Frederick Douglass- Prophet of Freedom

Description

Douglass, born a slave, would become the most important African American of the nineteenth century.and one of the great writers of his era. He first made his reputation as the most celebrated orator of the abolitionist movement. Drawing from his personal experience, he developed a genius with words and held audiences spellbound for hours. This former slave met with Lincoln at the White House and rejoiced in the victory of emancipation. He would become a loyal Republican for the rest of his life, steadfast in his commitment even when challenged by younger men who accused him of blind allegiance to his party. He saw the promise of Reconstruction dashed by the resistance of former slaveholders, and he fought this betrayal ferociously. As a lecturer, he likely reached more listeners than any American in the century, as he moved around the country by train, a marathon traveler for the abolitionist cause. The activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton saw him at Boston's Faneuil Hall and spoke for many white women when she wrote, "He stood there like an African prince, conscious of his dignity and power, grand in his physical proportions, majestic in his wrath, as with keen wit, satire, and indignation he portrayed the bitterness of slavery." Douglass's private life was complicated. His children were financially dependent on him even as adults. His second marriage to a white woman scandalized even some of his supporters.

Blight's well written tome of more than 750 pages is full of richness on the life of this towering figure in nineteenth-century American history.

Weekly Topics

1.    Intro + Chapters 1-3:  Birth (1818) & early life as a child slave on a Maryland plantation; exposure to city life in the bustling port of Baltimore

2.    Chapters 4-7:  Back on the plantation, as a teenager, resisted the abuse of a brutal overseer, he became a man; escape to New England with the help of friends; marriage to Anna and arrival in New Bedford, Mass. as penniless newlyweds to start a new life; Douglass took the abolitionists traveling circuit by storm (early 1840's)

3.    Chapters 8-10:  Douglass became a Garrisonian in body & mind; words became a source of influence and power; writing for publication in other than newspapers; tour in British Isles, joined by William Lloyd Garrison (1845-6)

4.    Chapters 11, 12:  On his return home, facing the challenge of finding balance between public and private demands; intense debate over slavery in 1850's Washington, D.C.; close working relationship with Julia Griffiths and rumors of an affair; the struggle to feed his family and support his newspaper; public split with Garrison

5.    Chapters 13, 14:  The Old Testament, an inspiring source of intellectual and emotional control; delivery of one of the greatest speeches in American history (1852); divisive issues of the Fugitive Slave Act and colonization outside the US; political activism (1850's); friendship with the writer James McCune Smith; Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), repeal of the Missouri Compromise & Dred Scott decision

6.    Chapters 15, 16:  Douglass met John Brown.  Their 12-year relationship - a good lens through which to view both men; when news broke of Brown's 1859 raid, he realized he was in dire trouble; escape into exile; seismic breaks (Brown's raid, the 1860 election & secession) when people are taught by events

7.    Chapters 17, 18:  His long rehearsal as a war propagandist reached it final phase, as he yearned for war (spring 1861); in 1862 he preached unapologetically, "These cloudless skies, this balmy air, this brilliant sunshine (making December as pleasant as May), are in harmony with the glorious morning of liberty about to dawn upon us."

8.    Chapters 19, 20:  Civil War became a family affair, two sons enlisted and a third became a recruiter of black troops; the Emancipation Proclamation - everyone is liberated; Gettysburg Address, as Lincoln and Douglass spoke from the same script; with the death of one America, out of the ashes came a second American republic; "our work is not done"

9.    Chapters 21, 22:  Sacred efforts to achieve "freedom, progress, elevation, and perfect enfranchisement of the entire colored people;" search for meaning in Lincoln's death; antislavery had done its work - what would become of Douglass and family after abolition?; he identified with Othello

10.    Chapters 23, 24:  Reunion with brother Perry and family, illiterate with values bred in decades of slavery (1867); challenges of supporting his growing clan; domestic discord; campaign for Grant and hope for a presidential appointment (1868); ratification of Fifteenth Amendment (1870); maintained a breathtaking speaking schedule; financial strain as family enterprises failed (1874)

11.    Chapters 25, 26:  Questions of what peace among the whites would bring; frustration and anger from recent personal losses & professional failures (1875); unraveling of Reconstruction; disputed election of 1876; consultations with Pres. Hayes and appointment as marshal of the District of Columbia, an important & lucrative office

12.    Chapters 27, 28:  Joys and sorrows with family; campaign for Garfield (1880); death of first wife, Anna (1882); opposed voices calling for blacks to seek independence from (white) political parties; recorder of deeds for the District; the aging man could still write and speak with brilliance and vigor; ebb and flow of hope and despair; Democrats won back the White House (1884); marriage to Helen Pitts, a white woman

13.    Chapters 29, 30:  Full-throated jeremiad against the depressing state of American race relations; charged both political parties with immoral inaction; escaped to vacation in Europe with Helen (1886); appointed US minister to Haiti by Pres. Harrison (1889); controversy over the character of US interest in Caribbean; he understood realpolitik but preferred enlightened self interest

14.    Chapters 31 + Epilogue:  Douglass met Booker T. Washington (1892) - differences in leadership styles and purposes of two men; support for renomination of Pres. Harrison; suffered health problems but remained astonishingly active; death came suddenly (1895);  if slavery and race were centerpieces of American history in nineteenth century, no one represented that saga quite like Douglass

Bibliography

Blight, David W., Frederick Douglass, Prophet of Freedom, Simon & Schuster, 2018

The Guns of August

Description

The Guns of August is Barbara Tuchman’s iconic work on the period starting in the first decade of the 20thcentury that led to the outbreak and critical first month of World War I.   After August and September 1914 and their inability to outflank one another as they raced to the sea, the combatants settled into what became a war of attrition that was only resolved by America’s entry into the war.  While much has been written about the cause of the “Great War”, the lessons on how wars start and are fought bear repetition and re-examination.  Moreover, while we don’t currently have a “hot” Cold War, we continue to live in times in which the making and deferral of political decisions as well as missteps in communications by political leaders and other public figures can have chilling consequences.  This problem is heightened in the 21st Century as the number of media sources (which includes social media) has increased exponentially when compared with historical experience, but the quality of communicated information has, with notable exception, deteriorated.  Our primary goal will be to use Ms. Tuchman’s book and occasionally other sources, to examine her period of focus.   Using lessons from the core book and other sources, we will also discuss how channels of communication employed today can affect the development of consequential world events.

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Weekly Topics

Week

1          The Great War is foreshadowed by: the Franco-Prussian War; a plan of Count Alfred von Schleiffen, who along with most German military leaders, was a student of von Clausewitz; and France’s Plan VII offering a limited strategic view of a possible war with Germany that underestimated the threat of envelopment.  (pp vii-52)

2          At the outset of the 20thcentury, England recognized that any conflict between France and Germany would pose a threat to Belgian neutrality; nevertheless, England’s perceived role in a war was confused by conflicting attitudes of its politicians and its military leaders; Russia’s earlier loss in its war with Japan did not seem to diminish its perception by the European leadership and populous as a “steam roller,” complete with hordes of Cossacks and mujiks willing to die; Germany’s plan required that it avoid a two-front war with France and Russia, which it would accomplish at the outset by focusing on the von Schleiffen plan of envelopment.  (pp 53-99) 

3          A prime objective of French policy was to enter the war with England as an ally; this required that France avoid violating Belgian neutrality, which required that it wait until German troops crossed the Belgian border; this allowed the internally-conflicted Asquith cabinet to temporize while German forces prepared to invade Belgium; in contrast to England, King Albert of Belgium was single minded in his view of what was developing and how he would react.  (pp 100-160)

4          Mindful of the threat of England’s navy, in 1900 Germany embarked on a massive program to build its naval strength; viewing his navy as precious, the Kaiser feared its destruction and was reluctant to risk a naval confrontation with England; German naval action became key to bringing Turkey into alliance with Germany; Germany’s right wing advances into Belgium toward Liège, and seeking to recover Alsace-Lorraine, the French right wing advances toward Mulhouse and Colmar.  (pp 161-212)

5          Established English military plans for use of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in war are delayed by cabinet and Field Marshall Lord Kitchner, a skeptic about BEF effectiveness, coordinating with the French military and the anticipated short duration of the war; his suggestion that 70 divisions and a protracted war of years would be required for a continental effort was met with horror by the cabinet (several of whom were opposed to military conscription) as well as the military leadership; the French chief of staff refuses to move troops from its center to oppose von Klück's and von Bülow’s armies in the north reasoning that any German forces in the north moving west toward Liège will thin the center where France will concentrate its efforts.  (pp 213-272)

6          The Battle of the Frontiers: in Lorraine advances of the French First Army (General Dubail) and Second Army (General de Castelnau) faltered and were driven back, in part by a bloody defeat at Morhange and by General Rupprecht’s counterattack into French territory; mistakenly thinking (on assurances from Marshal Joffre) that they had numerical superiority, the Third (General Ruffey) and Fourth (General Langle de Cary) French Armies plunged into the Ardennes and were overwhelmed by German resistance and counter attacks; Sir John French was unwilling to coordinate the BEF with the French Fifth Army (General Lanrezac), so they fought unsuccessful and separate battles at Charleroi and Mons where the British suffered their worst losses thus far and, in spite of heroic efforts of forces led by King Albert, enabling the Germans to turn southward toward Paris; Marshal Joffre refused to consider the possibility of an envelopment by von Klück and von Bülow in spite of concerns expressed by Lanrezac.  (pp 273-311)

7          While Russia’s primary target in the war was Austria (due to the assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand in Sarajevo), it was allied with France.   Russia’s unrealized promises to France to mobilize and move quickly against Germany confirmed French skepticism about this ally; failures of logistics, communications, transportation, training and leadership, together with the geographic breadth of Russia and political divisions within and affecting the Russian royal family, ultimately resulted in failed offensive action in east Prussia.  Nevertheless, concerns of the Kaiser due to Russian action in east Prussia (and in response to east Prussian landowner fears), resulted in General Erich Ludendorff, the hero of Liège, being appointed to take charge of the German Eighth Army. With the assistance of reinforcements taken from German action in the west, Ludendorff’s forces prevailed against the Russians at Tannenberg.  (pp  312-367)

8          Reaction to German military outrage toward Belgian civilians included the following inscription on 384 cemetery gravestones “1914: Fusillé par les Allemans”; the German six-day burning of Louvain, a medieval city with a library of over 230,000 volumes, was widely reported in the world press; British blockade of goods bound for Germany; the Kaiser declares the German navy a “fleet in being”; the doctrine of continuous voyage; Wilson’s declaration of neutrality.  (pp 368-405) 

9          Five German armies of the right wing and center cut into Belgium and France after the War of the Frontiers, with von Klück’s army on the extreme right seeking to envelop the Allied line; minds were focused on a possible repeat of German victory of the French at Sedan in September 1870; the BEF and French forces retreat yielding further French territory; General Joseph-Simon Gallieni becomes Military Governor of Paris and is denied troops to defend the capital.  (pp 406-490)

10       Bothered by the gaps between his enveloping armies on the west as they headed south toward Paris and the lack of reinforcements from his army in Lorraine (which, counter to von Schleiffen doctrine, he had committed to the battle for the Moselle) Chief of Staff General Helmuth von Moltke, believing the French were beaten, directs von Klück’s forces away from its southern march to Paris to make an inward wheel toward Noyon and Compiègne in pursuit of the Fifth Army, but this exposes von Klück’s flank to Paris; Joffre removes Lanrezac from the Fifth Army; holes in the German lines remain and the troops sent to east Prussia as reinforcements are missed; von Klück is ordered to reverse his direction and head west toward the Marne River; recognizing the opportunity to attack the German flank exposed by von Klück, the French and British, with some difficulty, barely patch their quarrels; and with the forces commanded by General Gallieni as well as the BEF and the Fifth and Sixth Armies, the Germans are defeated in the Battle of the Marne.  (pp 470-524) 

Bibliography

Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August

Christopher Clarke, The Sleepwalkers:  How Europe Went to War

Frankenstein Then and Now

Description

Although the novel Frankenstein was published two hundred years ago, in 1818, it is simultaneously very old and very new.  As the first work of science fiction, it has been a powerful vehicle for cultural history. As its rich film history suggests, this novel has offered a powerful and still resonant exploration of the impact of modern science on traditional values, institutions, and relationships. 

Today Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (1818) is the most often taught novel in the US. The eighteen-year-old Mary Shelley here single-handedly created a myth that resonates powerfully with contemporary science - the story of a scientist who produces a monster capable of destroying him and all he loves. “You are my maker; but I am your master – obey!” says the Creature to Victor Frankenstein.This myth is so culturally well-known and so powerful that the National Geographic Society has designated Mary Shelley as its next "genius," following its programs on Einstein and Pablo Picasso.

Shelley's myth has two separate dimensions. On the one hand, it is a story of parental abandonment, of a scientist who fails to take responsibility for the predictable consequences of his work. It is the story of a man who tries to have a baby without a woman, of a father who fails to "mother" his new-born baby. On the other hand, it is the story of human arrogance and presumption, of a (male) scientist who tries to become "god," to create life out of death.  

In this SDG, we will explore both dimensions of Shelley's myth. We will look first at  the origins of the novel in Shelley's biography, in the radical climate change that occurred in June, 1816 (the summer she conceived of her novel), and in the scientific, literary, political and social cultures in which she lived. We will examine in detail the ways in which the novel comments on the 18th century scientific revolution initiated by Francis Bacon; on Romanticism and the poetry of Byron and Percy Shelley; on the revolutionary politics of the French Revolution; on the feminist debates concerning the rights of women set in motion by her mother Mary Wollstonecraft; on motherhood and the education of children; on gender, sexuality, race and disability; and on the philosophical discussions of nature (ontology) and perception (epistemology) of her day.  We will then look at the after-life of the novel, first on the stage and then on the screen, where the novel’s rich and varied film history has had the greatest impact upon the popular (mis)understanding of Shelley’s creation. We will end with an examination of the most recent scientific developments in genetic engineering and artificial intelligence to discover whether Dr. Frankenstein is "alive and working" today.  

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Weekly Topics 

Week One : Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's life and the influence of her parents, the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and the political philosopher William Godwin, and of her husband the poet Percy Shelley - why did she have the "waking dream" that inspired the novel on June 16, 1818? What role did the eruption of Mount Tamboro play in the origin of the novel?

Reading: "Introduction" to the third edition of Frankenstein (1831), pp. 165-169;

Lord Byron, "Prometheus" (online)

Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (selections, online)

William Godwin, Enquiry concerning Political Justice, summary (online)

Week Two: Frankenstein and Science: What science did Mary Shelley know? How does Shelley represent the psychology of the modern scientist?

Reading, Frankenstein, Vol. I: ch. 1-4 (pp. 1-40)

Week Three: Frankenstein and Politics: How does the novel comment on the major political and literary events of the late 18C and early 19C? Why is Victor Frankenstein "the Modern Prometheus"? 

Reading: Frankenstein, Vol. I, ch. 5 thru Vol. 2, ch. 7 (pp. 41-95)

Week Four: Frankenstein and Gender: How does the novel represent gender relations, sexuality, and the roles of women?

Reading, Frankenstein, Vol. 2, ch. 8- Vol. 3, ch. 3 (pp. 96-125)

Week Five: Frankenstein and Philosophy: What philosophical, psychological and sociological positions does the novel finally embrace? Is the Creature innately good (as he says)? Or innately evil (as Victor says)? How does the novel define the relationship between man and nature (ontological reality)? Between perception and reality (epistemological truth)? What role do race and disability play in the novel?

Reading: Frankenstein , Vol. 3, ch. 4 - end (pp. 97-161)

Week Six: Frankenstein on the stage - how was the novel changed in these stage adaptations?

Reading: Richard Brinsley Peake, Presumption; or the Fate of Frankenstein (1823);online

 Nick Dear, Frankenstein (script for the National Theatre of London Production, 2011)

Week Seven: Frankenstein on the screen – the beginning: How did James Whale reshape the popular understanding of Shelley's story? 

View: Frankenstein, 1931, dir. James Whale (with Boris Karloff)

Optional: Bride of Frankenstein, 1935, dir. James Whale; 

Gods and Monsters, 1998, dir. Bill Condon (with Ian Mackellan) [this film is a bio-pic of James Whale]

Week Eight: Frankenstein on the screen – later versions: How have the numerous cinematic reinterpretations of Shelley's novel structured the modern versions of the story of Frankenstein? Why do these films range from Gothic horror to screwy comedy? 

View: Young Frankenstein, 1974, dir. Mel Brooks; 

Optional: Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein; Frankenweenie; 

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, 1994 (dir. Kenneth Branagh) 

Week Nine: Frankenstein and Artificial Intelligence / Robots - what roles should the technological development of silicone-based machines play in our future?

View : Ex Machina , 2014, dir. Alex Garland

Optional: Blade Runner, 1982, dir. Ridley Scott

Selections from Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and the Modern World, ed. Brad King

Week Ten: Frankenstein and Genetic Engineering / CRISPR-Cas9 and the advent of Designer Babies - what ethical issues are posed by this new technology in stem-cell engineering? 

Reading: Jennifer Doudna, A Crack in Creation, pp. 185-240

Optional: Bernard Rollin, The Frankenstein Syndrome – Ethical and Social Issues in the Genetic Engineering of Animals; 

Henry Greely, The End of Sex

Bibliography

Core Books: 

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (the 1818 edition), ed. Paul Hunter (Norton Critical Edition, second edition), 

SBN 978-0-393-92793-1

Nick Dear, Frankenstein - based on the novel by Mary Shelley (Faber and Faber, 2011) - this is the script for the National Theatre of  London production in 2011

Jennifer Doudna, A Crack in Creation

Additional Bibliography 

Anne K. Mellor, Mary Shelley: Her Life, Her Fiction, Her Monsters

Miranda Seymour, Mary Shelley

Emily Sunstein, Mary Shelley – Romance and Reality

The Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, ed. Betty T. Bennet

Mary Shelley (with Percy Shelley), The Original Frankenstein – Two New Versions:

Mary Shelley’s Earliest Draft with Percy Shelley’s Revised text, ed. Charles

Robinson (Vintage)

Gillen D'Arcy Wood, Tamboro

Steven Earl Forry, Hideous Progenies - Dramatizations of Frankenstein

David Skal, Horror Shows – A Cultural History of Horror Films

C. Miller and B. Van Riper, The Laughing Dead – the Horror-Comedy Film from the

Bride of Frankenstein to Zombieland

Bernard E. Rollin, The Frankenstein Syndrome – Ethical and Social Issues in the Genetic Engineering of Animals

Brad King, ed. Frankenstein’s Legacy – Four Conversations about Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and the Modern World

Henry Greely, The End of Sex

Leslie Klinger, The Annotated Frankenstein (Norton, 2018) plus numerous other published and online sources

The Immune System: Nature's Silent Army

Description

Note:  This is an updated SDG originally given in 2015 coordinated by Marilyn Slater and Bob Moore-Stewart. 

The immune system stands between us and a world of attackers who would otherwise kill us in short order.  What is it? – and how does it do its job?  All multicellular organisms such as sponges (Porifera) exhibit immune responses and mechanisms for discriminating self from non-self.  A long history of host-pathogen co-evolution (from sponges to humans) has brought about a variety of diseases and immune strategies. 

This SDG will focus on immunity in vertebrates with emphasis on mammals and the human immune response to disease. The selected core book by Lauren Sompayrac (5th edition, 2016) provides an excellent introduction for the non-scientist and non-professional healthcare professional PLATO member.

 How do immune cells distinguish between self and non-self?  Complexity and effectiveness are hallmarks of the immune system.  It is able to identify and dispatch most pathogens and yet spare our own tissues. It exhibits both innate and adaptive immunity, allowing immune cells to respond immediately to foreign invaders and then follow up the defense with fine-tuned warriors who search out specific pathogens in order to kill and devour them.  The fine-tuning is regulated by a complex series of chemical signals.  The detailed mechanisms of the immune response are only now becoming understood through state-of-the-art techniques in biochemistry and molecular biology. 

Diseases have many causes -- viruses, bacteria, parasites, fungi, mutations, allergens – to name some of the most common.  We will study the way in which the immune system provides surveillance and fights back in various diseases. Vaccines offer a way to train the immune system to fight disease more effectively.  In some cases, the immune system has harmful, even fatal, effects.  In autoimmune diseases, such as lupus and multiple sclerosis, immune cells attack the body that gave rise to them.  The greatest challenge to organ transplantation is attacks by the recipient’s immune system. We will explore emerging revelations about cancer immunotherapy, the human genome and microbiome, progress in AIDS therapy, and autoimmune treatments that impact millions of lives.

This SDG will enlighten and enable an enhanced understanding of the extraordinary immune system as "an elegant defense."

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Weekly Topics

1)         Overview and evolution of the immune system

2)         The innate Immune system – the first line of immunological defense

3)         Adaptive immunity -- B cells & antibody production

4)         The magic of antigen presentation and T cells

5)          Secondary lymphoid organs and lymphocyte trafficking

6)           Restraining the immune system

5)         Tolerance induction and MHC restriction– mechanisms of self vs. non-self recognition

7)         Immunological memory

8)         Vaccination – preventative and therapeutic; memory in immune cells

9)         Organ transplants – overcoming rejection by the immune system

10)         Inborn errors in the immune system, e.g. SCID (The Boy in a Bubble); Autoimmune disorders (lupus, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis                       

11)         Tumor immunology -- cancer and the immune system

12)      HIV and AIDS - - -example of immunodeficiency

13)      Allergies, hypersensitivity, anaphylactic shock

14)      Malaria, Ebola, Mycobacterial diseases (leprosy and tuberculosis) – challenges continue

Bibliography

Core Book

Sompayrac, Lauren.  How the Immune System Works,5th Ed.  John Wiley & Son, 2016.

Suggested Reading

Richtel, Matt. An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of The Immune System (A Tale in Four Lives), HarperCollins, 2019 

General Web Sites with Immunology Articles:

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/science/index.html  The New York Times science section

http://www.nih.niaid.gov National Institute for Allergy and Infectious diseases

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=books  Full text books online in medicine and biology

http://discovermagazine.com/  Discover magazine online – many full text articles

Immunology Articles & Web Sites

Casanova, Jean-Laurent; Abel, Laurent.  "Inborn errors of immunity to infection: the rule rather than the exception.   J. Exp Med 2005 Jul 18;202(2):197-201 http://jem.rupress.org/content/202/2/197.long

There are remarkably good websites on all aspects of immunology, from sponge to PLATO member, including excellent Ted Talks and lectures by leading immunologists.

Petroleum Palaces per Potomac Policies

Description

The premise of our title is that the present wealth of Arabia's rulers derives from the need to maintain the American national, political, commercial and strategic interests in the Middle East's extremely rich oil production.  You will find out how, in order to achieve and preserve this complex and dynamic relation, our government began with FDR's agreement to protect King Saud; provided great military help to defeat the Nazi invasion; supported the establishment of Israel;  organized clandestine searches for oil fields;  negotiated with Egyptian nationalist, Gamal Nasser;  interfered in the  frequent Middle East wars; forged numerous flexible Major Power alliances;  assisted or survived terrorist conspiracies; and much more geographical and historical knowledge. 

After the fall of the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, Great Britain sought to establish itself as the dominant imperial power in the Middle East.  Yet its regional empire did not endure the hard fought battles, over-expansion and vast expenses of the Second World War.  We usually assume that Arab Nationalism brought about the end of British designs in the Middle East. 

In this fascinating SDG, based on the recently published Lords of the Desert by British historian James Barr, we will learn a fresh story which arrives at vastly different conclusions. Drawing on our research and newly declassified archives we bring to life little-known episodes of secret diplomacy and daring spycraft which contend convincingly that the USA was the driving force behind the British exit.

Though the two nations were strong allies America was drawn to the region for reasons of commerce and ideology.  So it quickly found itself at odds with the British over many significant issues, from who should control Saudi Arabia's oil to who should supervise the Suez Canal.  Exploiting and encouraging widespread  opposition to the UK , the US intrigued it way to power.  Consequently, it very soon was forced to  face the same sort of determined local resistance and animosities, that had entangled and weakened its predecessor. 

Essentially, this absorbing and deeply researched history will lead us to understand the roots of America's current immersion and costly investment,  in the modern version of the age-old battle, for supremacy in this crucial part of the world. 

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Weekly Topics

Wk. 1.   Introduction, Beginning of the End, Old Imperialistic Order  [pp. 1 - 36]

Wk. 2.   Heading for Trouble, Sheep's Eyes  [37 - 63]

Wk. 3.   Pretty Tough Nut, The Jewish Problem   [64 - 94]

Wk. 4,   Fight for Palestine, Eggs in One Basket   [95 - 127]

Wk. 5.   Exploring Wilder Areas, Going Fifty-Fifty   [128 - 153]

Wk. 6.   An Unfortunate Turn, Second Fiddle   [154 - 182]

Wk. 7.   Plotting Mosaddeq's Downfall, Man in the Arena   [183 - 209]

Wk. 8    Gift of a Gun,  Baghdad Pact   [213 - 234]

Wk. 9.   Overreach,  Ditching Nasser   [235 - 262]

Wk. 10.  Sort of Jenkins' Ear,  Suez Miscalculation   [263 - 293]

Wk. 11.  Failed Coups,  Year of Revolutions   [294 - 318]

Wk. 12.  Rebels on the Jebel,  Iraq and Kuwait   [321 - 346]

Wk. 13.  Pandora's Box,  Secret War   [347 - 376]

Wk. 14.  Falling Out,  Epilogue, Acknowledgements   [377 - 400] 

Bibliography

a)  Core Book:   LORDS OF THE DESERT,  The Battle Between the United States and Great Britain for Supremacy in the Modern Middle East,  by JAMES BARR,  Copyright 2018, Basic/Hachette Books.

b)   Readily available articles and references on the Internet and Web-sites.

c)   Considered reliable publications on Wikipedia and local libraries. 

How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World

Description

Winchester, a New York Times best-selling author, describes the essential contribution of precision to the development of technology from the Industrial Age to the Digital Age.  It all began with the originators in nineteenth century England.  Their discoveries were exported to the fledgling United States by Thomas Jefferson, setting the nation on the path of industrialization.  

Precision tools and methods were essential to the development of many elements of modern life, such as guns, glass, mirrors, lenses, cameras, and ultimately to gene splicing, microchips and the Hadron Collider.

The fundamental questions posed are these:  Why is precision important?  What are the different tools we use to measure it?  Who has invented and perfected it?  Has the pursuit of the ultraprecise blinded us to other things of value, such as an appreciation of craftsmanship, art and high culture?  As we learn of the evolution of the technology, we will also consider these important questions facing our modern, technology-driven society.

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Weekly Topics

1.    Stars, Seconds, Cylinders & Steam - Early clocks used in ship navigation and railroad timetables.  James Watt's steam engine, made practical by application of the skills of John Wilkinson in boring cannon barrels.

2.    Extremely Flat & Incredibly Close - Development of the unpickable lock and the machine tools required to mass produce it.  Mass production of pulley blocks, desperately needed by the Royal Navy, and the resulting social cost in lost jobs.

3.    A Gun in Every House, A Clock in Every Cabin - Fraud perpetrated by Eli Whitney in his attempt to mass produce guns made of interchangeable parts.  Machine-made guns and clocks, less expensive and available to almost everyone.

4.    On the Verge of a More Perfect World - The Great Exhibition of 1851 in London to celebrate the achievements of the Industrial Revolution.

5.    The Invisible Lure of the Highway - Rolls Royce, founded to make the best cars -- by hand without regard to cost -- based on mechanical perfection to the most unforgiving tolerance (precision for the few).  Ford, founded to build the least costly cars for the many with all parts arriving precisely finished to exacting standards.

6.    Precision & Peril, Six Miles High - Precision required in development of a reliable aircraft jet engine.  Inauguration of the Jet Age.

7.    Through a Glass, Distinctly - Development of precision optics with application to telescopes, binoculars & microscopes, also cameras and bifocal lenses for spectacles.  Human error in development of the Hubble Space Telescope and its correction.

8.    Where Am I and What Is the Time? - Development of the GPS, as a clock-based system won over the Doppler-based system.

9.    Squeezing Beyond Boundaries - Exactitude of use only at the near-atomic level.  Swiss machines of 160 tons used to make electronic microprocessor chips.  Reaching the limits to Moore's Law?  LIGO observatories sensing the presence of gravitational waves, as predicted by Einstein.

10.    On the Necessity for Equipoise - Duality between the modern need for the perfect and a fondness for the imperfect by Japanese.  Mass production of the very accurate and inexpensive Seiko quartz watch.  Respect accorded to both precision and to its opposite; to machine and to craft.

11.   The Measure of All Things - Establishing internationally agreed standards of measurement.  Searching for inviolable standards.Seven foundational units of measurement, six of which are related to time, but what is time? 

Bibliography

Winchester, Simon; The Perfectionists; How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World; Harper Collins, 2018