Week I: "This Sceptre'd Isle"

Aug 31: Introduction to the course
Sep 2: Review: The early history of Britain and its peoples
Sep 4: Politics and society in seventeenth-century Britain

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

Week II: Shaping the Political Order

Sep 7: LABOR DAY (NO CLASS)
Sep 9: The Glorious Revolution and the paradoxes of British liberty
Sep 11: 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 14: Walpole, the "Robinocracy," and the rage of party
Sep 16: The Atlantic World and the origins of the British Empire
Sep 18: 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 21: The Augustan Age: art, letters, and music
Sep 23: The Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution
Sep 25: 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 28: Anglicans, Methodists, and Evangelicals
Sep 30: Social ranking, family life, and leisure
Oct 2: 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 5: The Scots: Lowlanders, Highlanders, and the Scottish Enlightenment
Oct 7: The most distressful country: Ireland in the eighteenth century
Oct 9: 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 12: Global rivalry and the Seven Years War
Oct 14: Voyages of discovery and despair: James Cook and William Bligh
Oct 16: 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 19: Pre-industrial commerce and production
Oct 21: Discussion/review for midterm examination
Oct 23: MIDTERM EXAMINATION

Reading:
Porter, 143-213, 311-339

Week IX: The King's Obedient and Rebellious Subjects

Oct 26: The American crisis and its aftermath
Oct 28: Patriotism and the monarchy
Oct 29: Film: The Madness of King George, 7:00 pm, Miller 102
Oct 30: 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

Nov 2: Crime and punishment
Nov 4: The lives of the excluded
Nov 6: 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 9: The East India Company at home and abroad
Nov 11: The "Triple Revolution:" agriculture, population, and industry
Nov 13: 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 16: The French Revolution and British radicalism
Nov 18: Republicanism and rebellion in Ireland
Nov 20: Discussion

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

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

Nov 23: Nationalism and the creation of the British "national" identity
Nov 25-27: THANKSGIVING BREAK (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 30: Nelson and the war at sea
Dec 2: Wellington and the war on land
Dec 4: 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)

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