5:45 – 7:45 pm
Often oversimplified in popular perceptions, the Victorian period remains fascinating for its cultural achievements, social transformations, and political tensions. This course will explore such topics as Victorian values; the “condition of England” question during an age of rapid industrialization; the role of religion, including evangelicalism and the Oxford Movement; political debates between Gladstone and Disraeli; the Victorian home; women and marriage; the controversies over Darwin’s theory of evolution; and Victorian art, architecture, and photography.
Frank A. Biletz holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago, with a primary specialization in modern British and Irish history. He has taught Newberry seminars since 1994.
Materials List
Required:
Altick, Richard. Victorian People and Ideas. W.W. Norton and Company, 1973. ISBN: 9780393093766
Mundhenk, Rosemary J. and LuAnn McCracken Fletcher. Victorian Prose: An Anthology. Columbia University Press, 1999. ISBN: 0231110278
Recommended:
Flanders, Judith. Inside the Victorian Home. W. W. Norton, 2003. ISBN: 978-0393327632
CPDU credit is available to Illinois teachers seeking recertification.
This class is part of the Newberry’s Adult Education Seminars Program.
Eight sessions, $190
Register now