Week I: The Birth of a City

Lecture (Sep 26): Celtic Origins, Londinium and Roman urbanization, the Anglo-Saxons

Reading:
Eric Porter, London: A Social History, Ch. 1 "Introduction"
John Morris, Londinium: London in the Roman Empire, Ch. 5 "The Founding of London"
Peter Ackroyd, London: The Biography, Ch. 4 "The Stones"
Francis Sheppard, London: A History, Ch. 3 "Change and Decay"

Sources:
Tacitus, Agricola, 8-18 (98 CE), The Annals, Book XIV: 29-39 (109 CE)
Cassius Dio, Historia Romana, Book LX: 19-23 (229 CE)

Site Visit: Museum of London

Week II: Medieval Times

Lecture (Oct 3): Society, law, government, commerce, and religion from the Normans to the Tudors

Reading:
Porter, Ch. 2 "Formation to Reformation"
Stephen Inwood, A History of London, Ch. 3 "Power & Conflict"
Sheppard, Ch. 6 "The Emergence of the Medieval Capital, c.886-1215"

Sources:
Henry I, Grant of Tax Liberties to London (1133)
Anon., St. Erkenwald (c.1386)
Richard Maidstone, Concordia Between Richard II and the City of London (1392)

Images:
British Library, London in Medieval Manuscripts

Site Visit: Westminster Abbey

Week III: London's Reformations

Lecture (Oct 10): The Tudor peace, Henry VIII and the Reformation, Elizabethan London

Reading:
Porter, Ch. 3 "Tudor London"
Peter Hall, Cities in Civilization, Ch. 4 "The World as Stage, 1570-1620"
Liza Picard, Elizabeth's London, Chs. 7, 16 "Foreigners – Religion, Witchcraft, Superstition and Magic"

Sources:
John Stow, "The Singularities of London" in A Survey of London (1603)

Site Visit: National Portrait Gallery, Charing Cross

Week IV: War, Plague, Fire, Rebirth

Lecture (Oct 17): The English Civil War, the Restoration, disaster & recovery

Reading:
Porter, Ch. 4 "War, Plague and Fire"
Inwood, Ch. 8 "London in the Civil War 1640-1660"

Sources:
Samuel Pepys, Diary [excerpts on the Great Fire of London] (1666)
Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year [excerpts] (1722)

Site Visit: St. Paul's Cathedral

Week V: Dr. Johnson's Metropolis

Lecture (Oct 24): London in the Augustan Age; politics & revolution; the city and maritime power

Reading:
Porter, Chs. 5-7 "Triumph of the Town – Commercial City – Culture City"

Sources:
Daniel Defoe, "London" in A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain (1727)
Henry Fielding, "An Inquiry into the Causes of the Late Increase of Robbers" (1751)

Site Visit: Old Royal Naval College, Queen's House & Royal Observatory, Greenwich

Week VI: Forging an Industrial City

Lecture (Oct 31): Industry & technology, crime & punishment, social & political reform

Reading:
Porter, Chs. 8, 9, 11 "Capitalism in the Capitol – The Contagion of Numbers – Social Problems, Social Improvement"
David Campion, "'Policing the Peelers': Parliament, the Public, and the Metropolitan Police" in M. Cragoe and A. Taylor, eds., London Politics, 1760-1914

Sources:
Charles Dickens, Letter to The Times on public executions (1849)
Thomas Beames, The Rookeries of London, Chs. 1-3 (1852)
"Jack the Ripper" Letters and Postcards (1888-90)

Image:
Sir Joshua Jebb, Royal Engineers, Drawing of HMP Pentonville (1844)

MIDTERM EXAMINATION, WEDNESDAY, OCT 31, 9:00-10:00 am

Week VII: The Heart of the Empire

Lecture (Nov 7): The New Rome, the pageants, colonials in the imperial metropolis, Irish London
Guided Tour (Nov 10): Houses of Parliament, Westminster

Reading:
Porter, Chs. 12, 13, "Victorian Life – Expansion 1890-1945"
Jonathan Schneer, London 1900: The Imperial Metropolis, Chs. 1-3

Sources:
Virginia Woolf, "Thunder at Wembley" (1924)
Claude Friese-Greene, "The Open Road: London" (1926)
John Maynard Keynes, "Art and the State" (1936)

Image:
Grounds of the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley (1924)

Site Visit: Royal Albert Hall & Albert Memorial, Hyde Park

Note: Sunday, November 11, at 11:00 am GMT, is the 100th anniversary of the Armistice that ended the First World War. There will be a major public commemoration in London to mark this historical event. Keep this day free in your calendar so that our class may participate in this important occasion.

Week VIII: London at War

Lecture (Nov 14): The Home front in the world wars, the Blitz, social leveling, the influx of Allied forces

Reading:
Porter, Ch.14, "Modern Growth, Modern Government: 1890-1945"
Peter Ackroyd, London Under: The Secret History Beneath the Streets, Ch. 12 "The War Below"
Amy Bell, London Was Ours: Diaries and Memoirs of the London Blitz, Ch. 1 "Looking at London"
Philip Ziegler, London at War, Chs. 8-10 "Blimey! We've Lost the War – A Real Community – Is There a Myth of the Blitz?

Sources:
Winston Churchill, "Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat" (1940), "Their Finest Hour" (1940)
Edward R. Murrow, Broadcast from London during the Blitz (1940)
GPO Film Unit, "London Can Take It!" (1940)

Website:
Bomb Sight (Bomb damage database of the London Blitz, October 1940 to June 1941)

Images:
Wartime propaganda posters 1, 2

Music:
Vera Lynn, "We'll Meet Again" (1939), "The White Cliffs of Dover" (1942)
"When the Lights Go On Again" (1942)

Site Visit: Cabinet War Rooms, Westminster

WALKING TOUR MAP EXERCISE DUE FRIDAY, NOV 16

Week IX: The New Jerusalem

Lecture (Nov 21): Austerity & recovery, the welfare state, 1960s affluence and consumer culture

Reading:
Porter, Ch. 15 "Swinging London, Dangling Economy: 1945-1975"
Inwood, Ch. 25 "Postwar London, 1945-1965"
A.N. Wilson, London: A History, Chs. 12, 13 "Postwar – The End of the Bowler Hat"

Sources:
"You Can Walk Across It on the Grass," Time (1966)

Music:
The Beatles, "Penny Lane" (1966)
The Kinks, "Dedicated Follower of Fashion" (1966), "Shangri-La" (1969)
"We are the Village Green Preservation Society" (1968)

Video:
Crown Film Unit, "Festival in London" (1951)
Pathé News, Coronation of Elizabeth II (1953)
ITV, Ready Steady Go! (1963-66)
State Funeral of Winston Churchill (1965)

Site Visit: Robin Hood Gardens, Poplar

Week X: The Wind of Change

Lecture (Nov 28): Immigration and race relations, the turbulent 1970s and 80s, Thatcher's London

Reading:
Porter, Ch. 16 "Thatcher's London"
Hall, Ch. 28 "The City of Capitalism Rampant, 1979-1993"
Marc Matera, Black London, Ch. 4 "Sounds of Black London"

Sources:
Enoch Powell, "Rivers of Blood" speech (1968)
Salman Rushdie, "The New Empire within Britain" in Imaginary Homelands (1982)

Music:
The Clash, "London Calling" (1979), "The Guns of Brixton" (1979)

Video:
First Edition TV, The Battle for Brixton (1981)

Site Visit: Black Cultural Archives, Brixton

Week XI: London Going Forward

Lecture (Dec 5): Contemporary London society, Brexit and the future, reflections on the city's history

Reading:
Porter, Ch. 17 "The London Marathon"
Wilson, Ch. 14 "London Cosmopolis"
Doreen Massey, World City, Ch. 2 "A Successful City, But..."

Sources:
Sam Knight, "The Lie that Londoners Tell Themselves" in The New Yorker (2017)
Mayor of London, "London's Global & European Future" (2017)
The Economist, "The Long Shadow" (2018)
Tristam Hunt, "London as a Capital for the 21st Century" in Country & Town Home (2018)

Video:
Sky News, "The Fire of London" (2017)

Site Visits:
Al-Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre, Westbourne Grove
Grenfell Tower Memorial, Ladbroke Grove

RESEARCH ESSAY DUE BY 5:00 pm, FRIDAY, DEC 7

Week XII: Conclusion

Weds, Dec 12: FINAL EXAMINATION, 9:00-11:00 am

Sat, Dec 15: Farewell dinner, The Victoria pub, Mile End