Week I: Introduction: Peace Restored

Sep 4: How do we view Modern Britain and the British?
Sep 6: British society at the beginning of the nineteenth century

Reading:
Cannadine, 1-104

Week II: Radicalism and Reform

Sep 9: Peace restored and the expansion of the British Empire
Sep 11: Radicalism and reform, 1815-1848
Sep 13: Discussion

Reading:
Brendon, 97-118
Cannadine, 105-199

Documents:
Samuel Bamford, "Passages in the Life of a Radical" (1819)
T.B. Macaulay, Speech on the Reform Bill of 1832
The People's Petition (1838)
Lin Zexu, Letter to Queen Victoria (1839)

Week III: Industry, Economy, and Social Upheaval

Sep 16: The industrial economy and the rise of a class society
Sep 18: Ireland: politics, famine, and emigration
Sep 20: Discussion

Reading:
Arnstein, 154-168
Brendon, 63-96, 119-140
Cannadine, 200-244

Documents:
Daniel O'Connell, "Justice for Ireland" (speech to the House of Commons) (1836)
"Summer of Sorrows" from Gerald Keegan's Diary (1847)
William Bennett, "Narrative of a recent journey in Ireland" (1847)
Parliamentary Proceedings, "The state of famine and disease in Ireland" (1846)
Cork Reporter, "The apprehended scarcity" (1846)
Times of London, "The Irish question" (1846)

Music:
Sinéad O'Connor, "Skibbereen" 1998 [audio]
Liam Ó Maonlaí, "Prátaí Bána (white potatoes)" [audio]

Week IV: The Victorian Age: Order and Society

Sep 23: Victoria and her realm: the social order examined
Sep 23: Inside the Victorian underworld: crime, policing, and prisons
Sep 27: Discussion

Reading:
Cannadine, 245-287
David Campion, "Policing the Peelers: Parliament, the Public, and the Metropolitan Police" in M. Cragoe and A. Taylor, eds., London Politics, 1760-1914

Documents:
Charles Dickens, Letter to The Times on public executions (1849)
Henry Mayhew and John Binny, The Criminal Prisons of London and Scenes of Prison Life (1862)
National Archives of Britain, The Ripper Letters (1888-1890)

Image:
Sir Joshua Jebb, Royal Engineers, Drawing of HMP Pentonville (1844)

Week V: The Victorian Age: Faith, Intellect, and Creativity

Sep 30: Science and religion: Darwinism and the evangelical and Catholic revivals
Oct 2: The Victorian style: architecture, literature, and music
Oct 4: Discussion

Reading:
Arnstein, 197-222
Cannadine, 288-383

Music:
Gilbert and Sullivan, "He is an Englishman!" [from HMS Pinafore] (1878) [audio]
Edward Elgar, Enigma Variations Op. 36, Variation IX (adagio) "Nimrod" (1899) [audio]
"Imperial March, Op. 32" (1897), for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee [audio]
"Empire March" (1924), for the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley [audio]

Week VI: The Victorian Age: Government and Empire

Oct 7: Gladstone, Disraeli, and the origins of mass politics
Oct 9: Empire and the British national identity, 1885-1914
Oct 11: FALL BREAK (NO CLASS)

Reading:
Arnstein, 223-236, 263-280
Brendon, 141-183
Cannadine, 384-471

Image:
Grounds of the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley (1924)

Video:
Coronation Durbar of King George V as Emperor of India (1911)
State Opening of the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley (1924)

Week VII: A Place at the Table

Oct 14: Trouble next door: The Irish question
Oct 16: The Suffragettes and the emancipation of women
Oct 18: Discussion

Reading:
Arnstein, 169-196, 243-261
Brendon, 184-218
Cannadine, 472-522

Video:
BBC Film Archive, Victorian Teenagers (1970)

Week VIII: The Edwardian Interlude

Oct 21: The South African War at home and abroad, 1899-1902
Oct 23: The fall of the Liberals and the rise of Labour
Oct 25: MIDTERM EXAMINATION

Reading:
Arnstein, 281-305
Brendon, 219-253
Cannadine, 523-530
Clarke, 7-76

Week IX: Britain in the Great War

Oct 28: The Western Front and the Home Front, 1914-1918
Oct 30: Counting the cost: War and British society
Nov 1: Discussion

Reading:
Arnstein, 307-330
Brendon, 254-293
Clarke, 77-110
Orwell, Coming Up for Air (first half)

Documents:
Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen, Selected poems (1915-17)
Proclamation of the Irish Republic (1916) [image]
Fred Wilson and J.H. Pearson, eds., "The Wipers Times" (1916-18)
Death notice for Lt. W. D. Tull (1918)

Music:
Cecil Spring-Rice "I Vow to Thee, My Country" [audio]
Brian Warfield, "A Soldier's Return" [audio]
Eric Bogle, "No Man's Land" [audio]
Edward Elgar, "Enigma Variations" Remembrance Day Ceremony, 2018

Memorial:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Week X: The Crisis Years

Nov 4: The highs and lows of interwar Britain, 1919-1939
Nov 6: Diplomacy, appeasement, and rearmament
Nov 8: Discussion: Orwell, Coming Up for Air

Reading:
Arnstein, 331-351, 354-376
Brendon, 334-355
Clarke, 111-143
Orwell, Coming Up for Air (second half)

Document:
John Betjeman, "Slough" (1937)

Video and audio:
Neville Chamberlain, "Peace for Our Time" (1938) and "We are at War" (1939)
H.M. George VI, Speech upon the Declaration of War (1939)

Film:
Claude Friese-Greene, "The Open Road: London" (1926)

Week XI: Trial and Triumph

Nov 11: "Their Finest Hour" Britain at war, 1939-1945
---------- Film: The Remains of the Day, 7-10 pm, Miller 102
Nov 13: Britain's postwar crises, 1945-1951
Nov 15: Discussion

Reading:
Arnstein, 376-378, 382-386
Brendon, 379-420, 466-486
Clarke, 144-215
David Reynolds, "The Churchill Government and Black American Troops in Britain in World War II," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th Series, v.35 (1985) [JSTOR]

Audio:
Winston Churchill, "Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat" (1940),
"Their Finest Hour" (1940), "The Sinews of Peace" (1946)
Edward R. Murrow, Broadcast from London during the Blitz (1940)

Films:
GPO Film Unit, "London Can Take It!" (1940)
Ministry of Information and US War Department, "A Welcome to Britain" (1943)

Images:
Wartime propaganda posters 1, 2

Website:
Bomb Sight (Bomb damage database of the London Blitz, October 1940 to June 1941)

Music:
Vera Lynn, "We'll Meet Again" (1939) [audio], "There'll Always be an England" (1941) [audio],
"The White Cliffs of Dover" (1942) [audio], "When the Lights Go On Again" (1942) [audio]

Week XII: The Challenges of Postwar Britain

Nov 18: The "New Jerusalem": building the welfare state
Nov 20: Dismantling the British Empire
Nov 22: Discussion

Reading:
Arnstein, 351-353, 379-381, 386-403, 411-425
Brendon, 444-465, 487-515, 551-574
Clarke, 216-282

Music:
Hubert Parry, "Jerusalem" (1916) [audio]

Video and Audio:
BBC Film Archive, Lord Mountbatten reads address by King George VI on Indian independence (1947)
Pathé News, Prime Minister's Broadcast on the Suez Crisis (1956)
BBC Radio Archive, Harold Macmillan's "Wind of Change" speech (1960)
Pathé News, State funeral of Winston Churchill (1965)

Week XIII: The Transformation of British Politics

Nov 25: Nationalism, regionalism, and conflict: Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland
Nov 27: Thatcherism, "New Labour," and the new British politics
Nov 29: THANKSGIVING BREAK (NO CLASS)

Reading:
Arnstein, 427-444
Clarke, 283-400
Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years, 3-59

Documents:
BBC "In Depth," Statistics for the Thatcher Years

Video:
BBC News, Bobby Sands elected MP for Fermanagh/South Tyrone (1981)
BBC Panorama, Falklands War Outbreak (1982)
Margaret Thatcher, Speech to the House of Commons on the European Council (1990)
C-SPAN, Prime Minister's Questions

Week XIV: The Transformation of British Society

Dec 2: Discussion
Dec 4: Popular culture, immigration, and the making of multicultural Britain
Dec 6: The Windsors: family, monarchy, and nation

Reading:
Arnstein, 403-411
Brendon, 633-662
David Cannadine, "Diana, Princess of Wales" in History in Our Time
Salman Rushdie, "The New Empire within Britain" in Imaginary Homelands

Document:
Enoch Powell, "Rivers of Blood" (1968)

Music:
The Beatles, "Penny Lane" (1966) [audio]
The Kinks, "Dedicated Follower of Fashion" (1966) [audio], "Shangri-La" (1969) [audio],
"We are the Village Green Preservation Society" (1968) [audio]
The Sex Pistols, "God Save the Queen" (1977) [video], "Anarchy in the UK" (1976) [audio]
The Clash, "London Calling" (1979) [video], "The Guns of Brixton" (1979) [video]

Audio:
H.M. Edward VIII, Abdication Speech (1936)
H.R.H. Princess Elizabeth, Christmas greeting to the children of England (1940)

Video:
British Pathé, Interviews with passengers on HMT Empire Windrush (1948)
British Pathé, The Coronation of Elizabeth II (1953)
ITV, Ready Steady Go! (1963-66)
Thames TV, "What is Poverty? 1960s Nottingham" (1969)
BBC Film Archive, "England's North-South Divide" (1970)
First Edition TV, The Battle for Brixton (1981)
H.M. Elizabeth II, Statement on the Death of Princess Diana (1997)

Week XV: Conclusion

Dec 9: Brexit in historical perspective: Britain in the 21st century
Dec 11: Final discussion and review

Reading:
Clarke, 401-443