Jun 14th
2–4pm CDT
Meets 6 Times
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History Lessons Coming up in Chicago and Online
9 classes in-person in Chicago have spots left, and 6 classes live online are available.
A History of Sexuality: Chicago and Berlin, 1893-1933
The Newberry @ 60 W Walton St, Chicago, IL 60610
This class begins with sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld's visits to Chicago in 1893 and 1931 to trace a history of homosexual activism, especially in Chicago and Berlin. In January 1931, the Berlin sexologist, dubbed “the Einstein of Sex,” returned to Chicago to speak at the Dill Pickle Club. Arguing that science was the pathway to justice, Hirschfeld founded the first homosexual rights organization in Berlin in 1897, inspiring gay rights advocates...
Wednesday Jun 14th, 2–4pm Central Time
(6 sessions)
African Murder Mysteries
The Newberry @ 60 W Walton St, Chicago, IL 60610
In this class, we’re traveling to Africa to examine mysteries from the continent over five weeks. Class Description This five-week class will explore the rich history of murder mysteries in Africa. Each week, we will read and discuss a mystery from a different country and author, exploring how mysteries became popular in Africa. We will consider points that make African mysteries unique, including politics, racial tensions, economics, and outside...
Tuesday Jun 20th, 6–7:30pm Central Time
(6 sessions)
Literary Capital of the West
The Newberry @ 60 W Walton St, Chicago, IL 60610
Literary Capital of the West: Chicago Writing before 1890 This course explores the evolving relationship between Western and urban identities in Chicago writing from the 1840s through the 1880s. Histories of Chicago literature often start around 1890, with the urban sketches of writers like Finley Peter Dunne. Chicago’s antebellum literature, however, was very different, aimed at rural readers in the city’s railroad empire. After the Civil...
Wednesday Jun 14th, 2–3:30pm Central Time
(6 sessions)
Bonsai Basics
Chicago Botanic Garden @ 1000 Lake Cook Rd, Chicago, IL 60022
Learn the horticulture, art, and philosophy of bonsai through the history, fundamental aesthetic elements, and basic style types. You will learn about tools, wiring, soils, fertilizers, and year-round care. A walk to view part of the Garden‘s Bonsai Collection is included. Dress for the weather.
Sunday Jun 25th, 11:30am–1:30pm Central Time
Amazing Lakefront Bike Tour (Kids)
Bike and Roll Chicago @ 670-692 N Streeter Dr, Chicago, IL 60611
Chicago is a great city for biking. The amazing lakefront and parks, the rich history, and spectacular architecture provides for a great experience. Add to that Bike and Roll’s friendly tour guides, and what you have is your best day in Chicago! Bike tours are offered daily. We also provide private tours for your group and VIPs. Please email [email protected] for more information. Please arrive 10-15 minutes prior to departure time....
Wednesday May 31st, 10am–12pm Central Time
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Lincoln Park Bike Adventure (Child / Senior)
Bike and Roll Chicago @ 670-692 N Streeter Dr, Chicago, IL 60611
Chicago is a great city for biking. The amazing lakefront and parks, the rich history, and spectacular architecture provides for a great experience. Add to that Bike and Roll’s friendly tour guides, and what you have is your best day in Chicago! Enjoy the car-free lakefront trail and explore Chicago’s beaches, parks, lagoons, and gorgeous Lincoln Park Zoo (free admission). This tour offers a diverse mix of nature and attractions. Top...
Wednesday May 31st, 10:30am–12:30pm Central Time
Amazing Lakefront Bike Tour (Child/Senior)
Bike and Roll Chicago @ 670-692 N Streeter Dr, Chicago, IL 60611
Chicago is a great city for biking. The amazing lakefront and parks, the rich history, and spectacular architecture provides for a great experience. Add to that Bike and Roll’s friendly tour guides, and what you have is your best day in Chicago! Bike tours are offered daily. We also provide private tours for your group and VIPs. Please email [email protected] for more information. Please arrive 10-15 minutes prior to departure time....
Wednesday May 31st, 2–4pm Central Time
Amazing Lakefront Bike Tour (Adult)
Bike and Roll Chicago @ 670-692 N Streeter Dr, Chicago, IL 60611
Chicago is a great city for biking. The amazing lakefront and parks, the rich history, and spectacular architecture provides for a great experience. Add to that Bike and Roll’s friendly tour guides, and what you have is your best day in Chicago! Bike tours are offered daily. We also provide private tours for your group and VIPs. Please email [email protected] for more information. Please arrive 10-15 minutes prior to departure time....
Wednesday May 31st, 10am–12pm Central Time
Lincoln Park Bike Adventure (Adult)
Bike and Roll Chicago @ 670-692 N Streeter Dr, Chicago, IL 60611
Chicago is a great city for biking. The amazing lakefront and parks, the rich history, and spectacular architecture provides for a great experience. Add to that Bike and Roll’s friendly tour guides, and what you have is your best day in Chicago! Enjoy the car-free lakefront trail and explore Chicago’s beaches, parks, lagoons, and gorgeous Lincoln Park Zoo (free admission). This tour offers a diverse mix of nature and attractions. Top...
Wednesday May 31st, 10:30am–12:30pm Central Time
Philosophy of History
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research @ Online Classroom
Does history have a direction, a purpose, or an end goal? Can we deduce general historical patterns from studying the past? Is it naïve to hope and work for a better future? From the Enlightenment to the twenty-first century, liberal, Marxist, positivist, and post-structuralist thinkers have offered radically different responses to these fundamental questions related to the philosophy of history. This course will survey these attempts to grapple...
Tuesday Jul 11th, 6:30–9:30pm Eastern Time
(4 sessions)
American Policing: History, Politics, and Society
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research @ Online Classroom
For many Americans the existence of the police may seem as inevitable as a law of nature. From popular culture to political stump speeches to the oft-invoked impulse to “Call 911,” the idea of public order is widely presented as unimaginable without the existence of police to enforce it. Without the police, this reasoning runs, society itself would cease to exist. But the institution that is American policing has not always existed, let alone...
Sunday Jul 16th, 2–5pm Eastern Time
(4 sessions)
Gershom Scholem: Mysticism & the Philosophy of History
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research @ Online Classroom
Friend to Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, Theodor Adorno, and Leo Strauss, Gershom Scholem may be the best known scholar of Jewish Studies in the 20th century. Above all he is associated with launching the modern academic study of Jewish mysticism. However, Scholem’s study of mysticism was only part of his much broader, and far more engaged and systematic thinking, about questions of contemporary politics and the Jewish historical condition. An...
Thursday Jun 8th, 6:30–9:30pm Eastern Time
(4 sessions)
Convalescence: Sickness, Society, and Resignation
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research @ Online Classroom
In a world that is itself sick—with the irascible demands of production that continuously propagate new forms of exploitation—and that in turn sickens its inhabitants, what kind of response is retreat? In Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain, a young scion of the bourgeoisie undergoes an unexpectedly protracted rest cure in a cloistered Swiss sanitorium, while the outside world is igniting for war. In Deborah Levy’s Hot Milk, nearly a century later,...
Tuesday Jul 11th, 6:30–9:30pm Eastern Time
(4 sessions)
McCarthyism: American Politics and the Paranoid Style
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research @ Online Classroom
Senator Joseph McCarthy’s name is enshrined in the American lexicon to symbolize a style of paranoia and fear that goes far beyond his original red-baiting. Just as the path to McCarthyism was in fact paved decades earlier—as conservative factions deployed both ideological and state violence in their early fights against organized labor—the McCarthyist manner of politics has found new acolytes in the Trump era. From references to “outside...
Monday Jul 10th, 6:30–9:30pm Eastern Time
(4 sessions)
Mental Health & the Law: Politics, Psychology & Profit
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research @ Online Classroom
What is “mental health” and how has it been shaped by the law? From defining wellness to restricting the rights of the unwell, setting parameters for treatment, and regulating and protecting the pharmaceutical companies that develop and market psychological drugs (often to immense profits), government laws are fundamental to the ways mental health is experienced, perceived, policed, and commodified. But, how did the modern legal regime of mental...
Sunday Jul 16th, 2–5pm Eastern Time
(4 sessions)
Natural History of the Tulip
Chicago Botanic Garden @ 1000 Lake Cook Road, Chicago, IL 60022
Explore the fascinating history of one of our favorite garden bulbs. From the poems of Omar Kayam to the tulipomania in the Netherlands, we’ve been fascinated with this evocative flower for centuries. Dive into the history, and then explore the gardens to examine the myriad varieties of tulips planted throughout.
$49
Understanding Chicago's Planning History
The Newberry @ 60 W Walton St, Chicago, IL 60610
Understanding Chicago's Planning History using the Chicago Collections Consortium Learn about little-known aspects of the history of city planning in Chicago, drawing on the breadth and depth of resources available through the Chicago Collections Consortium and EXPLORE Chicago Collections.
Free
Arcadia in a Nutshell: History of British Gardening
Chicago Botanic Garden @ 1000 Lake Cook Road, Chicago, IL 60022
The British are known for their green thumbs and have had a long history in horticulture and landscape design. Tudors and Victorians, plant collectors, and glass house builders were all part of the mix. Come learn the A to Z of garden history from this green and pleasant land in an entertaining, informative overview.
$66
Tracing the History of Newberry's Memorable Providence
The Newberry @ 60 W Walton St, Chicago, IL 60610
Full Course Name: Witches, Family and a Book: Tracing the History of the Newberry’s Copy of Cotton Mather’s Memorable Providences The Newberry Library’s first edition of Cotton Mather’s Memorable Providences presents more than just its content. In the main text, Mather, famous for his role in the Salem Witch Trials, gives an earlier account of his experience with the “bewitched” Goodwin children in Boston. This presentation, however,...
Free
May Day Flowers: History & Design
Evanston Art Center @ 1717 Central St, Evanston, IL 60201
Explore the history of May Day, flower crown demonstration and creating a fresh seasonal floral posey to take home. Bring floral clippers, shears or kitchen scissors.
$145
Wing Foundation Lecture Series on History of the Book
The Newberry @ 60 W Walton St, Chicago, IL 60610
Wing Foundation Lecture Series on the History of the Book The year 2017 marks the centenary of the death of John M. Wing, the remarkable and eccentric collector whose bequest founded the Newberry’s John M. Wing Collection on the History of Printing. Over the last one hundred years the collection’s curators have amassed an extraordinary group of materials ranging from incunables to modern artist’s books to everything in between. Together...
Free
