History 6395 Readings in Modern British History

Fall 1999 T 2-5

Instructor Karl Ittmann

Office 530 AH, ext. 3-3102

Office Hours 10-11am T, Th and by appointment

Email KITTMANN@JETSON.UH.EDU

This course will examine British political history since the Glorious Revolution. Its focus will be state formation, popular politics and social history and the relationship between each of these topics. The course will be divided into 3 sections-18th, 19th and 20th century, with readings for each period. In addition, there will be a general overview to read for each period to familiarize each student with the issue and events of the period. Each student will write a brief analytical summary (1-2 pages) of each week's readings. The primary work of the course will be a 15-25 page essay on a topic of the student's choosing, in consultation with the instructor. In will be due during exam week.

Required Texts

Jeremy Black, The Politics of Britain 1688-1800

John Brewer, The Sinews of Power

Anna Clark, The Struggle for the Breeches

Linda Colley, Britons

E.H. Green, The Crisis of Conservatism

Peter Linebaugh, The London Hanged

Rohan McWilliam, Popular Politics in Nineteenth Century Britain

Kenneth Morgan, Labour in Power

Martin Pugh, The Making of Modern British Politics

E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class

Schedule of Readings

Week 1 August 24

Introduction

Part I The 18th century

General Reading-Jeremy Black, The Politics of Britain 1688-1800

Week 2 An Imperial Elite

C.A. Bayly, Imperial Meridian, pp. 75-163

P.J. Cain and A.G. Hopkins, British Imperialism: Innovation and Expansion, 1688-1914, pp. 53-104

Week 3 Building the State

John Brewer, The Sinews of Power

Week 4 Nation and Peoples

Linda Colley, Britons

James Epstein, "The Constitutionalist Idiom" in Radical Expression.

Harling, " Leigh Hunt's Examiner and the Language of Patriotism," English Historical Review, 111, (444), November 1996.

Week 5 State and Society

Linebaugh, The London Hanged

The Nineteenth Century

General Reading Rohan McWilliam, Popular Politics in Nineteenth Century Britain

Week 6 Reconstructing the State

Philip Harling, "Redefining Old Corruption," Past and Present, 147, 1995.

Peter Mandler and Philip Harling- "From Fiscal-Military State to Laissez-Faire State", Journal of British Studies, 32, (Jan 1993).

John Saville, The Consolidation of the Capitalist State

Week 7 The New Society

E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class.

Gareth Steadman Jones, "Rethinking Chartism," in Jones, Languages of Class.

Geoff Eley, "Edward Thompson, Social History and Political Culture," in H. Kaye and K. McClelland, E.P. Thompson: Critical Perspectives.

Week 8 Gender and Politics

Anna Clark, The Struggle for the Breeches

Joan Scott, "Women in The Making of the English Working Class," in Scott, Gender and the Politics of History

Week 9 Popular Politics in Victorian Britain

Martin Pugh, The Making of Modern British Politics, pp. 1-93

Eugenio Biagini and Alastair Reid, "Currents of Radicalism, 1850-1914," in Biagini and Reid, (eds.), Currents of Radicalism.

Jon Lawrence, "Popular Radicalism and the Socialist Revival in Britain," Journal of British Studies, 31, (April 1992).

Eileen Yeo, "Language and Contestation: the case of the 'People', 1832 to the Present," in John Belchem and Nevile Kirk, Languages of Labour.

Neville Kirk, "Class and the 'linguistic turn' in Chartist and post-Chartist historiography," in Nevile Kirk, Social Class and Marxism.

Week 10 The Conservative Party

E.H. Green, The Crisis of Conservatism

Cornford, "The Transformation of Conservatism," Victorian Studies, 7, 1963.

Part Three-The Twentieth Century

General Reading, Pugh 97-292

Week 11 Liberals, Labour and the Vote

Ross McKibbin, et.al., "The Franchise Factor in the Rise of the Labour Party," in McKibbin, The Ideologies of Class.

Michael Hart, "The Liberals, the War and the Franchise," English Historical Review, 1982, 97 (385).

John Davis, "Slums and the Vote, 1867-90," Historical Research, 1991, 64 (155).

Claire Hirshfield. "Fractured Faith: Liberal Party Women and the Suffrage Issue in Britain, 1892-1914," Gender and History, 2(2), 1990.

David Powell, "The New Liberalism and the Rise of Labour, 1886-1906," The Historical Journal, 29, 2 (1983).

Week 12 Transforming the State

James Cronin, "The British State and the Structure of Political Opportunity," Journal of British Studies," 27 (July 1988).

James Cronin and Peter Weiller, "Working Class Interests and the Politics of Social Democratic Reform in Britain," International Labor and Working-Class History, 40, (Fall 1991).

Anna Davin, "Motherhood and Imperialism", History Workshop Journal, 5, 1983.

Pat Thane, "Women in the British Labour Party and the Construction of State Welfare, 1906-1939," in Seth Koven and Sonya Michel, (eds.), Mothers of a New World.

Ross McKibbin, "Class and Conventional Wisdom," in McKibbin, The Ideologies of Class.

Week 13 World War II and the Welfare State

Kenneth Morgan, Labour in Power.

Kevin Jeffreys, "British Politics and Social Policy During the Second World War," The Historical Journal, 30,1, (1987).

Charles Webster, "Conflict and Consensus: Explaining the British Health Service," Twentieth Century British History, 1990 1(2).