History: Samuel Pepys – Plague, Fire and Scandal

Join us for this history course when we will journey back to Restoration England (from 1660 to 1669) using the vivid descriptions within Samuel Pepys's diary as our guide. The diary and other contemporary and modern sources will help us to imagine this tumultuous period in history. The pandemic and perhaps other recent events giving it more resonance now. We will explore issues such as the plague, the outbreak and spread of the Great Plague in London, what the public health response was and also of course what Pepys’s first-hand account tells us. Just a year later of course Pepys’s diary moves on to give us a superb account of the Great Fire of London and his interactions with the authorities to try and ensure that it is brought under control. Throughout the course we will use Pepys’s observation of everyday life and examine the social structures, fashion, entertainment and cultural practices of the time and also investigate the political and personal scandals of the Restoration Period. Other primary sources and more recent research will help us understand how Pepys with a modest background managed to achieve the role he did and flourish in the period.