Conway Hall Ethical Society presents:
A series of Wednesday evening talks commencing 31 October and running until 5 December. 7pm to 8.30pm
These Heritage Lottery-funded talks are free. But please register for talks https://conwayhall.org.uk/event/victorian-blogging/
Speakers: Prof. Joad Raymond, Dr Joseph Kelly, Dr Gregory Claeys, Prof. David Nash, Deborah Lavin & Viv Regan (Spiked)
Starting with a Joad Raymond’s talk on the technological advance of printing and the advent of the dissident pampleteering and ending with Viv Regan’s talk talk on the technological advance of the internet and advent of the maverick voice of blogging; and the slite’s efforts to silence both the pamphleteeer and the blogger. In between four talks on campaigns that historically animated the men and women associated with Conway Hall
31 October | Brockway Room
The First Resort: Pamphleteering and Politics in Early Modern Britain
Prof. Joad Raymond charts the rise of the pamphlet as a method to communicate alternative political ideas and challenge power in early modern Britain.
7 November | Brockway Room
The Elimination of Slavery from the Whole World: Problems of Anti-Slavery in Victorian Britain
Dr Joseph Kelly examines the problems faced by the slavery abolition movement in Britain after slavery was abolished in the British Empire in the 1830s and the new task was to eliminate slavery from the rest of the earth.
14 November | Library*
Dr Gregory Claeys considers whether, despite Karl Marx’s well-known rejection of earlier utopian socialism, he might still be termed a utopian thinker, and how some of Marx’s ideas were adapted and built upon by the English socialist William Morris.
21 November | Brockway Room
Blasphemy, the Individual and the State: From Historical Flashpoint to Contemporary Grievance
Prof. David Nash traces the long battle to abolish the Blasphemy Laws in England, from the seventeenth century to their abolition in 2008 and examines concepts of blasphemy which impact us in new ways today.
28 November | Library
Deborah Lavin reveals how strong opposition to contraception in the 19th century, came not just from the religious and tradional but from liberals, radicals, socialists and feminists.
5 December | Brockway Room
The End of the Wild World Web? Internet Freedom in the Twenty-First Century
Viv Regan of Spiked explores the threats to open debate and blogging online and discuss es what has happened to the lost promise of internet freedom.
Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Sqaure, London WC1