**Course registration sold-out. A limited number of single course tickets will be available at the box office the same day as the lecture.**
The “Swinging Sixties” swept across the West like a tsunami, bringing with it a torrent of powerful personalities and events. In this new series from Curious Minds favourite Dr. Peter Harris, we’ll examine how the decade’s most notable people and movements left their mark on history. We survey the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley, the Paris Student Rebellion, and the emerging Red Army Faction in Berlin; the remarkable women Betty Friedan, Rachel Carson, and Jane Jacobs; the Beatles, the Doors, and the revolution in rock music; the Berlin Wall and Stonewall. We’ll explore the fascinating social contexts from which these cultural upheavals emerged and whose aftershocks are still felt today.
Led by Peter Harris, the former Assistant Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science of the University of Toronto. He previously helmed the popular Curious Minds series The Starchitects, Designing the World: The Global Starchitects and By Design: A History of Design Movements.
October 17: Into the ‘60s
The ‘60s did not spring from a void. We trace the seminal events leading into this decade: the Cold War; McCarthyism; the Economic and the Baby Booms; the Civil Rights Movement; and the artistic awakenings set in motion by The Beats and the Abstract Expressionists.
October 24: The Dawning of A New Era
While “The Pill” revolutionizes sexual relations, a sex symbol President generates euphoria with his visions for the Peace Corps and a Man on the Moon. As the Cold War heats up, the Baby Boomers begin hitting university and three remarkable women—Rachel Carson, Betty Friedan and Jane Jacobs—shake up the intellectual landscape.
October 31: Living the Dream
Folk music re-emerges from the McCarthy-era chill, inspiring young musicians like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. Andy Warhol immortalizes Campbell’s Soup Cans! The Civil Rights Movement makes almost daily headlines and reaches a climax in Martin Luther King’s "I Have a Dream" speech. But the Dream is shattered by a tragedy: the assassination of JFK.
November 14: The LBJ Era: The Great Society vs. Vietnam
US President Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) passes a series of ambitious reforms to support civil rights and combat poverty but his military commitments in Vietnam conflict with his lofty goals. The Free Speech Movement in Berkeley marks the rise of militant student activism across the USA, and an outdoor rock concert on nearby Mt. Tamalpais kicks off the Summer of Love and thrust groups like the Jefferson Airplane and The Doors onto the national scene.
Further Viewing | My Generation (1:00 PM)
November 21: 1968!
1968 was the year when the decade’s cultural and geopolitical upheavals reached a fever pitch. Given the surging violence in Vietnam, the student revolutions in Prague and Paris, the rise of terrorist groups in Germany and Quebec, and a series of traumatic assassinations in the United States, societies across the planet seemed to reach a breaking point.
November 28: The Sixties Draw To A Close
As Nixon struggles to end the Vietnam War, three remarkable events close out the decade: Woodstock, the raid on the Stonewall Inn in New York, and the Moon Landing. Neal Armstrong’s famous words sum up this world-changing decade: “a giant leap for Mankind.”