Courses – Spring 2025 / Old Courses / RACE RELATIONS IN AMERICAN POLITICAL THOUGHT
Coordinators: Sandy Kessler, Bob Gottfried
We will explore the controversial subject of race relations in America by considering some classic and contemporary writings by American political thinkers such as Thomas Jefferson, George Fitzhugh, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Isabel Wilkerson, and Glenn Loury.
Questions for discussion include:
- Why was slavery a “monstrous injustice,” as Lincoln called it? How did Southerners defend the institution?
- What is the legacy of slavery? How does it shape American life today?
- How can we now best achieve racial justice and reconciliation?
Other Classes:
- THE TWILIGHT ZONE
- HEALTH AND MEDICINE
- IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE, CAN IT?
- FLAWED GREATNESS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON
- PORTRAIT OF A LADY
- STAR-CROSSED LOVERS
- ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: A BRAVE NEW WORLD?
- WOMEN SPIES
- DAISY MILLER & WASHINGTON SQUARE
- BEETHOVEN: THE MIDDLE YEARS
- ALL THE KINGS MEN
- JAZZ AT NOON
- WORLD OF THEATRE
- THE SCARLET LETTER
- THE GREAT GATSBY
- TOCQUEVILLE'S DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA
- MEXICO: SOUTH OF OUR BORDER
- HISTORY OF MEDICINE
- HARLEM RENAISSANCE
- CONSTRUCTION: BEYOND BRICKS AND MORTAR
- ACTING WORKSHOP I
- THEATER TALKBACK
- BOOK CHATS
- ADVENTURES IN DINING
- FOOD: BEYOND JUST CALORIES
- TONI MORRISON: THE LEGEND
- INVISIBLE MAN BY RALPH ELLISON
- SIXTIES
- ELIZABETH GASKELL
- WEEK IN PARIS
- CLASSICAL MUSIC
- CREATIVE WORKSHOP
- MUSIC OF THE HEART
- EMILY DICKINSON CIRCLE
- SYMPOSIUM
- RUSSIAN GEOGRAPHY
- WATER
- FOLK MUSIC AND MELLOW ROCK
- CONTEMPORARY BRITISH CULTURE
- AUSTRALIA – THE LAND DOWN UNDER
- HUCKLEBERRY FINN
- AGING
- FASCINATING ISLANDS
- BLACK WOMENS VOICES
- THE NOBEL PRIZES
- READING EDITH WHARTON
- WOMEN IN GREEK DRAMA
- THE NEAR EAST
- HISTORY OF GERMANY
- A PASSAGE TO INDIA
- INDIE FILMS
- SLAVERY'S ROLE IN U.S. CAPITALISTIST DEVELOPMENT
- RISE AND FALL OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
- READING THE RABBIS
- MYTHOLOGY
- LITERARY HEROINES
- HOWARDS END
- HOUSE OF MIRTH
- FABULOUS FIFTIES
- COMEDY CENTRAL
- READING BLACK LIVES
- BORDERS AND BOUNDARIES
- MOZARTS WOMEN
- ANTISEMITISM: PAST, PRESENT, FACTS, MYTHS
- AFRICAN CONTINENT
- PRESENTERS SHOWCASE
- INVENTIONS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
- ACTING CLASS
- FOREIGN AFFAIRS
- LAW & ORDER
- POINT OF VIEW
- MODERN OPERA
- MOVERS & SHAKERS
- SOCRATES AND THE PROBLEM OF PHILOSOPHY
- FASCINATING NONFICTION
- GREAT CONVERSATIONS
- ORAL INTERPRETATION OF POETRY
- SHAKESPEARE: CYMBELINE