Minicourse Registration Open 5-week courses - Friends Madison Library

The Friends of the Madison Public Library are offering two new minicourses for the Winter 2025 Semester to begin on Thursday, January 23 and Monday, February 3. The two-hour classes will be held in person for five weeks on Monday and Thursday afternoons from 1:30 to 3:30 pm at the Florham Park Library, 107 Ridgedale Avenue, while the Madison Library is undergoing renovations.

The tuition for each minicourse is $95. To register, visit our website, www.friendsmadisonnjlibrary.org/minicourse-registration. For more information, email the Friends at minicoursesmadisonlibrary@gmail.com, or leave a message at 929-450-7940.

The minicourses are organized by the all-volunteer Friends of the Madison Public Library, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. All proceeds benefit the Madison Public Library.

Innovative Italian Directors of the 1950s and 1960s--Neorealism and Beyond’

Dr. Gloria Pastorino, Professor of Italian and French, Department of Literature, Languages, Writing and Humanities, Fairleigh Dickinson University

5 Thursday afternoons, 1:30 to 3:30 pm; January 23, (skip Jan 30), February 6, 13, 20 and 27, 2025

What is Italian Neorealism? How did it change the way films were made nationally and internationally giving rise to the ‘French New Wave’ in the late 1950s and 1960s? We will watch films by Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio DeSica, Giuseppe DeSantis, Federico Fellini, and Michelangelo Antonioni.

Dr. Gloria Pastorino earned her PhD in Comparative Literature from Harvard University, a MA in English Literature from the University of New Mexico and a MA in Modern Languages from the University Institute of Modern Languages in Milan, Italy.

‘America and The Cold War (1945-1991’

Dr. Gary Darden, Associate Professor of History and Chair, Department of Social Sciences and History, Fairleigh Dickinson University

5 Monday afternoons, 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm; February 3, 10, 17, 24 and March 3, 2025.

This minicourse will analyze the United States and its unprecedented global power in the aftermath of World War II (in contrast to its post-WWI global posture). Spanning the years 1945 to 1991, these lectures will present the era not only from the perspective of the Soviet-American rivalry but also from the impact of decolonization in the Third World.

Feb 3 – Onerous Legacies from WWII: Berlin to Hiroshima

Feb 10 – Allies to Adversaries

Feb 17 – Decolonization & Dictatorships in the Third World

Feb 24 – Hot Wars: Korea & Vietnam

Mar 3 – Détente to Fall of the Berlin Wall

Dr. Gary Darden earned his Ph.D. in History from Rutgers University, NJ, and his MA in History from Southern Methodist University, Texas.