(above) Ian Drake, Associate Professor of Political Science and Law at Montclair State University, will return to the Summit Library for a New Explore Your World Program this September.
Command Performance: Ian Drake Returns to the Summit Library for a New Explore Your World Program
The Summit Free Public Library is thrilled to welcome back Professor Ian Drake, an Associate Professor at Montclair University, for a new six-week course in the popular Explore Your World series covering Western Political Thinkers from the Ancients to the Moderns. Covering Plato, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Mill, and Marx, the six-week minicourse highlights some of the most important political thinkers and writers in history.
The first week of the course will examine Plato’s concept of state using his The Republic as a jumping off point for the lesson and class discussion. The second week will examine Machiavelli’s Rules for Living. The third week transitions into a review of Hobbes and Locke and their views on human nature. The following week will cover Rousseau and his return to the ancients, looking at his Discourse on the Origin of Inequality. In week five, John Stuart Mill and the concept of utilitarianism and liberty will be examined. The course wraps up with a look at Marx’s ‘withering away of the state’ aka Marx’s ‘Endstate’, with a nod to Lenin’s speech on “Democracy” and Dictatorship.
The free course will be held from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. and runs on consecutive Fridays from September 13 – October 18. Professor Ian Drake is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Law. His course last fall on the Supreme Court drew rave reviews from participants and kicked off the library’s successful Explore Your World program. Seating is limited. Those wishing to register should contact the library at 908-273-0350, ext. 3 or visit the Information Desk in the main room of the library. The Explore Your World series is funded through a generous grant from the Summit Area Public Foundation.
For those looking for less than a six week commitment, the library is offering a single session class with instructor Bruce Tucker of Rutgers Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) on American’s Foreign Intervention: Afghanistan. Taking place on Friday, September 6, 2019 from 10:30 a.m. -12:30 p.m., Tucker will provide a brief background history of Afghanistan prior to American intervention, followed by an examination of the ever increasing American political and military involvement in Afghanistan. Billions was spent on military and training to support Islamic fundamentalists (Taliban) to help them defeat and remove the Soviet presence in Afghanistan, which was subsequently followed by unsuccessful attempts at establishing a democracy. The 9/11 attacks, which precipitated the US invasion of Afghanistan, has resulted in 18 years of undeclared war with what appears to be no clear end in sight. While the class may not provide any clear solutions and certainly no easy answers to this nearly two decades long foreign intervention, the class will provide background and context and provide an opportunity for questions and class discussion.
