I am offering this class because I am insatiably curious about the world around us. I also love history the study of which helps explain what we see and experience now. I was a documentary filmmaker for many years where I had the privilege of asking many people around the world in all sorts of interesting situations some great questions. In law school, the Socratic method appealed to me as a way of getting to the bottom of things. Who doesn't want to hear about strange and interesting and sometimes awful laws and understand how they came about, and how they define us as a country.