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 gold to brandy to horses. We ask how these were judged by men, women, children, slaves, artisans, farmers, bureaucrats, and aristocrats, as well as scientists and engineers. The focus is on Britain and its empire, with several French examples considered as well. 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. We bring the material world into the classroom by doing experiments and handling historic objects. We go beyond the classroom as well, holding seminars in a coffeeshop, in a local museum, and elsewhere.

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.

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:

1.2 The history of knowledge

1.3 The Age of Reason

1.4 Gold and the Atlantic slave trade

1.5 Sugar and the plantation system

1.6 READING WEEK

1.7 Coffee and Orientalism

1.8 Paintings and the public sphere

1.9 Textiles and the consumer revolution

1.10 Horses, races, and pedigrees

TERM 2

2.1 Alcohol and the fiscal-military state

2.2 Muskets and the end of the Old Regime

2.3 Jewellery and the Industrial Revolution

2.4 Cotton and the Industrial Revolution

2.5 Wild card - students to decide topic

2.6 READING WEEK

2.7 Mineral water and the growth of towns

2.8 Air and social reform

2.9 Rocks and the discovery of deep time

2.10 Heaven and the discovery of deep space

TERM 3

3.2 Value in the age of smartphones

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.