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U3A in London (Hampstead) - Wednesday European History TalksTimetable updated 7/12/2024 We meet on Wednesday mornings at 11:40 in Room 2.21 in the Old Town Hall.We suggest you bookmark this page which is always up-to-date. Talks are given by Ken Baldry. |
Autumn Term 2025 | |
Sep 17th | 186. Cholera & other health & sanitation problems with 117 slides. |
Sep 24th | 187. The Year of Revolutions - 1848 part One with 115 slides |
Oct 1st | 188. The Composer Richard Wagner with 138 slides & music |
Oct 8th | 189. The Year of Revolutions - 1848 part Two with 110 slides. |
Oct 15th | 190. British Colonial ventures with 95 slides. |
Oct 22nd | 191. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of British artists with 139 slides. |
Oct 29th | 192. The 1850s and the British-French-Crimean War against Russia with 110 slides. |
Nov 5th | 193. The Indian Mutiny against British Colonial rule with 86 slides. |
Nov 12th | 194. The Unification of Italy or Risorgimento with 93 slides & some music. |
Noc 19th | 195. Spain, Portugal & Germany to about 1868. The Russians crush the Polish Revolt, aided by the Prussians, who crush the Danes & Austrians with 113 slides. |
Nov 26th | 196. The extraordinary career of Napoleon III with 122 slides. |
Dec 3rd | 197. The Composer & pianist Franz Liszt with 130 slides & music. |
Dec 10th | 198. Paul Cezanne: The Father of Modern Art & the greatest painter since Rembrandt. with 212 slides. |
Spring Term 2026 | |
Jan 7th | 199. Europe to 1871 The Turks after the Crimean War, Britain after 1857, Austria & Romania after 1849 & France until March 187 with 115 slides. |
Jan 14th | 200. France, Ireland and the Balkans. The Paris Commune & the revival of France. The rise of nationalism in Ireland & the Balkans with 108 slides. |
Jan 21st | 201. The Impressionists: Monet, Renoir, Sisley & Pissarro with their inspirations Boudin & Manet. with 241 slides. |
Jan 28th | 202. Scandinavia to World War One. The more-or-less self-contained history of Sweden, Norway & Denmark, with an excursion into Evolution. with 104 slides. |
Feb 4th | 203. Edvard Grieg. Norway's greatest composer & the rise of nationalism in music with 159 slides & music. |
Feb 18th | 204. Balkan Wars & the Great Carve-up. The Russo-Turkish war & knock-on events. The Great Powers carve up Africa & other parts of the World with 74 slides. |
Feb 25th | 205. Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Russia's greatest composer, so far with 158 slides & music. |
Mar 4th | 206. Africa 1863-1885. Goings on the the European Powers up to the Congress of Berlin with 103 slides. |
Mar 11th | 207. Iberia and Russia to 1890. Sorting out the mess after the Glorious Revolution in Spain. The reign of Alexanders II & III with 108 slides. |
Mar 18th | 208. Van Gogh. The beginning of Expressionism in visual art with 168 slides. |
Mar 25th | 209. The composer Arthur Sullivan, not just about “Gilbert and...” with 196 slides & music. |
Summer Term 2026 | |
April 22nd | 210. France, Austria and Britain. Catching up on France & Britain. Scandal in Austria with 100 slides.. |
April 29th | 211. The Great Powers mid-1890s. Great Power rivalries before the turn of the Century events with 100 slides. |
May 6th | 212. Gustav Mahler 1860 - 1911. The composer taking the path from Romanticism to Expressionism with 155 slides & music. |
May 13th | 213. The Dreyfus Affair. A military scandal. The first great showdown between republican & reactionary forces in France with 94 slides. |
May 20th | 214. Russian Modernism Part One. Russian Art comes of age with 143 slides. |
May 27th | 215. The Boer War. Britain conquers the Boer (Dutch) Republics in South Africa with 117 slides. |
June 3rd | 216. The Balkans, France and Art. The Balkans are now free of the Turks. A sad Austria intervenes. French politics & modernism takes off in the Arts with 219 slides. |
June 10th | 216. The Balkans, France and Art. The Balkans are now free of the Turks. A sad Austria intervenes. French politics & modernism takes off in the Arts with 219 slides. |
June 17th | 217. Iberia and Russia go into the 20th Century. Spain loses Cuba & the Philippines. Anarchists are active at home. |
June 24th | 218. The composer Edward Elgar 1857 - 1934. Perhaps England’s joint greatest composer, there was more to him than popular conception with 194 slides & music. |
July 1st | 219. Italy, Germans & Britain into the 20th Century with 119 slides. |
July 8th | 220. Art in France. The consequences of the post-Impressionists: the Fauves & the Cubists with 224 slides. |
July 15th | 221. The composer Arnold Schönberg 1874 - 1951. The Father of “nasty modern music” but a logical advance in musical technique with 171 slides & music. |
July 22nd | 222. Britain and Russia to 1908. A failed revolution in Russia, assassinations, the Balkans with 101 slides. |
Autumn Term 2026 | |
223. Fatal Competition. How competition on the North Atlantic steamship route lead to the sinking of the Titanic with 129 slides. | |
224. Votes for Women. The British story. with 90 slides. | |
225. 1908 on Mainland Europe and Britain, starting in Serbia & the Turkish Empire, then Ireland, Britain, Portugal & back to Britain with 108 slides. | |
226. Balkan Wars and Ireland with 123 slides. | |
227. Italian Futurism. A modernist Art movement with unfortunate implications with 211 slides. | |
228. 1st World War 1 1914 with 116 slides. | |
229. 1st World War 2 1915-1 with 103 slides. | |
230. 1st World War 3 1915-2 with 112 slides & music. | |
231. 1st World War 4 1915-3 with 96 slides. | |
232. 1st World War 5 1915-3 and 1916-1 with 96 slides. | |
233. 1st World War 6 1916-2 with 83 slides & music.. | |
Spring Term 2027 | |
234. The composer Ralph Vaughan Williams 12/10/1872 - 20/8/1958. His music & life including his Great War experience with 152 slides & music. | |
235. 1st World War 7 1916-3 1917-1 with 102 slides. | |
236. 1st World War 8 1917-2 with 105 slides. | |
237. Egon Schiele. The scandalous Austrian Expressionist artist. with 314 slides. | |
238. 1st World War 9 1918 with 94 slides. | |
239. 1st World War 10 1918 with 106 slides. | |
240. Revived States in the Baltic. Finland, Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania with 98 slides. | |
241. The composer Jean Sibelius 1865 - 1957. The leading Finnish composer’s life & works with 158 slides & music.. | |
242. The Russian Civil War. Reds versus Whites & the Polish involvement with 103 slides. | |
243. Talking about Peace. The Versailles Conference & peace treaties with 103 slides. | |
244. New thinking, good & bad: Psychoanalysis, curing syphilis & economic bad ideas with 86 slides. | |
245. After World War I-1. The Ottomans, Britain & Italy with 107 slides. | |
246. Russian Modernism in Visual Art Part Two ....also in the service of the Soviet Revolution with 229 slides. | |
Summer Term 2027 | |
247. After World War I-2. Germany, Disarmament, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Britain & the early Soviet Union with 108 slides. | |
248. Czechs, France, Britain, Italy to 1929 with 104 slides. | |
249. The Bauhaus: Modern art, architecture & Design in Germany with 220 slides. | |
250. Iberia 1900 - 1975. Spain is not involved in the Great War & Portugal to past the end of these talks with 110 slides. | |
251. Neutral countries in the Great War: What happened in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands & Switzerland with 83 slides. | |
252. The composer Bela Bartok 25/3/1881 - 26/9/1945. Folk-based modernism from Hungary with 156 slides & music. | |
253. The Balkans: The formation of modern Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Greece & Romania with 98 slides. | |
254. The Roaring twenties: The arts & entertainment cut loose from pre-War conventions with 143 slides. | |
255. Russia, Germany & Dictators The Soviet Union after Lenin. Germany struggles to pay reparations. Albania etc with 108 slides. | |
256. The Great Crash...leading to the Great Depression. Economists largely get it all wrong with 101 slides. | |
257. A low dishonest decade-1. The 1930s part 1 - Russia, Britain, Germany, Belgium, Spain & Baltic states with 84 slides. | |
Autumn Term 2027 | |
258. A low dishonest decade-2. The 1930s part 2 - France, Balkans, Austria, Turkey, Britain, Italy conquers Ethiopia, Britain digs itself a hole in the Levant & the Czech soft dictator dies, with 98 slides. | |
259. A low dishonest decade-3. The 1930s part 3 - The Germans re-occupy the Rhineland, Stalin purges the Communist Party, Civil War engulfs Spain, France elects a Popular Front government, more Stalin purges, Britain rearms & gets a better but still Tory government with 87 slides. | |
260. Last of the 1930s. The 1930s part 4 is the immediate run-up to the Second World War with 115 slides. | |
261. The Phony War. Nothing much hsppens except at sea & in China with 1035 slides. | |
262. Hitler's First moves. He takes Denmark & Norway. Britan gets a coalition government. Hitler takes the Benelux & France. Italy rushes to the aid of the victor. Britain sinks some of the French fleet, wins the Battle of Britain & holds Malta. Italy conquers British Somaliland, attacks Egypt & Greece with 104 slides. | |
263. Not a Walk in the Park. Britain courts the USA. Italy & the British navy scrap in the Mediterranean but Britain reconquers Ethiopia. The Free French fail in Senegal but win Central Africa. Italy loses against Greece but Hitler wins & gets bogged-down in Jugoslavia/ Britain defends Malta & defeats the Italian fleet. War starts in the Western Desert. The Bismarck is sunk, The China-Japan war is complicated with 96 slides. | |
264. The Axis makes Big Mistakes. Hitler attacks the Soviet Union & gets stuck in the mud. War opens between Japan & the USA at Pearl Harbour. Britain loses Hong Kong, Malaya & Singapore. The USA loses the Philippines. Romania has a coup. Jugoslavia becomes a German nightmare with 112 slides. | |
265. Dmitri Dmitrevitch Shostakovich 25/9/1906 - 9/8/1975. The Russian composer who mirrored his times with 184 slides & music.. | |
266. The Allies get a grip but in the Western Desert, are pushed back to El Alamein. The USA starts beating Japan at Midway. Hitler tries to take the Soviet oilfields & fails. Britain wins at El Alamein & Britain & the USA invade Algeria. Stalingrad falls & things improve at Leningrad with 95 slides. | |
267. The Turning of the Tide (in preparation). | |
268. (in preparation). | |
Spring Term 2028 |
Contact: Ken Baldry at 17 Gerrard Road, Islington, London N1 8AY Telephone +44(0)20 7359 6294 or e-mail him This page's URL: http://www.art-science.com.uk/history-talks.html |
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