Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI)

(OLLI)  is a membership organization. With your OLLI membership, you are entitled to request up to three courses per term during the “Request Period” and as many other courses as your schedule allows during the “Additional Registration Period”.

      Spring 2019 Courses

30645 Conspiracies, Coverups! Lies-or historical facts?  Governments, corporations, politicians sometimes work hard to keep truth hidden. Read and discuss, American Conspiracies and Cover-ups: JFK, 9/11, the Fed, Rigged Elections, Suppressed Cancer Cures, and the Greatest Conspiracies of Our Time by Douglas Cirignano. Skyhorse. 2019. The introduction reminds us of five major deceptions that have been unveiled. Then 12 chapters explore controversies of politics, war, wealth, health. Unusual format; author in dialogue with experts.

 

30646 How could this country get here?  Very readable historian reminds us of many lesser-known facts. ”…[I]mperfection is the rule, not the exception.” Despite where the country is now, Meacham helps us “to hope” rather than “to fear.” Better knowledge of the past is the key. Meacham, Jon. The Soul of America. Random House Publishing Group. 2018

 

              Previous Courses:

  • Fall  2019,  The American Deep State: Wall Street, Big Oil, and the Attack on U.S. Democracy, 2014, (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers). This is the most recent of prominent political analyst Peter Dale Scott’s several well-documented books on what we haven’t known—and should know. Is there a deep state: a second order of government behind the public or constitutional state? Can we still prevent the subversion of our republic?
  • Fall  2019,  The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump. Michiko Kakutani, 2018. Tim Duggan Books. Powerful documentations by an experienced journalist. Our democracy has been hobbled by a shortage of accurate information and a flood of trivia. How can we improve our information searches? Excellent analyses of the “hows” and her suggested “what nows?”
  • Summer 2019,  30581 Will Our Empire Be Different? Empires destroy democracy. If we don’t know our history, we can’t slow this process. Editor/author Lapham knows the powerful roles of our moneyed elites, and shares eloquently his experiences with the incompatibility of money and democracy. We will read and review Age of Folly: America Abandons its Democracy, Lewis Lapham. New York: Verso, 2016
  • Summer 2019, 30582 Under God?  U.S. history has been continually reshaped by many religions. Author Peter Manseau explores the complex history of American pluralism—some created here, some brought by immigrants, and others borrowed from distant lands. We will meet these religions and discuss their impacts. And how about our future? We will read and review One Nation, Under Gods, Peter Manseau. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2015.
  • Spring 2019, 30569 Appreciating the Enlightenment (Steven Pinker,  Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress)

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