Brandeis Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (BOLLI)

How Can Understanding the Past Help Save our Future?

Course Number

H&G17-10-Tue1

Study Group Leader (SGL)

Stephen Ortega

Location

This course will take place virtually on Zoom. Participation in this course 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.

10-Week Course

March 11 - May 20 (No Class April 15)

Description

The American author, Richard Paul Evans, commented that “The more I study history the more I realize just how little mankind has changed. There are no new scripts, just different actors.” Evans’ words indicate that in a troubling time, such as this one, turning back to the past seems like a wise idea, a good way to understand what is going wrong. Historians, philosophers, social scientists, and many others have tried for centuries to explain what ails humankind and what troubles people’s well-being. From writings about government to explanations about wars to commentaries on inequality and discussions about gender, different people throughout the ages have tried to identify the reasons behind the human struggle. In this class, we'll attempt to frame our current crises through a broad historical perspective, engaging  the writings of Plato, Ibn Khaldun,  Machiavelli, Rousseau, Nietzche and Simone de Beauvoir. Key questions will be asked such as: What constitutes good leadership? Is history an endless series of cycles? How can history help us understand our collective psychology? What does it mean for men to have more power than women? These questions will give us a broad viewpoint to discuss contemporary problems, such as the rise of authoritarianism, the persistence of war, the current environmental threat and the use of fear in politics.

Group Leadership Style

More facilitated discussion lecture.

Course Materials

The Prince, Nicolo Machiavelli, Second Edition, translation Harvey Mansfield (The University of Chicago Press, 1998) ISBN 0-226-50043-8   

The Republic, Plato, translation Robin Waterfield, (Oxford University Press, 2008) ISBN 978-0-19-953576-17

Chapters from the following sources will be available on a course website and links to YouTube videos will also be provided by the SGL

The Muqaddima by Ibn Khaldun,  

On the Abuses and Uses of History, Freidrich Nietzsche

The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir 

Deep History, Daniel Smail,  

The New Cultural History, Lynn Hunt

Preparation Time

30-40 pages, two hours a week.

Biography

Stephen Ortega is an Emeritus Professor of History at Simmons University. He directed the MA/MS program in History/Archives at Simmons for 11 years. He has a BA from New York University, an MA from Harvard University and a PhD in History from the University of Manchester (UK). At Simmons, he taught classes on world and environmental history, cross-cultural encounters, history and archives and one on the television show, Breaking Bad. He has written a book on encounters in the early modern Mediterranean and a world history textbook. Currently, he is working on a book project entitled “The Future of the Past.”