TOPICS  OFFERED  FOR  SPRING  2009

 

 

Please note that the books listed for each course are only possible candidates. 
Do not buy any until the pre-meeting and a decision on the common reading is made
.

 

 

1.      ADM_Adams_Curse

         (ADM)   ADAM’S  CURSE:  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF  THE  Y  CHROMOSOMES’

                     FATAL  FLAW  

Male reproductive fragility has been the subject of much highly publicized recent research.  “Is it possible,” asked the New York Times, “that men face extinction?”  Bryan Sykes, one of the world’s leading geneticists, examines the validity of these shocking reports, focusing on the defining characteristic of men: the Y chromosome in their DNA.  Guiding his readers through chapters like "The Blood of Vikings" and "Ribbons of Life," Sykes masterfully blends natural history with scientific fact, elucidating the biology of sexual reproduction, modern genetics, and evolutionary biology.  He reveals that, while the Y chromosome makes man's existence possible, it also carries within it the seeds of his destruction.  Timely and fascinating, this major work covers a wealth of controversial topics, including whether there is a genetic cause for male greed, aggression, and promiscuity; the possible existence of a male homosexual gene; and what, if anything, can be done to save men from a slow, but certain, extinction.

Common Reading:     Adam’s Curse:  The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Destiny

                                     by Bryan Sykes  (W.W. Norton & Co., 2004)

2nd & 4th Tuesday, p.m. – Room 8

 


 

2.         AMS_American_Short_Stories

(AMS)  AMERICAN  SHORT  STORIES

Here’s a wonderful opportunity to read and discuss a compilation of superb American short stories.  The editor Joyce Carol Oates, has included fifty six stories with the authors who run the gamut from Washington Irving, Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain, William Faulkner, John Cheever, Hemmingway, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Bashevits Singer and Flannery O’Connor; there are also some great stories by Harlem Renaissance authors and by well-regarded modern authors such as Amy Tan, Alice Leavitt, Louise Ehrlich, Tim O’Brien and Sandra Cisneros.  You will find that one reason that short story S/DGs are so popular is the fascinating differences in interpretation by your presenters and classmates

Common Reading:     The Oxford Book of American Short Stories

                                    edited by Joyce Carol Oates (paperback, 1994)

2nd & 4th Tuesday, p.m. - Room 7

 

 

 

 

3.     DVY_Death_Valley

(DVY) DEATH VALLEY

We have one of the most unusual and fascinating places on the planet in our back yard.  From moving rocks to volcanoes, sand dunes to unique flora and fauna, to colorful characters, wild stories and myths, hare-brained speculation, tragedy, 300 million years of geology – it’s got something for everyone.  Possibility of a 2-3 day trip.

Common Reading:     Death Valley and the Amargosa: A Land of Illusion, by Richard E. Lingenfelter (paperback 1988, new & used available on Amazon)

1st & 3rd Tuesday, p.m. - Room 7

 

 


 

4.     ECN_Money_Markets_Mayhem

        (ECN)    MONEY,  MARKETS,  MAYHEM:  THE  STORY  OF  ECONOMIC

                        DISCOVERY

Economics makes the world go round.  Recession, depression, inflation, stagflation make us ask if it is the economy, stupid?  Eric Beinhocker in his book, The Origin of Wealth, states that the economy is an evolutionary system which he calls "complexity economics" that has taken us from the Stone Age to the over $36 trillion global economy of today.  How goods are bought and sold, how war and peace come to be, and the influence of these intrinsic costs to all aspects of our lives, are issues to be discussed in this S/DG.

We review the theories of Kuznets, Modigliani, Frish, and Stigler, and other Nobel economists whose names and theories are not as well known as Friedman and Samuelson and Hayek, but who were their acolytes, both from the Chicago school and elsewhere, some monetarists, some Keynesians. They focus on voting patterns, how nations and individuals save money, how we feed ourselves and the world, the environment, markets and growth, and how and why we make war.  Their economic theories will be analyzed.

Common Reading:     Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations: A Story of Economic Discovery, by David Warsh (2007, discount books available at Amazon.com)

1st & 3rd Tuesday, p.m. - Room 8

 

 

5.     GDR_Great_Dramatists–Part_2  

(GDR)    GREAT  DRAMATISTS – Part 2

Yes, there is life after Shakespeare!  Explore the creations of other dramatists of western civilization.  There will be no designated text.  Instead, each participant will choose a playwright for presentation and assign (ahead of time, of course), an easily accessible play of the dramatist to be read by the group.  Presentations will include information on the playwright's life and how he reflects the time period in which he wrote as well as a summary/analysis of his total body of work.  A discussion of the assigned play, led by the presenter, is also an important part of each session.  Participants in the first offerings of this group enthusiastically requested another session; so many playwrights, so little time!!! (Check out the GDR folder on the website to read what went on in the summer session.)  This one has a blank slate, with the rich possibilities - from the Greeks to the Absurdists.  What do the world's great playwrights have to say about humanity?

(Please note: this session is not performance-oriented; it is more a study of drama as literature/art).  Attendance at the first class is not a prerequisite for this class.

No Common Reading:  Readings to be selected by participants

2nd & 4th Thursday, p.m. - Room 7

 

 


 

6.     GEN_Genius_As_Villain    

(GEN)  GENIUS  AS  VILLAIN

This S/DG will require very active and interactive participation.  Each participant will select a person they believe is a genius in his/her work (music, visual art, plastic art, performance art, science, finance, etc) but is villainous or uncaring in his/her behavior towards others.  The presentations and discussions will explore each participant's selection, how great they were at their work but how terrible they were in their life.  This will be a very open SDG with no core text.  Every presentation is likely be subject to great scrutiny.

There's no shortage of candidates: Caravaggio (painting), Bernini (sculpture and architecture), Wagner (music), Jacques Louis David (painting), Michael Milken (finance), Alan Greenspan (economics), Martha Stewart (entrepreneur, performance artist), etc.  The list of potential candidates is probably very long.  Each participant picks his or her favorite genius as villain, explains it and defends it.

No Common Reading.

1st & 3rd Thursday, a.m. - Room 7

 

 

7.     HIS_Histories–By_Herodotus_Part_2 

(HIS)   THE HISTORIES – BY HERODOTUS, PART II

Herodotus was a Greek historian living in Ionia during the 5th century BCE.  He traveled extensively through the lands of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, collected stories, and then recounted his experiences with the varied people and cultures he encountered.  Cicero called him “the father of history,” and his only work, The Histories, is considered the first true piece of historical writing in Western literature.  With lucid prose that harkens back to the time of oral tradition, Herodotus set a standard for narrative nonfiction that continues to this day.  He chronicles the rise of the Persian Empire and its dramatic war with the Greek city-states; within that story he includes rich veins of anthropology, ethnography, geology, and geography, pioneering these fields of study.  He explores such universal themes as the nature of freedom, the role of religion, the human costs of war, and the dangers of absolute power.

In Part I we left Herodotus’ tale in Libya.  In Part II we continue with Darius in Thrace, eventually coming to Xerxes’ invasion.  Attendance at the first class is not a prerequisite for this class.

Common Reading:     The Landmark Herodotus: ‘The Histories’ by Herodotus, edited by Robert B. Strassler, translated by Rosalind Thomas, introduction by Andrea L. Purvis (Amazon: $29.70)

2nd & 4th Friday, a.m. - Room 7

 


 

 

8.     JAZ_Jazz_For_Classical_Music_Lover 

(JAZ)   JAZZ FOR THE CLASSICAL MUSIC LOVER

Jazz has been called “America’s Classical Music”; the only art form created totally by Americans; America’s contribution to the arts.  Nonetheless, jazz has not always been given the acceptance and respectability that have been accorded European classical music.  This paradox has existed despite the fact that jazz counts among its fans many who love classical music, as well.

This core curriculum offering will explore the history of jazz music, with special emphasis on the interface between jazz and classical music.  Members will be asked to study and discuss the various periods in the development of jazz, the artists who contributed to that development, and the styles of jazz that resulted (e.g., from New Orleans, through the Swing and Big Band Eras, to the advent of modern jazz).  The particular focus will be the interchange between jazz and classical music, although participants will have wide discretion with regard to topics they may wish to present. 

Each student will do a presentation, with an emphasis on jazz history, critical writing, listening, comparing/contrasting, and discussing musical styles.

Suggestions for presentations include:

>        Jazz interpretations of the classics (e.g., by Duke Ellington and Dave Brubeck); there are nearly three hundred recorded jazz interpretations of the music of J. S. Bach alone, to which participants will have access;

>        Music in the jazz idiom composed by classical composers (e.g., Gershwin, Ravel, Leonard Bernstein, Shostakovich and Stravinsky);

>        Music by classical artists as they explore the jazz idiom (e.g., Yo Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman);

>        Music by jazz artists as they explore the classical idiom (e.g., Stan Kenton and Wynton Marsalis);

>        Jazz music played on typically classical instruments (such as the string quartet, oboe, bassoon, and French horn).

>        Other jazz-related topics; prior participants have presented on various topics such as Musical Innovation (Jazz vs. Classical); Ragtime and Jazz; Jazz Funerals; Klezmer Music and Jazz; the Monterey Jazz Festival; Wynton Marsalis; Leonard Bernstein; Humor in Music, and other subjects.

Common Reading:     The History of Jazz, by Ted Gioia (Oxford University Press, New York, 1997), available in paperback.

2nd & 4th Wednesday, p.m. – Room 7

 

 


 

9.      JUS_Justice

(JUS)   JUSTICE:   A  JOURNEY  IN  MORAL  REASONING

This study group will discuss ethical dilemmas of contemporary issues — including affirmative action, conscription, income distribution, and gay rights — morally, legally, and politically, as well as core concerns of political philosophy: individual rights, equality and inequality, morality and law, property rights, markets, and morals. The book we will use is Justice: A Reader (Oxford University Press paperback, 2007) edited by Michael J. Sandel, which brings together in one volume major thinkers from Aristotle to John Stuart Mill to Milton Friedman. Sandel is a professor of government at Harvard University and his course, Justice — A Journey in Moral Reasoning, has been rated at the top of the popularity list by the student body.

Common Reading:     Justice:  A Reader, edited by Michael J. Sandel, (9/2007, prbk; 432 pp)

1st & 3rd Monday, p.m. – Room 7

 

 

 

10.    MOV_Behind_The_Scenes

(MOV)   BEHIND  THE  SCENES  OF  THE  GREAT  ROMANTIC  COMEDIES

From the early days of Hollywood, romantic comedies have brought us uproarious images of true love that have grown to become part of our cultural understanding of romance.  Daniel M. Kimmel helps us understand the genius factor in the creative teams – film producers, writers, directors, actors who bring romantic comedy to the silver screen year after year and keep this popular film genre front and center in our collective experience of favorite movies.  Listed in his book are movies such as: Trouble in Paradise, My Man Godfrey, Some Like It Hot, Annie Hall, Pretty Woman, When Harry Met Sally… just to mention a few.  In this class we’ll be able to answer the question of whether what we’re watching is true romance or whether love is really a “battlefield.”

Common Reading:     I’ll Have What She’s Having: Behind the Scenes of the Great Romantic Comedies, by Daniel M. Kimmel

                                                (Ivan R. Dee, publisher, Chicago  2008)

2nd & 4th Wednesday, p.m. - Room 8

 

 


 

11.    MYS_50_Yrs_OF_Crime_&_Suspense

(MYS)  FIFTY  YEARS  OF  CRIME  AND  SUSPENSE:  SHORT  STORIES

For the Fiftieth anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, publishers celebrated with this anthology of 33 stories, representing many famous authors such as; Donald Westlake, Bill Pronzini, J. Parker, Ed McBain, J Rozan, Jan Burke, Lawrence Block...to name a few. The stories represent a sampling of the best engaging, well crafted, entertaining, intriguing mysteries, with a twist of irony, of the past 5 decades. It's a sampling of the evolution of the popular short story and with themes guaranteed to linger long after you have read them.

        Common Reading.       Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine Presents : 50 Years of Crime and Suspense, Edited by Linda Landrigan (2006)

MY1:  2nd & 4th Friday, a.m. - Room 8

MY2:  1st & 3rd Wednesday, p.m. - Room 8

 

 


 

12.    OMD_Omnivores_Dilemma 

         (OMD)   THE  OMNIVORE'S  DILEMMA:  A  NATURAL  HISTORY  OF  FOUR

                        MEALS

Most of us already realize that our food bears little resemblance to its natural substance. Hamburger never mooed; spaghetti grows on the pasta tree; baby carrots come from a pink and blue nursery.  Unlike youngsters we surely know by now that milk doesn’t really originate at our local 7-11. Still, we worry about our meals -- from calories to carbs, from heart-healthy to brain food. And we prefer our food to be "natural," as long as natural doesn't involve real.

Michael Pollan writes about how our food is grown -- what it is, in fact, that we are eating.  The book is really three in one:  The first section discusses industrial farming; the second, organic food, both as big business and on a relatively small farm; and the third, what it is like to hunt and gather food for oneself.  And each section culminates in a meal -- a cheeseburger and fries from McDonald's; roast chicken, vegetables and a salad from Whole Foods; and grilled chicken, corn and a chocolate soufflé (made with fresh eggs) from a sustainable farm; and, yes finally, mushrooms and pork, foraged from the wild.  Guided by our common reading we will research and share our findings on why we can’t metabolize many of our science fiction foods and what this means to our health.  Research and presentations will supplement the reading with related topics such as food politics, fast food, slow food, alternative food sources, nutrients and the food pyramid, the Mediterranean diet. If you believe that “you are what you eat”…this study discussion group may interest you.

Common Reading:     The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

                                    by Michael Pollan (Amazon $9.60; 464 pp)

2nd & 4th Thursday, p.m. - Room 8

 

 


 

13.    PTP_Petro_Politics   

(PTP)   PETRO  POLITICS:  UNTANGLING  THE  ROOTS  OF  DISCONTENT

Oil is a commodity without which no industrialized society can now survive and, according to one military expert, nothing is more likely to provoke conflict between states in the 21st century than oil.  This study/discussion group (S/DG) will examine how this global addiction came about and why oil is so crucial to our societies, specifically the U.S.  We will take up the historic, economic, political and social effects of Middle Eastern oil and the role of the U.S. and other world powers.  We will explore the formation and policies of OPEC, with special focus on Saudi Arabia and Iran, and the relationship between oil and Islamism.  We can explore the role of Central Asia and the Caspian states as an emerging New Middle East, and of Canada, Mexico and Venezuela as a Hemispheric Solution.  And, most importantly, we will examine potential "treatments" for our addiction and the potential consequences of success or failure.

Common Reading:  TBD

1st & 3rd Thursday, p.m. - Room 7

 

 


 

14.    SHK_Shakespeare

(SHK) SHAKESPEARE:   ALL  THE  WORLD’S  A STAGE …

But in our brave new world, that stage is at the Franklin Center.  Again this winter we will form a repertory troupe of Omnilorean New Globe Players to read, study, and discuss some of the Bard’s great plays.  With players standing and with a few props, we propose to do reading walk-throughs of 3 or 4 plays:  Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Coriolanus, and Henry VIII, with Henry VI (Part 1) and The Merry Wives of Windsor also under consideration — subject to confirmation by pre-meeting attendees “at one fell swoop” (Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3).

Class members can either serve as part of one team’s Board of Directors, or give a presentation, or both.  The Board of Directors of each play is responsible for researching sources and themes of the play, casting roles for the repertory, and leading discussions on the research, symbols, images, motifs, and all manner of rhyme and reason.  ‘Tis fair play to enhance classes with videos, music and costumes, and to bring your own questions and even beyond-the-plays topics from the Shakespearean era for discussion.  Check out http://www.omnilore.org/members/Curriculum/SDGs/SHK-SHAKESPEARE to view the Fall trimester’s Shakespeare-class website of links of internet references relevant to our plays and downloadable organizing artifacts.  Directors & players provide materials for this ever-evolving website.

There are no prerequisites, theatrical or otherwise.  You will find that the bard of Stratford-on-Avon will teach us, just as he’s taught others for four hundred years.  With plenty for the novice as well as the veteran, it is a foregone conclusion members will leave this class with a fuller understanding of the masterful story construction, realistic characters with depth and humanity, and the rich, evocative language which have earned Shakespeare the title of greatest writer in the English language.  .  He may have penned “It was Greek to me” (Julius Caesar, Act 1), but for you this notion will vanish into thin air and you will see why his language and stories are too much of a good thing.

Common Reading:   Selected Plays

1st & 3rd Wednesday, p.m. - Room 7

 


 

15.    SYM_Modern_Symphonies–Part_2            

(SYM) MODERN  SYMPHONIES – Part 2

As the growing distance from the last century has begun to clear our view, we have started to realize that, despite frequent critical abuse, the music of the twentieth century had its share of enduring masterpieces.  This course offers a guided tour of selected symphonic compositions by composers such as Debussy, Ravel, R. Strauss, Sibelius, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, and Bartok; we will discover what their works have brought to the concert repertory that has earned them a secure place in the canon of Western music.

 The first eight chapters of the text were covered in the fall trimester.  The last eight chapters will be covered in this class.  Attendance at the first class is not a prerequisite for this class.

Common Reading:     The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century, by Alex Ross

                                    (hardcover – October 16, 2007)

2nd & 4th Thursday, a.m. - Room 8

 

 

 


 

16.    TCH_Technology_&_Culture 

(TCH)   TECHNOLOGY  AND  CULTURE

To most people, technology has been reduced to computers, consumer goods, and military weapons; we speak of "technological progress" in terms of RAM and CD-ROMs and the flatness of our television screens.  However, technology is more than just gadgetry; rather, throughout history, it has enhanced society and culture and might be considered the embodiment of human values.

In our common reading, Human-Built World:  How to Think About Technology and Culture, Thomas P. Hughes gives technology the conceptual richness and depth it deserves by chronicling the ideas about technology expressed by influential Western thinkers who not only understood its multifaceted character but who also explored its creative potential. Hughes draws on an enormous range of literature, art, and architecture to explore what technology has brought to society and culture, and to explain how we might begin to develop an "ecotechnology" that works with, not against, ecological systems. From the "Creator" model of development of the sixteenth century to the "big science" of the 1940s and 1950s to the architecture of Frank Gehry, Hughes nimbly charts the myriad ways that technology has been woven into the social and cultural fabric of different eras and the promises and problems it has offered. Thomas Jefferson, for instance, optimistically hoped that technology could be combined with nature to create an Edenic environment; Lewis Mumford, two centuries later, warned of the increasing mechanization of American life.

Presentations will describe the technological innovations of the presenter’s choice.

Common Reading:     Human-Built World:  How to Think About Technology and Culture, by Thomas P. Hughes (2005 paperback; 240 pages)

2nd & 4th Monday, a.m. - Room 7

 

 


 

17.    TRN_American_Transcendentalists

(TRN)  AMERICAN  TRANSCENDENTALISTS

Some 50 years after the American Revolution, a movement began among a group of writers and thinkers in Massachusetts that would influence thoughts on teaching, religion, civil rights, and nature. These Transcendentalists, as they called themselves, changed the way people viewed themselves and their place in the world. Some of their ideas were disastrous failures; other ideas have influenced our thinking to the present day.

The Transcendentalists have been called America’s first intellectuals. In this Study/Discussion Group members will study the lives and writings of several prominent members of the group such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and their fellow visionaries.  Using an anthology containing essential writings of this group of writers/thinkers as a springboard, they will research and present on the lives and impact of their chosen subject as well as other writers who were influenced by the original group of Transcendentalists and consider whether their writings continue to have relevance today. This course is an opportunity to examine the radical innovations of a brilliant group of thinkers whose impact on religious thought, social reform, philosophy, and literature continues to reverberate in the twenty-first century.

Common Reading:     The American Transcendentalists: Essential Writings, edited by Lawrence Buell  (Modern Library paperback, 2006; available at Amazon.com $12.89)

1st & 3rd Thursday, p.m. - Room 8

 

 


 

18.    TWN_Roaring_Twenties

         (TWN)  THE  ROARING  TWENTIES  AND  THE  GREAT DEPRESSION

         The 1920s and 1930s witnessed dramatic changes in American life:  growing urbanization, technological innovation, cultural upheaval and economic disaster.  Those who lived through the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression forever changed their outlook on life.  The actions taken to address those changes impact our lives today whether you are drawing social security checks, investing in the stock market, or just buying food at the market.  Roaring Twenties is a phrase used to describe the 1920s that emphasizes the period’s social, artistic, and cultural dynamism.  The American dream is one in which the people of America can have an easy life, one filled with conveniences, money to spend, and not a great deal of work.  The 1920's were a decade that personified these ideals.  

For a season, prosperity seemed permanent, but the illusion came to an end when Wall Street crashed in October 1929.  Public trust in the wisdom of business leadership crashed too.  The Great Depression was a dramatic, worldwide economic downturn.

Possible topics:  setting the 1920 stage; philosophy of American business; labor and workers; the shifts:  feminism; black migration; foreign immigration and changes in agriculture; prohibition and other entertainment; Post Black Tuesday to the election of 1932; The New Deal; Politics of Depression.

Common Reading:     Daily Life in the United States, 1920 – 1940 How Americans Lived Through the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression, by David E. Kyvig  (2004)

2nd & 4th Friday, p.m. - Room 7

 

 

19.    VAL_Question_Of_Values   

(VAL)    A  QUESTION  OF  VALUES

Learn how to understand the basis of your own beliefs, and in so doing acquire a better understanding of people who have conflicting beliefs.  We shall study in detail six different American value systems - based on authority, logic, experience, emotion, intuition and science.  This study is intended to shed new light on how we come to believe what we believe.  The common reading provides seventy-one case studies of value systems - Protestant fundamentalism, the Judaism of Golda Meir, the "detached action" of Mohandas Gandhi, Mikhail Gorbachov etc.  Members will research value systems and other topics, such as how value systems should be taught in schools, and the many value systems discussed in the book.

Common Reading:     A Question of Values - Six Ways We Make the Personal Choices which Shape Our Lives, by Hunter Lewis. (May 2000, $12.00)

2nd & 4th Monday, p.m. – Room 7

 


 

20.        WRI_Writing­_Mind

(WRI) THE  WRITING  MIND

This S/DG concentrates on fostering creativity and improving techniques of the writer through the production of original pieces of writing, literary critique and presentations by each group member.  Presentations are on literary topics or on the philosophy, subtleties or techniques of writing.  Each member will be responsible for; a presentation, at least two submissions of original fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or other form of writing, and for reading and critiquing submissions from other group members.

Common Reading:  None Suggested

WR1:  2nd & 4th Thursday, a.m. - Room 7

WR2:  2nd & 4th Monday, p.m. - Room 8

 

 


 

21.   WWI_World_War_I

        (WWI)     WORLD  WAR  I:  THE  REST  OF  THE STORY  AND  HOW  IT

                                    AFFECTS  YOU  TODAY,  1870 -1935

This is the second of three books in which Richard Maybury connects the many events of war and history to introduce his argument for adopting a more non-interventionist foreign policy.  He discusses ten deadly ideas that lead us to war and applies two common law principles:  Do all you have agreed to do; and, do not encroach on other persons or their property. Previously, we studied the author’s first book The Thousand Year War in the Mideast to reach a more informed opinion regarding U.S. involvement in Mideast affairs.  The explosion of the battleship Maine in Havana Harbor in 1898 led to a chain reaction from the Spanish American War, to World War I, then World War II and to all of America’s subsequent wars.  We will learn key little-known facts and how to connect them to all the others.  Armed with these insights we will look to better understand our current opponents’ point of view, diligently seek hard evidence for our conclusions and only then resolutely march off to war for the best of reasons. 

Our author believes in two higher laws above that of any government's, and, that by observing them we will regain personal liberty, free market abundance and a more secure homeland.  The economic, legal and political models he uses are consistent with those of our Founding Fathers.  His argument for a less interventionist foreign policy is in line with the advice of George Washington in his Farewell Address. Although all of Maybury’s books are short and easy to read there will be many topics for spirited discussion and personal research.  The author's perspective in differentiating between a people and the actions of their government might be controversial to some and refreshing to others. We will discuss many lessons that might be learned from adopting this view of history.

A more detailed look at this war is provided by an optional supplementary text. Professor Robbins approaches this war from two angles: he analyses the complex political and diplomatic background to the alliances between the Great Powers; he also explores the mood of Europe between 1914 and 1918 by examining the experience of war from the different standpoints of the nations and individuals caught up in it.

 

Common Reading:     World War I: The Rest of the Story and How it Affects You Today, 1870-1935, by Richard Maybury *2003, Blue Stocking Press; paperback $17.95)

A supplementary text will be The First World War, by Keith Robbins [Oxford University Press (paper), 2002]

1st & 3rd Monday, a.m. - Room 7

 


 

 

 

The following course is the CSUDH lecture series and will be given at the CSUDH campus on the first and third Wednesdays from 11a.m. to 1 p.m.

It will probably start the first week of February (February 4th) when the CSUDH staff comes back for start of the new semester, and end the third or fourth week of April (April 15th or 29th), making a total of six or seven lectures.

 

22.     CSU_Contemporary_Scientific_Issues

(CSU)   CONTEMPORARY  SCIENTIFIC  ISSUES

This proposed series would be science based with each lecture looking at something merging in that specific science field.  As speakers are arranged for and the curriculum finalized, or should another subject be chosen, more detailed information will be sent those interested.

 

If you are interested in the CSUDH lecture series, do vote for it with your other topics.  This will give us a list of those to inform when more details become available.

 
Please call Johan Smith, if you plan to attend.

 

*