Capitalism now dominates as the major, if not sole, economic system globally. What will it mean for delivering a more equitable social and economic world? This SDG will explore Branco Milanovic's thesis that Capitalism has triumphed because it works--it has delivered more prosperity to more people and gratifies human desires for autonomy, but at a moral price --instablility, inequality, corruption and excess. He examines the shift leading to Capitalism's dominance and examines the varieties of Capitalist systems (classical, liberal-meritocratic, and political). He then proposes a set of economic and social policies to consider for moving toward a People's Capitalism to address today's crises of increasing inequality and political conflict. In this SDG, we will assess his thesis, review critiques of the current state of capitalism and his prescriptions for its future.
Brexit: United Kingdom or Untied Kingdom?
This proposed SDG will begin with Winston Churchill's driving role in making of a United Europe, through the Common Market, the evolution of the European Union through Brexit and beyond.
The overall plan is to spend seven weeks on this vital and current subject to analyze if the United Kingdom as it exists today will survive and function with the remainder of Europe or disintegrate into just England, with the possibility of Scotland, Northern Ireland or even Wales each going their separate way and rejoin the European Union (or even in the case of Northern Ireland, be part of a expanded Republic of Ireland). Additionally, if the above were to happen, would the remainder England still hold its permanent seat in the UN Security Council.
The SDG will use a core book, and excerpts from one or two other specific books, as well as supplied scholarly articles, lectures as well as time articles from the three leading newspapers (Times, Telegraph and Guardian).
Nine Historic Revolutions
The SDG will cover two interlaced subjects. One subject will be how to think about and understand the path of revolutions. This leads to a comparison of the nine revolutions to see the similarities and differences between them. It allows us to then state a general outlook on how all revolutions tend to act and proceed in a systematic process.
The second subject will be to develop a picture of each revolution as it proceeded over time. What were its main features? Why did it begin? Who were the main people and classes that participated in it? What were the results? What was the impact on the whole story of society?
The final weeks of the SDG will focus on putting together a consistent and comprehensive story of the process of revolution. The sessions will also cover a systematic statement of the theory of revolution plus discussion of how to begin and end a revolution.
The core book will be Howard Sherman’s recent book entitled “9 Historic Revolutions”. This book will be supplemented with additional readings to explore each topic further.
The Mirage Factory - Illusion, Imagination & the Invention of Los Angeles
Krist captures Los Angeles in the period between 1900 and 1930, when an agricultural town of 100,000 people became a burgeoning city of 1.2 million, replete with new industries, a new identity and, crucially, newfound water, in spite of the fact that this was “no sensible place to build a great city.” He directs our attention to three individuals whose restlessness and ambition exemplified the city’s transformation: the engineer and water czar William Mulholland, the filmmaker D. W. Griffith and the Pentecostal evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. They were outsiders who sought their fortunes in LA and whose stars burned bright before they flamed out.
In Krist’s account water came first, brought from the Owens River, north of the city, via the Los Angeles Aqueduct, an enormous public works project completed in 1913. The aqueduct’s 233-mile path also forms the narrative spine of his book. Los Angeles could finally feel confident that the greatest obstacle to its growth had been removed. A decade later, the growing city started pumping groundwater from the Owens Valley, whose resentful residents retaliated, on occasion, with dynamite. By July 1927 the aqueduct had been bombed no fewer than 10 times. Nineteen twenty-seven was also the first year in more than a decade that David Wark Griffith hadn’t released one of his grandiose films. Having achieved spectacular success with The Birth of a Nation(1915), Griffith struggled to keep up with changing tastes and the advent of the talkies. Krist expertly weaves together the stories of Griffith, Mulholland and McPherson, the charismatic evangelist from rural Canada who moved to Los Angeles to attend to the city’s spiritual needs. McPherson’s congregation bloomed with the city, and after surviving a (possible) kidnapping, her ultimate downfall, when it happened, came tragically and too soon.
But above all Krist is a nimble scene-setter, and it’s the indelible details he offers that give The Mirage Factory its mesmerizing pull. You will finish reading The Mirage Factory entertained, informed and satisfied.
Consumption: From Wedgewood to Walmart
Description
Whether buying at a general store or shopping at a mall, consumption has always formed an essential part of the American experience. More than just commodities bought and sold, consumption is also about the institutions, social practices, cultural meanings and economic functions that surround the merchandise. Bringing together business, labor and cultural history, this SDG will look at the changing meanings consumption has had for life, politics and the economy in the US. And what better time to consider the effects on consumption of the recent tariffs and the shift in consumption patterns during the Covid-10 pandemic!
Weekly Topics
Why study consumption?
Retail Distribution evolution: Sears and Montgomery Ward Catalogues, Department Stores, and Retail Premiums
The Stupid Experiment: Temperance, Saloons and NIckelodeons
A & P and Piggly Wiggly: Progressive Era Models of Retail
Premiums and Spectacles
Installment Credit
Television; The Mall
Afro-American Consumption
The Discount Retailer Revolution
Tariff's and Plagues. Where does consumerism go from here?
Bibliography
Core books:
Borrow, The American Way of Debt, Louis Hyman, Vintage Books 2012
Consumer Society in American History, edited by Lawrence Glickman, Cornell University 1999 (Articles noted as CS in list above)
Land of Desire, Merchants, Power and the Rise of A New American Culture, William Leach, Vintage Books 1993 (Articles noted as LD in list above - if you do not wish to purchase/borrow this book, I will be happy to scan the pages for you)
Cheap Amusements, Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century New York, Kathy Peiss, Temple University 1986 (Articles noted as CA in list above - if you do not wish to purchase/borrow this book, I will be happy to scan the pages for you)
We Have No Idea-A Guide to the Unknown Universe
Description
Our understanding of the Physical World and Universe has many gaps, some small and some very large. The latter put into questions many of the current hypothesis that try to explain the Universe, how it formed and to some degree our relationship within it. Some of the greatest minds of the 19th and 20th century have tried to fill these gaps of knowledge, but many still remain and actually grow larger!
The authors of the core book have put together a humorous explanation of what we know and understand of the universe and what the gaps in our knowledge are. Since the book was published in 2017, some recent experiments have brought answers, partial answers or more questions relating to the various topics.
The book is written for those who have little or no knowledge about the Universe, but would like to know how it affects our existence directly and indirectly on this watery sphere. Can you live a comfortable life not knowing about these problems? Does resolving them help civilization? Maybe we will find some answers to these momentous questions.
Weekly Topics
What is the Universe made of? (Chap. 1)
What is Dark Matter (Chap. 2)
What is dark Energy? (Chap 3)
What is the most Basic Element of Matter? (Chap. 4)
The Mysteries of Mass? (Chap. 5)
Why is Gravity so Different from the other Forces? (Chap. 6)
What is Space? What is Time? (Chap. 7&8)
How Many Dimensions are There? (Chap. 9)
Can We Travel Faster than Light? (Chap. 10)
Who is Shooting Superfast Particles at the Earth (Chap. 11)
Why are we made of Matter, Not Antimatter? (Chap. 12)
What Happened During the Big bang? (Chap. 14)
How Big is the Universe? Is There a Theory of Everything? (Chap 15 & 16)
Are We Alone in the Universe? (Chap. 17)
Bibliography
Core Book: We have No Idea-John Cham and Daniel Whitman. Riverrhead Books, NY 2017. Available from Amazon in all formats.
13 Things that don't make sense - Michael Brooks- Doubleday, 2008
One, Two Three Infinity - George Gamow - Dover Edition, 1988
A brief History of time - Stephen Hawkins - Bantam Books, 1988
The Mystery of Antimatter - Helen Quinn & Yossi Nir - Princeton University Press, 1988
Antimatter - Frank Close - Oxford Press, 2010
A Universe of 10 Dimensions - https://phys.org/news/2014-12-universe-dimensions.html
What is the Big Bang Theory - https://www.space.com/25126-big-bang-theory.html
God and the Atom - Victor Stenger - Prometheus Books, 2013
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Theories of the Universe
Massive, The Missing Particle that Sparked the Greatest Hunt in Science - Ian Sample, Basic Books, 2010
The Ambidextrous Universe - Martin Gardner - W.H. Freeman & Co. 1990
Native America from 1890 to Present
Description
This SDG seeks to examine the history of Native America after the massacre at Wounded Knee to the present. The core book is The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present written by David Treuer. The book has been widely praised and was a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award. It tells a comprehensive story of Indian survival, resilience, adaptability and pride. It does so in a readable manner combining reportage, memoir and historical scholarship. The book shatters one myth after another and moves seamlessly from the big story to the tales of Native American lives. A beautifully written book telling a story that must be read, studied and understood.
Weekly Topics
Prologue; Part 1 Narrating the Apocalypse; Early Tribes and Homelands; The Southeast; The Seminole Wars; The Northeast; The Northwest; The Great Lakes and the Ohio River Valley.
The Southwest; California; The Pacific Northwest; The Great Basin; The Southern Great Plains; The Northern Plains; 1890.
Part 2 Purgatory 1891-1934; The End of the Treaty Era; Chief Joseph and Chief Standing Bear; The Beginning of the Indian Rights Movement; The Indian Boarding Schools; Allotment.
Indian Offenses; The Seeds of Tribal Resistance; Part 3 Fighting Life 1914-1945; The Meriam Report.
Emergence of Tribal Governments; John Collier and the Indian Reorganization; War and Migration; Entering the Cage; Part 4 Moving On Up; Migration; The Kansas Act.
Termination; The Indian Claims Commission; Relocation; Part 5 Becoming Indian 1970-1990; The Rise of Red Power; National Indian Youth Council; Panthers and Red Power.
The Rise of the American Indian Movement; AIM at Pine Ridge; War on Poverty; The Indian Education Act; Jumping Bull.
Anna Mae Aquash; Part 6 Boom City-Tribal Capitalism; Blood Quantum and Disenrollment.
Part 7 Digital Indians 1990-2018; Epilogue.
Bibliography
David Treuer, The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present, New York, Riverhead Books, 2019.
Economics and Ideology
Description
Robert Reich’s new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is a highly readable discussion of how the elite in our country, the “oligarchy,” control the political system by lobbying and hiring government officials, congressmen, and senators with large salaries after they leave the government. While some corporations state they have liberal goals, those statements hid significant abuses, such as violating laws and paying fines that are less than the profits those abuses generate. This SDG will discuss the validity of those claims and the practicality of the solutions he suggests, and try to balance the discussion with outside articles that have a different point of view. (Note: This is a revision of the original SDG proposal.)
Weekly Topics
Overview
The Obsolescence of Right and Left
Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase: Patriot First?
Socialism for the Rich, Harsh Capitalism for the Rest
The System of Corruption
The Silence of the CEOs
The Core Contradiction
The Vicious Cycle and From Stakeholder to Shareholder Capitalism
The Power Shift
The Last Coping Mechanism
The Triumph of the Oligarchy
The Furies: Reaction to The System
How Oligarchies Retain Power
Why Democracy Will Prevail and a Final Word
Bibliography
Robert Reich, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It (2020)
Best American Short Stories of the 20th Century
Description
Since the series' inception in 1915, the annual volumes of The Best American Short Stories have launched literary careers, showcased the most compelling stories of each year, and confirmed for all time the significance of the short story in our national literature. THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES OF THE CENTURY, published in 2000 brings together the best of the best - fifty-five extraordinary stories that represent a century's worth of unsurpassed accomplishments in this quintessentially American literary genre. Here are the stories that have endured the test of time: masterworks by such writers as Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Flannery O'Connor, John Cheever, Eudora Welty, Philip Roth, Joyce Carol Oates, and scores of others. These are the writers who have shaped and defined the landscape of the American short story, who have unflinchingly explored all aspects of the human condition, and whose works will continue to speak to us in the twenty-first century.
In this SDG we will read all of these stories and discuss what makes them the best, how each explored aspects of the human condition, and whether each story continues to speak to us in the first 20 years of the 21st Century.
Weekly Topics
Week 1: Zelig by Benjamin Rosenblatt, The Silver Dish by Saul Bellow, My Dead Brother Comes to America by Alexander Godin, and Criers and Kibitzers, Kibitzers and Criers by Stanley Elkin.
Week 2: A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell, Christmas Gift by Robert Penn Warren, The Hitch Hikers by Eudora Welty, and Miami-New York by Martha Gelhorn.
Week 3: Here We Are by Dorothy Parker, That in Allepppo Once... by Vladimir Nabokov, Crazy Sunday by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and The Golden Honeymoon by Ring Lardner.
Week 4: That Evening Sun Go Down by William Faulkner, Verona: A Young Woman Speaks by Harold Brodkey, Roses, Rhododendron by Alice Adams, and Wild Plums by Grace Stone Coates
Week 5: Little Selves by Mary Lerner, Double Birthday by Willa Cather, Resurrection of a Life by William Saroyan, and The German Refugee by Bernard Malamud
Week 6: The Other Woman by Sherwood Anderson, Where I'm Calling From by Raymond Carver, Gestering by John Updike, Janus by Ann Beattie.
Week 7: The Farmer's Children by Elizabeth Bishop, The Ledge by Lawrence Sargent Hall, The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick and In the Gloaming by Alice Elliott Dark
Week 8: Birth Mates by Gish Jen, The Killers by Ernest Hemingway, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates, and Theft by Katherine Anne Porter.
Week 9: Blood-Burning Moon by Jean Tomer, Bright and Morning Star by Richard Wright, Proper Library by Carolyn Ferrell, Gold Coast by James Alan McPherson
Week 10: Soon by Pam Durban, The Half-skinned Steer by Annie Proulx, The Interior Castle by Jean Stafford, The Second Tree From the Corner by E.B. White
Week 11: The Peach Stone by Paul Horgan, The Resemblance Between a Violin Case ad a Coffin by Tennessee Williams, The Country Husband by John Cheever, You're Ugly, Too by Laurie Moore
Week 12: I Want to Live by Thom Jones, Greenleaf by Flannery O'Connor, The Rotifer by Mary Ladd Gavell and How We Live Now by Susan Sontag
Week 13: Defender of the Faith by Philip Roth, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, Death of a Favorite by J.F. Powers and The Best Girlfriend You Never Had by Sam Houston
Week 14: The Key by Isaac Beshevis Singer, City of Churches by Donald Barthelme, How to Win by Rosellen Brown and Meneseteung by Alice Munro
Bibliography
The Best American Short Stories of the Century (2000) Edited by John Updike and Katrina Kenison
