The Civil War Era: Battle Cry of Freedom

Description

The Civil War remains the most significant, studied and written about era in US history.    Written 3 decades ago, the core book, James McPherson's Pulitzer Prize winning Battle Cry of Freedom remains unchallenged as the definitive one volume study of the war. The fast paced narrative integrates the political, social and military events that crowded the 2 decades from the outbreak of war in Mexico to the ending of another at Appomattox. The SDG will offer an in-depth view of the background causes and events and all aspects of the war itself--the battles, the  strategic maneuvering on both sides, the politics and the personalities. While chronology is marked by battles, the book emphasizes analysis of slavery expansion, the origins of the Republican Party, the causes of secession, the internal dissent and anti-war opposition in North and South and the political battles on both sides. Battle Cry of Freedom will guide us through the most important chapter of the American story.

Weekly Topics

1. Chapters 1 & 2.  US at midcentury; Mexican War; Compromise of 1850.

2. Ch. 3 & 4.  Slavery; Agrarianism v. Industrialization; Abolitionism.

3. Ch. 5 & 6.  Bleeding Kansas; Rise of Republican Party; Dred Scott; Lincoln/Douglas debates.

4. Ch. 7 & 8.  John Brown; 1860 Election; Secession; Fort Sumter.

5. Ch. 9 & 10.  The Upper South's Dilemma; Armies are organized; War begins.

6. Ch.11 & 12.  Bull Run and its consequences; McClellan hesitates; Blockade and beachhead in the South.

7. Ch.13 & 14.  The Mississippi River War in 1862; Internal dissension; Landmark legislation.

8. Ch.  15 & 16.  Shenandoah Valley Campaign; Lee takes command; The North struggles over slavery.

9. Ch.  17 & 18.  Back and forth in Northern Virginia; Britain and France consider entry.  Emancipation Proclamation.

10. Ch. 19 & 20.  Lincoln suffers McClellan and discord over the army; more reversals; Internal dissension and riots in the North.

11. Ch. 21 & 22.  Vicksburg taken; Gettysburg; The road to Chattanooga.

12. Ch. 23& 24.  Defeatism in the South; The North considers Reconstruction; War struggles on.

13. Ch.25 & 26.  Sherman advances toward Atlanta, Grant besieges Petersburg; Lincoln focuses on Emancipation, is re-elected.

14. Ch.27 &28, Epilogue.  Sherman's March; Appomattox.

Bibliography

Battle Cry of Freedom, The Civil War Era by James M. McPherson, Oxford University Press 1988 

14 contemporary plays by 14 American playwrights

Description

14 diverse playwrights and subjects. The diversity is only natural because the most exciting theater is often (not always!) about the most urgent issues in the world it reflects. Works exploring race and gender are prominent, for instance, because racism and sexism remain prominent. It’s a theater that is often more directly engaged in unpacking large-scale social issues than we at first expected. But it’s also a collection marked by imaginative boldness.

In this SDG, we get to know each playwright shortly and discuss one of his/her plays-in most cases one that made him/her known in the theater world.

Weekly Topics

1.  The Designated Mourner 2000, Wallace Shawn 

2. Topdog/Underdog 2001, Suzan-lori parks 2002 Pulitzer

3. Proof 2001, David Auburn 2001 Pulitzer

4. Anna in the Tropics 2003, Nilo Cruz 2003 Pulitzer

5. Eurydice 2006, Sarah Ruhl

6. Yellow Face 2007, David Henry Hwang 2008 Obie

7.  August: Osage County 2007, Tracy Letts 2008 Pulitzer and Tony

8. Ruined 2008, Lynn Nottage 2009 Pulitzer and Obie winner

9. Clybourne Park 2010, Bruce Norris 2011 Pulitzer 20 Tony for. Best play

10. The Realistic Joneses 2012, Will Eno 2015 Drama Desk

11. The Flick 2013, Annie Baker. 2014 Pulitzer 

12. An Octoroon 2014, Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins 2014 Obie

13. The Humans 2015, Stephen Karam 2016 Tony award 

14. The Wolves 2016, Sarah DeLappe 2017 Pulitzer finalist 2017 Obie

Abstract Expressionism: The Art Revolution that was Born in America

Description

Abstract Expressionism was a revolution in the history of art, especially modern art.  Abstract Expressionism was the first major art movement that evolved out of the American experience.  Previously, the art world was centered in Europe, and American artists followed and adapted the trends that crossed the ocean.  With the rise of Totalitarianism in the 1930’s and the beginning of WWII, American artists felt emboldened to transcend European influence, and to develop a movement that reflected their own nation, experience and emotions. This evolution thrust America for the first time in history to the forefront of the arts, where the American life experience became the ground for new artistic expression.  Because many of the Abstract Expressionist artists were refugees from Europe, they brought with them the history of modernism  and reformed it into something new when they joined up with the art community of New York.

This SDG will follow the birth of Abstract Expressionism from the art background of European refugee's to the “Wall Street Crash” and the formation of the “WPA Federal Arts Project,” which led to the birth of "The New York School".  The New York School included painters, poets, musicians and sculptors who bonded together to form a community in the face of societal hardship.  During the mid-1940’s, Abstract Expressionism found a second home in San Francisco, and “The San Francisco School” was formed.  Both of these schools, perhaps better known as collectives, rocked the artistic world, and art has never looked back.  The American worlds of music, sculpture and poetry were also influenced by the changing times and embraced the Abstract Expressionist Movement, creating a cultural shift that we are still seeing today.  

Everything about the process of painting, music, sculpture and poetry changed!  Paint could now be dripped, thrown, poured, stained or carved into.  Music could be atonal, rhythmic or neither.  Sculpture need not be figurative or representational; and poetry could express the dissonance of human life.  So, the rules could change with the intention of the artist.  Expression was valued over perfection, vitality was more meaningful than finish, fluctuation was more interesting than repose.  The unknown was the subject, and the individual was the gateway to this unknown, inner world.

Weekly Topics

Week 1.  INTRODUCTION:  The foundation and history of Abstract Expressionism; the changing methodologies for interpreting meaning and the desire to extinguish the object.  Clement Greenberg and Peggy Guggenheim's impact on Abstract Expressionist seen through the lens of sexism, financial gain and racism.  We will begin our art exploration with Janet Sobel and Hedda Sterne.

THE ACTION PAINTERS:

Week 2.   Jackson Pollock.

Week 3.  Willhelm De Kooning

Week 4.   Lee Krasner

Week 5.   Norman Lewis

Week 6.   Joan Mitchell

THE SCULPTORS:

Week 7.   Louise Nevelson and David Smith

THE COLOR-FIELD PAINTERS:

Week 8.   Mark Rothko + Morton Feldman

Week 9.   Helen Frankenthaler

Week 10.  Clifford Still

Week 11.  Alma Thomas

Week 12.  Hans Hofman

Week 13.  Perle Fine - action & color field

THE POETS:    

Week 14.   Barbara Guest and Frank O'Hara

The music of Abstrtact Expressionism will be played at the beginning of each class.  John Cage, Morton Feldman, Miles Davis

Bibliography

CORE TEXT:  ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM, ANN EDEN GIBSON - author

This book is available used at a reasonable price from Amazon, Abebooks or Better World Books.

The artwork and discussion material is readily available on-line and each weeks discussion leader will disseminate their material, two weeks ahead of their class.  On-line links will also be disseminated for additional readings, videos, movies or cool stuff.

ADDITIONAL READING MATERIAL:

Abstract Expressionism: Themes & Movements - Katy Siegel

New York School Painters & Poets - Jenni Quilter

The Collected Poems of Barbara Guest - Wesleyan Poetry Series

The Women of Abstract Expressionism - Denver Art Museum

Procession: The Art of Norman Lewis - University of California Press

The Conservative Sensibility

Description

James Madison was the visionary who crafted the classical political framework of individual liberty, economic dynamism, based on a strict interpretation of the Constitution. When was the founders’ philosophy abandoned? Was it after the Civil War; or during the Woodrow Wilson Administration? This SDG is not designed to reconcile any particular problem or philosophy, but to discuss the enduring questions concerning the proper scope and intellectual competence of government. There is no better authority commenting on the current state of American Politics than George F. Will to build the case that the true classical Conservatism has always been in America’s best interest.

THE CORE BOOK IS ONLY MEANT TO BE A COMMON BASIS FROM WHICH TO START - NOT THE BOUNDARY FOR THE SDG.

Weekly Topics

Week one:  History of ‘conservative’ political theory in the US

• Chapter 1 page 1 – 31

• History of Political Philosophy, edited by Strauss and Cropsey

Week two: History of ‘progressive’ political theory in the US

• Chapter 2 pages 32 – 101

• The Progressive Movement and the Transformation of American Politics

• Schambra and West, 2007

• Progressive and Conservative Constitutionalism, West, Georgetown University Law Center, 1990 

Week three: Congressional duty to supervise 

• Chapter 3 pages 102 -147

• The Rise and Fall of the Separation of Powers, Calabresi, Berghausen & Albertson, Northwestern University School of Law, 2012.

• Executive Power in American Institutional Development, Whittlingon and Carpenter, Perspectives on Politics, 2003 

Week four: Judicial Activism vs. Judicial Restraint

• Chapter 4 pages 148 – 215

• Constitutional Conservatism and American Conservatism, O’Neil, American Conservatism, 2016

• The Constitutional Duty to Supervise, Metzger, Yale Law Journal, 2015

Week five: How best to minimize economic inequality?

• Chapter 5 pages 216 – 298

• The Inequity of the Progressive Income Tax, Hagpian, Hoover Institution, 2011.

• The Consequences of Conservative Economic Policy, Hersh, Ettlinger and Pruss, Center for American Progress, 2010.

Week six:  How do we define the success of a society? Can politics change society?

• Chapter 6 Pages 299 – 351

• Reconsidering Culture and Poverty, Small, Harding and Lamont, Harvard University 2010

Week seven: The role of education in defending against forgetfulness

• Chapter 7 pages 352 – 404

• What is the purpose of education? 2012

Week eight:  Does everyone want democracy? How political philosophy drives foreign policy

• Chapter 8 pages 405 – 456

• Alexander Hamilton and American Foreign Policy, Holloway, Heritage Foundation, 2015

Week nine: Conservatism and religion

• Chapter 9 Pages 457 -511

• The Tragedy of Compassionate Conservatism, Pilbeam, Cambridge University, 2010

• History of Inherent Contradictions: The Origins and End of American Conservatism, Kurth, American Conservatism, 2016.

Week ten: Is conservatism, as George Will knew it, dead?

• Chapter 10 Pages 512 -538

• Comprehending conservatism: a new framework for analysis, 

• Muller, Journal of Political Ideologies October 2006

• Conflict, Fusion or Coexistence? The Complexity of Contemporary American Conservatism, Zumbrunnen and Gangle, 2007.

Bibliography

The Conservative Sensibility, George F. Will, Hachette Books 2019

All listed articles to be distributed as PDFs.

The Quixotic History of Chemistry

Description

From a historical perspective, chemistry is probably the most neglected science.  In this SDG we will attempt to make up for that deficit.  We will explore the fascinating history of chemistry from its earliest philosophical roots and technical knowledge during the Greek period, through the Medieval alchemists attempting to produce gold, the early chemists (as we now think of the science) through the brilliant chemist Dmitri Mendeleyev, the creator of the Periodic Table.  Along the way, we will encounter numerous scientists and pseudo-scientists (known and not so well known), their interesting lives, their success and missteps along with an understanding of the derivation of the words that make up chemistry.  Definitely geared to the non-scientist, our engaging core book provides an easy to read 2,500 year history of chemistry.  At the conclusion of the SDG you should have a better knowledge and appreciation as to how chemistry got to where it is today.

Weekly Topics

1. The Greeks and the beginning of Alchemy (Chapters 1 and 2)    

2. The Dark Ages and Medieval times, Paracelsus  (Chapters 3 and 4)

3. Copernicus, Bruno, Galileo, Descartes and Bacon (Chapters 5 and 6)

4. Boyle, Newton, Van Helmont, and Scheele (Chapters 7 and 8)

5. Phlogiston and the work of Becher, Stahl, Priestley, Cavendish and Lavoisier(Chapters 9 and 10)

6. Dalton and the Atom, Chemistry in the late 18th and early 19th Century (Chapters 11 and 12)

7. Mendeleyev and the development of the PeriodicTable (Chapters 13 and 14)

Bibliography

Strathern, Paul, Mendeleyev's Dream:  The Quest for the Elements, Thomas Dunne Books, 2001 

Additional Reading

Scerri, Eric, The Periodic Table:  Its story and Its Significance, 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press, 2019