This module will introduce students to debates and
controversies over significant events, movements and moments
in Britain’s long nineteenth and short twentieth centuries. At
stake in these debates are issues of historical accuracy (what
happened?), historical crafts(wo)manship (how do we know it
happened?) and historical interpretation (what does it mean?).
The competing narratives that emerge have wide-ranging
implications not just for our understanding of the past and our
understanding of how we learn about the past but also for how
we think and act in the present based on that understanding,
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and for how it shapes our sense of individual and collective
identity. Six themes will be explored, three for each
chronological period. Students will delve into primary and
secondary sources and will lead discussions of these in weekly
seminars.
Core topics Topic 1: The British Empire: ruthless power grab, midwife of
modernity, or liberal beacon?
Topic 2: Chartism: “hunger politics”, “feudal socialism” or the birth of
“working class consciousness”?
Topic 3: Victorian patriarchy: cast-iron structure, class-inflected
structure, or toothless superstructure?
Topic 4: Decolonising the Empire: masterminds, heroes or
pragmatists?
Topic 5: “Peace for our time”. Pacifists and peace movements in the
20th Century: visionaries, myopic fools or traitors?
Topic 6: The
Swinging Sixties: new society, permissive society, or fractured
society?
