London through the Ages Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Program Fall 2017 Semester CEA Study Center Only - London

This course is an introductory survey of the history of London from its Roman origins to the present developments into a multicultural metropolis of nearly eight million inhabitants. One of the largest cities in Europe, London has always played a pivotal role in defining political, social, cultural, and economic innovations in the Western world and still serves as the European gateway to the US. Once the capital of a vast colonial, trading empire, London was also at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution becoming Europe's main financial center and its largest port.

Through lectures in class and onsite experiential learning, students will have the opportunity to trace history back to the ancient Londinium, a military settlement that was founded by Roman invaders in 43 CE to control the province of Britannia. Due to its location on the navigable river Thames, the port rapidly turned into a prosperous city that eventually fell prey to pillaging Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Vikings.

London was the cradle for the foundations of democracy (with the Magna Carta of 1215), modern governmental systems, public welfare, trade unions, and universal voting rights. London was also home to some of the greatest personalities of Western culture from William Shakespeare to Charles Dickens, Isaac Newton to Charles Darwin, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria, to John Maynard Keynes and Winston Churchill.

This course will follow the history of the city from a small kingdom taken by William the Conqueror in 1066 CE to the Black Death of 1348, the Hundred Years War, the rebuilding period after the Great Fire of 1666, and the growth era under the reign of Queen Victoria. Under the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901) the city grew from one to six million inhabitants with limited services and devastating poverty. The dramatic conditions of slums and factories (poignantly described by Charles Dickens) led to the introduction of mandatory education for children, improved hygienic measures, and municipal police forces.

London in the 20th century was shaken by two world wars. The German 'Blitz' of 1940-41 killed thousands of civilians and heavily damaged the city, which had to be reconstructed once again. In the post-war period immigrants from the former British Empire, along with European Jews who fled Nazi persecution, contributed to London's cosmopolitan transformation and provided the basis for the variegated and dynamic character of the contemporary city with its innovative architecture, bold engineering, and avant-garde culture.