From Slavery to "The Smithsonian" - The Enduring Legacy of African-American Art and Artists

Description

Welcome to the powerful world of African-American art. From the tragic reality of slavery to the stepping-out of the Harlem Renaissance and beyond, our SDG will traverse the enduring beauty of African-American art. Moving forward in time, we will learn about the inclusion of African-American Art on the public stage via the Federal Works Projects, and the first openings of museums that featured the art of Black Americans. During this expansion, the AfriCobra Coalition gave us the first major art collective for African-Americans, thereby ensuring gallery and museum representation for Black artists.

The 50's-60's brought us the Black Power and Civil Rights movement's. During the 70's we will see how Black artists demanded their rightful place in American culture. While the 80's belonged to Jean-Michel Basquiat, who was the first black man to achieve superstar status in the art world. The Nineties were for the elevation and dominance of Black Women such as Kara Walker and Wangchi Mutu. While the 21st Century heralds the welcoming of Black Artists, such as Kerry James Marshall into the pantheon of World Artists.

Join us as we explore and learn about the enduring artistic greatness of African-American painters, photographers, and sculptors.

Weekly Topics

• Week 1 - Chapter 1: The Art of Perception: How Art Communicates pg. 3-12

  Chapter 2: Art and Design in the Colonial Era pg. 15-29

• Week 2 - Chapter 3: Federal Period Architecture, Ceramics, Sculpture and Design pg. 31-55

  Charles Paquet, John Hemings, Celestin Glapion, Dutreuil Barjon, David Drake, Thomas Commeraw, Harriet Powers, Elizabeth Keckley Face Jugs

• Week 3 - Chapter 4: 19th. Century Neoclassicism pg. 57-80

  Edmonia Lewis, Joshua Johnson, Will Simpson, Women Artists Friendship Albums, Jules Lion, Patrick Henry Reason

• Week 4 - Chapter 5: Romanticism to Impressionism in the 19th. Century pg. 83-114

  Robert S. Duncanson, Edward M. Bannister, Henry O. Tanner, Annie E. Anderson Walker, Calvin S.T. Brent

• Week 5 - Chapter 6: Modernism and The Harlem Renaissance pg.. 117-151

  Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, May Howard Jackson, Sargent Claude Johnson, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, Lois Mailou Jones, James Van Zee

• Week 6 - Chapter 7: Social Realism pg. 151-179

  Charles Alston, Hale Woodruff, Margaret Burroughs, Charles White, Augusta Savage

• Week 7 - Chapter 8: Mid-20th-Century Transitions and Surrealism pg. 179-216

  Elizabeth Catlett, Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, John Biggers, Rose Piper, Minnie Evans, Gordon Parks, Ellis Wilson

  Gees Bay Quilters, Clementine Hunter, Madge Gill, Howard Finster

• Week 8 - Chapter 9: Abstract Expressionism pg. 217-244

  Norman Lewis, Alma Thomas, Beauford Delany, Sam Gilliam, Richard Mayhew, Al Loving, Betty Blayton, Barbara Chase-Riboud

• Week 9 - Chapter 10: Pop and Agitprop: The Black Arts Movement pg. 245-278

  Raymound Saunders, Reginald Gammons, Cliff Joseph, Ademola Olugebefola, Ben F. Jones, Jeff Donaldson, Wadsworth Jarrell,etc.

• Week 10 - Chapter 11: Black Feminist Art: A Crisis of Race and Sex pg. 279-300

  Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar, Nellie Mae Rowe, Dana Chandler, Dindga F. McCannon, Emma Amos, Justine Preshe DeVan, Sharon Haggins

• Week 11 - Chapter 12: Postmodernism pg. 301-337

  Howardena Pindell, Martin Puryear, Terry Adkins, Lorraine O'Grady, Noah Purifoy, Alison Saar, Willie Cole, Carrie Mae Weems

• Week 12 - Chapter 13: Neo-Expressionism, The New Abstraction, and Architecture pg. 339-368

  Basquiat, Kara Walker, Kerry James Marshall, Thorton Dial Sr., Mildren Thompson, Gaye Ellington, Charles Alston, Lois Mailow Jones,

  Marion Perkins, Barkley Hendricks

• Week 13 - Chapter 14: Post-Black Art and The New Millennium pg. 369-398

  Mickalene Thomas, Kehinde Wiley, Mark Bradford, Nick Cave, Camille Norment, Deborah Willis, Jeff Sonhouse, Shinque Smith, Layla Ali

• Week 14 - Looking to The Future: Current Artists Who are Pushing Boundaries. Source Information Online

  Odili Donald Odita, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Bisa Buttee, Aaron Douglas, Julie Mehrutu, Charles Gaines, Derrick Adams, Theaster Gates

Bibliography

African-American Art-A Visual and Cultural History: Lisa Farrington

This is our CORE book and the entire course will follow the 14 chapters of this full-color book. Additional images can be downloaded from the internet.

This book sells for $88.95, but Oxford University Press has agreed to sell the books in bulk to me for a discount of 30%, plus tax/shipping. Each book will sell for $62.26 + tax/shipping = $69.00

The books will ship to me, and we can arrange a pick-up or meeting to arrange delivery.

Black Art: A Cultural History - Richard J. Powell

A lovely second book with good pictures. Available Used. not required.

John Maynard Keynes

Description

John Maynard Keynes had an enormous impact on the 20th century. He not only developed the economic theory that bears his name (and which radically altered the study of economics), he also spoke out strongly against authoritarian governments, and he believed that art and ideas could conquer war and deprivation. From the peace conference at Versailles in 1919 to the establishment of an international monetary system at Bretton Woods (1944), Keynes stood at the heart of Anglo-American finances, waging an incessant battle against the rigid conservative ideas of bankers and academic economists. Two of his books, The Economic Consequences of the Peace and The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, greatly influenced the way people and governments thought. In Keynes' life we can see much of the intellectual, political and economic history of the 20th century. This biography situates Keynes’ economic theories in his overall political and philosophical worldview and situates Keynes himself in the Bloomsbury art and intellectual milieu. Carter also discusses the long reach of Keynes’ ideas in the aftermath of his death, in 1946, to our present day politics .

Weekly Topics

• Week 1: Introduction; Ch. 1, After the Gold Rush; Ch. 2, Blood Money

• Week 2: Ch. 3, Paris and Its Discontents; Ch. 4, Consequences

• Week 3: Ch. 5, From Metaphysics to Money; Ch. 6, Prolegomena to a New Socialism

• Week 4: Ch. 7, The Great Crash

• Week 5: Ch. 8, Phoenix

• Week 6: Ch. 9, The End of Scarcity

• Week 7: Ch. 10, Came the Revolution

• Week 8: Ch. 11, War and Revolution; Ch. 12, Martyr to the Good Life

• Week 9: Ch. 13: The Aristocracy Strikes Back

• Week 10: Ch. 14, The Affluent Society and Its Enemies

• Week 11: Ch. 15, The Beginning of the End

• Week 12: Ch. 16, The Return of the Nineteenth Century

• Week 13: Ch. 17, The Second Gilded Age

• Week 14: Conclusion

Bibliography

Zachary D. Carter, The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes (Random House, 2020)

Climate Change

Description

This SDG will be concerned with the science of climate change. We will examine projections of its future impacts, and evaluate the consequences of climate change to date. Our two recently published core books are: “The Uninhabitable Earth”, by David Wallace-Wells; and “How To Avoid A Climate Disaster”, by Bill Gates. They are very different in approach.

“The Uninhabitable Earth” is one scary book. It is also meticulously researched and superbly written.

“It is one of the few books that doesn’t sugarcoat the horror,” - William Vollmann, National Book Award winner

“David Wallace-Wells argues that the impacts of climate change will be much greater than most people realize, and he’s right.” - Elizabeth Kolbert, author of “The Sixth Extinction”.

“We are only just entering our brave new world, one that collapses below us as soon as we set foot on it.” - David Wallace Wells

“How To Avoid A Climate Disaster”, by Bill Gates, is comparatively upbeat. It is solution oriented, and written by a very smart and knowledgeable guy. Gates describes himself as an optimist. He approaches climate change as a problem to solve, and provides an outline as to how to do this. Gates writes with clarity and precision. “How To Avoid A Climate Disaster” is written to be comprehensible to any interested and intelligent reader.

Climate change is a prominent part of current public discourse. Therefore, we will set aside 10 to 15 minutes of each session to discuss matters related to climate change that have been reported in the news or from some other source.

Weekly Topics

1. Wallace-Wells, Chapter 1 - Cascades, feedback loops driving climate change;

Gates: Introduction

2. Wallace-Wells, pages 36 to 57 - Heat death, hunger

Gates, Chapter 1 - Goal setting: Why is the goal zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050?

3. Wallace-Wells, pages 58 to 68 - Sea level rise and flooding;

Gates, Chapter 2 - This will be hard.

4. Wallace Wells, pages 69 to 84 - Wildfires and disasters are no longer natural.

Gates, Chapter 3 - Five questions to ask in any climate discussion.

5. Wallace-Wells, pages 84 to 98 - Freshwater access and the fate of oceans

Gates, Chapter 4 - pages 66 to 82- The electricity grid, and its sources of power

6. Wallace-Wells, pages 99 to 113 - Air pollution and it’s health effects; Geoengineering

Gates, Chapter 4 - pages 82 to 98 - Solar, wind, and nuclear power

7. Wallace Wells, pages 108 to 122 - The effects of climate change on pandemics and disease

Gates, Chapter 5 - How we make things; cement, plastics, steel

8. Wallace-Wells, pages 123 to 139 - The threat of economic collapse

Gates, Chapter 6 - How we grow things

9. Wallace-Wells, pages 140 to 156 - Storytelling, what we tell ourselves about climate

Gates, Chapter 7 - Transportation

10. Wallace-Wells, pages 157 to 169 - Crisis capitalism

Gates, Chapter 8 - How we keep cool and stay warm

11. Wallace-Wells, pages 170 to 183 - The church of technology

Gates, Chapter 9 - Adapting to a warmer world

12. Wallace-Wells, pages 184 to 195 - The politics of consumption

Gates, Chapter 10 - Why government policies matter

13. Wallace-Wells, pages 196 to 216 - History after the end of progress; ethics at the end of the world

Gates, Chapter 11 - A plan for getting to zero

14. Wallace-Wells, pages to 216 to 228 - The Anthropic Principle

Gates, Chapter 12 and afterword; What each of us can do; COVID-19 and climate change

Bibliography

“The Uninhabitable Earth”, by David Wallace-Wells, copyright 2019 , 228 pages

“How To Avoid A Climate Disaster, The Solutions We Have and The Breakthroughs We Need “, by Bill Gates, released on February 16, 2021, 236 pages

Black Films Matter: 10 American Films

Description

This SDG examines 10 exceptional films made by African-American directors, women and men, many of which were a struggle to make due to the film industry's structural racism and sexism. Yet these filmmakers persevered and produced lasting films. We'll be looking at films from two fruitful periods-- the 1990s when politicized young people at film schools like Julie Dash and Spike Lee created independent classics, and, recently, when Black activism opened up new gates for a blossoming of directorial talent. The films range in genre: from family and neighborhood drama, to comedy, to horror. Race, of course, is present, explicitly or implicitly, as well as other concerns-- gender, class, capitalism, police and gang violence, poverty, the role of the artist. Some questions to ponder: What differences in political stances do we see among these films? Without the white gaze, what do these artists bring to film that's new?

This is a Film Studies course, with emphasis on scene analysis: directing, acting, cinematography (camera movement, framing, lighting), editing, music etc. We are interested in how the art of film expresses each director's unique handling of his or her stories.

Weekly Topics

• Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee, 1989

• To Sleep with Anger, Charles Burnett, 1990

• Daughters of the Dust, Julie Dash, 1991

• Boyz in the Hood, John Singleton, 1991

• Evie's Bayou, Kasi Lemmons, 1997

• Moonlight, Barry Jenkins, 2016

• Get Out, Jordan Peele, 2017

• BlacKKKlansman, Spike Lee, 2018

• Miss Juneteenth, Channing Godfrey Peeples, 2020

• The Forty-Year Old Version, Radha Blank, 2020

You will be choosing scenes from your film to analyze during our sessions. In order to participate comfortably, your computer, DVD players and/or streaming devices must be up to speed. You'll need to use a desk computer, laptop, or iPad for class, not a Smartphone. If you're having problems with Zoom, this course won't work well for you.

All films are available from sources like Netflix, Amazon Prime, LAPL. Essays, reviews and articles can be found on the web for each film.

Bibliography

• Christina N. Baker, Contemporary Black Women Filmmakers and the Art of Resistance, 2018.

• Michael Boyce, Film Blackness: American Cinema and the Idea of Black Film, 2016.

• Allyson Field, L.A Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema, 2015.

• Jesse Rhines, Black Film/White Money, 1996.

Musashi, an Epic Novel of the Samurai Era

Description

Musashi is a Japanese epic novel written by Eiji Yoshikawa in the 1930s. It is a fictionalized account of the life of Miyamoto Musashi, author of The Book of Five Rings and arguably the most renowned Japanese swordsman who ever lived. Set in feudal Japan of the 1600s, Musashi is a novel in the best tradition of Japanese story telling. It is a living story, subtle and imaginative, teeming with memorable characters, many of them historical. Interweaving themes of unrequited love, misguided revenge, filial piety and dedication to the Way of the Samurai, it depicts vividly a world most Westerners know only vaguely. Full of gusto and humor, it has an epic quality and universal appeal. In essence, this book relates the journey of a man who dedicates his life to self-improvement and self-discipline, and how he reaches enlightenment.

Musashi is among Japan’s supreme folk heroes, a seventeenth-century warrior whose exploits have inspired books, plays, movies, and television shows. A search on YouTube yields dozens of results.

There’s plenty of action and adventure in the life of a samurai swordsman, but we also glimpse the lives of everyday people, and it’s a thoroughly engrossing read. Broken into sections named after the elemental forces from Earth, Fire, Wind or the last section, The Perfect Light, each division illuminates some aspect of Musashi’s life. If you want to step back into samurai Japan, look no further than the pages of Musashi.

Translated by Charles S. Terry in the 1980s, the book is 970 pages long. In the final three weeks of the sdg, we will discuss The Samurai Trilogy, the three films of the book directed by Hiroshi Inagaki in Japanese with English subtitles. Originally released in the 1950s, they were remastered by the Criterion Collection in 2012. The first of these films won an academy award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1955. The Samurai Trilogy follows the novel in concentrating on Musashi’s life from his midteens, when he left the village of Miyamoto, until his defeat of Kojiro Sasaki in combat on Ganryu Island, when Musashi was twenty-nine. Starring Toshiro Mifune, the acting is outstanding; the color cinematography is glorious.

The book is still in print and is available at Amazon in hardcover, paperback, audio, and on Kindle. It has received over 1100 five star ratings at Amazon. The films are available for purchase at Amazon and for rent with Amazon Prime and elsewhere. They can also be streamed with a subscription to the HBOMax app.

Weekly Topics

1. Foreword and p. 3-78

2. p. 78-171

3. p. 172- 258

4. p. 259-347

5. p. 347-436

6. p. 436-531

7. p. 531-618

8. p. 618-705

9. p. 706-793

10. p. 793-882

11. p. 882-970

12. Film: Samurai I Musashi Miyamoto

13. Film: Samurai II Duel at Ichijoji Temple

14. Film: Samurai III Duel at Ganryu Island

Bibliography

• Yoshikawa, Eiji. Trans. by Charles S. Terry. Musashi. Kodansha International. 1981. Various publication dates.

• Films: The Samurai Trilogy. Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki. Remastered 2012.

Decameron

Description

When Black Death visited the city of Florence in 1348, those who could leave the city did. And it is just such a journey that Boccaccio in his classic The Decameron masterfully describes. Ten upper class young ladies and young gentlemen journey leisurely out of Florence, stopping at well-appointed chateaus, surrounded by the beauty of nature. There, in these bucolic settings, they take turns in telling one hundred fascinating stories. These stories are about kings and dukes and wealthy merchants, but also about common city dwellers and rustics of the countryside. The stories moralize; praise the wise and virtuous and disparage the foolish and wicked. The work glories in human ingenuity, showing that even the most daunting conditions can be overcome by human creativity. But mostly the work is about love and its many varieties. Those who join us will not only be entertained by these tales, but also see how people separated from us by seven centuries were essentially not different from us.

Weekly Topics

1. Introduction, pp. 1-70

2. pp.71 -147

3. pp. 148- 215

4. pp. 215-283

5. pp. 284-348

6. pp. 349-411

7. pp. 411-468

8. pp. 469-532

9. pp. 533 -585

10. pp. 585-647

11. 1pp 647-726

12. pp 726- 802

Bibliography

• Giovanni Boccaccio. The Decameron, (Penguin Books, 2003)

• Power Point Presentation of contemporary illustrations of Decameron ( furnished by the coordinator)

• https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/dweb/themes_motifs/

• https://literatureessaysamples.com/category/the-decameron/

• https://www.coursehero.com/lit/The-Decameron/themes/

Andrew Carnegie

Description

Thousands of men contributed to the development of the Industrial Revolution in the United States. I have chosen to submit a proposal on the life of one of these men, Andrew Carnegie, for one reason: the attitude of Carnegie to the wealth he had acquired. Carnegie believed that the money he accumulated was not really his—it belonged to the community, and he was just holding it for the community. It was therefore his obligation to give his fortune back to the community and to do so during his lifetime. To my knowledge, no other major American philanthropist, from the founding of the republic to this day, held such a belief. Such a man is worth studying.

When Carnegie sold Carnegie Steel to a syndicate headed by J. P. Morgan in 1901 and received $225 million (and became at the time America’s richest man), he realized that it was not possible to give away the money during his lifetime. By this time he had a large organization devoted to founding and supporting libraries, so that he had time to pursue other avenues of interest. Promoting world peace became his primary goal, to which end he established several trusts. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, among others, remains active to this day.

Carnegie Mellon University and Carnegie Hall bear his name (as does a major avenue in my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio).

David Nasaw has written a comprehensive biography, called simply Andrew Carnegie (2006). It covers all aspects of his life including his young years as a telegrapher, his growth into one of the leading industrialists of the country, and his development into one of the country’s leading philanthropists. We will read about his involvement in the infamous Homestead Steel Strike as well as possible partial responsibility for the Johnstown Flood. At the time of the Spanish-American War he became one of the country’s leading anti-imperialists (along with his exact contemporary, Mark Twain). His attachment to the United Kingdom and, particularly, his native Scotland are well covered, are as his many well-regarded books and articles, mainly on wealth and peace.

The book is 801 pages, so we will be reading about fifty-seven pages a week, a reasonable amount for a dense biography. We won’t have to worry about not having enough to talk about every week.

Weekly Topics

Most of the thirty-five S/DGs I have coordinated have had core books. I was always hoping to find one with the number of chapters divisible by fourteen. I never did—until now. Andrew Carnegie has forty-two chapters, each near enough equal in length so that we will read three chapters a week, from chapters 1-3 in Week 1 to chapters 40-42 in Week 14.

Bibliography

No additional reading is required beyond the core book.

It is my experience in recent years that most Plato members are really good at finding and recommending on-line material to supplement the weekly reading. For one source, the Wikipedia article on Andrew Carnegie has dozens of links to various aspects of his life.

Anyone wanting comprehensive background material for the period that covers most of Carnegie’s career can read the appropriate volume in the Oxford History of the United States. It is The Republic for Which It Stands—The United States During Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896 by Richard White.

James Baldwin: The Fire THIS Time

Description

James Baldwin (1924–1987), the American novelist, poet, and playwright, was an acclaimed essayist from the 1950’s through the 1980’s. Forty years later, his essays still resonate. In the month this SDG description was written, Baldwin was quoted in the New York Times and the New York Review of Books. Leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement refer to Baldwin. His ideas are examined and explained by scholars today, in essays and books, because Baldwin continues to be relevant to us.

Baldwin's ideas and insights adjusted over time. Notes of a Native Son, a collection of early essays, contained some of the hopes of Martin Luther King and others. The essays a decade later, including No Name in the Street and The Fire Next Time, were inspired by the rise of Black Power. Baldwin did not reject his earlier writings; his advocacy changed emphasis.

In this SDG we will read and discuss Baldwin’s essays from a Library of Congress collection edited by Toni Morrison. We will read excerpts from a seminal 2020 book Begin Again by Eddie S. Glaude Jr. that assesses Baldwin’s influence here and now. We will watch the documentary I Am Not Your Negro that is based on Baldwin’s words. We will watch selected short films of Baldwin’s interviews and speeches, including the famous 1965 “debate” with William Buckley at the Cambridge University Union which itself invited commentary.

Join this SDG and discuss with us how James Baldwin’s ideas and sensibilities are pertinent to today, and speak to the way we live in this country.

Weekly Topics

Begin Again is a large print book. Collected Essays is a small print book. The Collected Essays in the grouping Other Essays are short and relatively easy to read compared to the other essays.

The short films in the fourth bibliographical reference will mainly be picked during the SDG.

• May 3, week 1, Begin Again chapters 1 – 3, pg 3 to 84. Remember that this book has large print.

• May 10, week 2, Collected Essays, from the collection Notes of a Native Son

o Autobiographical Notes, pg 5-9,

o Everybody’s Protest Novel, pg 11-18,

o Many Thousands Gone, pg 19-34,

o The Harlem Ghetto, pg 42-53.

• May 17, week 3, Collected Essays, from the collection Notes of a Native Son

o Journey to Atlanta, pg 54-62,

o Notes of a Native Son, pg 63-84,

o Encounter on the Seine, pg 85-90,

o Stranger in the Village, pg 117-129.

• May 24, week 4, Collected Essays, from the collection Nobody Knows My Name

o Introduction, pg, 135-136,

o Princes and Powers, pg 143-169,

o Fifth Avenue Uptown: A Letter from Harlem, pg 170-179,

o In Search of a Majority, pg 215-221.

• May 31,week 5, Collected Essays, from the collection Nobody Knows My Name

o A Fly in Buttermilk, pg 187-196,

o Nobody Knows My Name, pg 197-208,

o Faulkner and Desegregation, pg 209-214,

o Notes from a Hypothetical Novel, pg 222-230,

o The Male Prison, pg 231-235.

• June 7, week 6, Collected Essays, Other Essays

o The American Dream and the American Negro, pg 714-719, Read this before seeing the videos.

o Video of the Baldwin Buckley Debate at Cambridge University,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFeoS41xe7w&list=PLIK5ySlgaLahAKSDtr74DUvfAo54TAlMB&index=8

o PBS video assessing the Baldwin Buckley Debate 55 years later,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRzkHgMaPL4

• June 14, week 7, Begin Again chapters 4 – 5, pg 85 to 145.

• June 21, week 8,

• The film I Am Not Your Negro. The film streams on Netflix and elsewhere.

• June 28, week 9, Collected Essays, from The Fire Next Time

o My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew pg 291-295,

o Down at the Cross pg 296-347.

• July 5, week 10, Collected Essays, from No Name in the Street

o To Be Baptized, and the one page epilog, pg 404-475.

• July 12, week 11, Collected Essays, from The Devil Finds Work

o Chapter 1 Congo Square, pg 479-504,

o Chapter 2 Who Saw Him Die? I, Said the Fly, pg 505-549.

• July 19. week 12, Collected Essays, Other Essays

o How One Black Man Came to be an American, pg 762-765,

o Preservation of Innocence, pg 594-600,

o Freaks and the American Ideal of Manhood, pg 814-829,

o The Creative Process, pg 669-672,

o The White Man’s Guilt, pg 722-727,

o Sweet Loraine, pg 757-761.

• July 26. week 13, Collected Essays, Other Essays

o History as Nightmare, pg 579-581,

o Sermons and Blues, pg 614-615,

o On Catfish Row, pg 615-621.

o Words of a Native Son, pg 707-713,

o Negroes Are Anti-Semitic Because…,pg 739-748,

o White Racism or World Community, pg 749-756

o Lockridge: the American Myth, pg 588-593,

o The Price of the Ticket, pg 830-842,

o The Price of the Ticket video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_hYraYI2J8&list=PLIK5ySlgaLahAKSDtr74DUvfAo54TAlMB&index=6

• August 2, week 14, Begin Again chapters 6, 7 and Conclusion, pg 146 to 217.

Bibliography

1. Eddie S. Glaude Jr. (2020), Begin Again, Crown, Penguin Random House LLC.

2. James Baldwin (1998), James Baldwin: Collected Essays, Library of Congress, edited by Toni Morrison.

3. Raoul Peck Director (2016), I Am Not Your Negro, based on the James Baldwin essay Remember This House (unfinished). The film streams on Netflix and elsewhere.

4. Baldwin’s interviews and discussions on film; short films to be picked for specific sessions. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIK5ySlgaLahAKSDtr74DUvfAo54TAlMB

A Global History of the Napoleonic Wars

Description

When we think about the Napoleonic Wars, we probably know enough to think “Napoleon” and “Waterloo,” but how many of us know that the Napoleonic conflict was also fought in America, Africa, the Ottoman Empire, Oman, Iran, India, the Philippines, and on the high seas of the Mediterranean, Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In the ground-breaking and highly acclaimed work, The Napoleonic Wars-A Global History, by Alexander Mikaberidze, the author addresses the immediate and lasting global impact of the Napoleonic Wars.

Our core book and this SDG will examine the Napoleonic wars and their consequences from a military, diplomatic, economic, trade and political vantage point, both in Europe and globally, and along the way will introduce us to many fascinating characters and to a somewhat new take on Napoleon himself. We will study connections among events in Europe and around the globe in new and exciting ways. As the author says, “In his efforts to achieve French hegemony, Napoleon indirectly became the architect of independent South America, reshaped the Middle East, strengthened British imperial ambitions, and contributed to the rise of American power.” Just by way of example, the author explains how Napoleon’s efforts to suppress a slave revolt in Haiti led to the Louisiana Purchase; his efforts to threaten the British in India led to the invasion of Egypt; and the British desire to pre-empt Napoleon led them to Oman. The global scope of Mikaberidze's work promises a fascinating and enlightening SDG.

One reviewer commented: “This is a 900-page book that cross-fertilises Napoleonic history with world history, and it’s fantastic. The perfect antidote to lockdown boredom.”

Weekly Topics

(The topics below refer to chapter titles, sometimes abbreviated for brevity.)

1. Prelude and The 18th Century Order

2. The War of the First Coalition, 1792-1797 and the Making of the La Grande Nation, 1797-1802

3. The Second Coalition War and the origins of the “Great Game;” The Rites of Peace, 1801-1802

4. The Road to War, 1802-1803, and The Rupture, 1803

5. France and Britain at War, 1803-1804; The Emperor’s Conquest, 1805-1807

6. Europe and the Continental System and The Struggle for Portugal and Spain,1807-1812,

7. The Grand Empire, 1807-1812 and The Emperor’s Last Triumph

8. The Northern Question, 1807-1811

9. The Ottomans and the Napoleonic War

10. The Qajar Connection: Iran and the European Powers, 1804-1814 and Britain’s Expeditionary Warfare, 1805-1810

11. Britain’s Eastern Empire 1800-1815, and Struggle for the America’s 1808-1815

12. The Turning Point, 1812, and Fall of the French Empire

13. The War and Peace, 1814-1815

14. The Aftermath

Bibliography

The Napoleonic Wars-A Global History by Alexander Mikaberidze