Vi at the Glen

2500 Indigo Lane, Glenview

Spring 2012

The Greatest Broadway Songs You’ve Never Heard!     Fee: $56
Enjoy original Broadway cast recordings of beautiful show tunes from 1927 to the present. Even if you’re an expert on theater music, you’ll be surprised at how many aren’t familiar. Bob Dahlin, filmmaker and composer, shares his lifetime compilation of these obscure gems.
MUS E13-71, VIG, 4 Tue., 4/17-5/8, 10-11:15 am    CRN 41425

PASSPORT TO THE WORLD - FOREIGN RELATIONS
When Washington leaders voted to raise the debt ceiling last fall, Republican Senator Tom Coburn allegedly said, “This is a win for the politicians and a loss for the country.” How will the ongoing gridlock on Capitol Hill affect the United States’ position around the globe? What impact will the European Union members’ precarious economies have on international relations? Our Passport speakers will address these issues and many more.
Lectures meet on Tuesdays, 1-2:15 pm

HUM S53-48, VIG, 4 Tue., 3/20-4/10, 1-2:15 pm, $40 in-district residents age 60 and above. CRN 41420
HUM S53-51, VIG, 4 Tue., 3/20-4/10, 1-2:15 pm, $55 out-of-district residents or those under age 60. CRN 41421

Tuesday, March 20
China on the World Stage
After 30 years of rapid economic development, China has re-emerged as a political, economic, and military world power. Z.J. Tong, president of Chicago Chinese Cultural Institute, explores the implications. How will this impact China’s foreign relations policy? How is such policy formed? How does the Internet impact government decisions? Should Western countries consider China a partner and stake-holder—or a competitor and enemy? Topics will include human rights, nuclear proliferation, environment protection, North Korea, South China Sea, and Tibet.

Tuesday, March 27
The Democratization of Arabs?
Democracy could bring momentous change to the Middle East, a part of the world traditionally dominated by dictatorships and monarchies. Toufic El Rassi, author and Columbia College faculty member, will review recent events in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya in light of the United States’ relationship with many of the recently-deposed regimes. Learn what impact recent revolutions and unrest may have on the United States and its allies.

Tuesday, April 3
Operation Freedom - The Berlin Airlift
The Belin airlift of 1948 was one of the greatest achievements in American military history. When Soviet troops cut off access to West Berlin, threatening the lives of 2.5 million people and provoking the first major international crisis of the Cold War, U.S. General Lucius D. Clay built a bold “bridge across the sky” to provide supplies, involving 700 planes and 250,000 flights over a 14-month period. German historian Anette Isaacs, M.A., discusses this exciting time in her country’s postwar history.

Tuesday, April 10
Did Marx Foretell Today’s Economic Crisis?
As the world economy struggles with increasing debt, growing inequality, and massive environmental destruction, Karl Marx is making a comeback. Recent articles in The Financial Times of London and The Economist have contended that no one captured the dynamics of the world economy’s present predicament better than this 19th-century socialist philosopher. Peter Hudis, Ph.D., who recently completed dissertation on Marx, examines thinker’s work, which takes on new importance in light of the global crisis of capital.


Summer 2012

New! Four U.S. 20th-Century Greats           Fee: $56
Harris Kohn, Emeritus instructor returns to examine some 20th Century icons: Francis Perkins, mother of the "New Deal" Teddy Roosevelt, America's empire builder; Douglas McArthur, America's Prussian; and Lyndon Johnson, "from victory to defeat." From a 21st Century perspective how do these heroes hold up?
HIS C40-92, VIG, 4 Tue., 6/5-6/26, 10-11:15 am

New! Great Painters of the Western World   Fee: $56
Learn more about well-known paintings and discover little-known-but fascinating-works of art. Art historian Edith Lee discusses some of history's greatest painters- Botticelli, Chagal, Leonardo da Vinci, Hopper, Rembrandt, Renoir, Van Gogh, and many others.
ART B58-92, VIG, 4 Tue., 7/3-7/24, 10-11:15 am

The Schlemiel and Others: Jewish American Popular Culture         Fee: $20
For more than a century Jewish culture has strongly influenced American popular culture in theatre, film, television, comedy, literature, cartooning, and fine arts. The character that most embodies this influence is the schlemiel or "fool." David Y. Chack, president of the Association for Jewish Theatre, traces this schlemiel archetype -- now so much a part of American culture that one could say the schlemiel is the "every-fool."
HUM B18-91, VIG, 1 Tue., 7/31, 10-11:30 am          CRN 50064

 New! The Use of History in Strategic Decisions                          Fee: $20
Does knowledge of the past help us predict the future? Examine how we draw useful lessons from historical events and trends -- and how major mistakes sometimes are made as a result. Review recent U.S. strategic decisions since 9/11. Why and how is history sometimes invented -- in addition to being remembered and discovered?  Why is military history neglected in schools today and does society pay a price? Instructor Michael Zimmerman is a former U.S. Army officer who studied international relations at the London School of Economics.
PSE B45-91, VIG, 1 Tue., 8/7, 10-11:15 am         CRN 50078