Description
In his two-part e-seminar series, Poverty, Wealth, and History in the East End of London, Professor Paul Johnson explores the rich and dramatic history of the East End of London. Using Spitalfields, a historic corner of the East End, as a window onto the history of social and economic change, you will learn about the great surges of immigration from Ireland, Eastern Europe and Bangladesh, about the creation, destruction and re-creation of tightly knit communities, about labor and toil in one of the poorest and most restive districts of London, and consequently about the religious, political and social fault-lines that divided and defined British society.

You will also learn about the repeated attempts to regenerate the East End: from the strict moral regulation of Victorian tenement housing for the slum dwellers of the East End to the exclusive redevelopments for wealthy workers from the City. You will explore action taken by East Enders to find redress for their problems—riots through the West End in 1888 and the Dock Strike of 1889—and study attempts to investigate and invigorate the East End—from Charles Booth's pioneering survey of London in 1901 to local council initiatives in 2001. You will also visit the site of one of the most extraordinary events in the history of the East End: the Battle of Cable Street, where in 1936 East Enders—Jewish and non-Jewish alike—battled with the police escort of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists as they attempted to march through the East End.

Through images, maps, video, eyewitness testimony, and critical examination of original sources, you will gain a comprehensive understanding of one of the legendary areas of Britain.