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- Atlantis and the Cultures It Birthed – Online
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Item Number: S25HIST316
Dates: 4/4/2025 - 5/2/2025
Times: 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Days: F
Sessions: 5
Maximum Enrollment: 299
Seats Available: 248
Building: Online
Room: (Zoom)
Instructor: Paul Stang
Did Atlantis truly exist? Using a broad collection of sources, the presenter will demonstrate that it probably did, that there are tremendous ramifications stemming from it and, surprisingly, what eventually developed from that culture and possibly is continuing to do so. Troy was discovered using ancient writings as a guide. Let’s do the same thing to see that Atlantis was much more than a myth. There were also other lost contemporary civilizations. Esoteric writings will be used, such as those of Edgar Cayce, to review the eclipse of Atlantis, as well as the archaeological record to see what came next. Finally, we’ll review the cultures that built Stonehenge and hundreds of other sites throughout Europe, including those that built the pyramids (and not just of Egypt), and the significant technology they possessed. This course is a PowerPoint presentation. A companion booklet, “Atlantis! A ‘Mythtery’ Solved,” by the instructor is recommended.
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- Gutenberg to TikTok: Media History and Its Impact – In-Person
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In 2020, the average U.S. consumer spent seven hours and 50 minutes daily consuming media, up 15 minutes from 2019, with 58% of respondents saying that their total media consumption had grown. Most people know very little about the history of media or its economic and societal impacts. During eight 60-minute classes, students will learn about the evolution of media, from the invention of the printing press to everyone having a world of information in the palms of their hands. No prior knowledge is required. No assignments outside of class. No required reading. Topics to be covered include: the origins of print, radio, TV, social media and the size of their audiences; how different types of media generate income; how media is or is not regulated; news vs. journalism; commercial vs. noncommercial media; an attempt to forecast what might be in the future for media. Discussion and interaction will be encouraged, but the course will not be about blame, anger, grievance, opinions or entertainment.
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- Issues in Our Region's Natural and Human History – Online
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Item Number: S25HIST317
Dates: 5/13/2025 - 6/3/2025
Times: 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Days: Tu
Sessions: 4
Maximum Enrollment: 299
Seats Available: 227
Building: Online
Room: (Zoom)
Instructor: Jeff LaLande
This new course will deal with selected topics in our region’s natural history and human history. It will include presentations that the instructor has not given in any of his previous OLLI classes, although all of them have been given at various non-OLLI venues. The topics include: 1) geological history and environmental character of the Klamath-Siskiyou Mountains of southwestern Oregon and northwestern California; 2) anthropogenic fire in our region: the role of indigenous peoples (in the various forest-types that were present here prior to white settlement); 3) the history and consequences of 20th-century fire management in Oregon; 4) hydrology and environmental history of Bear Creek; and 5) the history of the New Deal’s Civilian Conservation Corps (with a focus on southwestern Oregon). The instructor will provide a list of suggested reading; no prior knowledge is required. Interactive lecture will be followed by Q&A and focused discussion.
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- Pirates! – Online
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Item Number: S25HIST318
Dates: 4/2/2025 - 4/23/2025
Times: 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
Days: W
Sessions: 4
Maximum Enrollment: 99
Seats Available: 12
Building: Online
Room: (Zoom)
Instructor: David Drury
There have been pirates for nearly as long as there have been boats. Waterborne robbery and organized criminal violence have been with us since well before the Bronze Age. This class will NOT focus on the careers of famous pirates during the so-called golden age. Instead, we’ll view piracy through a wide-angle lens, ranging in time from 1200 BC to the present and far beyond the Atlantic and Caribbean. We’ll look at pirate ships, tactics, living conditions and shipboard culture as well as the role of piracy in the wider world — in particular, its tangled relationship to slavery. There will be women, Chinese, Jewish and monkish pirates. One session will be devoted to pirates in folklore and fiction, with an accent on tracing the cuddlyfication of pirates in popular culture over the past two centuries, from ruthless barbarian to swashbuckling Good Bad Guy to harmlessly lovable and goofy. There will be PowerPoint-assisted lectures with Q&A and discussion, plus an annotated resource list.
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- Reconstruction: An Unfinished Revolution? – In-Person
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Item Number: S25HIST319A
Dates: 3/31/2025 - 5/12/2025
Times: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Days: M
Sessions: 7
Maximum Enrollment: 30
Building: Campbell Center
Room: Room C
Instructor: Fernando Gapasin
This course is full. Please click the "Add to Waitlist" button. Please note: You must be signed in and be a current member (or have a membership in your cart) to access the "Add to Waitlist" button. This will be an opportunity to experience the people and events that legally abolished slavery and boldly attempted to change a social structure from one based on white supremacy to one grounded in interracial democracy. Archival data, biographies and historical analysis from different schools of thought will be used to examine significant events. Classes will encourage discussion about the impact that Reconstruction had on shaping how the U.S. defines itself today. There are no prerequisites. Brief biographical summaries of significant framers of Reconstruction will be provided. Important definitions of terms and analysis of events will be reviewed in class. For participants who wish to look deeper, bibliographical information for lectures will be available to all, and many of the readings will be made available to loan. The course is intended to describe and examine Reconstruction from the Civil War until the Compromise of 1877.
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- The Evolution of Federal Public Lands Management – In-Person
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Item Number: S25HIST110M
Dates: 4/3/2025 - 5/15/2025
Times: 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Days: Th
Sessions: 7
Maximum Enrollment: 32
Seats Available: 14
Building: Medford Higher Education Center
Room: Room 118
Instructor: Don Barry
This seven-lecture course will review this country’s federal land management policies from the Revolutionary War to the present. It will cover the constitutional basis for federal land ownership and demonstrate how for the first 100 years, the divestiture of our publicly owned lands was this country’s top priority. The subsequent emergence of a public land conservation movement and the creation of the National Park, Wildlife Refuge and Forest systems will be traced. Focus will include the management of the Wildlife Refuge and National Park systems, including a look at the Everglades, Yosemite and Yellowstone, with an eminent guest lecturer. The course will also focus on the establishment of more than 100 million acres of new conservation areas in Alaska, as well as the old-growth forest battles in the Northwest. There will be no assigned reading and no prior knowledge/skill sets will be required. The course will involve a mixture of lectures and class discussions.
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- The Gettysburg Campaign 2.0 – In-Person
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Item Number: S25HIST306A
Dates: 4/15/2025 - 5/20/2025
Times: 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Days: Tu
Sessions: 6
Maximum Enrollment: 34
Seats Available: 23
Building: Campbell Center
Room: Room A
Instructor: James Cannon
This course examines the Gettysburg Campaign of June and July of 1863. The overarching goal is to show how several rapid and critical battlefield decisions likely made the difference between victory and defeat for the Union Army. The course will be divided into six sessions. The early sessions will cover the causes and conditions that led to the Civil War and the state of the war in 1863. The other sessions will progress sequentially through each day’s fighting and how the decisions made one day set the stage for the next day of fighting. Two classes have been added to the previous course on the Gettysburg campaign to allow for additional materials about the second and third days’ battles; chapters concerning the life of the ordinary soldier; battlefield medicine; and what happened after the Civil War to 13 notable participants. Time for questions is included in each session.
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- The Range of Light – In-Person
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Item Number: S25HIST320M
Dates: 5/7/2025 - 5/28/2025
Times: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Days: W
Sessions: 4
Maximum Enrollment: 50
Seats Available: 24
Building: Rogue Valley Manor, Skyline Plaza
Room: 1 Skyline Drive, Medford
Instructor: John Schuyler
From afar, the Spanish conquerors of the 18th century saw them as a snowy mountain range. Up closer, John Muir coined the phrase “The Range of Light,” which has endured. Whether comprised of snow or light, the Sierra Nevada Mountains are the backbone of California in many ways. They are also a barrier — capturing moisture coming from the Pacific, but also a barrier to pioneers coming from the east. The mountains provide the state with most of its water. They are key to outdoor recreation, including attractions such as Yosemite National Park and Lake Tahoe. They played a key role in providing the lumber used to build much of the nation’s most populated state. This course looks at the geography, natural history, human history and challenges facing the single largest mountain range in the Lower 48. “The Gentle Wilderness” is now plagued by overcrowding, dying trees and unwanted wildfires. What does the future hold? Classes will include lectures, slides, videos and time for discussions.
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