Course description
The history of Tudor and Stuart Britain is filled with dramatic personalities and frequent catastrophes. It is no wonder that the period has inspired so many novels, films, and television shows. In addition to bodice rippings and beheadings, however, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries also witnessed the formation of British political, religious, intellectual, and economic institutions that would eventually be exported across the world. This course surveys these developments with special attention to the ways men and women sought to imagine new worlds in times of instability. Topics include the English and Scottish reformations, magical and scientific cultures, Puritanism and Arminianism, the civil wars, the growth of the public sphere, and the evolving British political constitution. For complete and current details about this Harvard Extension course, see the description in the DCE Course Search.
