THIS IS A TWO-SEMESTER COURSE.

Modern Britain has been one of the most vibrant and important contributors to world culture, literature, the economy, the arts, and history. From Britain we got the Industrial Revolution, railroads and steamships, the miniskirt and the Beatles. From Britain we got some of the greatest novelists, from Jane Austen to Dickens, Thackery, and the Brontë sisters; the great fictional detectives Sherlock Holmes, Hercules Poirot, and Lord Peter Wimsey; and great science fiction writing that includes H.G. Wells, Narnia, and the Hogwarts School of Harry Potter.

In this course, led by experienced researcher and historian Dr. Thomas Milton Kemnitz, students will focus each week on one great British visual artist and one great British writer, as well as on the history and society that surrounded them. In doing so, they will come to understand how these events, movements, and artists were all interconnected.

Students will also explore topics such as:

• The full spectrum of British life, from grand houses to humble hovels
• Notable figures, from Winston Churchill in World War II to Liz Truss, who failed to last as Prime Minister as long as a head of lettuce in 2022
• Significant events, from the great victories at Trafalgar and Waterloo and the Battle of Britain to the debacles of the charge of the Light Brigade and of Gallipoli and Dunkirk

Dr. Kemnitz attended university in England as both an undergraduate and a graduate student and was a participant in the educational revolution of the 1960s. As a research historian, he was one of the new wave of English social historians. His research covered many areas; one of his contributions was to the area of visual history. This course will be enhanced by some of the thousands of photographs he took during the decades of his engagement with English history.

This is a chance for students to be in a small group with a distinguished researcher—the sort of opportunity normally only afforded to graduate students in university.

Class Meetings: Mondays, 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Fall Semester: September 8 – December 15, 2025
Spring Semester: January 12 – May 11, 2026

Student Expectations: Students will be expected to do the weekly readings and to finish and present a project each semester.

Student Support: The instructor is available via email.

Feedback/Assessment: The instructor will critique all of the students’ written work.

Materials/Supplies: Students will need to purchase the book Modern Britain: 1750 to the Present, by James Vernon.