Introductory description

This 30 CATS final year module, which will develop your skills in interpreting primary material, examines how far the period 1660 to 1720 – the age of Isaac Newton, Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift – marked a period of transition from an ‘early modern’ to a ‘modern society’. Contemporaries saw themselves both looking back into a recent history of civil war and, self-consciously, forward to a 'modern' world. This was the period in which ‘Britain’ was formed (after England’s union with Scotland in 1707), and in which the impact of two major revolutions was assimilated. Students will study, through weekly discussion of primary sources, the emergence of a free press amid the development of 'fake news', the new power of public opinion; the first era of party politics; an innovative literary culture that saw the birth of the novel; a scientific revolution; a financial revolution (including the first stock-market crash); proto-feminism; the growth of empire and slavery; and an early enlightenment in ideas and beliefs. The module explores claims that in politics, religion, the economy, science, ideas, nationhood, culture and society, Britain witnessed transformative change, the legacy of which we still face today - the constitutional decisions arising from the revolution of 1688 became the centrepiece of legal arguments over Brexit! You will be able to research a topic of your choice, using the wonderful resources for this period. If you enjoy early modern British history you will certainly like this but no prior knowledge is required.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Term 1
Week 1: Introduction

Orientation: An overview of national events
Week 2: Restoration to Revolution
Week 3: From Revolutionary to Hanoverian Britain

Theme 1: Political and religious cultures
Week 4: Religious Divides
Week 5: Partisan Politics
Week 6: Reading week

Microhistory: Hertford and the Cowpers
Week 7: The Trial (Quakers and Science)
Week 8: Beliefs (Sacheverell Trial and Witchcraft Trial)
Week 9: Gendered Fictions
Week 10: Partisanship

Term 2
Theme 2: Communicative Practices
Week 1: The Public Sphere, Petitions and Addresses
Week 2: The Freedom of the press
Week 3: Periodicals and Politeness

Theme 3: Social, Economic and Cultural change
Week 4: The Financial Revolution
Week 5: The Growth of Empire
Week 6: Reading week
Week 7: Political Ideology
Week 8: Rethinking gender
Week 9: Visual Culture
Week 10: The Marginal

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate a systematic knowledge and understanding of the political culture of the later Stuart period and contextualise key notions associated with the emergence of modernity.
• Critically analyse and evaluate a broad range of primary sources relating to the history of the later Stuart period.
• Effectively communicate ideas, and make informed, coherent and persuasive arguments, relating to the periodisation of the emergence of modernity.
• Critically review and consolidate theoretical, methodological, and historiographical ideas relating to the way that the meaning of history is continuously rewritten, re-remembered and contested.

Indicative reading list

• Harris, T., Politics Under the Later Stuarts 1660-1715 (1993)
• Holmes, G., The Making of a Great Power: Late Stuart and early Georgian England 1660-1722 (1993)
• J. Hoppit, A Land of Liberty? England 1689-1727 (Oxford, 2000)
• J.R. Jones, Country and Court: England 1658-1714 (1978)
• M. Knights, Representation and Misrepresentation in Later Stuart Britain: Partisanship and Political Culture (Oxford, 2005)
• T. Macaulay, History of England from the accession of James II Vol. 1. (1906)
• T. Macaulay, History of England from the accession of James II Vol. 2. (1906)
• T. Macaulay, History of England from the accession of James II Vol. 3. (1906)
• T. Macaulay, History of England from the accession of James II Vol. 4. (1906)
• Ogg, D., England in the Reign of Charles II (1984 edn)
• Ogg, D., England in the Reigns of James II and William III (1984 edn.)
• Plumb, J., The Growth of Political Stability in England, 1675-1725 (London, 1967)
• S. Pincus and A. Houston, A Nation Transformed? England 1660-1689 (2000)
• Clark, J.C.D., Revolution and Rebellion: state and society in England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (1986) English Society 1660-1832 (2nd edition, 2000).
• Colley and Goldie, 'The Principles and Practice of Eighteenth Century Party', Historical Journal Vol. 22, No. 1, 239-246 (1979)
• B. Coward (ed.), A Companion to Stuart Britain (2003)
• Coward, B, The Stuart Age: A History of England 1603-1714 (1980)
• H. Dickinson, A Companion to Eighteenth-Century Britain (2003)
• Feiling, K., A History of the Tory Party 1640-1714 (1924)
• Hill, B., The Growth of Parliamentary Parties 1689-1742 (1976)
• Holmes, G., Politics, Religion and Society in England 1679-1742 (1986)
• 'The Achievement of Stability: The Social Context of Politics from the 1680s to the Age of Walpole' in Cannon, Whig Ascendancy
• Jones, C. (ed), Britain in the First Age of Party 1680-1750 (1987)
• Jones, C. (ed), Party and Management in Parliament 1660-1784 (1984)
• 'The House of Lords and the Growth of Parliamentary Stability 1701-1742' in Jones (ed) Britain in the First Age of Party (1987)
• Kenyon, J., Robert Spencer, Earl of Sunderland (1958)
• J. Pocock, The Ancient Constitution and the Feudal Law (1957)
• J. Scott, England's Troubles: Seventeenth-Century English Instability in European Context (2000)
• Speck, W., Stability and Strife: England 1714-1760 (1977)
• Walcott, R., English Politics in the early eighteenth century (1956)

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Subject specific skills

See learning outcomes.

Transferable skills

See learning outcomes.