U3A in London (Hampstead) - Wednesday European History Talks

Spring Term 2025

Jan 8th

160. Beethoven - the greatest genius of music composition (so far) with 164 slides & music.

Jan 15th

161. The War of the Second coalition against France part Two with 130 slides.

Jan 22nd

162. John Constable, British Artist with 134 slides

Jan 29th

163. Joseph Mallord William Turner. A British Artist & Impressionist before his time with 143 slides.

Feb 5th

164. The British King George III & after the Peace of Amiens with France 1802 with 129 slides.

Feb 12th

165. Napoleon's years of success with 120 slides.

Feb 19th

166. The Peninsular War part One (France invades Spain & tries to invade Portugal) with 127 slides.

Feb 26th

167. The Peninsular War part Two with music & 131 slides.

Mar 5th

168. Napoleon makes a big mistake & invades Russia with 119 slides.

Mar 12th

169. The First Fall of Napoleon with 120 slides.

Mar 19th

170. The Congress of Vienna tries to clear up after Napoleon with 111 slides.

Mar 26th

171. You need a break: The History of the Waltz with music & 135 slides.

Summer Term 2025

Apr 30th

172. The Congress of Vienna continues clearing up after Napoleon with 106 slides.

May 7th

173. Europe 1815 - 1823 with music & 115 slides.

May 14th

174. The composer Franz Schubert with music & 145 slides.

May 21th

175. The 1820s to 1830 al around Europe with 113 slides.

May 28th

176. Scientific advances around 1800 with 73 slides.

June 4th

177. Years of Revolutions Part One 1830 with 113 slides.

June 11th

178. The composer Hector Berlioz with music & 201 slides.

June 18th

179. Years of Revolutions Part Two, the 1830s with 103 slides.

June 25th

180. Years of Revolutions Part Three, still the 1830s with 113 slides.

July 2nd

181. The composer Robert Schumann with 119 slides.

July 9th

182. All over Europe in the early 1840s with 118 slides.

July 16th

183. French mid-century modern art - The Barbizon school & Courbet with 210 slides.

July 23rd

184. The composer Fryderyk Chopin with music & 112 slides.

Autumn Term 2025

Sep 17th 

185. The Development of Railways with 133 slides.

Sep 24th

186. Cholera & other health & sanitation problems with 117 slides.

Oct 1st .

187. The Year of Revolutions - 1848 part One with 115 slides

Oct 8th

188. The Composer Richard Wagner with 138 slides & music

Oct 15th

189. The Year of Revolutions - 1848 part Two with 110 slides.

Oct 22nd

190. British Colonial ventures with 95 slides.

Oct 29th

191. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of British artists with 139 slides.

Nov 5th

192. The 1850s and the British-French-Crimean War against Russia with 110 slides.

Nov 14th

193. The Indian Mutiny against British Colonial rule with 86 slides.

Nov 19th

194. The Unification of Italy or Risorgimento with 93 slides & some music.

Nov 26th

195. Spain, Portugal & Germany to about 1868. The Russians crush the Polish Revolt, aided by the Prussians, who crush the Danes & Austrians with 113 slides.

Dec 3rd

196. The extraordinary career of Napoleon III with 122 slides.

Dec 10th

197. The Composer & pianist Franz Liszt with 130 slides & music

Spring Term 2026

198. Paul Cezanne: The Father of Modern Art & the greatest painter since Rembrandt. with 212 slides.

199. Europe to 1871 The Turks after the Crimean War, Britain after 1857, Austria & Romania after 1849 & France until March 187 with 115 slides.

200. France, Ireland and the Balkans. The Paris Commune & the revival of France. The rise of nationalism in Ireland & the Balkans with 108 slides.

201. The Impressionists: Monet, Renoir, Sisley & Pissarro with their inspirations Boudin & Manet. with 241 slides.

202. Scandinavia to World War One. The more-or-less self-contained history of Sweden, Norway & Denmark, with an excursion into Evolution. with 104 slides.

203. Edvard Grieg. Norway's greatest composer & the rise of nationalism in music with 159 slides & music.

204. Balkan Wars & the Great Carve-up. The Russo-Turkish war & knock-on events. The Great Powers carve up Africa & other parts of the World with 74 slides.

205. Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Russia's greatest composer, so far with 158 slides & music.

206. Africa 1863-1885. Goings on the the European Powers up to the Congress of Berlin with 103 slides.

207. Iberia and Russia to 1890. Sorting out the mess after the Glorious Revolution in Spain. The reign of Alexanders II & III with 108 slides.

208. Van Gogh. The beginning of Expressionism in visual art with 168 slides.

209. The composer Arthur Sullivan, not just about “Gilbert and...” with 196 slides & music.

Summer Term 2026

210. France, Austria and Britain. Catching up on France & Britain. Scandal in Austria with 100 slides.

211. The Great Powers mid-1890s. Great Power rivalries before the turn of the Century events with 100 slides.

212. Gustav Mahler 1860 - 1911. The composer taking the path from Romanticism to Expressionism with 155 slides & music.

213. The Dreyfus Affair. A military scandal. The first great showdown between republican & reactionary forces in France with 94 slides.

214. Russian Modernism Part One. Russian Art comes of age with 143 slides.

215. The Boer War. Britain conquers the Boer (Dutch) Republics in South Africa with 117 slides.

216. The Balkans, France and Art. The Balkans are now free of the Turks. A sad Austria intervenes. French politics & modernism takes off in the Arts with 219 slides.

217. Iberia and Russia go into the 20th Century. Spain loses Cuba & the Philippines. Anarchists are active at home.
The Spanish find themselves at war with the USA & lose with 125 slides.

218. The composer Edward Elgar 1857 - 1934. Perhaps England’s joint greatest composer, there was more to him than popular conception with 194 slides & music.

219. Italy, Germans & Britain into the 20th Century with 119 slides.

220. Art in France. The consequences of the post-Impressionists: the Fauves & the Cubists with 224 slides.

Autumn Term 2026

221. The composer Arnold Schönberg 1874 - 1951. The Father of “nasty modern music” but a logical advance in musical technique with 171 slides & music.

222. Britain and Russia to 1908. A failed revolution in Russia, assassinations, the Balkans with 101 slides.

223. Fatal Competition. How competition on the North Atlantic steamship route lead to the sinking of the Titanic with 129 slides.

224. Votes for Women. The British story. with 90 slides.

225. 1908 on Mainland Europe and Britain, starting in Serbia & the Turkish Empire, then Ireland, Britain, Portugal & back to Britain with 108 slides.

226. Balkan Wars and Ireland with 123 slides.

227. Italian Futurism. A modernist Art movement with unfortunate implications with 211 slides.

228. 1st World War 1 1914 with 116 slides.

229. 1st World War 2 1915-1 with 103 slides.

230. 1st World War 3 1915-2 with 112 slides & music.

231. 1st World War 4 1915-3 with 96 slides.

232. 1st World War 5 1915-3 and 1916-1 with 96 slides.

233. 1st World War 6 1916-2 with 83 slides & music..

Spring Term 2027

234. The composer Ralph Vaughan Williams 12/10/1872 - 20/8/1958. His music & life including his Great War experience with 152 slides & music.

235. 1st World War 7 1916-3 1917-1 with 102 slides.

236. 1st World War 8 1917-2 with 105 slides.

237. Egon Schiele. The scandalous Austrian Expressionist artist. with 314 slides.

238. 1st World War 9 1918 with 94 slides.

239. 1st World War 10 1918 with 106 slides.

240. Revived States in the Baltic. Finland, Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania with 98 slides.

241. The composer Jean Sibelius 1865 - 1957. The leading Finnish composer’s life & works with 158 slides & music..

242. The Russian Civil War. Reds versus Whites & the Polish involvement with 103 slides.

243. Talking about Peace. The Versailles Conference & peace treaties with 103 slides.

244. (Still in preparation).

245. After World War I-1. The Ottomans, Britain & Italy with 107 slides.

246. Russian Modernism in Visual Art Part Two ....also in the service of the Soviet Revolution with 229 slides.

Summer Term 2027

247. After World War I-2. Germany, Disarmament, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Britain & the early Soviet Union with 108 slides.

248. Czechs, France, Britain, Italy to 1929 with 104 slides.

249. The Bauhaus: Modern art, architecture & Design in Germany with 220 slides.

250. Iberia 1900 - 1975. Spain is not involved in the Great War & Portugal to past the end of these talks with 110 slides.

251. Neutral countries in the Great War: What happened in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands & Switzerland with 83 slides.

252. The composer Bela Bartok 25/3/1881 - 26/9/1945. Folk-based modernism from Hungary with 156 slides & music.

253. The Balkans: The formation of modern Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Greece & Romania with 98 slides.

254. The Roaring twenties: The arts & entertainment cut loose from pre-War conventions with 143 slides.

255. Russia, Germany & Dictators The Soviet Union after Lenin. Germany struggles to pay reparations. Albania etc with 108 slides.

256. The Great Crash...leading to the Great Depression. Economists largely get it all wrong with 101 slides.

257. A low dishonest decade-1. The 1930s part 1 - Russia, Britain, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Baltic states, France, Balkans & Austria with 109 slides.

Autumn Term 2027

258. Dmitri Dmitrevitch Shostakovich 25/9/1906 - 9/8/1975. The Russian composer who mirrored his times with 184 slides & music..

259. A low dishonest decade-2. The 1930s part 2 - Turkey, Britain, Italy conquers Ethiopia, Britain digs itself a hole in the Levant, the Czech soft dictator dies, the Germans re-occupy the Rhineland, Stalin purges the Communist Party, Civil War engulfs Spain, France elects a Popular Front with 106 slides.

260. Last of the 1930s. The 1930s part 3 in the immediate run-up to the Second World War with 115 slides.

1. Pre-historic Britain to about 2,300BC. Correcting some of the rubbish we were taught at school about us being woad-covered savages with 101 slides.

2. Egypt to 1525BC. From the Stone Age to the New Kingdom with 99 slides.

3. The Fertile Crescent from the Stone Age to Cyrus the Persian with 83 slides.

4. Britain in the Age of Metal from 2,300BC to 800BC. Britain finds Copper & Tin with 83 slides.

5. Egypt from 1525BC to 525BC From the New Kingdom to the last native Pharaoh with 105 slides.

6. Early Greece to 479BC. From the Stone Age to beating the Persians with 79 slides.

7. The Phoenicians and Carthage to 264BC with 71 slides.

8. The Jews. From 1,800BC to 4BC with 91 slides.

9. Greece from 479BC to death of Alexander the Great with 80 slides.

10. Early Rome to 202BC with 83 slides.