Gresham College Lectures

The Origins of Romanticism

18 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

"What is 'Romanticism'? Jonathan Bate goes in search of what Isaiah Berlin described as 'the greatest single shift in the consciou...

The Gray's Inn Reading - The Rule of Law: Good for the Economy?

21 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

It has become the conventional wisdom that the rule of law is a necessary ingredient of economic progress. Along with an independent judiciary, indivi...

Terrorism in Historical Perspective

19 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

THE PROVOST'S LECTURE Terrorism has become one of the most destructive and worrying aspects of life in 21st-century European cities. Seemingly ra...

Climate Change: A Defining Challenge for the 21st Century

14 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

THE SIR THOMAS GRESHAM ANNUAL LECTURE 2018 The scientific evidence for climate change will be examined, describing how simulations of the Earth's...

The Conversion of T.S. Eliot

13 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

T. S. Eliot's "The Wasteland" was the voice of a disillusioned generation and reflected a world in disarray. Then in 1928 Eliot announc...

Computers and the Future

12 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The invention of the computer in 1948 has changed our world radically but we are only in the early years of this industrial revolution. What disruptio...

Remembering London: The Story of the Faith Communities of London and their Prospects

11 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Bishop Richard Chartres will present a survey in five acts of the history of London's faith communities, with a word about their prospects in the...

The British Economy: Can We Build a Successful Future?

07 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The challenges faced by the UK are very large. And they have not been convincingly challenged for a generation or more. We may have suffered from shor...

Nelson Mandela in the 21st Century

06 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

To mark the 100th anniversary of his birth, the legacy of Nelson Mandela (1918-2013), first president of democratic South Africa, will be considered -...

Who's to Blame for Britain's Floods?

31 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In the last ten years, the UK has been devastated by floods that have caused enormous physical and economic damage, seriously affecting the mental hea...

Russia After Communism

30 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Russia's emergence from Soviet Communism, 'a revolution without shots', did not result in civil war and bloodshed, as in 1917. But the ...

Computers and Warfare

29 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Stuxnet, the attacks on the Ukrainian power grid, and autonomous armed guards are only the beginning. Computers are changing warfare profoundly becaus...

The Riddle of Ancient Sparta: Unwrapping an Enigma

29 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Ancient Sparta has been handed down in a tradition radically conflicted and confused by rival political and social ideologies. A riddle wrapped in a m...

Transparency in the Family Court: What Goes On Behind Closed Doors?

24 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Who does the story belong to: the family or society? Where and how are the lines drawn? Until relatively recently the Family Court door was closed to ...

Media Reporting of Medical Advances: Helpful or Misleading?

23 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The media and medicine have different perspectives. At least in part, this is due to a preference for individual human stories over detailed analysis ...

The 30 Years' War (1618-48) and the Second Defenestration of Prague

23 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Wilson will examine the causes, conduct and consequences of the Thirty Years' War, Europe's most destructive conflict prior to the...

Mathematical Research from Toy Models

22 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

JOINT LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY/ GRESHAM COLLEGE ANNUAL LECTURE 'Toy' here has a special sense: an object of daily life which you can find...

Samuel Pepys the Guitarist

16 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

At first, Samuel Pepys could see no virtue in the guitar at all and regarded it as a toy or 'bauble'. Yet he soon changed his mind as he bec...

From Two-Party to Multi-Party Politics

15 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Between 1951 and 1959, over 95% of voters supported the two major parties. Since 1983, fewer than 80% have voted Conservative or Labour. How is the de...

China: Art, Power and Revolutions, 1950-1976

14 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 gave Chinese artists a government that had explicit policies for the arts, seeing the...

Speechwriting: Creating Authenticity

09 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The image of the speechwriter in televised programmes (such as The Thick of It, The West Wing or Yes Minister) is something of a puppeteer, a sinister...

Shakespeare's Fame

08 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Ever since classical antiquity, poets and playwrights have written about famous heroes and anti-heroes, lovers and politicians. But they have also yea...

Facts Matter, But They Aren't Enough: Science, Faith and Meaning in Life

08 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In our post-truth age, facts often don't seem to meet the deepest human longings. So do we need to go against facts, or beyond them? What does th...

Karl Marx - 200 Years On

02 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

To mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx (5 May 1818) and 150 years since Das Kapital was published in 1867, the lecture will explore t...

In Search of the Medieval Outlaw: The Tales of Robin Hood

01 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The rulers of the medieval English kingdom discouraged resistance to authority by the widespread use of execution, outlawry, and exile. Yet medieval E...

What Really Happened at the First Moving-Picture Shows

30 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The reception of moving pictures in 1894-96 has been much mythologised. Were spectators really frightened of an approaching train? Did they imagine se...

The Child in the Family Court Room: Whose Child is it Anyway?

26 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

What role do children play in the family trial? The case concerns their future: how is their voice heard? What happens if they hold the key to the iss...

Air Pollution: Its Impact on Health and Possible Solutions

25 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Lung disease, heart disease, stroke, dementia and learning difficulties have been associated with different forms of air pollution including gasses an...

Minor Political Parties

24 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In the past, these were of two types (1) Breakaway parties such as the Liberal Unionists before the First World War and the SDP in the 1980s or (2) Ex...

Can You Do Mathematics In A Crowd?

24 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

We all find ourselves in crowds every so often. Whilst human behaviour in general can be very hard to predict, it is possible, to a certain extent, to...

Regional, Industrial and Infrastructure Policies

19 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

There are large disparities in economic performance at the regional level in the UK. We need to consider what kinds of policies might raise regional p...

The Birth of Modern Theatreland: Covent Garden and the Two Theatres Royal

18 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

London is home to two of the oldest working theatres in the world both founded by Charles II's patents. They shaped a whole quarter of London, an...

King Henry III and the Communication of Power

12 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Against the backdrop of King John's ignominy and the political challenge posed by Magna Carta, which encouraged demands for greater representatio...

The Philosophy of Time: Does Physics Have The Last Word?

10 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Time's mysteries seem to resist comprehension and what remain can stretch even the most profound philosopher. Professor Tallis seeks to rescue ti...

How Spontaneous Gestures Connect to Thinking

04 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Human beings often make frequent hand movements whilst they are talking. There has been considerable psychological debate about their function, but it...

Existential Risks in the Solar System

04 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

There are strong reasons to believe that the survival of life on the Earth is under threat. Human activity is one example that we are able to control,...

The USSR in the Cold War Years

28 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

After Stalin's death in 1953, successive leaders tried to find ways to revitalise the Soviet regime and rethink its promises to the Soviet people...

Shakespeare's Ghosts and Spirits

27 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Where do the ghosts in Shakespeare come from? And what about the magic? In this lecture, Jonathan Bate will summon up the ghosts of Old Hamlet, the vi...

Are We Lost In The Cosmos?

27 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

There have been dramatic changes in our scientific understanding of the universe in the last hundred years. It used to be thought that the universe wa...

Is 'Green Business' a Contradiction in Terms?

22 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Posters in shops and on trucks shout 'carbon neutral business', and more organisations are boasting of reducing their environmental impact b...

The Guitar at the Restoration Court

21 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

When the most famous diarist in English, Samuel Pepys, accompanied Charles II back to London for the Restoration of the monarchy he was given the task...

The Internet of Things

20 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Many televisions, baby monitors, central heating and even light-bulbs are already connected to the internet but this is only the start. Over the next ...

The Structure of Finance

15 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In the traditional model of finance, households saved and firms borrowed through financial intermediaries. Those financial intermediaries might be ban...

Personalised Medicine - Made For You

14 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Everyone is different, and treatment options increasingly reflect that. As we understand more about our genetic makeup, our varying response to conven...

Architecture and the Edwardian Era

13 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Descriptions and reconstructions of houses can illuminate other histories and provide a sense of the relationships between people and places. Edwardia...

The Quantum Mathematician

13 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Quantum science has been one of the most successful and useful theories ever invented. Indeed quantum technology was added as the ninth of the origina...

Trust-Busting or Trust-Building: How Can The City Earn Trust?

08 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In recent years, the reputation of the financial services and related professional services industries has been corroded by a series of scandals. In 2...

Slave Stories: Aesop and Walter Crane

08 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In 1887 the influential arts-and-crafts book illustrator Walter Crane published The Baby's Own Aesop, bringing the homespun wisdom of ancient Gre...

Palace, Park and Square: St James's and the Birth of the West End

07 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Based on new research into the origins of St. James's, Simon Thurley looks into the ingredients that went into making a court quarter there and t...

Nationalist Parties

06 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Between 1886 and 1914, British politics was dominated by the Irish Question, and the Irish nationalist party exerted considerable pressure on British ...

Grasping Shadows: The Dark Side in Painting

05 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

FULBRIGHT LECTURE What's in a shadow? Danger and death? Or the vital life-force of whatever object casts it? Are shadows seductive nothings or tr...

Dealing with Sex Abuse: How Does the Family Court Assess Risk?

01 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Sexual abuse is always an abuse of power. It can be opportunistic or premeditated; furtive intra-familial abuse or acts shared online. It can be multi...

Training in Violence: An Essay in Military Hazing

28 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

How have the British and American armed forces been taught to fight and kill in conflicts from 1914 to the present? What role have psychology and tech...

Elementary Particles and Their Interactions

28 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Matter consists of a mêlée of elementary particles. There are protons and neutrons, made up of quarks, and many other short-lived massive particles....

Shakespeare's Politics

27 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

It is well known that Shakespeare lived in an age of monarchy and wrote powerfully in his English history plays about the duties of the sovereign. In ...

The 19th Century Craze for Stereoscopic Photography

26 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Stereoscopic photography rapidly became a worldwide craze after the Great Exhibition of 1851. Cheap viewers and mass-produced stereographs brought sta...

Asthma and Chronic Airways Disease

21 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Asthma, an intermittent disease, is the commonest lung disease in the UK. The second is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), now the 4th lead...

Justice Online: Getting Better?

20 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In 2017, the Government paved the way for the civil and family courts of England and Wales to provide 'innovative methods of resolving disputes.&...

If Humans Are So Great, Why is the World Such a Mess?

20 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Human beings often have generous views of themselves - not always easy to defend. Massive scientific advances are sometimes used for destructive purpo...

China: Art, War and Salvation, 1933-1949

19 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

After the founding of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921, many artists and intellectuals in China saw the overthrow of 'tradition' as the m...

Euler's Equation: 'The Most Beautiful Theorem in Mathematics'

15 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Euler's pioneering equation, the 'most beautiful equation in mathematics', links the five most important constants in the subject: 1, 0...

Does a Good Bedside Manner Matter?

14 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

There is an apparent conflict between the increase in technology in medicine and the importance of a relationship between patient and doctor. This Val...

Should We Vote Online?

13 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Online voting in local and national elections could be more convenient, greatly increase voter turnout and deliver results within a few minutes of the...

Is a Mathematician a Robot?

13 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Robotics is another of HM Government's 'eight great technologies'. Is it possible that in a few years we might have machines with artif...

National Parks and National Park Cities

08 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

National Parks were designated to protect some of the world's most loved landscapes from being eaten away by industrial and housing development. ...

An Englishman (with a Guitar) Abroad

07 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In 1643 an English landowner, Sir Ralph Verney, fled to France in the depths of the Civil War. He settled in Blois and, while there, amassed a vast ar...

How Energy Flow Shapes the Evolution of Life

06 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Despite the explosion of genetic information in recent years, we have surprisingly little insight into the peculiar history of life on our planet. Mos...

Computer Bugs in Hospitals: A New Killer

06 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Computer bugs, reported in heart pacemaker software and many other devices, are but one example of the risks that IT systems can create for patients. ...

Votes for Women: A Centenary Celebration

05 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The campaign to achieve the parliamentary vote for women (6 February 1918) took 52 years, from 1866 to 1918. During that time women and their male sup...

Vulnerable Clients and The Family Justice System

01 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Do the courts respect diversity or punish it when it comes to parenthood? What disabilities does it encounter? How can the learning disabled parent en...

The Fate of the October Revolution under Stalin

31 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

When Lenin died in 1924, he had effected a temporary stabilisation of the Soviet order. But many political, economic, social and international trends ...

The High Energy Universe

31 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

View the sky through an x-ray telescope and the conception of the universe changes dramatically. Black holes are best seen in x-rays, because impingin...

The Labour Party

30 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The Labour Party was formed in 1900 as a coalition between trade unions and socialist intellectuals with the aim of securing representation for the wo...

The Housing Market

25 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Housing represents the main asset class held by UK households and we shall try to understand why it is held as such a large share of assets. We shall ...

Here Comes The Sun: Sunshine and its Effects on Health, Sleep and Memory

24 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Steve Jones will consider sunshine and its effects on health, on sleep, on memory and more: and why today's twilight world of tablets a...

Shakespeare's Lovers

23 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

William Shakespeare made his name as a poet before he became famous as a playwright. His erotic poem Venus and Adonis was the most popular work of lit...

The Clockwork God: Isaac Newton and the Mechanical Universe

23 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Isaac Newton saw his demonstration of the regularity of the universe as having great religious significance. Newton's ideas were initially seen a...

Ecotowns or Egotowns?

18 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

A sustainable solution to the UK's housing crisis, or a flimsy excuse for high-profile, profitable construction activity in the green belt? Archi...

The Age of Tyrants: Sappho via Gounod's Opera

18 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The heroine of Charles Gounod's French opera Sapho (1851) sings her last aria O My Immortal Lyre on a Greek cliff before plunging to her death. S...

London Merchants and Their Residences

17 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

During the Middle Ages London was home to one of the largest and richest merchant communities in the world. These men and their families invested heav...

The Guitar in the Age of Charles I

17 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The courts of James I and his son Charles I were more cosmopolitan than their Elizabethan forebears. Many courtiers had now visited the Continent in e...

Can We Prevent Coronary Artery Disease: Investing in your Arteries

10 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Deanfield is currently Professor of Cardiology at The Heart Hospital, as well as at Great Ormond Street Hospital and is British Heart Founda...

Will Bitcoin and the Block Chain Change the Way we Live and Work?

09 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The block chain is the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) that underlies the successful Bitcoin cybercurrency. What is it, how does it work, and why ...

Maths is Coded in Your Genes

09 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

We live in an information age, with vast amounts of data constantly sent around the world. This lecture will introduce you to the mathematics of infor...

Happily Ever After: The Romance Story

04 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

This talk delves into one of the most powerful and omnipresent cultural storylines: Find your one true love and live happily ever after. How does this...

The Liberal Party and the Liberal Democrats

12 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The Liberal Party was formed in the 1850s and was the dominant force in British politics for the next 30 years. But, after the First World War, it fel...

House, Shop and Wardrobe in London's Merchant Community

06 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

During the Middle Ages, London was home to one of the largest and richest merchant communities in the world. These men and their families invested hea...

How Special Is Our Universe?

06 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

If the fundamental constants of nature differed from their measured values, life as we know it would not have emerged. Stars are witness to the forces...

NOW That's What I Call Carols: 1582!

05 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Some of the world's most influential carol tunes were published in 1582. These Pious Songs' were collected by a student of Danish parentage,...

What Do Judges Do In The Family Court?

30 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

What do judges do in the Family Court? Follow me through a virtual week as a Roving Judge. Learn what goes on behind the scenes: how the family court ...

Half a Century of Heart Transplantation

29 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

This week marks the 50th anniversary of the first human heart transplant. This talk will celebrate that achievement and consider what we have learned ...

Shakespeare's Heroes

28 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

What do we mean by a hero and where does our understanding of the 'heroic' idiom come from? In this lecture, Jonathan Bate will show how Sha...

Homer's Iliad via the Movie Troy (2004)

23 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Homer's Iliad, the earliest Greek poem, narrates the archetypal war between 'Europeans' and 'Asiatics' divided by the Hellesp...

A Global History of Sexual Violence

22 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In England and Wales today, 11 people are raped every hour. 85,000 women and 12,000 men are affected annually. Another half a million adults are sexua...

Watching the Heavens: Astronomy and the Meaning of Life

21 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

What did the sky-watchers of the ancient world think about the night sky, and its implications for human existence? Moving on to the great discoveries...

China: New Nation, New Art, 1911-1932

20 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

As the imperial system collapsed in China, the 'New Culture Movement' focused debate on new categories of 'modernity' and 'tr...

Diabetes: A Rising Tide

15 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Diabetes is an increasingly common disease causing raised blood sugar with serious long-term consequences. Type 1 diabetes was almost always fatal unt...

Buying, Selling and Owning Guitars in Elizabethan England

15 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

What kind of people owned a guitar in the London of Elizabeth I and where did they go shopping for one? It is possible to assemble a remarkably full p...

Maths Goes Into Space

14 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Space science is one of HM Government's 'eight great technologies'. In this lecture I will explain the mathematics behind satellites, s...

Organic Food: Rooted in Lies?

09 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Organic food production is environmentally benign, better for animal welfare, has human health benefits and tastes better - or so say its proponents. ...