Friends, Greeners, Res Publicans,

Greetings from Olympia and an early welcome to Res Publica: Examining the Body Politic.  For those of you who will be new to Evergreen, welcome to the college.  For those returning, welcome back.  As Charles Pailthorp, Matt Smith, and I begin to complete our planning for the program, we want to share some advice, announcements, and assignments with you to help you prepare for it.  Specifically, we ask that you attend to four tasks: visiting the program web site to read the syllabus, covenant, and other important documents; reading our first text; planning for our week-long retreat early in the Fall Quarter; and making sure that you are registered in the right way.

The Web Site:

Our syllabus, covenant, and other documents will soon be posted to the program’s web site, and we ask that you visit the site soon and drop in on it several times before the fall quarter begins.  Navigate to the Evergreen home page at www.evergreen.edu, then click on “Campus Directories,” then on “Acadmic Program Pages.”  The URL is http://acadmic. evergreen.edu/curricular/respublica.  Our program requires frequent use of the page for posting writings and responses as well as having the latest information about classes and assignments.

The Book List:

One piece of the syllabus that I want to get into your hands early is the book list.  Here are the readings for Fall, in the order in which we study them:

Homer, The Iliad.  Translated by Robert Fagles.  Reissue edition.  Penguin, 1998.

Plato, The Trial and Death of Socrates.  Translated by G.M.A. Grube and revised by John M. Cooper.  Hackett Publishing, 2001.

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics.  Translated by Terence Irwin.  2nd edition.  Hackett Publishing, 1999.

Seneca, Moral and Political Essays.  Edited and translated by John M. Cooper and J.F. Procopé.  Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan.  Edited by C.B. MacPhersons.  Penguin Books, 1982.

John Locke, Second Treatise of Government.  Edited by C.B. MacPherson.  Hackett Publishing, 1980.

Leo Strauss, Natural Right and History.  Reissue edition.  University of Chicago Press, 1965.

NB: It is absolutely crucial that you own these specific editions of the texts.  We must have the same words on the same pages before us when we discuss the texts in seminar and in writing. 

Your first reading assignment --  to be completed BEFORE classes begin:

Before we convene in September we expect you to have completed reading Homer’s Iliad.  This is a marvelous poem for summer reading, and you’ll enjoy it.  It’s also on the longish side, so get your hands on a copy and start reading as soon as you put down this letter.  Count on spending twelve to fifteen hours reading slowly, and read as much aloud as your wind and voice allow.  After reading the poem, please also read the introduction by Bernard Knox.  (Renting the movie “Troy” is optional.)  Knowing the Iliad is a prerequisite for understanding all the other ancient Greek material we’ll study, and Homer makes us ask delicious questions about the central themes of the program.

The Fall Retreat:

We have planned a week-long all-program retreat to Sun Lakes State Park in eastern Washington.  During this retreat we will study the communities in the area while continuing our discussions of our early texts.  We will depart the morning of Monday, October 10 and return the evening of Friday, October 14.  All program members are expected to attend for the entire week.  If you have questions or concerns about the retreat, please contact us immediately.

Registration:

Be sure you understand the registration options for the program, and double-check to determine whether you’ve registered for the appropriate course number (CRN).  Like many all-level programs, Res Publica has separate CRNs for first-year students and sophomores – seniors.  Additionally, we have separate CRNs for the different credit options.  Students who register for sixteen credits are expected either to study Latin with me or to work in an internship with the guidance of Chuck or Matt.  Students who register for twelve credits are expected to take an additional course in language or another appropriate discipline, and they should confirm its suitability with us.

Your faculty team is excited about the work ahead, and we look forward to meeting you or, for those we’ve already worked with, to reacquainting ourselves with you.  If you have questions, or if you just want to say hello, you can reach us at:

Yours,

Andrew Reece