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Today marks the three hundred and fifty fifth anniversary of the Great Fire of London. The fire began in the house of a baker who lived in Pudding Lane, not far from London Bridge.
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Between the spring of 1665, and the summer of 1667, London experienced three great disasters that posed an existential threat to its very existence: the Great Plague, the Great Fire, and a raid by the Dutch Navy that burnt shipping, and humiliated the Restoration regime.
In fact, London’s overcrowded and ramshackle housing, its continuous contact with the outside world, its strategic location, and a complete lack of modern scientific medical knowledge had made it prey to disease, fire, and war throughout its history. Periodic epidemics routinely killed off a quarter of the population, while periodic fires routinely destroyed whole districts and periodic wars routinely disrupted its economy. And yet, somehow, Londoners went about or resumed their business, rebuilt, and London survived and grew.
In this program, we will accompany Londoners like Samuel Pepys to see how they did it.
Presented by: Robert O. Bucholz (D. Phil., University of Oxford, 1988; A.B. Cornell University, 1980) is a professor of history at Loyola University Chicago, where he teaches courses on the history of early modern Great Britain, the city of London and Western Civilization.
Professor Bucholz is a leading authority on the history of the British court, the social history of early modern England, and the emergence of London as global cultural center during and after the sixteenth century. He has written numerous articles and book chapters which have appeared in "The Court Historian," "the Journal of British Studies," and other publications. Bucholz’s most recent book, "London: A Social and Cultural History, 1550-1750" (Cambridge University Press, 2012) with J. P. Ward, has been described as a “remarkably successful attempt to describe how the city reached the cusp of 'modernity,' how it emerged from relative obscurity in the middle of the sixteenth century to become . . . 'the greatest city in Europe.'” His best-selling "Early Modern England, 1485-1714: A Narrative History" (3rd ed. Wiley-Blackwell, 2019), co-authored with N. E. Key, traces the transformation of England during the Tudor–Stuart period, from a feudal European state to a constitutional monarchy and the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth.
At the conclusion of the program please feel free to take a brief online survey here:
https://www.projectoutcome.org/responses/55401
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