All Courses

In this course, Professor Mike Braddick (University of Sheffield) explores the English Civil War (1642-51) through the lens of radical and revolution. We begin by thinking about the causes of the war in England, focusing in particular on why the...

In this course, Professor Christopher Read (University of Warwick) examines the rise of Joseph Stalin from his birth in 1878 to the eve of the Second World War in 1938. We begin in the first module by thinking about his early life, including...

In this course, Dr David Lewis (University of Edinburgh) explores slavery in ancient Greece. We begin by looking at the earliest evidence for slavery in the Greek world, focusing in particular on the descriptions of slavery in the Linear B ...

In this course, Professor Llewelyn Morgan (University of Oxford) explores Book 11 of Virgil’s Aeneid. In the first module, we think about Book 11 in relation to its position within the epic as a whole, focusing in particular on its relation to the...

In this course, Professor John Morrill (University of Cambridge) examines one of the most extraordinary events in British political history: the execution of the king, Charles I, in January 1649. We begin in the first module by thinking about who...

In this course, Professor John Morrill (University of Cambridge) examines the life of Oliver Cromwell from obscure beginnings in Cambridgeshire to his election as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1653. In the ...

In this course, Professor John McRae explores J. B. Priestley’s ‘An Inspector Calls’. In the first module, we provide a broad introduction to the play, focusing in particular on the influence of Gogol’s ‘The Government Inspector’ and the ...

In this course, Dr Jonathan Smele (Queen Mary, University of London) explores the (so-called) Revolution of 1905. We begin in the first module by considering whether this was a revolution at all and – if so – whether we should see events as being ...

In this course, Professor Paul Cartledge (University of Cambridge) gives a detailed account of the Peloponnesian War, 431-404 BC. We begin by clarifying some of the terminology used to discuss the war, including the question of what we should ...

In this course, Professor Richard Jenkyns (University of Oxford) explores the theme of characterisation in Homer's Iliad, focusing in particular on fourteen key characters. In the first module, we think about what we mean by the terms 'character'...

In this course, Professor Marion Turner (University of Oxford) explores The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale, part of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. We begin by thinking about the portrait of the Wife of Bath in the General Prologue of the Canterbury...

In this course, Dr Iain Law (University of Birmingham) thinks about utilitarianism, one of the three major normative ethical theories alongside Kantian deontological ethics and virtue ethics. In the first module, we introduce the concept of a...