Brandeis Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (BOLLI)

H&G8-10-Mon1

Kerry Jo Green

This course will take place virtually on Zoom. Participation requires a device (ideally a computer or tablet, rather than a cell phone) with a camera and microphone in good working order and basic familiarity with using Zoom and accessing email.

September 9 - November 18
(No Class October 14)

This course aims to acquaint students with the history of mass resistance in the United States, and in particular progressive movements. Using texts written by celebrated scholars and historians, this course will explore movements from the abolition of slavery to the present day, with special focus on how these movements succeed in times of turmoil. When protests erupt in the United States, what is often missing from the fevered 24-hour news cycle is a historical perspective on the role of protest and resistance in this country's history. This course hopes to provide members with the opportunity to dig into that history, learning more about their country in the process. The course will travel from the early days of the abolition and women's rights movements, through the turn of the century and into the present day. Along the way, we will touch on topics such as organized labor, A. Philip Randolph's March on Washington Movement (1941-46), the Civil Rights Movement, anti-Vietnam War protests, the American Indian Movement (AIM), the AIDS crisis, anti-apartheid activism, and more. By the end of the course, students will know more about America's history of resistance and will be able to use that knowledge in discussions about America's present and future.

Roughly the same amount of lecture and discussion.

Required books are: History Teaches Us to Resist: How Progressive Movements Have Succeeded in Challenging Times by Mary Frances Berry. Women, Race, and Class by Angela Y. Davis (any edition). Additional materials will be provided on the course’s Google site.

2-3 hours/week. 

Kerry Jo Green is a PhD candidate in the history department at Brandeis. Kerry Jo received her BA at California University of Pennsylvania and her MA from Duquesne University, which culminated in a research project on the role of Pittsburgh’s women workers in the nineteenth century. Kerry Jo has taught in some form at every level from grade school to adult learning, and her main interest is in creating communities of learning where all members learn from one another. Her dissertation in progress is tentatively titled “Industrial Motherhood: The Women of the Allegheny and Watertown Arsenals During the Civil War.”