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Have you ever wondered what it is really like to wear a corset? Perhaps you have watched a movie in the past and thought, "Did they really wear that?" Historically, corsets and codpieces tell us about gender roles in particular time periods and places. Just as today’s suit and tie carry a different message for us than jeans and a t-shirt, historic fashions which may look silly to us now, once conveyed detailed information for those who observed them in their original context. In this class our presenter Melanie Schuessler Bond will cover several topics in costume history that tend to mystify modern people. She will give special emphasis to the way clothing is represented (and mis-represented) in the movies. 
Melanie Schuessler Bond is Professor of Costume Design and faculty Costume Designer at Eastern Michigan University. In addition to numerous university theater designs, her professional costume design credits include productions at the Michigan Shakespeare Festival, the Williamston Theater in Williamston, Michigan, and Tipping Point Theatre in Northville.
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For online courses, a Zoom link will be sent to each registrant 24-48 hours in advance of the class.
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Fee: $15.00
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Instructor(s): Melanie Schuessler Bond
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Dates: 5/26/2022 - 5/26/2022
Times: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
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Sessions: 1
Days: Th
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Building: Online Course
Room: Online Classroom via Zoom
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Address: Online Ann Arbor, MI 48108
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Charles Kawbawgam (1799-1902), “The Last Chief of the Chippewa,” is now a legend in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Growing up at Sault Sainte Marie when the area was still claimed by Great Britain, his first memory was of armed Americans coercing the Ojibwa into ceding their lands to the United States government. He learned early on to walk the fine line that would ensure the white community’s survival and peace for his own people. As an Ojibwa chief, he was recruited to help found the town of Marquette. Over the course of his long life, he witnessed intense industrial growth and development, dramatic social and economic change, and the marginalization of Native American people in northern Michigan. In this class, Tyler Tichelaar narrates Chief Kawbawgam’s story of cross-cultural relationships, survival amidst upheaval, and the importance of community and heritage. 
Tyler Tichelaar is a seventh-generation resident of Marquette, Michigan. He is the award-winning author of 21 fiction and nonfiction books, many of which are Marquette-based. His most recent work is the full-length biography Kawbawgam: The Chief, The Legend, The Man (Marquette Fiction, 2020). Tyler holds a Ph.D. in literature from Western Michigan University and bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Northern Michigan University. He is the former President of the Upper Peninsula Publishers and Authors Association.
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For online courses, a Zoom link will be sent to each registrant 24-48 hours in advance of the class.
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Fee: $15.00
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Instructor(s): Tyler Tichelaar
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Dates: 6/3/2022 - 6/3/2022
Times: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
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Sessions: 1
Days: F
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Building: Online Course
Room: Online Classroom via Zoom
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Address: Online Ann Arbor, MI 48108
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The Industrial Revolution was pivotal in creating mass overcrowding, poverty, and misery in the expanding cities of Victorian Britain. This was no more so than in Birmingham, the city known to most Brits as Brum. Out of this wretched environment emerged an underworld of thugs and thieves who prowled Birmingham’s alleyways and streets, terrorizing anyone who got in their way. Join Pat Butler for a glimpse into the gritty world of the Brummie gangs and their leaders, who gave Birmingham its notoriety for being one of the most damned and violent places in Britain. 
Pat Butler was the Elderwise Administrator until retiring to Warwick, England, in 2017. She has since qualified as a Tour Guide for the National Trust’s Living Back-to-Back History Museum in Birmingham, U.K., and enjoys taking groups of visitors around this popular venue. Pat also presents classes on social history to the U.K.’s University of the Third Age.
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For online courses, a Zoom link will be sent to each registrant 24-48 hours in advance of the class.
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Fee: $15.00
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Instructor(s): Pat Butler
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Dates: 6/16/2022 - 6/16/2022
Times: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
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Sessions: 1
Days: Th
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Building: Online Course
Room: Online Classroom via Zoom
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Address: Online Ann Arbor, MI 48108
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Many people are concerned that railroads are not what they once were, and hope they will “come back,” or be more like railroads in Europe. As followers of business news and railroad company stockholders know, North American railroads today are strongly profitable haulers of large quantities of long-distance freight. Unquestionably, they are not what they once were, when they served almost every town across the country, carried express packages, and operated a network of passenger trains. Current railroad financial success stems in part from shedding many of those old local services, combined with an almost complete absence of government price regulation, and changes in how freight moves. Presenter Bill McKnight will set the stage by briefly exploring the history of railroads, but most of his presentation will describe what the railroads of today do, how they do it, and what role they play in our economy. This presentation will also touch on Amtrak, VIA Rail Canada, and metropolitan commuter authorities. 
William McKnight worked on both the shipping side of freight movement while at Ford Motor Co., and on the carrier side of the business at Grand Trunk Western Railroad. He belongs to state and national history groups and has presented classes on various railroad history subjects at their meetings, as well as at Elderwise.
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For online courses, a Zoom link will be sent to each registrant 24-48 hours in advance of the class.
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Fee: $15.00
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Instructor(s): William McKnight
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Dates: 6/20/2022 - 6/20/2022
Times: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
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Sessions: 1
Days: M
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Building: Online Course
Room: Online Classroom via Zoom
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Address: Online Ann Arbor, MI 48108
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At age 15, this son of impoverished sharecroppers was hiding from police in the mountains of northern Mexico and living in fear of bandits who roamed the region. Within a few years, he had become a storied bandit himself, leading gangs of hardened men on raids against wealthy ranchers, mine owners, and banks. His practice of sharing spoils with the mistreated poor of Chihuahua State gave him a Robin Hood reputation. In 1909, a revolution spread through Mexico, and Pancho Villa decided to join the struggle against forces of the country's dictatorship. He soon emerged as commander of the Division of the North, the largest and most feared of several revolutionary armies battling their way toward Mexico City. Victory morphed into a decade of infighting among leaders, with most of them, Villa included, eventually falling victim to assassins. He remains one of Mexico's most remembered figures – the subject of legends, songs, and movies about an era in which more than a million lives were brutally ended. 
John A. Stewart is a retired software developer with degrees in biology from the University of Michigan. He enjoys foreign travel, and Mexico was his earliest love.
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For online courses, a Zoom link will be sent to each registrant 24-48 hours in advance of the class.
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Fee: $15.00
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Instructor(s): John A. Stewart
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Dates: 6/24/2022 - 6/24/2022
Times: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
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Sessions: 1
Days: F
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Building: Online Course
Room: Online Classroom via Zoom
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Address: Online Ann Arbor, MI 48108
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- ONLINE REGISTRATION FOR THIS CLASS IS CLOSED. If you are trying to register the day before this class starts or the day of the class, please email or call the office so we can register you over the phone and send you the Zoom Link. Thank you!
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During World War II, a Canadian journalist published a book titled The Unknown Country, explaining Canada to an American audience. Generations later, American knowledge of Canada is not that much more advanced. In this course Gene Homel will survey different aspects of Canada to serve as an introduction to a country that both parallels America and is very un-American. We will look at Canadian history, politics, and culture, and discuss the origins of an independent nation in the northern half of North America, and what that nation owes to geographic, aboriginal, and economic factors. We will explore a host of other topics – including the French and British founders, the parliamentary system, political and religious cultures, attitudes toward authority and government, multiculturalism and bilingualism, regional tensions, membership in the British Commonwealth, in NATO, and the United Nations. We will inquire into Canadian-American relations, and issues of subservience and sovereignty. Is there a future for some degree of Canadian independence vis-?-vis the United States?
 Gene Homel has taught history, politics, and Canadian Studies since 1973 at universities and colleges in Ontario and British Columbia. He holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto and has written and presented extensively on Canadian and non-Canadian topics.
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- ONLINE REGISTRATION FOR THIS CLASS IS CLOSED. If you are trying to register the day before this class starts or the day of the class, please email or call the office so we can register you over the phone and send you the Zoom Link. Thank you!
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William W. Cook (1858-1930) was a graduate of the University of Michigan literary college and Law School. He donated both the Martha Cook building and the entire Michigan Law Quadrangle to the University. These gifts were significant for several reasons and exemplified the importance of private donations at a time when University funding came mainly from legislative appropriations. Cook’s story illustrates how a University President effectively nurtured a prospective donor, and how an impatient Law School dean threatened to drive that donor away. In this class, we will learn about a man who grew up in the small town of Hillsdale, Michigan, moved to New York City to start a law practice, helped to create trans-global communications, and become the nation’s leading expert in corporation law. William Cook was generous but eccentric, and by today’s standards racially biased. In this presentation Margaret Leary will address critical questions of philanthropic ethics and academic freedom. 
Margaret A. Leary received a B.A. from Cornell University, an M.A. from the University of Minnesota, another from Eastern Michigan University, and a J.D. from the William Mitchell College of Law. She taught at the University of Michigan Law School and was director of the university’s Law Library from 1984 to 2011. Margaret is the author of Giving It All Away: The Story of William W. Cook and His Michigan Law Quadrangle (University of Michigan Press, 2011.)
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- ONLINE REGISTRATION FOR THIS CLASS IS CLOSED. If you are trying to register the day before this class starts or the day of the class, please email or call the office so we can register you over the phone and send you the Zoom Link. Thank you!
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Labor shortages, rising wages, and swelling quit rates (the “great resignation”) have recently shifted America’s worker-management balance, long tilted in favor of employers. At the same time, labor unions have launched organizing drives against major non-union employers (Starbucks, Amazon), and workers have rejected tentative contracts (Kellogg’s). After 50 years of union decline, could we be on the verge of a turnaround? This seems a good time to re-examine “labor’s giant step” during the Great Depression and World War II. What conditions sparked the transformation of American unions and the surge in union membership? How did the labor force change? What new strategies and tactics did unions use? What did government do? How did employers react? This case study demonstrates how history helps us to interpret today’s headlines. 
 Michael Homel is Professor Emeritus of History at Eastern Michigan University. He specializes in 20th century American history and American urban history. He is the author of Unlocking City Hall: Exploring the History of Local Government and Politics and other publications on urban politics and education.
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