TTC Video The Great Tours: England, Scotland, and Wales
TTC Video – The Great Tours: England, Scotland, and Wales
Lecturer: Patrick N. Allitt, Ph.D. Professor, Emory University | Course No. 8006


No matter what you are hoping to discover in this magnificent region, The Great Tours: England, Scotland, and Wales is the perfect guide. Taught by acclaimed Professor Patrick Allitt, a British-born scholar who teaches at Emory University, these 36 engrossing lectures give you an insider’s take on traveling through Great Britain. Whether you are planning a week-long vacation; a month-long grand tour; or just want to experience England, Scotland, and Wales from afar, this visually immersive course brings Great Britain into your living room and gives you all the background you need to plan the trip of a lifetime.

Go beyond the Guidebook

    []Stonehenge
    []Buckingham Palace
    []The Houses of Parliament
    []St. Paul’s Cathedral
    []Edinburgh, Scotland
    []Cardiff, Wales
    []and many more

Professor Allitt shows you worthwhile destinations that are often swamped with tourists and long lines, giving you access to these sites without the crowds, but also showing you which of these destinations really are worth braving if you visit in person. Perhaps more important, he introduces you to many overlooked or little-known gems that will surprise and delight even the most seasoned traveler to Britain. This is the insider look that the travel guides and tour programs can’t match. For instance, as Professor Allitt guides you across Great Britain, you will:

    []Consider Avebury, a breathtaking set of stone monuments largely overlooked in favor of the more famous Stonehenge;
    []Venture to Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire, the single best place in Britain to study the history of the Industrial Revolution;
    []Spend some time in the beautiful (and tragic) Scottish valley of Glencoe, and tour a ring of UNESCO World Heritage Site castles in Wales; and

All the World’s a Stage

One of the many pleasures of travel is seeing places you have only heard about in books or seen in glimpses on television. Likewise, knowing something about a place before you visit it deepens your experience of seeing it in person. With that in mind, Professor Allitt’s first job in this course is to survey the more than 1,000-year history of Great Britain.

The early history of Britain was largely shaped by a series of invasions. First the Romans came, and you can visit the edge of the Roman Empire at Hadrian’s Wall, near the Anglo-Scottish border. After the Roman retreat, the Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, and Normans all raided the coast and eventually settled. War dominated early British history, which resulted in the construction of many of the medieval castles that must be near the top of any tourist’s itinerary. Some of the many monuments and fortifications you will encounter are:

    []Lindisfarne, a monastery that was the site of a major Viking attack;
    []The Tower of London, with its remarkable stone keep and outer wall;
    []Dover Castle, overlooking the great cliffs; and

Christianity was the other great force in early British history, a facet of history you will explore through its astonishing cathedrals. Among them, consider Norwich Cathedral, Canterbury, and-most famously-Westminster Abbey.

Modern Britain was an industrial dynamo, so in addition to highlighting the famous monasteries, government halls, country houses, and battlefields where history was made, Professor Allitt also shows you the villages, mills, quarries, canals, and railroad lines that made Great Britain the powerhouse it is today.

The Road Not Taken

A visitor could spend a year in London and still not see everything worth experiencing. The city is home to an abundance of museums, monuments, parks, and lively neighborhoods. Among the highlights of Professor Allitt’s London tour are the wonderful Victoria and Albert Museum; the British Museum; Trafalgar Square; Kensington; Piccadilly Circus; and, of course, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and the Houses of Parliament.

From Baker Street to the Lighthouse

    []The national bards Chaucer and Shakespeare
    []Poets Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, and Byron
    []Novelists Austen, Dickens, the Brontës, Woolf, and Orwell
    []The National Gallery in London
    []The National Portrait Gallery
    []The Tate Modern
    []The Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh
    []The National Museum in Cardiff
    []Stourhead Estate in Wiltshire
    []The Botanic Garden at Oxford University
    []Kew Gardens in London
    []Bodnant Garden in Wales
    []and more

Ode to an Island Nation

There is no substitute for travel. Some things you simply have to see for yourself. That said, The Great Tours: England, Scotland, and Wales is the next best thing. Visually dazzling with hundreds of photographs from your professor’s own archives, you will see all the sites Professor Allitt describes-and, thanks to the help of a professional accent specialist in several of the lectures, you will also be able to hear the sounds of the Scottish brogue, the Welsh voice, the Cockney accent, and more.

If you have an upcoming trip to Great Britain, you will be well-prepped to have a rich experience-with insight on where to go, what to do, and what it all means. But even if you simply plan to enjoy Great Britain from your home, Professor Allitt grounds you in the history, the people, the land, and the cultural touchstones to enhance your understanding of this mighty nation. Every lecture in The Great Tours: England, Scotland, and Wales offers an immersive experience and astonishing insight into this small island that has had an outsized influence on the world’s stage.
More Info