully understood without an understanding of the structures and ideas put in place by Hamilton.
Builders and Destroyers of Modern Europe
Based on the current book PERSONALITY AND POWER by noted historian Ian Kershaw, we will examine 12 national leaders and their personal effect on their own countries and on the entire European continent. While all of these individuals are well-known, we will discover new ideas about their rise to and use of power. Our constant measure will be the effect of a single human being in changing the history of modern Europe. We question: Do great individuals make history, or does history make possible great individuals? We also refer to Henry Kissinger's new work: SIX STUDIES IN WORLD STRATEGY.
Why NOT the Best British and American Films Ever Made
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 Best British and American Films 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-- if and 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 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 films, that critics and directors say are the greatest British and American movies ever made.
