Courses

This course surveys the main currents of British history from 1900 to the present, with particular attention to the changing place of Britain in the world and the changing shape of society and politics.  Throughout this course, we will ask:  Where is power located in Britain and its empire?  What held Britain and the empire together, and what tore them apart?  What was life like for Britons – young and old, men and women, rich and poor, Black and white – across the course of this century? When and how did social change happen?  How did people respond?

We will tackle these questions by looking closely at some key periods of political conflict and resolution, by reading key texts from the time, and – for the latter part of the course – by viewing films and speeches.  The course requirements include section participation, including regular posts (20%), a take-home midterm (20%), two short research assignments (20% each) and a take-home final (20%).  You must complete all assignments and exams to pass the course.  The research assignments are devised to help familiarize you with historians’ practice, so that you can search for answers to historical questions on your own.  The assignments are integrated into section discussion: due dates are (as a result) not flexible and section attendance is required.  The films are an essential part of the course and will be discussed in section.  

Readings for this courseare drawn mostly from the rich primary materials available.  They are supplemented by select articles chosen to bring out some of the key issues historians find significant about particular periods or events.  My lectures constitute the main “textbook” for the course, but I am also recommending that you read selected chapters from a textbook that is available online:  Stephanie Barczewski et al, Britain since 1688: https://www-taylorfrancis-com.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/books/9781315748610.  

Most material is available online, but five books (asterisked below) will need to be ordered or bought from Book Culture (or, if you are not in the New York area, online).  A timeline, a list of interesting web links, and a list of great British films can be found on the Courseworks page.

Course objectives

The course aims to provide students with (a) a good foundational knowledge of the course of British history and culture from 1900 to the present; (b) an understanding of how historians do research and basic research skills; (c) the ability to analyze historical materials (speeches, novels, memoirs, government documents, films), placing them in context and deploying them to make analytical arguments about the past.