Module Leader

Dr Sarah Richardson

Context of Module

Module Aims

Intended Learning Outcomes

Outline Syllabus

Illustrative Biblography

Assessment

 

 

Context of Module

This module may be taken by students on the MA in History, the MA in Eighteenth-Century Studies, the MA in Religious, Social and Cultural History, or any taught Master's student outside the History Department.

 

Module Aims

This module examines the richness and variety of eighteenth-century political culture in England. Students will be introduced to recent historical interpretations of eighteenth century England which have demonstrated the interconnections between society, culture, the economy and politics in this important period of transition. A wide range of contemporary sources will also be used including political and theoretical works, novels, personal records and visual sources. As a result students will be able to engage with existing literature and to develop their own research skills.

 

Intended Learning Outcomes

• to develop further skills (including ICT mediated skills) in communication, writing and research.
• to analyse and evaluate at an advanced level the contributions made by a wide range of interdisciplinary scholars to the field of eighteenth century political culture.
• to locate, consider and analyse a range of primary source materials to further an appreciation of political culture in the eighteenth century
• the opportunity, through the independent preparation and writing of 5,000 word essays, to choose and frame for themselves a topic worthy of analysis in the light of the advanced literature in the relevant area of study; to construct their own bibliographies from books, articles and websites; to gather evidence and use it to shape a cogent and coherent extended analytical discussion; and where appropriate to deploy evidence from primary sources.

 

Outline Syllabus

2015-16

• Week 1: Introduction
• Week 2: The Idea of Britain
• Week 3: Electoral Politics
• Week 4: Women, Gender and Politics
• Week 5: Popular Politics and the Crowd
• Week 6: Reading Week
• Week 7: Ideology and Ideas: The French Revolution
• Week 8: War and National Identity
• Week 9: Religion and religious dissent
• Week 10: The confessional state?

2013-14

• Week 1: Introduction
  
• Week 2: Intellectual contexts
  
• Week 3: Reactions to the French Revolution I (radicalism)
  
• Week 4: Reactions to the French Revolution II (conservatism)
  
• Week 5: Gender roles
  
• Week 6: Reading week
  
• Week 7: Women, privilege and power
  
• Week 8: Print culture
  
• Week 9: Consumption and commercialisation
  
• Week 10: The idea of Britain
  

2010-11

• Week 1: Introduction to politics in the Hanoverian age
• Week 2: The idea of Britain?
• Week 3: Reactions to the French Revolution I (radicalism)
• Week 4: Reactions to the French Revolution II (conservatism)
• Week 5: The culture of the crowd
• Week 6: Reading week
• Week 7: Commercialisation of politics 
• Week 8: Print culture and the press
• Week 9: The Regency and politics
• Week10: The Empire and politics 

The syllabus will be negotiated with participants. Follow a link for the module handbook on the right. Typical topics might include:

• The idea of Britain?
• Religion and the State
• Women, Power and Privilege
• Gender and the Public Sphere
• Religion and Dissent
• The Culture of the Crowd
• Popular Political Culture
• Revolution and Political ideology
• Print and the Press
• The Warrington Academy and Radical Education
• The Sense of the People
• The Commercialisation of Politics
• Electoral Politics and Culture
• War and the Empire

 

Illustrative Bibliography

J.E. Bradley, Religion, Revolution and English Radicalism (Cambridge, 1989)

J. Brewer, The Common People and Politics (Cambridge, 1986)

E. Chalus and H. Barker (eds), Gender in Eighteenth-century England (Harlow, 1997)

G. Claeys (ed.), Political Writings of the 1790s (London, 1995)

G. Claeys, The Politics of English Jacobinism (Pennsylvania, 1995)

G. Claeys, Tom Paine: Social and Political Thought (Boston, 1989)

J. C. D. Clark, English Society (Cambridge, 1995 and 2000)

L. Colley, Britons (London, 1992)

H. Dickinson, The Politics of the People in Eighteenth-century Britain(Basingstoke, 1995)

K. Gleadle and S. Richardson (eds), Women in British Politics (Basingstoke, 2000)

F. O’Gorman, Voters, Patrons and Parties (Oxford, 1989)

J. Keane, Tom Paine, a political life (London, 1995)

P. Langford, A Polite and Commercial People (Oxford, 1989)

J. S. Lewis, Sacred to Female Patriotism (New York, 2003)

N. Rogers, Crowd, Culture and Politics in Georgian England (Oxford, 1998)

G. Rudé, Wilkes and Liberty(Oxford, 1962)

H. Smith, Women Writers and the Early Modern British Political Tradition (Cambridge, 1998)

K. Wilson, The Sense of the People (Cambridge, 1995)

 

Assessment

One assessed essay of 6,000 words: the course is taught in weekly 2-hour seminars

 

Information
Seminar Day	Wednesday
Seminar Time	11:00-1:00
Seminar Room	H3.35