Week I: "This Sceptre'd Isle"

Aug 29: Introduction to the course
Aug 31: Review: The early history of Britain and its peoples
Sep 2: Politics and society in seventeenth-century Britain

Reading:
Colley, 1-9
Porter, 1-47
Voltaire, 7-18

Week II: Shaping the Political Order

Sep 5: LABOR DAY (NO CLASS)
Sep 7: The Glorious Revolution and the paradoxes of British liberty
Sep 9: Discussion

Reading:
Arnstein, 1-22
Burke, ix-xxxvi
Porter, 48-97
Voltaire, 44-50, 62-67

Week III: Government at Home and Expansion Overseas

Sep 12: Walpole, the "Robinocracy," and the rage of party
Sep 14: The Atlantic World and the origins of the British Empire
Sep 16: Discussion

Reading:
Burke, 131-150, 183-194, 233-245
Rediker, 1-76

Documents:
Richard Ligon, "A true & exact history of the island of Barbados" (1657)
Stowage diagram of African slave ship Brookes (1788)

Week IV: Britain and the Enlightenment

Sep 19: The Augustan Age: art, letters, and music
Sep 21: The Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution
Sep 23: Discussion

Reading:
Porter, 98-142
Voltaire, 53-61, 68-100, 107-119

Documents:
Sir Isaac Newton, "Mathematical principles of natural philosophy" (1729)
Dr. John Wallis, "The origin of the Royal Society" (1700)

Music:
G.F. Handel, "Zadok the Priest" (1727), "For Unto Us a Child is Born" from The Messiah (1742)

Week V: Religion and Society in Eighteenth-Century Britain

Sep 26: Anglicans, Methodists, and Evangelicals
Sep 28: Social ranking, family life, and leisure
Sep 30: Discussion

Reading:
Arnstein, 30-33, 75-90
Burke, 94-128
Colley, 11-54
Voltaire, 23-41

Week VI: The Celtic Periphery and the British Nation

Oct 3: The Scots: Lowlanders, Highlanders, and the Scottish Enlightenment
Oct 5: The most distressful country: Ireland in the eighteenth century
Oct 7: FALL BREAK (NO CLASS)

Reading:
Colley, 55-132
Hugh Trevor-Roper, "The Highland Tradition in Scotland" in Hobsbawm & Ranger, The Invention of Tradition

Documents:
Robert Burns, "Scots Wha Hae" (1788)
Evan James, "Hen Wlad fy Nhadau" [Land of my Fathers] (1856)
(author unknown), "Wearing o' the Green" (1798)
Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal (1729)

Week VII: The Ends of the Earth

Oct 10: Global rivalry and the Seven Years War
Oct 12: Voyages of discovery and despair: James Cook and William Bligh
Oct 14: Discussion

Reading:
Rediker, 77-152
Scott Ashley, "How Navigators Think: The Death of Captain Cook Revisited" in Past & Present (194) 2007 [JSTOR]
Jason Farago, "The Myth of North America in One Painting" in New York Times (2020)

Documents:
Maj. Gen. James Wolfe, "To the citizens of Québec" (1759)
Capt. James Cook, Journal excerpts from first voyage (1769)

Week VIII: Origins of the Industrial Economy

Oct 17: Pre-industrial commerce and production
Oct 19: Discussion/review for midterm examination
Oct 21: MIDTERM EXAMINATION

Reading:
Porter, 143-213, 311-339

Week IX: The King's Obedient and Rebellious Subjects

Oct 24: The American crisis and its aftermath
Oct 26: Patriotism and the monarchy
Oct 27 Film: The Madness of King George, 7:00 pm, Miller 102
Oct 28: Discussion

Reading:
Arnstein, 52-54, 91-114
Burke, 246-259, 274-292
Colley, 132-145, 195-236
Defoe, Moll Flanders (first half)

Image:
Continental Congress, Declaration of Independence (1776)

Week X: Inside Britain's Underworld

Oct 31: Crime and punishment
Nov 2: The lives of the excluded
Nov 4: Discussion: Moll Flanders

Reading:
Arnstein, 23-30, 33-34, 37-49
Rediker, 153-204
Defoe, Moll Flanders (second half)

Week XI: Empire and Industry

Nov 7: The East India Company at home and abroad
Nov 9: The "Triple Revolution:" agriculture, population, and industry
Nov 11: Discussion (meet in Special Collections, Watzek Library)

Reading:
Arnstein, 64-74, 144-154
Rediker, 205-299
Burke, 363-378, 388-406
"The Company that ruled the waves" in The Economist, Dec 2011

Document:
Oliver Goldsmith, "The Deserted Village" (1770)

Week XII: Revolution and Reaction

Nov 14: The French Revolution and British radicalism
Nov 16: Republicanism and rebellion in Ireland
Nov 18: Discussion

Reading:
Arnstein, 115-133
Burke, 499-507, 295-359

Week XIII: Making "Britain" and "the British"

Nov 21: Nationalism and the creation of the British "national" identity
Nov 23: Women and men in the new Britain
Nov 25: THANKSGIVING (NO CLASS)

Reading:
Arnstein, 134-140
Colley, 147-193, 237-281
Porter, 214-250

Documents:
Articles of the Act of Union (1707)
James Thompson, "Rule, Britannia!" (1740)
Henry Carey, "God Save the King" (1745)

Week XIV: Modern Warfare and the British Heroic Myth, 1793-1815

Nov 28: Nelson and the war at sea
Nov 30: Wellington and the war on land
Dec 2: Discussion

Reading:
Colley, 283-319
John Keegan, "Wellington: the Anti-Hero" in The Mask of Command, 1987

Documents:
Admiral Horatio Nelson, Dispatches, letters, and diary entries (1805)
Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, Dispatch to William Marsden, Esq, Admiralty, London (1805)
Charles O'Malley, Wellington's crossing of the Douro (1809)

Exhibition:
National Maritime Museum, "Nelson, Navy, Nation"

Week XV: Becoming a Superpower

Dec 5: The aftermath of war and the beginning of Britain's "imperial century"
Dec 7: Conclusion: the emergence of Modern Britain

Reading:
Colley, 364-375
Porter, 251-310, 340-360