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Life among the Victorians: a social history of Britain from 1830 to 1901

  • Module code: HS5002
  • Year: 2018/9
  • Level: 5
  • Credits: 30
  • Pre-requisites: Completion of relevant L4 modules or equivalent
  • Co-requisites: None

Summary

This is a core module for full field history students at level 5 but is also offered to half- and minor-field students. It introduces students to life in Britain during a period of great reform, both in terms of the relationship between government and the people and in the way people see themselves. We explore the transformation of a rural society into one concentrated in large towns and cities and the challenges this creates. We draw in issues of class, religion, race and poverty; changing attitudes to private and public lives; emergence of leisure as a commodity and consumerism as past-time; responses to new understandings of disease; debates about the role of women and changing ideas about family and children. Alongside these debates in social history, the module will investigate the politics of an era which saw a slow transition into a modern democracy, focussing on iconic figures such as Disraeli and Gladstone. It forms a logical companion to Nationalism and Empire (HS5003).

The module also serves as an introduction to independent study, working (under close supervision) on a primary-sources based research project of the students' own choice, related to themes covered in the module. This helps to prepare them for their final year dissertation project.

 

Aims

  • To enable students to critically analyse the interaction of social, cultural and political history in influencing people's experiences and lives.
  • To familiarise students with major historiographical debates relating to the period.
  • To encourage students to identify and critically evaluate the continuities and change which characterise this era in British social history.
  • To enable students to conduct a piece of in-depth primary sources driven research on a topic of their choice, related to a theme covered in the module, and to present their findings in a variety of different forms.

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:

  • Critically analyse the influence of a range of social, cultural and political factors on the lives of people in British society in the period.
  • Synthesise and assess different points of view as proffered by historians on some of the key issues raised during the module.
  • Critically evaluate long-term historical patterns of change and continuity.
  • Plan and execute a research project based on primary research, on a topic related to a theme from the Module.
  • Communicate findings from the research project effectively in a variety of ways.

Curriculum content

  • An age of reform: extending the franchise and the politics of reform, including the leading influencers of change such as Disraeli and Gladstone and movements such the Chartists.
  • The birth of party politics and the rise of the labour party.
  • Technology and mobility, from the railways, the telegraph and telephone to the motor-car; 'What the Victorians did for us'.
  • Urbanisation and industrialisation: the relationship between these twin pillars of Victorian society
  • The significance of the rise of the middle class: class and respectability in Victorian Britain.
  • The birth of ‘Big Government': poverty, public health crises and education for the masses; and of ‘Big Society': philanthropy, charity and the changing influence of religion on people's lives.
  • Changes in leisure and culture, from the introduction of mass spectator sports to the birth of shopping as a leisure activity.
  • Women's changing roles, their entrance into higher education, the workforce and campaigns for the vote; and changing notions of the family.
  • Victorian Immigrant Populations, including the search for the non-white British population in 19th century Britain.
  • The rise of science as an explanation for the unexplainable and the popularisation of science.
  • Constructing research questions and essay titles and planning and implementing a research project.
  • Finding and using primary sources. Getting the most out of the internet for historical research.
  • Communication of findings in a variety of forms, including an extended essay and a poster.

Teaching and learning strategy

This module is delivered through a series of weekly two-hour lecture/seminar combinations.  The lecture element of the 2-hour session provides background and contextual information on the week's topic and will supplement a student's self-directed reading from the reading lists. The second half of each session is in seminar format. In these, students will use relevant primary sources (or film or audio recording), to analyse and discuss issues raised during the lecture and will be encouraged to link nineteenth-century ideas and debates where appropriate to current events. The objective is to enable students to engage in discussion and debate based on prior reading, deepening their understanding of the topic. Students will work in small groups, and each week will be asked to feedback to the whole class their group's findings. Other seminars will require students to participate in skills-based exercises, helping them to develop the skills needed for successful completion of the assignment (a research project). On two occasions, the 2 hour lecture/seminar workshop will be replaced by a 2 hour computer lab, where they will examine a variety of online primary sources, learning how to get the best from this increasingly important resource. A third 2 hour session is dedicated to an exhibition of posters which students produce, based on their research project. A timetabled visit to an archive will enable students to learn how to locate sources in archival catalogues and to read and interpret primary sources relevant to the module. In TB2 students are expected to arrange at least two individual supervision sessions with the module leader.

Breakdown of Teaching and Learning Hours

Definitive UNISTATS Category Indicative Description Hours
Scheduled learning and teaching 17 two hour lectures 34
Scheduled learning and teaching 3 two hour workshop 6
Scheduled learning and teaching 1 archive visit 4
Scheduled learning and teaching 1 employability session 2
Guided independent study 254
Total (number of credits x 10) 300

Assessment strategy

Summative assessment elements of this module comprises a portfolio of work connected to the research project: a research proposal of 500 words (10%), a poster (15%), produced in TB2 which reflects work in progress on the  research project, and a final essay of 3,500 words presenting the results of the research project (75%).

The research proposal tests the student's ability to concisely explain the aims and objectives of a proposed research project. The research project tests their ability to plan and execute a piece of independent research, including the development of skills such as the construction of a feasible historical question which can be answered through the identification and use of primary sources. It also develops their ability to construct a relevant secondary reading list. Secondly, the research project will test in-depth understanding of social and political history of Britain in the 19th century and of the historical debates around this subject. The Poster challenges students to present their work in a non-traditional medium, which requires them to present their ideas in a very concise format. As the Poster is submitted during TB2 it is also an opportunity for students to receive constructive feedback on their projects which can be incorporated into their final essay.  All three elements are designed to prepare students for their third year dissertation.

A variety of formative assessments (providing opportunities for feedback and feed-forward) will take place during the first half of the module, which will include self-testing during seminars, peer review of work, online tests and reports of visits made to archives etc.

During the second teaching block formative assessment will be based primarily on the student's progress towards a completed project and delivered during the individual or group tutorial sessions. This will include students reviewing each other's work and providing feedback.

Mapping of Learning Outcomes to Assessment Strategy (Indicative)

Learning Outcome Assessment Strategy
Critically analyse the influence of a range of social, cultural and political factors on the lives of people in British society in the period Assessed summatively by the research essay and formatively by participation in seminar debates.
Synthesise and assess different points of view as proffered by historians on some of the key issues raised during the module Assessed summatively by the research essay and formatively by participation in seminar debates.
Critically evaluate long-term historical patterns of change and continuity. Assessed summatively by the research essay and formatively by participation in seminar debates.
Plan and execute a research project based on primary research, on a topic related to a theme from Life among the Victorians. Assessed summatively by the research proposal, poster and essay; and formatively through participation in skills-focussed seminars and completion of a computer-lab workbook.
Communicate findings from the research project effectively in a variety of ways. Assessed summatively by the poster and the research-based essay.

Achieving a pass

It IS NOT a requirement that any major assessment category is passed separately in order to achieve an overall pass for the module

Bibliography core texts

Brundage, A., Going to the Sources: a guide to historical research and writing, 5th ed. (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2103)

Harris, Bernard, The Origins of the British Welfare State: social welfare in England and Wales, 1800-1945 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)

McCord, Norman, British History, 1815-1914 2nd edn. (Oxford:  OUP, 2007)

Royle E., Modern Britain: a social history 1750-1997 2nd edn. (London: Arnold, 1997)

Rubenstein, W.D. Britain's Century: a political and social history 1815-1905 (London: Arnold, 1998).

Steinbach, Susie, Understanding the Victorians:  Politics, Culture and Society in Nineteenth-century Britain (Hoboken:  Taylor and Francis, 2012)

Thompson, F.M.L., The Rise of Respectable Society: a social history of Victorian Britain, 1830-1900 (London: Fontana, 2008)

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