Everything Old is New Again: Constitutional Debates and the Issues of Today

HIS F22-09: To Ratify or Not to Ratify: The Debates on the Constitution

Thursday, Oct 20, 27 & Nov 3
3:15-5:15 pm

The first political coup in American history occurred in 1787 at the Constitutional Convention. Charged with merely amending the Articles of Confederation, the delegates instead proposed a radical new framework for the federal government’s relationship with the states and with the American people.

The Convention and ratification debates laid bare the country’s political, social, economic, and ideological divisions. While the Convention delegates reached an uneasy compromise, the key divisive issues have persisted to this day. This course summarizes the Constitutional Convention and ratification debates, revealing the underlying value conflicts and bringing to life the struggle to define the American Republic.

CE F22-10 is available in person at 1200 Old Pecos Trail.

CE F22-10: Are We There Yet? Christian Nationalism, Trumpism, and the Rise of Fascism in the United States

Monday, Oct 17, 24
1-3 pm

One week after the attack on the U.S. Capitol, Cambridge (UK) historian Richard Evans argued that, whatever else Donald Trump may be, he is not a fascist: “For all of Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric, the attack on Congress was not a pre-planned attempt to seize the reins of government.” By contrast, Yale professor Jason Stanley submits that Trump is “creating a fascist social and political movement with himself as the leader.”

Are we there yet? Is fascism nascent in the United States? We will formulate an answer to this question by reviewing the characteristics of fascism, investigating Christian nationalism and its ties to the Trump wing of the Republican party, and determining whether the actions taken by Trump and his allies represent a clear and present danger to representative government.

CE F22-10 is available in person at 1200 Old Pecos Trail and online via ZOOM.

1787 Constitutional Convention
US Constitutional debates
US Capitol Trump
US Capitol protests

Literature Takes the Spotlight: Buddenbrooks, Bartleby, and Robert Glick

Buddenbrooks
Thomas Mann renesan course
Herman Melville
RENESAN courses Charlie Chaplin

LIT F22-04: Buddenbrooks

Monday, Oct 24, 31 & Nov 7, 14
10 am-12 noon

In 1901, when Buddenbrooks was published by the relatively unknown writer Thomas Mann (1875-1955), Rainer Maria Rilke immediately wrote, “Without any doubt, we shall have to take note of this name.” Twenty-eight years later, the Nobel Prize Committee recognized Buddenbrooks as “the first and as yet unsurpassed German realistic novel in the grand style which takes its undisputed and equal place in the European concert.”

Mann’s semi-autobiographical story, in the tradition of the realistic novels of Flaubert, Balzac, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, portrays the sweeping historical, intellectual, economic, and political changes in German society during the 19th Century, traced through the decline of the Buddenbrooks family, home, and business. The novel became the basis of several popular European films and television series.

Taught by Robert Glick, LIT F22-04 is available in person at 1200 Old Pecos Trail and online via ZOOM.

LIT F22-05: “Bartleby the Scrivener”

Tuesday, Oct 18
10 am-noon

Herman Melville was among the favorite American authors of Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre. These existentialist writers recognized Melville’s Captain Ahab (Moby Dick 1850) as an early representative of the absurd man, who finds purpose in rage against an indifferent and unanswering universe.

Ahab is a highly articulate but frightening revolutionary.

In contrast, the hero of Melville’s short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener” (1853) is intriguing because he seems unaware of his conflict with the universe and is unable to explain himself beyond repeating “I prefer not to” But this very lack of awareness and inability to express his sense of the absurd makes him perhaps even more sympathetic. Inarticulate and overwhelmed,

Bartleby becomes a predecessor of Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp or the comic page’s Dilbert, confronting a system he can’t fully comprehend that surrounds him with impenetrable walls and indifferent silence.

LIT F22-05 is available in person at 1200 Old Pecos Trail and online via ZOOM.

Instructor Robert Glick

Buddenbrooks and “Bartleby” instructor Robert Glick holds a PhD in comparative literature and has taught English, French, German, and Russian literature. He particularly enjoys teaching books that students always thought they should read (but for some reason didn’t start or finish) or that they read years ago and always wanted to read again.  

Register Today!

Go to RENESAN.org for all course info:

· Check out our catalog for detailed course descriptions and instructor bios.

· Check out our calendar for an easy-to-use schedule.

Stop by our office for a brochure:

· Office hours: Monday-Thursday, 9-4

· Office location: 1200 Old Pecos Trail in First United Methodist Church

· Phone Number: 505-982-9274

Shakespeare, Sondheim, and SandstoneMaus and Holocaustthe twilight zoneGod’s Reluctant Saints