Forever Learning Institute

The first of two semesters devoted to understanding the travail of the United States since the Great Depression. We will be most focused on the way ideas, events and personalities come together to forge eras of politcal dominance and provoke critiques. New Deal liberalism, mainstream conservatism, and the emergence of radical alternatives such as populism and identity politics will be examined. The fall '25 semester will take the story from the 1930s to the 1980s, and a subsequent class will pick the story up there. Readings will be distributed electronically; there is no required text.