Wednesday Session 2   

Before the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, General George Patton told his Third Army troops, "Everyone in this army must understand that we are not fighting this battle in any half-cocked manner. It’s either root hog or die!" The phrase "root hog or die" is an idiomatic expression meaning self-reliance or simply, "We are on our own!" For Patton and the Allies at the time, the Bulge was a potential "last stand," and if not checked, might have resulted in a German victory that could have prolonged the war. History is replete with other "last stands." They conjure up romantic images of courage, desperation, and heroism. We will examine in this course five of these "last stands" and identify their historical contexts, differences and similarities, importance, and legacies.

Words like “trauma,” “trauma-informed,” and “resiliency” are in the news, online, and around us. But what do these mean? Is there anything we can do as individuals to be more trauma-informed? This course will focus on what trauma is and how resiliency can be used to help ourselves and others. We will learn how trauma impacts both individuals and systems. Members will discuss resiliency and growth in response to life challenges. Finally, members will learn basic resiliency skills and how to implement them to overcome challenges and grow.

This course examines the origins and evolution of America’s so-called “forgotten war,” a conflict that involved Korea, America, China, and the Soviet Union in ways that constantly threatened to tip the Cold War into a hot world war. We will also explore the development of Russia’s nuclear program and America’s development of the hydrogen bomb, the “Super,” and the ways that each introduced whole new levels of uncertainty and instability into the first decade of the Cold War. We will examine figures such as Douglas MacArthur, Mao Tse-tung, Dean Acheson, Kim Il-Sung , Edward Teller, and Joe McCarthy.

This course explores the art and architecture of ancient Greece, from temples and tombs to pottery and paintings. Structured chronologically, illustrated lectures explore the visual arts of ancient Greece by period, from its beginning in the Bronze Age (ca. 3000-1200 BCE) to the end of the Hellenistic Period (ca. 323-31 BCE). The focus is key monuments and works of art and the artistic and technological developments that gave rise to them, an archaeological approach that considers the social function of Greek art in its wider Mediterranean context.

This course will look at the past, present, and future of unions and work. In the late 19th century, unions established a presence despite regular violence and opposition. Workers organized on an unprecedented scale in the 1930s, leading to a period of prosperity and labor peace in the post WWII era.  In the late 1970s and 1980s the business community launched an assault on union influence that has reduced American union workers from 35% to 10%. Finally, the course will focus on today’s increasingly precarious conditions at work, the gig economy, some of the new forms of organizing, and whether organized labor can address income inequality and global corporate power.

In this drawing class, members will try various exercises to hone visual acuity to make more accurate renderings of what is seen. Members will attempt different attitudinal exercises to loosen and heighten their approaches to making statements with their drawings. Composition, tone, and line  will be introduced and practiced during in-class work as well as take-home drawing projects. Media will be standard dry media, such as pencil, charcoal, and colored pencil.

America, one of the richest nations in the world, has extreme economic inequality and poverty. This course will cover seven of the most important books in recent years on poverty and how to end it. The instructor will lecture on one or two books each week with time for class discussion. The books are: Pulitzer Prize winner Evicted (Desmond, 2017); Poverty, by America (Desmond, 2023); Not a Crime to Be Poor (Edelman, 2019); Poorly Understood: What America Gets Wrong About Poverty (Rank et al., 2021); Broke in America (Goldblum and Shaddox, 2022); The Poverty Industry (Hatcher, 2019); and Injustice, Inc.: How America’s Justice System Commodifies Children and the Poor (Hatcher, 2023). Class members do not need to purchase books. The focus will be on the extent of and trends in poverty, demographic differences, causes, and solutions.

This course will continue a series on architectural masterworks of the 20th  century, by examining five more houses built in the middle of the century, at the height of the Modern movement. Each lecture will focus on one house and its architect, examining the architect’s schematic strategies, theoretic postulates, and material executions. The five houses reviewed will be the Schroder house by Grerrit Rietveld (1925), Villa Savoye by Le Corbusier (1928-1931), Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright (1935-1937), Farnsworth house by Mies van der Rohe (1945-1951), and the Glass House by Philip Johnson (1948-1949).

A continuation of the spring course,  this class will resume the exploration of some of the best art collections and eclectic art collectors in the United States. Returning to New York City, we will see some of the earliest art on display at The Cloisters and return to the Met to see its renown Annenberg Collection among other highlights. Following stops at the Whitney Museum of American Art and The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, we will continue to cross the country looking at the foundations of some of America's most notable art museums, such as The Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, AK, and The Getty and Norton Simon of Los Angeles.