OLLI@DU / 2023 FALL / COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Golden: Where the West Lives HSEC 1019

Wednesday

Dates: 10/18 to 11/8 (4 weeks)

Time: 1–3 PM

Facilitator: Barb Warden

Location: Online

Class Limit: 35 participants

Sponsoring Site: Regis

Barb will lead the class through Golden’s storied history. Start with Golden’s founding during the 1859 Gold Rush: when you picture a wild west town, you probably include a range of stock characters–prospectors and miners, gamblers and preachers, cowboys and Indians, farmers and ranchers, desperadoes, and lawmen…early Golden had them all. Hear about a time when duels, shootouts, and lynchings were commonplace in Golden; when heavy industry was warmly welcomed, and we desperately wanted GROWTH! Then move into the 20th Century and see how Golden held up through two world wars, the Great Depression, the Baby Boom, and the Atomic Age. The 21st Century has given us Golden’s renaissance and introduced us to the benefits and perils of popularity. This class will include guest lecturers and lots of opportunities to ask questions.

History’s Greatest Voyages of Exploration HSEC 1016

Thursday

Dates: 9/21 to 11/9 (8 weeks)

Time: 1–3 PM

Facilitator: Alan Folkestad, Diamond Facilitator

Location: Online

Class Limit: Unlimited

Sponsoring Site: South

A study of the giant explorations of history is a study of the deepest impulses of human nature. We see the lure of wealth, conquest, fame. We also appreciate the quest for higher aspirations—the spiritual call to pilgrimage or to spread a gospel. What’s more, we witness the basic drive that most of us share with the celebrated explorers of the world: restlessness, wanderlust, the longing for faraway places. There is a basic human determination to explore. The word explore comes from the Latin plorare, meaning to “cry out” or “make known.” These lectures will explore the wanderlust of the early Polynesians and their need for exploration. Our genetic wanderlust also reveals something important about human nature: All of us are travelers, on the way from here to somewhere else. After all, there’s a reason life is often called a journey. We will examine famous explorers like Marco Polo, Columbus, Captain Cook, and lesser known explorers such as Pytheas, Ibn Battuta, Alexander von Humboldt, Ida Pfeiffer. This class uses Great Courses DVD’s.

Pan Am and The Rise Of American Commercial Aviation

HSEC 1017

Wednesday

Dates: 9/27 to 11/8 (7 weeks)

Time: 1–3 PM

Facilitator: Charles Holt , Platinum Facilitator

Location: Columbine United Church

Class Limit: 40 participants

Sponsoring Site: South

This is a story of American commercial aviation. America, having invented the aircraft, fell far behind technologically as Europe picked up this technology and developed a series of very innovative aircraft. World War I came along and technology grew at quite a pace. After the war a role for the airplane was being sought, with technical advances allowing for some daring experimental flights. Aviation captured the imagination of many inventors and people around the world. The first real application was airmail. The growth of aviation between the wars is a story of derring-do, courage, imagination, technological development, and commercial pressure. Pan Am at war is an absolutely fascinating part of America’s war effort. Pan Am plays a major role in all the developments that take place in aviation. It’s an amazing story and one that I am sure you will enjoy. We will begin with developments all around the world but will soon narrow our focus to America and to Pan Am as it grows and becomes America’s unofficial flag carrier.

The Rise and Development of Capitalism

HSEC 1009

Wednesday

Dates: 9/20 to 11/1 (7 weeks)

Time: 1–3 PM

Facilitator: Stewart Jones, Master Facilitator

Location: Online Class Limit: Unlimited

Sponsoring Site: Central

This seven-week course explores the series of developments, beginning in the twelfth century, that enabled Europe and Western civilization to become the dominant scientific, industrial, and economic powerhouse in the world by the nineteenth century, while the rest of the world’s civilizations failed to do so. The author presents the case that Western religion provided the culture and stimulus that enabled capitalism and the scientific and industrial revolutions to occur. The class structure will include presentations by the facilitator, based on the book, The Victory of Reason, followed by group discussions. The facilitator will email discussion questions each week.