History 227

British History

Second Semester, 2004-2005

Reed Browning

This lecture course will introduce students to the outlines of the most recent five hundred years of British history – i.e., from Henry VII (the first Tudor monarch) to Tony Blair (the current Prime Minister). The structural integrity and narrative backbone of the course are supplied by political/diplomatic/military history, but we will deal extensively with religious, intellectual, and social history as well. Because the course has a three-book text (first Smith, then Willcox, then Arnstein) that tells the narrative story, I will feel free to use the lectures to suggest different angles of vision, to present subjects not treated in the texts, and to discuss why historians have come to certain conclusions. While I think the course offers much of value to any student, I intend it to be particularly useful for students planning on visiting the United Kingdom, for students interested in English literature, and for students curious about the political/ constitutional legacy that the American republic inherited at its moment of independence.

The following books should be purchased:

Walter Arnstein, Britain Yesterday and Today

Lacey Baldwin Smith, This Realm of England

William Willcox, The Age of Aristocracy

Asa Briggs, Victorian Cities

Linda Colley, Britons: Forging the Nation

Peter Gaunt, Oliver Cromwell

Christopher Haigh, Elizabeth I

Bernard Porter, The Lion’s Share

I expect all term papers to conform to the procedures for citing sources in footnotes and endnotes and for preparing bibliographical listings that are described in Kate Turabian, Manual for Writers of Term Papers, These and Dissertations. I therefore recommend that you purchase a copy. See also February 3 below and note 4 at the end.

THE WORLD OF THE TUDORS

read: Smith, This Realm of England, 1-228.

Haigh, Elizabeth I

Jan. 17: Getting to Know Great Britain

Jan. 19: The Tudor Peace

Jan. 21: The Reformation as an Act of State

Jan. 24: NO CLASS [this date may get changed: I’ll keep you posted]

Jan. 26: The Protestant Reformation

Jan. 28: The Church of England

A CENTURY OF REVOLUTION

read: Smith, This Realm of England, 231-348.

Gaunt, Oliver Cromwell

Jan. 31: The Grievances of the Commons

Feb. 2: The Resurgence of Puritanism

Feb. 4: How Do We Make Sense of the English Revolution?

Feb. 7: Workshop on Source Citation

Feb. 9: The Revolution in Political Thought

Feb. 11: The Baconian Turn of Mind

Feb. 14: The World We Have Lost

Feb. 16: The Glorious Revolution

THE LONG EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

read: Willcox, Age of Aristocracy, 1-291.

Colley, Britons: Forging the Nation

Feb. 18: The New Constitutional Order

Feb. 21: The Era of the Court Whigs

Feb. 23: Hanoverian Habits

Feb. 25: HOUR EXAMINATION

Feb. 28: The Origins of Evangelicalism

Mar. 2: The End of the First British Empire (two copies of outline for research essay due)

Mar. 4: England and the Slave Trade

MARCH BREAK

Mar. 21: The Age of Austerity

Mar. 23: A Short Course on British Painting

Mar. 25: The Origins of Utilitarianism

BRITAIN’S APOGEE

read: Willcox, The Age of Aristocracy, 292-327.

Arnstein, Britain Yesterday and Today, 1-203.

Briggs, Victorian Cities, 11-138, 311-84.

Mar. 28: The Reform Bill

Mar. 30: The Expanding Franchise

Apr. 1: The Life of the Mind in Victorian Britain

Apr. 4: Charles Darwin

Apr. 6: The Age of Equipoise

Apr. 8: The Politics of Personality: Gladstone and Disraeli

Apr. 11: Victorians and Sexuality

Apr. 13: A Savoyard Interlude

Apr. 15: England’s Irish Question, or Ireland’s English Question

BRITAIN’S DECLINE

read: Arnstein, Britain Yesterday and Today, 207-462.

Porter, The Lion’s Share

Apr. 18: Liberal Triumph and Disaster

Apr. 20: The Great War

Apr. 22: The Rise of the Labour Party

Apr. 25: The Long Weekend

Apr. 27: Sir Winston Churchill: Man of the Millenium

Apr. 29: The Second World War

May 2: England’s Green and Pleasant Land (research essays due)

May 4: The Thatcher/Blair Revolution

May 6: REVIEW SESSION

1. My regular office hours will be from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If those are not convenient, we can schedule a meeting for another time. My office is Seitz 9, up on the second floor of Seitz House. My office extension is 5642. My home phone is 427-3155, and I do not mind being called at home (at reasonable hours).

2. My e-mail address is BROWNINR. I frequently use e-mail to send messages to the class. It is your responsibility to make sure your account is active.

3. There will be one hour examination, one research essay, and one final examination in this course. Please note that you should submit two copies of an outline for your research essay on March 2. The hour examination is scheduled for February 25; the research essay is due on May 2. I do not grant unpenalized extensions for research essays. The hour exam counts for 30% of the course grade, the research essay for another 30%, and the final exam for 40%.

4. Plagiarism is the representation of someone else's work as one's own. It is the most serious offense that can be committed in an academic community. We are obliged to acknowledge our debts to the labors of others, and recourse to notes is the most typical way of fulfilling that obligation. Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, These and Dissertations gives wonderful advice on building notes and bibliographies. The Student Handbook contains a full discussion of plagiarism. Please read it. I will be glad to discuss any issues about plagiarism with any student.

5. If you have a physical, psychological, medical or learning disability that may impact your ability to carry out assigned course work, I would urge that you contact the Office of Disability Services at 5453. The Coordinator of Disability Services, Erin Salva (salvae@kenyon.edu), will review your concerns and determine, with you, what accommodations are appropriate. All information and documentation of disability is confidential.

6. I encourage the use of foreign languages in student research work. I realize that few students will be proficient at reading Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, or Swedish, and so I'll be pleased to make significant adjustments in expectations if anyone wants to try to do some of the reading for the research essay in a language other than English. Please speak to me about the possibility if the prospect seems enticing.