Britain in an Age of Revolution: War, Society and Culture, 1789-1815
| Module title | Britain in an Age of Revolution: War, Society and Culture, 1789-1815 |
|---|---|
| Module code | HIH3448 |
| Academic year | 2024/5 |
| Credits | 60 |
| Module staff | Dr James Davey (Convenor) |
| Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: Weeks | 11 | 11 |
| Number students taking module (anticipated) | 18 |
|---|
Module description
In the aftermath of the French Revolution, Britain was confronted by widespread political radicalism, the very real prospect of social upheaval and a near-continuous war fought for national survival. This module uses a variety of approaches to consider the crucial period of British history between the onset of Revolution in 1789 and the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815. Alongside the political and military dimensions the period, it will also explore how war and revolution made a deep and lasting impact on British society and culture. Whether through conflict, insurrection, songs, art or literature, the ‘age of revolution’ touched the lives of peoples from across the British Isles.
Module aims - intentions of the module
The module aims to:
- Encourage you to consider ‘the age of revolution’ from multiple historical perspectives, engaging closely with a wide variety of sources documenting both the course and impact of war and revolution during the 1790s and early 1800s
- Draw on published and translated source collections as well as a growing number of online digital archives, to use a wide range of source material, including letters, diaries, manuscripts, memoirs, pamphlets, government archives, diplomatic records, caricatures, prints, oil paintings, newspapers, ballads, poetry, novels, history books and other forms of material culture
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. Identify the different sources available for the study of war and revolution during the 1789-1815 period, together with a very close specialist knowledge of those sources which the students focus upon in their seminar presentations and written work.
- 2. Analyse a range of diverse and complex sources relating to Britain in the period 1789-1815.
- 3. Describe the changing causes of and responses to social and political unrest and war in Britain during the age of revolution.
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 4. Analyse closely original sources and to assess their reliability as historical evidence.
- 5. Comprehend complex historical texts and debates.
- 6. Understand and deploy relevant historical terminology in a comprehensible and sophisticated manner.
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 7. Select, organise and analyse material for written work and/or oral presentations of different prescribed lengths and formats.
- 8. Present complex arguments orally.
- 9. Present an argument in a written form in a clear and organised manner, with appropriate use of correct English
- 10. Through essay development process, demonstrate ability to reflect critically on your own work, to respond constructively to feedback, and to implement suggestions and improve work on this basis
Syllabus plan
This module will allow students to engage with a wide variety of sources. Some seminars will focus on specific types of source (for example on caricature or political treatises) but most will encourage students to grapple with a range of different sources. As such, the module might include such topics as:
- Revolution or Revolutions?
- Radicalism and British political culture
- Volunteers and impressment
- Balladry, caricature and state propaganda
- Trade and imperial expansion
- The literature of revolution
- Mutiny in the fleet!
- Nelson, the Nile and naval celebrity
- Napoleon in the British imagination
- The threat of invasion
- Trafalgar and the war at sea
- Slavery and abolition
- ‘Britishness’ and national identity
- Fighting the Peninsular War
- The Battle of Waterloo: myth and reality
- Legacies of war and revolution
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 88 | 512 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching | 88 | 44 x 2 hour seminars |
| Guided Independent Study | 512 | Reading and preparation for seminars, coursework and presentations |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Written work | 500-1000 words | 1-8 | Oral and/or written |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 70 | 0 | 30 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio | 70 | Portfolio of THREE or FOUR pieces of written work, totalling 8,000 words. At least one of these pieces will require students to engage with primary source material in a sustained and detail manner. | 1-7, 9, 10 | Oral and written |
| Individual presentation | 30 | Individual, oral presentation. 20 minutes, + 10 minutes leading discussion, + supporting materials [equivalent total word count: 3,000 words] | 1-8 | Oral and written |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio | Portfolio | 1-7, 9-10 | Referral/Deferral period |
| Individual presentation | Written transcript (2,000 words + 1,000 word supporting materials) | 1-7, 9-10 | Referral/Deferral period |
Re-assessment notes
The re-assessment consists of a 8,000 word portfolio of source work, as in the original assessment, but replaces the individual presentation with a word written script that could be delivered in such a presentation and which is the equivalent of 30 minutes of speech (3,000 words).
Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.
Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
- The publications of the Navy Records Society https://www.navyrecords.org.uk/category/1714-1815/
- The publications of the Society for Army Historical Research http://www.sahr.org.uk/he
- David Andress, The Savage Storm: Britain on the Brink in the Age of Napoleon (London, 2012)
- S Andrews, The British Periodical Press and the French Revolution, 1789-99 (Basingstoke, 2000)
- David Bell, The First Total War: Napoleon’s Europe and the Birth of Modern Warfare (London, 2007)
- Roger Chickering and Stig Förster (eds). War in an Age of Revolution, 1775-1815 (Cambridge, 2010)
- Linda Colley, Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837 (New Haven, 2005).
- John Cookson, The British Armed Nation: 1793-1815 (Oxford, 1997)
- James Davey, In Nelson’s Wake: The Navy and the Napoleonic Wars (London and New Haven, 2015)
- J.R. Dinwiddy, Radicalism & Reform in Britain, 1780-1850 (London, 1992)
- Diana Donald, The Age of Caricature: Satirical Prints in the Reign of George III (Yale, 1996)
- Roger Knight, Britain Against Napoleon: The Organization of Victory (London, 2013)
- Jennifer Mori, Britain in the Age of the French Revolution (Oxford, 2000)
- Mark Philp, The French Revolution and British Popular Politics (Cambridge, 1991)
- Mark Philip, The British Response to the Threat of Invasion, 1797-1815 (Ashgate, 2006)
- Edward Royle, Revolutionary Britannia?: Reflections on the Threat of Revolution in Britain, 1789-1848 (Manchester, 2001)
Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources
- The Burney Newspaper Collection, British Library (http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/news/newspdigproj/burney/ )
- British Museum collections online (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx )
- National Maritime Museum online collections (http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections.html#!cbrowse )
- National Army Museum online collections (https://www.nam.ac.uk/collections )
- Art UK (https://artuk.org/ )
- Hansard Parliamentary Archive (http://www.hansard-archive.parliament.uk/ )
- British History Online (https://www.british-history.ac.uk/ )
- Eighteenth Century Collections Online (http://gale.cengage.co.uk/product-highlights/history/eighteenth-century-collections-online.aspx )
- Broadside Ballads Online (http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ )
- Georgian Papers online (http://gpp.royalcollection.org.uk )
- Kenneth S. Goldstein Broadsides (http://clio.lib.olemiss.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/kgbroadsides )
- Vice la difference! The English and French stereotype in satirical prints, 1720-1815 (http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/gallery/viveladifference//index.html )
- Princeton Gillray collection (http://pudl.princeton.edu/collections/pudl0015 )
- Discovering Literature: Romantics and Victorians (https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/collection-items?formats=broadside# )
- Edmund Burke, Reflections on the revolution in France, and on the proceedings… (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015024493143;view=1up;seq=9 )
| Credit value | 60 |
|---|---|
| Module ECTS | 30 |
| Module pre-requisites | None |
| Module co-requisites | None |
| NQF level (module) | 6 |
| Available as distance learning? | No |
| Origin date | 15/02/2018 |
| Last revision date | 17/02/2021 |
