EUH 4513 and 5519 Syllabus

Sommerville Fall, l991
Office: 4121 Turlington, hours 10:30-11:30 MWF, 8-10 Tue. or by appt.

Required books (you will need to buy them):

G. Straka, The Revolution of 1688
I. Watt, The Rise of the Novel
P. Deane, The First Industrial Revolution
E. Burke and T. Paine, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and The Rights of Man
J. Kenyon, Stuart England
W. Willcox, The Age of Aristocracy

Undergraduates will also read a biography of a figure from the period of the course (1660-1790) for the purpose of making an oral report sometime in the last weeks of the semester. Students taking the course for graduate credit will write a paper on a historiographical controversy currently being debated by historians. These assignments are described later in this syllabus.

Grading:

30% on a mid-term exam, Monday, Oct. 7 (we will discuss how to prepare for essay exams a week beforehand).
Exams can only be
made up BEFORE the regularly scheduled time, NO exceptions.
10% on class participation
30% on the report or paper mentioned above
30% on a final exam, given Monday, December 16, 12:30 p.m.

Class schedule:

Aug 26 lecture - The Great Break in English History

28 video - putting you in the scene

30 What was the Restoration? (before class, read Kenyon, Stuart England, pp. 195-213)

Sept 2 vacation

4 What was still the problem? (Kenyon 214-225)

6 Signs of trouble (Kenyon 225-243)

9 Did James have a chance? (Kenyon 244-261)

11 Revolution (Kenyon 261-73, then Straka 3-14)

13 What were the causes of the Revolution? (Straka 15-41, 97-110)

16 Revolutionary Theories (Straka 71-82, 111-126, 42-60)

18 What was William's role? (Straka 127-156, 63-70)

20 What was the Revolution Settlement? (Kenyon 273-283, Willcox 9- 14)

23 Lecture on the birth of Sea Power

25 New politics and new foreign policy (Kenyon 284-313)

27 Did Anne ever rule? (Kenyon 314-335)

30 The Rise of Parties (Kenyon 336-350, Straka 182-232)

Oct. 2 Lecture on Social Structure (skim Willcox 47-81)

4 Lecture on Secularization

7 Mid-term

Oct 7 Mid-term exam

9 Music and the theatre

11 Slides - the rebuilding of London

14 Defoe's outlook on life (Watt 9-134)

16 Richardson's interests (Watt 135-207)

18 Vacation

21 Fielding's perspective (Watt 239-289)

23 Lecture - the birth of sea power

25 Sea Power and Empire (Willcox 107-135)

28 Sir Robert Walpole (Willcox 92-113)

30 Walpole's Fall

Nov 1 Industrial Revolution - Preconditions (Deane 1-71)

4 Industrial Revolution - Machinery (Deane 72-141)

6 Video - Joseph Andrews

8 Industrial Revolution - Capital and Politics (Deane 165-237)

11 Vacation

13 Industrial Revolution - Impact on Life (Deane 142-164, 238-295)

17 William Pitt - Empire & Reform (Willcox 125-153)

20 America (Willcox 154-175)

22 The New Conservatism (Burke 15-140)

24 Liberalism (Paine 269-288, 302-326, 388-405, 420-448, 470-495)

25 Lecture - Radicalism (Willcox 200-211, 221-227)

27 Class reports - Butler & Wiggins

29 Vacation

Dec 2 Reports - DiSalvo & Saba

4 Reports - Hamilton & Plaza

6 Reports - Huff & Nguyen

9 Reports - Langley & Musgrove

11 Reports - Leibowitz & McIntosh

13 Reports - Macmillian & Maxwell

You may trade dates for reports, but YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THERE BEING A REPORT ON THE DATE I HAVE GIVEN YOU.

Bibliography and Reports

Undergraduates will read a biography shown to and approved by the instructor on some individual from the period of the course. Part of the grade on this report will be based on the quality of the biography you choose, so you should begin discussing your choice with the instructor as early as possible. You may choose a figure from any field--business, education, law, military, politics, entertainment, religion, the arts--except that you may not use members of the royal family.

Your report should take 15 minutes and should emphasize primarily the shape of the person's career. Thus, it should cover the following points as thoroughly as possible:

1. the social position of the subject by birth,
2. who gave him/her the first big break, and why,
3. what personal characteristics helped after that,
4. the length of time it took him to establish himself, and
5. his permanent impact on the course of English history.

Do not simply give us a summary of the life. If there is time left after addressing these questions, you may fill up your time with any good stories that are left over.

At the end of your report give us your assessment of the book itself:

1. What seems to have been the author's main interest or purpose in writing it?
2. Did he or she have a thesis to maintain about the character?
3. What did the author do especially well or especially badly?
4. Could you tell how solidly it was based on the evidence.

Be ready to answer a few questions about the character after you are through with the report.

To locate biographies, use the subject search on LUIS, or consult the main bibliographies for this period (shelved in the reference area of Library West and can also be consulted in my office):

Godfrey Davies and Mary Keeler, Bibliography of British History: Stuart Period
Stanley Pargellis and C J Medley, Bibliography of British History:

The Eighteenth Century

These bibliographies are getting out-of-date, so ask the instructor for other possibilities. If your biography is not clear on certain facts of the subject's life, try the Dictionary of National Biography, also in the reference area.

There is one other bibliography which might prove helpful:

William Sachse, Restoration England, 1660-1689. It is in a newer series, which now looks like it will never be completed. We are, presumably, awaiting computerized bibliographies--in essence, better subject search capabilities from computerized catalogues like LUIS.

Graduate Reports

Students taking the course for graduate credit will write a paper (of about 10 pages or 2,500 words) on some controversy among historians. Such subjects might be suggested by browsing through the bibliographies listed on the undergraduate syllabus, or by looking through the last ten years of such specialized journals as:

ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW
HISTORY (the journal of the Historical Association, England's equivalent of the American Historical Association)
PAST & PRESENT
JOURNAL OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW
ALBION
JOURNAL OF BRITISH STUDIES
HISTORICAL JOURNAL

to see what seem to be the most burning issues. Book reviews often refer to such controversies. And of course, you should talk to the instructor about your ideas. In general, the more authors you cite the better.

You might also try

Richard Schlatter, Recent Views on British History
G. R. Elton, Modern Historians on British History
J. S. Morrill, Seventeenth-Century Britain (reshelve these volumes)

The report should contain:

1. the issues which divide historians on your subject,
2. the reasons for the disagreements,
3. the state of the sources which have been, or could be, used,
4. what it would take to resolve the problem, or the reasons why it will never be resolved.

Alternatively, students may present a paper of the same length on the scholarly career of one of the following historians of our period:

Lewis Namier (political)
Herbert Butterfield (political, intellectual)
William Lecky (social, intellectual)
G. M. Trevelyan (social, political)
J. H. Plumb (political)
Norman Sykes (ecclesiastical)
Dorothy Marshall and M. Dorothy George (economic, social)
George Rude (social)

Such a report should cover the following points:

1. the theories, interpretations, themes or subjects with which this historian is associated,
2. an outline of his/her training and professional career
3. major publications
4. your own observations of his/her method, favorite sources, and tendencies.