History of England 2 3301-L1HEW2
An outline survey of the history of modern England, with particular attention paid to social and cultural developments. The course begins with a review of the geographical and economic conditions and examines in detail the period from 1485 to 1945 within the following framework, treated chronologically: changes in patterns of agriculture, manufacture and commerce; rural England: the agricultural labourer, domestic service; urbanisation, particularly in the period from 1780; the impact of changes in transport and communications; local government structures and community organisation; the growth of the middle classes and middle-class life styles and demands; the standard of living and housing of the labouring classes; self-help, self-association, Luddism, the growth of trade unions; social reform movements from the late 18th century, including the Methodist movement, Temperance, the anti-slavery campaign; the development of public education from 1870, developments in higher education; changing patterns of crime and punishment; the development of welfare provisions, particularly from 1834; political structures from the Elizabethan parliament through to the parliamentary reform movements of the 19th century; overseas expansion, the growth of Empire and the two world wars.
The themes examined in this context are: shifting balances of wealth and power, land versus money; the relative significance of the urban and the rural; the impact of material progress, housing, medicine; relations between rulers and ruled, attitudes to authority, ideologies of collectivism and individualism; religious belief and ideology; ideas of nation, nationalism, attitudes to the outside world and Empire; senses of the centre and periphery, regionalism and centralising tendencies; attitudes to crime and punishment; war and peace; sex, gender, family and the community; education; leisure, recreation and sport; attitudes to the past.
Course coordinators
Type of course
Learning outcomes
The aim of this course is to provide students with:
1) outline knowledge about the social, cultural and political history of England; knowledge of differing British experiences throughout history depending on perspectives dictated by class, race and gender;
2) the following skills:
a) ability to use varied materials on the basis of which pictures of historical development are constructed;
b) awareness that historical sources present experience from different perspectives and with different motivations;
c) awareness of differing British experiences throughout history depending on perspectives dictated by class, race and gender;
d) ability to draw general conclusions on the basis of patterns constructed by particular events.
e) skills in detecting different perspectives and different motivations of historical writing and reconstructions;
f) social competences in recognising the historical determinants of patterns of development in contemporary British society.
Assessment criteria
Written examination assessed on the basis of:
1. knowledge about the social, cultural and political history of England;
2. ability to present ideas and interpretations clearly and logically.
Bibliography
Kenneth O. Morgan (ed.) Oxford History of Britain, OUP, 2001:
- John Guy, John Morrill, The Tudors and Stuarts.
- Paul Langford, Christopher Harvie, The Eighteenth Century and the Age of Industry.
- H.C.G. Matthew, Kenneth O. Morgan, The Modern Age.
"Pelican History of England" series:
- S.T. Bindoff, Tudor England.
- Maurice Ashley, England in the Seventeenth Century.
- J.H. Plumb, England in the Eighteenth Century.
- David Thomson, England in the Nineteenth Century.
- David Thomson, England in the Twentieth Century.
Asa Briggs, A Social History of England, Penguin 1986.
Henryk Zins, Historia Anglii, Ossolineum, 2001.