Professor Kozlowski Lectures

HBM - Blake's Life, Times, and Songs

Today we kick off our discussion of William Blake with a little history catch-up, some discussion of his biography, and a [brief] analysis of the "Songs of Innocence and

HBM - Pardise Lost 9-10

Today we finish our discussion of Milton's Paradise Lost with a close examination of Books 9-10. Along the way we'll look at Satan's last chance to make peace with God, h

HBM - Paradise Lost 5-8

Today we wrestle with the whole of Raphael's digressions from the central plot of Paradise Lost - the war of the angels in heaven, Milton's recapitulation of Genesis 1 an

HBM - Paradise Lost 3-5

Now that our discussion is officially behind our reading, let's take the opportunity to run through some of the main ideas in Books 3-5 of Paradise Lost, including Milton

HBM - Renaissance Magic and Milton's War

Today we set out many of the topics we'll need to know in our ongoing study of British Magick - including the varieties of Magical practices common among Renaissance thin

HBM - Paradise Lost 1-2

Today we discuss the opening chapters of Milton's Paradise Lost, to ask ourselves: why do we find Satan so compelling in this poem? We'll discuss the reasons why Satan se

HBM - Apocrypha and Pseudepigraphica

Today we get as close as we're going to get to reading actual magical grimoires and practical magic instruction - we're looking at three famous texts with differing relat

HBM - The Story of the New Testament (Canon)

Today we discuss how the New Testament came to be: first, by looking at the historical evidences surrounding Jesus of Nazareth, then by examining the complicated and conf

HBM - Magic and the Old Testament

Today we talk about the Old Testament's complicated relationship to magic. We'll discuss passages that seem to acknowledge the existence of magical or spiritual forces, f

HBM - Virgil, Rome, and Translation

Today we discuss the text, context, and legacy of Virgil's Aeneid. We'll talk about its role as the preeminent poem of Western literature, its value as propaganda to Augu

HBM - Ancient Greek Mythology and Magic

Today we discuss Hesiod's Theogony and The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, not necessarily for the stories, but to understand how the Greeks conflate their understanding of magi

HBM - Logical Fallacies and Writing Technique

Today we take our first look at the study of nonsense with a discussion of logical fallacies - some familiar and well-worn, and some that I dare to invent and name like I

History of British Magick - Syllabus Lecture

Professor Kozlowski introduces his students to the ins and outs of his Studies in Arts and Humanities class for Fall of 2026.

History of British Magick - Introduction

At long last, we begin our study of British Magick with an introductory lecture about what you can expect from the series, our goals and parameters for the study, and how

Propaganda in a Liberal Democracy

Today we discuss Jason Stanley's How Propaganda Works - a book I've been reading on-and-off since the History of Social Thought class, but which seems more important and

Professor Kozlowski Lecture NOTES?!

Shamelessly promoting our new paid sister channel, Professor Kozlowski Lecture Notes, where you can find our discussions of V for Vendetta, Watchmen, Sandman, and all the

A Statement of Intent in 2026

Today Professor Kozlowski does some long-overdue housekeeping. We'll talk about our ambitions for the future, specifically our project on The History of British Magick fo

Biblical Politics - A Primer

The Bible is a long, difficult text with many apparent conflicts, especially when it comes to a believer's responsibilities to secular government. Here we will look at th

Faust Scenes 10-19

Professor Kozlowski finally reaches plot development in Goethe's Faust, Part One.  He discusses Margareta as a character, Faust's (and the audience's) relationship to her

Gatsby's party sucked.

Professor Kozlowski, introvert and buzzkill extraordinaire, poops on that most famous of lavish, extravagant parties: the one thrown by Gatsby in Chapter 3 of The Great G