Brown Brothers Harriman. Never heard of it? In the firm's first hundred years, it helped to make paper currency standard in the US, underwrote the easiest railroad and trans-Atlantic steamship companies and created the first foreign exchange system between the US dollar and British pound. It went on in the 20th century to shape the global economic and security systems that remain the world's institutional architecture. As the US faces the challenge of reinventing itself in the post-pandemic future, the story of Brown Brothers Harriman offers crucial lessons. In this SDG we will explore how to take the power of money so that it builds up rather than tears down; how to ensure that those who have benefited greatly from American capitalism serve and contribute in return; and how the US might once again play a global role to increase the prosperity and security for all. Brown Brothers Harriman grappled with those questions for more than 200 years. Now we all have to do the same.
Great Debates
Beginning with Satan’s dialogue with Jesus, sharply contrasting ideas have permeated human history. Though only a few are actual head-to-head debates, all such clashes provide much food for thought about perennial conceptual differences. In this s/dg we will read or view seven of these “debates” (three, Lincoln/Douglas, Kennedy/Nixon, and Baldwin/Buckley are head-to-head). They cover free will, human nature, miracles, slavery, the role of African Americans in the United States, the 1960 presidential election, and civil disobedience. They involve some of the greatest minds of Western Civilization: St. Augustine, David Hume, Thomas Hobbes, and C. S. Lewis, inter alia.
Surprises! Films with the Greatest Plot Twists
Attention, movie fans!
What better way to maximize your PLATO experience than to join us for 14 weeks, discussing the most memorable movies of all time, involving the most surprising plot twists?
We scoured the lists to come up with an assorted array of the most acclaimed films of various genres - all easily available on major streaming networks. Watch them first at home, come to class, learn why these films have so captured our collective imagination. The best writers, directors, actors, cinematographers have collaborated to produce works of lasting impact.
Surprise us and join the fun!
Science and Technology in World History
The bestselling core book traces the relationship between science and technology from the dawn of civilization to the early twenty-first century. The authors argue that technology as "applied science" emerged relatively recently, as industry and governments began funding scientific research that would lead directly to new or improved technologies.
McClellan and Dorn identify two great scientific traditions: the useful sciences, which societies patronized from time immemorial, and the exploration of questions about nature itself, which the ancient Greeks originated. They examine scientific traditions that took root in China, India, and Central & South America, as well as in a series of Near Eastern empires in late antiquity and the Middle Ages. From this comparative perspective, the authors survey the rise of the West, the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century, the Industrial Revolution, and the modern marriage of science and technology. In the process they raise provocative questions about the sustainability of industrial civilization.
The core book was written as an introduction for general readers and students to provide the "big picture" that an educated person might wish to have of the history of science and technology. A bit of math and astronomy might be helpful in a few places, but the SDG requires no technical background as a prerequisite.
Global Trends Shaping Humankind
This SDG is motivated by a 90-minute video interview of Daniel Kahneman and Yuval Harari entitled “Global Trends Shaping Humankind.” It will be supplemented by a recent article Harari wrote on the Ukraine invasion and a global trend it challenges. Kahneman is a psychologist and economist notable for his work on the psychology of judgment, decision-making, and behavioral economics, for which he was awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. He is a best-selling author of books such as Thinking, Fast and Slow. Harari is a professor with several best-selling books such as Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow.
The key trends they discuss are issues such as computers increasingly making judgments that affect humans and whether humans will be able to control such powerful challenges.
The video will launch the SDG, with most sessions based on Kahneman’s latest book Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment. The last few sessions will draw on other sources for alternative opinions on humankind’s future and how we can shape it.
The Teacher in Cinema
We examine the relationship between students ant their teachers in fourteen seminal films. Students lean, rebel, are inspired, reject, and mature. Teachers and professors try to promote education using various methods with varied success and failures meanwhile trying to achieve something in their personal and professional lives. These are strong representations of education over a 75 year period of movie making. With each film we will discuss how the profession and art of teaching have changed, both in representation and in perception, as well as the merits and success of each film
Gardens - History, Aesthetics, Value
“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” Marcus Tullius Cicero
This SDG is more art and anthropology than botany. Ranging across historical periods and styles, we will learn about the key ingredients of world famous (and lesser known but inspiring) landscapes to reveal, in broad terms, the evolution of garden design over time. Beginning with the classics, we will look at Italian Renaissance and French royal gardens. Moving from traditional and formal, we will explore Cottage, Mediterranean, Modernist, and cutting-edge gardens. In addition to French Formal and English Cottage gardens, we will investigate a a diverse variety of cultural styles: Japanese Zen, Persian, and Dutch gardens. What would be the world of landscape without learning about some of the masterminds behind these amazing creations? We will visit the contributions of select designers such as Frederick Law Olmsted, Gertrude Jekyll, Piet Oudolf, and Los Angeles landscapers Terremoto and Judy Kaemon of Elysian Landscapes. Finally, we will examine some contemporary issues as they relate to gardens -xeriscaping /Water and genetic engineering.
“The lesson I have thoroughly learnt, and wish to pass on to others, is to know the enduring happiness that the love of a garden gives. ”Gertrude Jekyll
Saints and Sinners - A History of the Popes
The papacy is the oldest continuing organization in the world. It survived the Goths, the Byzantines, the Protestants, two world wars and many challenges from within. The popes themselves sometimes have been saintly, but frequently corrupt and immoral. They have been elected to the papacy, purchased the papacy, and been prisoners and victims of the papacy.
This S/DG will examine 2000 years of Western Civilizations through the lens of the most significant popes who led Catholicism. We will discuss the eras, and popes from Peter and Paul to Francis, who, like his predecessors, commands world attention and has the ability to rewrite the dictates of the Church. Although this is a religious subject, the focus will be secular and historical. There are two core books, with selected readings from each. Both books have a 4.5 rating on Amazon.
Additionally, we will discuss current religious issues as a warm-up to our topic each week.
John Marshall Harlan, The Great Dissenter
Those who know Harlan only because of his most famous Plessy v Ferguson dissent will be surprised by the debate surrounding the justice’s evolving and complicated legacy. During his lifetime, liberals praised Harlan’s views on economic regulation, and African Americans revered his support of civil rights. These encomiums stood in stark contrast to Harlan’s reputation among many of his contemporaries and later generations of legal chroniclers. Unable to appreciate his prophetic rulings, they dismissed him as an eccentric. His stature rose only after Thurgood Marshall christened his dissent in Plessy as the “bible” of the NAACP’s legal crusade combating segregation. Still predominant, this viewpoint, has been clouded by an unsettling question in recent years: Did Harlan, a champion of African American equality, condone discrimination targeting other minorities? Would he have endorsed affirmative action, as liberals claim? Or would he have opposed such efforts because they treat racial groups differently, as conservatives, including Justice Clarence Thomas, now assert? If you join this SDG, think about ongoing debates and insights into the principles shaping the justice’s thinking, comprehend his unsettled legacy and cast a light on why it has morphed over time.
