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Module Catalogue

HI3T5-30 Value in the Age of Reason

Department
History
Level
Undergraduate Level 3
Module leader
Michael Bycroft
Credit value
30
Module duration
22 weeks
Assessment
100% coursework
Study location
University of Warwick main campus, Coventry

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Introductory description

How do we know what to value? How do we distinguish between the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly? This module answers these questions by exploring the material world of the Enlightenment. The period from c. 1650 to 1830 witnessed many new proposals for evaluating the material world, from window-shopping to telescopes. These proposals were part of wider historical processes such as war, consumerism, industrialisation, and the making and remaking of states and empires. To study material evaluation is therefore to study the formation of the modern world. The module covers a wide range of material things, from beer to horses to oceans. We ask how these were judged by men, women, children, slaves, artisans, farmers, bureaucrats, aristocrats, and scientists and engineers. We cover parts of Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the South Pacific, as well as France, Britain and Germany. We bring these examples to bear on the present, where material evaluation is tied to debates about capitalism, environmentalism, the internet, the humanities, and much else.

Module aims

To integrate material evaluation into the history of the Enlightenment
To introduce students to the history of early science and technology, and to the community of historians who study it
To use historical examples to illuminate present-day debates about value
To engage with theories of value from the social sciences
To engage with literary sources, including maps, diagrams, letters, guild regulations, travel narratives, and scientific books and articles
To engage with the material world in creative ways, including through museum objects, historically significant landscapes, and replications of past experiments and observations

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.

Note: each week focuses on a particular material and a particular context, and asks how that material was evaluated in that context. The exceptions are introduction in week 1 and the conclusion in week 20.

TERM 1:

  1. How to think about value
  2. Gold and the Atlantic slave trade
  3. Sugar and the plantation system
  4. Diamonds and imperial rivalry
  5. Coffee and orientalism
  1. Textiles and the Enlightened consumer
  2. Soil and agricultural reform
  3. Water and spa towns
  4. Alcohol and the fiscal state

TERM 2:

  1. Muskets and the end of the Old Regime
  2. Jewellery and the industrial revolution
  3. Air and social reform
  4. Land and colonial cartography
  5. The Pacific Ocean and global encounters
  1. Coal and the discovery of deep time
  2. Heaven and the discovery of deep space
  3. Ecosystems and Romantic science
  4. Value in the twenty-first century

Learning outcomes

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

  • Demonstrate a systematic knowledge and understanding of material evaluation in the Enlightenment
  • Critically analyse and evaluate a broad range of primary sources relating to material evaluation in the Enlightenment
  • Effectively communicate ideas, and make informed, coherent and persuasive arguments, relating to material evaluation in the Enlightenment
  • Critically review and consolidate theoretical, methodological, and historiographical ideas relating to material evaluation in the Enlightenment

Indicative reading list

Reading lists can be found in Talis

Interdisciplinary

Engages with theories of value from economics, sociology and anthropology
Draws on chemistry, physics and environmental science to recreate the material world of the Enlightenment

International

Examines case studies the include parts of Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the South Pacific, as well as France, Britain and Germany.

Subject specific skills

See learning outcomes.

Transferable skills

See learning outcomes.

Study time

Type Required
Seminars 18 sessions of 2 hours (12%)
Tutorials 4 sessions of 1 hour (1%)
Private study 260 hours (87%)
Total 300 hours

Private study description

Reading preparation for seminars. Reading preparation for assessments. Independent research.

Costs

Category Description Funded by Cost to student
Field trips, placements and study abroad

One field trip, destination to be confirmed. Possibilities include the Museum of the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter and Oxford Museum for the History of Science. The main cost for both trips would be train travel for students.

 Department £30.00

You do not need to pass all assessment components to pass the module.

Assessment group A1
Weighting Study time Eligible for self-certification
Assessment component
Seminar contribution 10% No
Reassessment component
1000 word reflective essay in lieu of Seminar Contribution Yes (extension)

1000 Word Reflective Essay
Assessment component
1500 word essay 10% Yes (extension)
Reassessment component is the same
Assessment component
3000 word source based essay 40% Yes (extension)
Reassessment component is the same
Assessment component
3000 word essay 40% Yes (extension)
Reassessment component is the same
Feedback on assessment

Written feedback on essays via Tabula
Students will be invited to (optional) office hours to discuss their 1500-word essay and their 3000-word primary source essay

Courses

This module is Option list A for:

  • Year 3 of UHIA-V100 Undergraduate History
  • Year 4 of UHIA-V101 Undergraduate History (with Year Abroad)

This module is Option list B for:

  • Year 3 of UHIA-VL13 Undergraduate History and Sociology
  • Year 4 of UHIA-VL14 Undergraduate History and Sociology (with Year Abroad)