The Oxford/Berkeley Program
2010 Course Overview
The Age of Revolutions
Debates as diverse as the separation of church and state, the meaning of individual freedom and liberty, and the nature of revolution were the hallmark of the early modern Atlantic world. Spanning the period from 1640 to 1800, this course examines the political, intellectual, economic, and religious issues that led to the revolutions of England, America, and France.
This course focuses on three historical periods: the English commonwealth during the civil wars and the Glorious Revolution of 1688; the American Revolution, its ideas, and its fidelity both to the Enlightenment and to the English “country” tradition; and the political and intellectual events of the 1780s and 90s in France, and the rise of Napoleon.
Tutor: Martin Meenagh
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Ancient Greek Mythology
What are Greek myths? How can we interpret them? Why are they still so powerful? This course examines some of the most important Greek myths from Plato’s Myth of Atlantis to the tales of Odysseus and the Cyclops, Perseus and Medusa, and the power of Homer’s Iliad. Explore the meaning of myths and mythology and how they are distinguished from other traditional tales, such as legends and fairy tales.
Using original texts (in translation) and analyzing related works of art, this course explores these fascinating tales from the past and evaluates various ways in which scholars have tried to make sense of them from antiquity to the present day.
Tutor: Steve Kershaw
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The Art and Craft of Garden Making: From the English Landscape Garden
to the 21st-Century Garden Plot
This seminar traces the evolution of the English garden from the cloistered retreats of the Middle Ages to the vast expanses of eighteenth-century English landscape gardens and the modest suburban gardens of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. It examines the influences which have shaped garden design—in the arts, science, technology, philosophy, and politics—and the changing perceptions of nature, art, and design which have led to the evolution of the garden as perhaps England’s greatest contribution to the world of art. The course features three days of visits to key gardens including Hidcote Manor, the seminal twentieth-century garden created by the American-turned-Englishman Lawrence Johnston.
Tutor: Richard Bisgrove
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Cathedrals and Abbeys of England
England’s cathedrals and monastic buildings are among the most majestic legacies of the Middle Ages. This course explores the documentary, archaeological and architectural evidence for the origins of monasteries and cathedrals, the changing geography of bishops’ sees, the evolution of building plans and building styles, the differences between the monastic orders, and the landed estates which supported religious communities.
Tutor: James Bond
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The English House: A Broad Perspective
Shelter is essential for human survival, but some of us appear to need more of it than others. This course examines the important role the English house has played throughout history from large, aristocratic stately homes to farmhouses and cottages. We look at houses that have been built in England during the last 1,000 years and examine what they can tell us about the social and economic structures of English society during these periods as well as the lifestyles of the occupants.
Tutor: Robert Machin
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Home Sweet Home: The Fabric, Social Structure, and Culture of the Victorian and Edwardian Home
Home life was central to Victorian and Edwardian culture. The values of this society, its vitality and contradictions, were reflected in the industrialists’ palace, the laborers’ tenement, and the prosperous middle-class villas. This richly illustrated course examines all aspects of the architecture, social life, interior design, and furnishings of this fascinating period, which lay the foundations for the world we live in today.
Tutor: Antony Buxton
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The Long Weekend: Britain Between the Wars
A brave new world of Art Deco and elegant optimism or a grim pause before the killing began again? How did artists and designers in Britain help to shape society in the period between 1918 and 1939?
The Long Weekend charts the direction taken by the arts, and particularly by architecture and the decorative arts. Students study the contributions made by emigrés like Erich Mendelsohn, Berthold Lubetkin and Amyas Connell, and by society decorators including Sybil Colefax, John Fowler and Basil Ionides. But the course also attempts to answer questions about Britain’s uneasy relationship with Modernism, while exploring the cultural impact of major historical events such as the Irish War of Independence and the Abdication Crisis. There will be field trips to several important landmarks of the period, which we hope will include Upton House, Eltham Palace and the De La Warr Pavilion.
Tutor: Adrian Tinniswood
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Lunatics, Lovers and Poets: Shakespeare's Comic Worlds
Comic confusions ending in unity and marriage are the stuff of Shakespeare’s comedies and those happy endings. The stage of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre was a field of play on which all things became possible…for a time. Boys-playing-women-dressed-as-boys enchanted lovelorn suitors and Elizabethan audiences alike; dazzling word-play darted across the stage; honeyed phrases in speech and song entranced the ear; monsters spoke poetry, and those that were lost were always found.
This course gives participants the opportunity to study some of Shakespeare’s best-known comedies as well as those that may not, at first glance, appear comic at all. We shall discuss plays from across Shakespeare’s writing career beginning with one of his earliest ones and ending with one of the last he wrote. The plays will be studied within their Renaissance context as well as considering how they have been adapted for performance on stage and screen. The course includes trips to the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon and The Globe Theatre in London.
Plays: The Taming of the Shrew, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, All’s Well That Ends Well, and The Tempest.
Tutor: Lynn Robson
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The Royal Navy, Defender of Freedom 1922–2020
After protecting and sustaining the British Empire for more than 300 years and playing a major role in the defeat of Germany during World War I, the Royal Navy entered a period of retrenchment. This course traces the changing role of the Royal Navy from World War II and the Korean War to the arm’s race, the Cold War era, and the current campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. We examine the impact of new technologies, including nuclear-powered submarines and ballistic missiles, all of which affect the composition and strategic application of Britain’s navy. We also consider the Royal Navy’s new challenges: to discover a new purpose in the midst of a new enemy, global terrorism.
Tutor: Justin Reay
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The Tudors
During the reigns of the Tudor monarchs, the country underwent a series of radical religious changes, laid the foundations of modern government and society, survived the Spanish Armada, and gave rise to a remarkable culture that produced some of the most memorable works of literature in the English language. This course traces the religious, cultural, and social changes that fashioned this world, paying particular attention to the royal court and the extraordinary lives and personalities of the Tudor monarchs. Field trips include Henry VIII’s magnificent palace at Hampton Court, Westminster Abbey and the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Tutor: Dr. Janet Dickinson
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