History/Social Sciences   

This course will explore the lives of America's presidents—beyond the politics—such as family relationships, health secrets, assassination attempts, and scandals, while also debating who were the most and least impactful of presidents.

With the aid of maps and photos, John Toren, author of The Seven States of Minnesota, will share a lifetime of insights into the varied geography and history of Minnesota. He will discuss the impact of glaciation and delineate the various biomes, including boreal forest, oak savanna, karst country, Eastern hardwoods, and prairie potholes, while devoting special attention to the wide range of recreational opportunities any traveler can enjoy today, including birding, camping, hiking, and all the rest. Recommended reading: Seven States of Minnesota by John Toren.

This course will examine the life of Ulysses Grant, from his early life and military career through his presidency and tour around the world late in life. The course will also explore his performance in war, including the Battles of Fort McHenry, Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Iuka and Vicksburg. Finally, the course also considers his political beliefs, including support for women's and Jewish rights.

This course will deal with the history of parenting and childhood in the United States from the early 19th century to the present. We will look at the emphasis on children's independence in the early American Republic; the attempt to “save” vulnerable children in the 19th century; parenting and children among immigrants; schooling and children; race, ethnicity, and class and the upbringing of children; the rise of the new science of childhood from 1890 to 1940; and the possible end of American childhood with the increasing management of children by middle-class parents in recent decades. Required reading: The End of American Childhood by Paula S. Fass, Princeton, 2016.

Given the magnitude of the assassination of JFK, the more than 6 million pages of government documents, 1 to 2 thousand books (95% of which don't support the Warren Commission), that more than half of Americans believe there was a conspiracy and that the event generated distrust in the American government that persists to this day, we recognize this is an overly ambitious project.  Bring an open mind, your questions and comments as we explore the spirit of the times, the evidence, various interpretations and contradictions, the people and the theories surrounding the assassination.

What would the world look like if the US and China decided to work together to fight climate change and pursue advanced technologies? The US leads the West and is a leader in advanced technologies. China equals the US in advanced technologies, leads the world in manufacturing, is the leading trade partner with most nations, and its Open Source technology improves common prosperity for all. What might this collaboration entail?

Democracy works best when everyone has the tools to participate. In this engaging, in-person course, Think Small’s policy experts help you learn how to advocate for the issues that matter most to you. Using strategic storytelling, you’ll build confidence in speaking with policymakers, practice sharing your story in mock legislative meetings, and conclude the course with (an optional) guided tour of the Minnesota State Capitol. Together we’ll explore what’s possible when people show up, speak up, and participate in the legislative process.

It has been fifty years since the fall of Saigon. America’s Vietnam War seemed to arrive suddenly—body counts, the draft, and protests on college campuses. How did this all begin? Jerry Rose, a young journalist in Vietnam in the early 1960s, was a witness to the secret unfolding of this war. Through his articles and photographs—including the first major article to be written about American troops fighting in Vietnam—he exposed the secret beginnings of America’s Vietnam War—risking his life in the process. Recommended reading: The Journalist: Life and Loss in America’s Secret War by Jerry A. Rose and Lucy Rose Fischer, SparkPress, 2020.

In all three countries, military governments in the mid-to-late 20th century attacked left-wing or indigenous populations that advocated for political, social, and economic reform. The governments disappeared, tortured, and murdered hundreds of thousands of people. The atrocities led to efforts at international and domestic justice and institutional reform, but the countries still struggle for ‘sustainable peace’ and human rights, especially for safety and security for women, indigenous people, and other vulnerable groups, while support continues for some of the perpetrators. Course fee $10 (in support of World Without Genocide).

March 31: Sherrie Gette will present Jason Stanley’s 2024 Erasing History: How Fascists Re-write the Past to Control the Future, which explores how the far-right has sought to reverse the broad expansion of civil liberties in the 20th century US. 

April 7: Peter Hairston spent a career developing ways to measure airborne particles. He will present on Carl Zimmer’s 2025 book: Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe. 

April 14: Lt Col. Steve Birch’s book is Andrew Ross Sorkin’s 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History and How it Shattered a Nation. The book describes the greed, false optimism, and human folly that led to the market collapse and the Depression. 

April 21:  Jim Martin’s book is The Quiet Americans: Four CIA Spies at the dawn of the Cold War by historian Scott Anderson. The author covers CIA efforts to combat the perceived threat of Soviet communism in the 1940s and 50s and the fatal missteps along the way.

April 28: Merrily Mazza takes on William Shirer’s 1960 epic, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. If past performance is a predictor of future output, Merrily is clearly up to the task.

May 5: Attorney at Large Phil Fishman will challenge all with his presentation of The Bill of Obligations: Ten Habits of Good Citizens by political scientist Richard Haas. In a word, the message is use them or lose them. We must re-envision citizenship if American democracy is to survive.

May 12:  Dan Hunt examines race and American housing policy through his discussion of Richard Rothstein’s 2017 The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. Rothstein argues that segregation was the result of ill-advised laws and not the result of individual choice.

Join us as we partner again with the Ramsey County Library, Global Minnesota, and the Foreign Policy Association for our annual Great Decisions series on the most critical international issues facing America. Study the issues and join the discussions led by expert speakers. Ten copies of the Briefing Book for this series are available for checkout through the generosity of Global Minnesota.

April 24 Ukraine and the Future of European Security With reduced U.S. support for NATO and Ukraine, Europe faces strategic uncertainty. What are America’s stakes in NATO and Europe’s strategic dilemmas, and how might Europe respond? Norma Noonan, PhD, is Professor Emerita of Political Science and Leadership Studies at Augsburg College.

May 8 U.S.-China Relations Relations with China remain tense, with tariffs, military modernization, and pressure on Taiwan. Does the US have a coherent China policy, and will tariffs on rare earth minerals be effective? What are America’s strategic options? Dr. Richard Leitch earned his BA in East Asian Studies from Colby College in 1985, an MA in Asian Studies from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Illinois in 1995. He has been a member of the Political Science Department at Gustavus since 1996.

A look at the impact of and modern-day challenges to the granddaddy of U.S. libel law, the 1964 Times vs. Sullivan ruling. Rooted in the American Civil Rights Movement and responsible for protecting those who criticize public officials, the actual-malice standard established in this landmark Supreme Court case has more recently been criticized by Clarence Thomas and other conservative judges who say it goes too far and should be scaled back or thrown out.

In spite of all the challenges Cuba continues to face, what explains why the Cuban Revolution is still in place after six decades? How was the revolution made and consolidated—from 1953 until about 1969—and, second, how has it been able to survive and advance since the collapse of the Soviet Union?

When Europeans entered the upper regions of the Mississippi Valley, they found immense forests. They started to cut them, first for personal and local use, then for the commercial industry that drove the economics of this area for several decades. How it was done, who was involved, what they were used for, and where and how they were shipped are all part of an amazing story. This course will deal with much of this era in photos, maps, stories, and the communities involved.

The Plato dialogue "The Lysis" is relatively short. It explores the differences and similarities between "friendship" and other forms of association, including “companionship,” “kinship,” and “erotic attachment.” It further explores the tension between self-love and “other-regarding” beneficence. The last session will compare the Lysis with Aristotle's discussion of friendship in the Nicomachean Ethics. Required reading: Plato's Dialogue on Friendship by David Bolotin, Cornell University

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a noted 20th-century paleontologist and Jesuit priest, spent his life trying to surmount the conflict between science and religion. His vision was of an evolving unity of matter and mind, worked out most completely in his book: The Phenomenon of Man. With its publication, he received worldwide acclaim for his challenge to traditional church teaching and for his call for spiritual renewal, soon to be reflected in documents from the Second Vatican Council. Required reading: The Phenomenon of Man by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, 2008, Harper Perennial paperback.

Are phrases like God’s Omnipotence and Omniscience troubling? Do you agree that the Bible came from other human beings and their experience of God? When something terrible happens to someone, have you heard this: “Why didn’t God do something?” If you answered “Yes” it means you may be ready for the idea of “God as Poet of the World.” This course will explore “process theology,” which invites us to see how we live in a world of possibility, but without a strong God changing the course of a tornado.The lure of God is to draw people into relationships and harmony and relentlessly seek justice.