Apparently the Roman Empire has been having A Bit of A Moment recently.

Men, we are told, think about the Roman Empire on a very regular basis, and their female partners are amazed (for an overview which won’t entail sullying yourself by dipping into X-Twitter or Insta-Tok, see here and here).*

*[But if you do venture into the murky shallows of social media and haven’t already found us there, we’re on Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn - do please follow us there if you do that sort of thing! Anyway…]

Personally, I’m not convinced by the gendered conclusions of this recent social media Thing. We ran a series of courses on Rome in 2021-2, and nearly two-thirds of those who registered were women - but hey: Denizens of Wright History are discerning people, who are above confected social media trends, right?!

Rome certainly has a special place in our hearts here at Wrightington Towers, because it was via our Rome courses with the WEA that we first got to meet a lot of you. And the apparently-obsessed gentlemen on social media should know that the Roman Republic is equally worthy of their regular attention!*

*[But don’t worry - keep scrolling for something on the Roman Empire too. We’re aiming to cover all bases!]

But enough of that social media malarkey now, for it’s time to unleash the drum-rolling hound…

Ladies and gentlemen…

I’m delighted to announce that our January 2024 programme is now available!

Naturally, in light of what I’ve said above, we’re starting with Rome. Some of you didn’t find us until the second or third instalment of our Roman adventures, and have been eager for us to revisit the Republic - so here we are!

SPQR: The rise and fall of the Roman Republic

NB Although this is 7 weeks rather than 10, as in 2021, it will essentially be the same, so it will all be very familiar if you did Rome I with us. If you enjoyed it enough to want to revisit it, then you are of course most welcome ( ! ), but I don’t want to risk anyone thinking that it will be a completely different take on the subject!

The two 10-week “spines” of our programme range widely in different ways - hopefully catering to everyone’s tastes in terms of history which focusses on a particular people or an area/theme over a much longer chronological period:

The Ottoman Empire

The Encircled Sea: Mediterranean civilization through the ages

And so to our Short & Sweets, of which two are self-explanatory…

The Mughals

We know that several of you have this on your wishlists, so we’re delighted that we can now offer it!

Monet

It was but a matter of time before Monet appeared in our popular modern art strand… and what better time could there be for exploring his sublime works than two (probably drear) February mornings?!

Next up…. Given the positive feedback on our recent adventures with The Odyssey (still available via catch-up, by the way!), we’re excited to offer two courses in what may become a new Short & Sweet strand.

Most of our courses start with a broad frame or theme, and drill down into key moments and sources as we proceed, but there’s also a lot to be said for working in the opposite direction - i.e. using a well-chosen source to work outwards, unpicking what it can reveal about its historical context. But there are so many important sources - and many of them are sooo long! There are only so many hours in the day for even the most intellectually curious of Denizens, so… Wright History to the rescue!

We’ve thought long and hard about how to frame this venture… Many of you will remember How to Become Ridiculously Well-Read in One Evening: A Collection of Literary Encapsulations - a Christmas stocking hit in the 1980s - which provided handy summaries of Great Literature. Those of you who have children/nieces/nephews/godchildren and/or a background in secondary or tertiary education may be familiar with the CliffNotes and SparkNotes series - which are, depending on one’s perspective, a lazy student’s way of avoiding having to read one’s A-level text or a useful “in” to key concepts.

We think that there’s a place for a kind of mash-up of the two: a synopsis of an interesting text (“We’ve read it so that you don’t have to!”), picking up on revealing themes and informed by relevant scholarship, to explore an historical moment. Does that sound fun…? Perhaps we could call it WrightNotes…. Does that hit the right note? (Sorry-not-sorry!).

First up, responding to the evident interest in things Classical, we present:

The Aeneid: Rome’s great epic.

This is a rollocking good tale in its own right - an elaborate “road-movie” narrative, featuring the pain of wandering, the fickleness of fate, the power of prophecies, the might of gods, vengeance, love, set-piece battles (and yes - that Wooden Horse!) - as our hero, Aeneas, eventually fulfils his destiny and founds Rome. But just as Aeneas is a product of the poet Virgil, so Virgil is a product of Rome, and specifically of Augustus Caesar’s reign - a period of profound change in how Rome saw herself.

And finally, something which I’ve threatened promised for some time, i.e. a course which emerges directly from my own research background, namely,

Christina of Markyate: A life in Anglo-Norman England

This source isn’t well-known beyond medievalist circles, but trust me - it’s a cracking story. Equally importantly, it offers a window into the Norman Conquest and what saints - the superheroes of medieval society - can tell us about the medieval world.

Phew! We’re rather excited about this collection, and hope that you are too!

The sharper-eyed among you may notice that there are a few potential slots still available. We’re holding fire on deciding whether our November in-venue day-school should be at Guppy’s or Pickering for a wee bit longer - do please let us know if you have a preference but haven’t yet told us. There’s also space for two more Short & Sweets after February. We know that several of you like us to come up with something arising from ongoing courses, so we’re keeping our powder dry for those later slots for now.

NB All online courses will be recorded, so will be available on “catch up” if required.

To see all courses now available in calendar order, click here. Alternatively, click on the relevant course title[s] in this post to go directly to the relevant page[s].