The Synopses for my two JW3 zoom lectures this Thursday, 21st May

Pandemics: We begin with a general introduction before moving to the first of our three main topics of the morning, namely The Black Death of 1348/9. Its story haunts us still. Next we move on to The Great Plague of London in 1665. We shall hear first hand accounts from Sam Pepys. We finish our look at Plagues by examining the last English outbreak in Suffolk and Essex in 1910/11. Finally, we turn to The Spanish Flu of 1918/19 and ask the question, why has it become known as 'the forgotten pandemic'?

Naturally, looking at this subject in the middle of suffering from a pandemic ourselves we view the history with greater understanding than we might otherwise have done.

Further Reading: A Short History of Disease by Sean Martin (it has an excellent bibliography).

Weimar Berlin. We start the afternoon at looking at the revolution which did occur, the revolution which did not occur, and the beginning of Nazism. Ebert and the founding of the democratic Weimar Republic, 1918-33. We look at Berlin through the prism of the German television series (available on Netflix), 'Babylon Berlin'. This phrase, 'Babylon Berlin' is likely to stick as a catch-all term for Weimar Berlin. We finish not in Berlin but in Munich with Hitler's failed Beer Hall Putsch.

Further Reading: The very recently published 'Hitler' by Brendan Simms. Authoritative.

PS Next week is half term, thus no meetings.