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WEA courses
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10
Displaying search results for: "Berkhamsted "
History: Who will rid me of this troublesome priest? Henry II, Eleanor Aquitaine and Thomas Beckett
Thomas Becket and Henry II— The struggle for supremacy between two powerful, stubborn men, Archbishop and King. This course explores the relationship between Becket and Henry and sets it in its historical context. Rivalries between father and sons, brother against brother, wife against husband. The course will consider the critical role played by Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, who history has blamed for the rebellion of her sons against their father, the King. In addition, we will consider the part played by Henry and Eleanor’s sons, Henry the Young King, Richard, Geoffrey and John.
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Course Information
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Dates:Mon 16/09/2024 -
Mon 21/10/2024Times:9:30am - 11:30amDuration:6 sessionsLocation:OnlineTutor:Michael LongCourse code:Q00017705How you'll learn:OnlineAvailability:10+ places remainingStatus:AvailableFee rangeFree to £44.40
Literature: Detective Fiction in Society and Culture
In these lectures Stephen Wilkinson will introduce students to the history of the detective genre and discuss its relationship to the development of capitalism, urbanisation and consumerist commodity culture. Students will be encouraged to read detective fiction as a prism through which societies, their anxieties and underlying psycho-political natures can be understood. Using the examples from the UK, US and Cuba students will gain an insight into the ways in which popular literature gives shape and form to our lives.
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Course Information
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Dates:Thu 26/09/2024 -
Thu 17/10/2024Times:6:30pm - 8:00pmDuration:4 sessionsLocation:OnlineTutor:Guest SpeakerCourse code:Q00017701How you'll learn:OnlineAvailability:9 places remainingStatus:AvailableFee rangeFree to £30.00
Art Appreciation: Isolation, artists and paintings
Isolation includes solitude (choosing to be alone for contemplative or other good reasons) and social isolation (real or psychological separation from others, which can result in loneliness). Some artists need solitude to explore the world around them or to remove external pressures. Others use their work to express feelings of loneliness, whether from societal causes, unrequited love, illness, or other circumstances. Our speaker, Roger Wotton, will discuss a range of paintings that express, for example, the solitude found in nature, or the loneliness in urban living. He will consider, too, the most common example of isolation shown in art: the Crucifixion of Christ.
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Course Information
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Dates:Mon 07/10/2024 -
Mon 21/10/2024Times:10:30am - 12:30pmDuration:3 sessionsLocation:Friends Meeting House (Berkhamsted)
289 High Street
Berkhamsted
HP4 1AJTutor:Guest SpeakerCourse code:Q00017711How you'll learn:In venueAvailability:6 places remainingStatus:AvailableFee rangeFree to £30.00
History: USA: 1940 - 1972 A Divided Union
In 1989, the songwriter Billy Joel was told by a friend that “Things are different today. You were a kid in the fifties, and everybody knows that nothing happened in the fifties.” As a result, he wrote ‘We didn’t start the fire’ to highlight how the post-war decades shaped the world we live in today. Join us for this fascinating 6 week course where you will look at the crucial events that occurred between 1940 and 1972 in USA and reflect about their significance back then as well as how it translates into today’s society.
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Course Information
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Dates:Mon 04/11/2024 -
Mon 09/12/2024Times:10:30am - 12:30pmDuration:6 sessionsLocation:Friends Meeting House (Berkhamsted)
289 High Street
Berkhamsted
HP4 1AJTutor:Michael LongCourse code:Q00017704How you'll learn:In venueAvailability:10+ places remainingStatus:AvailableFee rangeFree to £50.40
WEA Membership
For just £15 a year, you can:
- Join our popular, award-winning weekly lecture series,
- Access an archive of over 100 past lectures,
- Get priority online and phone booking for autumn courses (England only),
- Receive our Highway magazine and access back issues,
- Attend our members’ annual conference.
Just add us to your basket to sign up today!
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Membership Information
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Duration:12 monthsFee:£15
History: Germany between the World Wars - Part 1
At the end of the First World War, Germany underwent dramatic change. The Kaiser abdicated, and the country emerged from a period of autocratic rule to embark on a bold and (on paper) very progressive experiment in republican democracy. At the same time, the victorious allies of the Great War imposed a punitive peace treaty on Germany at Versailles, reflecting their belief that Germany has caused the war and should pay the price. These changes, together with other factors such as the worldwide economic situation between the wars ushered in a period of social, political and financial turbulence in which Hitler and the Nazis would eventually rise to power.
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Course Information
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Dates:Tue 05/11/2024 -
Tue 26/11/2024Times:3:00pm - 4:30pmDuration:4 sessionsLocation:OnlineTutor:Guest SpeakerCourse code:Q00018059How you'll learn:OnlineAvailability:10+ places remainingStatus:AvailableFee rangeFree to £22.20
History: St. George - The Man and the Legend
Who was St George? Was he real, or just a character in a legend about a dragon and a princess? Was the dragon real - or perhaps symbolic of something else? If George existed, was he even English? When and where did he live? Given that he was made a saint, what is the connection between the man, the legend and the Christian Church? Is the legend just another way to look at the resolution of conflict – the light versus the dark, the triumph of good over evil?
In this two-hour session, we will examine some of the evidence about the existence of the man and any basis to the legend with Medievalist Terry Bloxham.
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Course Information
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Dates:Mon 16/12/2024 -
Mon 16/12/2024Times:10:30am - 12:30pmDuration:1 sessionsLocation:Friends Meeting House (Berkhamsted)
289 High Street
Berkhamsted
HP4 1AJTutor:Guest SpeakerCourse code:Q00018060How you'll learn:In venueAvailability:10+ places remainingStatus:AvailableFee rangeFree to £8.40
History: The History of the World in Ceramics with Terry Bloxham
The History of the World in 100 Objects? Terry Bloxham, former curator in the Ceramics & Glass Department of the Victoria & Albert Museum will teach us how it is possible to gain a knowledge of global history from our shared heritage of ceramics by considering the different clay types that have been used in their manufacture, and where these clay types occur naturally in the world, along with the different decorations which adorn the finished ceramics. She will also discuss the ways in which ceramics became shared globally.
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Course Information
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Dates:Mon 06/01/2025 -
Mon 06/01/2025Times:10:30am - 12:30pmDuration:1 sessionsLocation:Friends Meeting House (Berkhamsted)
289 High Street
Berkhamsted
HP4 1AJTutor:Guest SpeakerCourse code:Q00018329How you'll learn:In venueAvailability:10+ places remainingStatus:AvailableFee rangeFree to £10.00
Philosophy: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle
Western philosophy begins with the ancient Greeks in the 6th century BCE.
This course considers some of the key elements in the thought of the three greatest philosophers of the ancient Greek period: Socrates; Plato; and Aristotle.
It considers Socrates on questions of ethics
It then considers Plato on the soul and its immortality in the Phaedo and, in particular, on the perfectly just city-state in the Republic.
Finally, it considers Aristotle on among other things language and logic in the Organon and on change and cause in the Physics and on “happiness” in the Nichomachean Ethics.
No prior specialist knowledge is required to attend this course.
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Course Information
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Dates:Mon 13/01/2025 -
Mon 10/02/2025Times:10:30am - 12:30pmDuration:5 sessionsLocation:Friends Meeting House (Berkhamsted)
289 High Street
Berkhamsted
HP4 1AJTutor:Karim EsmailCourse code:Q00018330How you'll learn:In venueAvailability:10+ places remainingStatus:AvailableFee:£42.00
Literature: Detective Fiction in Society and Culture
In these lectures Stephen Wilkinson will introduce students to the history of the detective genre and discuss its relationship to the development of capitalism, urbanisation and consumerist commodity culture. Students will be encouraged to read detective fiction as a prism through which societies, their anxieties and underlying psycho-political natures can be understood. Using the examples from the UK, US and Cuba students will gain an insight into the ways in which popular literature gives shape and form to our lives.
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Course Information
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Dates:Mon 24/02/2025 -
Mon 10/03/2025Times:10:30am - 12:30pmDuration:3 sessionsLocation:Friends Meeting House (Berkhamsted)
289 High Street
Berkhamsted
HP4 1AJTutor:Guest SpeakerCourse code:Q00018325How you'll learn:In venueAvailability:10+ places remainingStatus:AvailableFee rangeFree to £30.00
History: The People of Berkhamsted Castle 1066 - 1547
This is a course about people and their relationship to the Motte and Bailey castle in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. Some of them have names, and their stories are well documented; others are anonymous and left no mark on the written record on the fortress that was Berkhamsted Castle, but their legacy lives on the physical remains of the castle. It is the story of five centuries of powerful men and women: Kings, Queens, and members of the Blood Royal. There is rivalry, controversy, tragedy, brutal murder, destruction, invasion and tender affection. The constant is Berkhamsted Castle, the stone motte and bailey structure dating from a time after the Norman Conquest that has been the witness to these events that shaped our national past
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Course Information
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Dates:Mon 17/03/2025 -
Mon 17/03/2025Times:10:30am - 12:30pmDuration:1 sessionsLocation:Friends Meeting House (Berkhamsted)
289 High Street
Berkhamsted
HP4 1AJTutor:Michael LongCourse code:Q00017702How you'll learn:In venueAvailability:10+ places remainingStatus:AvailableFee rangeFree to £8.40