Prof. Brian Cowan Fall 2012 Lectures: MWF am RPHYS 118 HIST 383. Eighteenth-Century Britain and Ireland

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1 Prof. Brian Cowan Fall 2012 Lectures: MWF am RPHYS 118 HIST 383 Eighteenth-Century Britain and Ireland Survey of British history from the Stuart Restoration to the empire of Victoria. We will explore the paradoxical development of liberal democracy in Britain accompanied by an authoritarian empire in its overseas possessions. Topics include: British multiculturalism in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales as well as their colonies; religious conflict and the growth of religious toleration; the Industrial Revolution and the Atlantic slave trade; the emergence of British diasporas in a global empire; continuities and changes in gender relations; and the survival of the British imperial monarchy in the years following the American Revolution. Instructor: Prof. Brian Cowan, brian.cowan2@mcgill.ca Leacock 636 TA: Matthew Wyman-McCarthy, matthew.wyman-mccarthy@mail.mcgill.ca; office hours TBA. During office hours and on selected occasions in class, he will be available to discuss the course materials and assist with conceptualising your essays. History Student Association advisors can also be seen in Leacock 629. Main Readings: These texts will be available for purchase at the McGill Bookstore: Paul Monod, Imperial Island: A History of Britain and Its Empire, , (Oxford, 2009): this text is optional. You should read it in conjunction with the course lectures if you are unfamiliar with 18 th -century British history. Linda Colley, Britons: Forging the Nation , rev. ed., (New Haven, 2005) James Boswell, London Journal , Gordon Turnbull, ed., (London, 2010) Hist 383 Coursepack: additional readings as indicated below * All coursework must be submitted before the due date. No coursework may be submitted as a computer file or by . Late work or electronic submissions may be refused and marked as an F. Late papers will be marked down one grade scale unit for each day they are late, unless a university recognized explanation for late submission is submitted. Course information will be posted online via mycourses / WebCT Vista. It is your responsibility to check this site regularly for important announcements. In accord with McGill University s Charter of Students Rights, students in this course have the right to submit in English or in French any written work that is to be graded. McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore all students must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures (see for more information). In the event of extraordinary circumstances beyond the instructor s or the university s control, the content and/or evaluation scheme in this course is subject to change.

2 2 Assignments and Expectations: Your formal responsibilities for the course will be to attend the lectures regularly, and to complete two essays and a take-home final exam. EVALUATION SYSTEM 20% MIDTERM EXAM: Friday, 12 Oct. 2012: You will be asked to identify the historical significance of three key terms and to identify and discuss a passage (gobbet) from one source we have read. 40% ESSAY: (10 pp.) Due Friday, 9 Nov. 2012: Use James Boswell s Journal to discuss an aspect of eighteenth-century British history. You may write on social, economic, intellectual, or political history, as you wish. 40% FINAL EXAM: Date TBA by the Faculty of Arts. You will be asked to identify the historical significance of six key terms and to identify and discuss passages (gobbets) from two primary sources we have read. [+5] PARTICIPATION: You should attend the course lectures and you should be prepared for active participation in the optional Friday conferences. Active participation in lectures and conferences will be considered for an adjustment of up to 5 points for your final mark. All written work should conform to the Chicago Manual of Style: ALTERNATIVE EVALUATION In exceptional cases, which will require prior consultation with and the agreement of the instructor, you may submit to a one hour oral examination in lieu of the written exams. This option is only available to students who cannot take the written exam due to cases of conscience or recognized medical conditions.

3 3 I. Introduction [3-7 Sept.] M: Labour Day [no class] W: Introduction: Post-Revolutionary Britain F: Malthus s World: Population and Demographic Changes Monod, 1-48 II. The Social Order [10-14 Sept.] M: The Social Order I: Aristocracy W: The Social Order II: Commoners F: Gender and Sexuality *Marquis of Halifax, Advice to a Daughter *Duke of Newcastle s Advice to Charles II II. Restoration Politics [17-21 Sept.] M: Kings & Queens: Court Culture W: Parliaments and Politics F: Whigs & Tories: The Making of Party Politics ( ) Monod, *Titus Oates, True Narrative of the Horrid Plot and Conspiracy, (1679) III. A Glorious Revolution? [24-28 Sept.] M: The Glorious Revolution ( ) W: War and Foreign Policy ( ) F: Queen Anne and the Rage of Party ( ) Monod, Colley, Britons, 1-54 * Declaration of his Highness William Prince of Orange, (1688) * Jonathan Swift, The Conduct of the Allies (1711) [65 pp.] IV. Britons? [1-5 Oct.] M: British Identities: England and Wales W: Scotland and the Making of Great Britain F: Ireland: Kingdom or Colony? ( ) Colley, Britons,

4 4 *Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal (1729) [10 pp] *Jonathan Swift, Drapier s Letter, no. 4, (1724), [15pp] V. Mid-Term [8-12 Oct.] M: Thanksgiving Day [no class] W: Toleration? Religious Pluralism in the Confessional State F: MID-TERM EXAM *Daniel Defoe, The Shortest Way With the Dissenters, (1702) Monod, VI. Hanoverian Britain [15-19 Oct.] M: The Whig Oligarchy ( ) W: War and Foreign Policy ( ): America or Europe? F: Conference: William Hogarth s World See: William Hogarth, A Harlot s Progress, 6 plates, (1731/1732); and Hogarth s Credulity, Superstition and Fanaticism (1762): available on MyCourses. Monod, Boswell, London Journal, VII. Social and Economic Change [22-26 Oct.] M: Poverty, Punishment and Police W: Commercial, Consumer and Industrial Revolutions F: Conference: The World of the British Coffeehouse Monod, , Boswell, London Journal, * Cowan, Civilizing Society, 79-88, VIII. Enlightenment [29 Oct. 2 Nov.] M: Urbanization and the Urban Renaissance W: The Scottish Enlightenment F: Conference: James Boswell s World Monod, Boswell, London Journal,

5 5 IX. Making and Breaking the British Empire [5-9 Nov.] M: The Rise of British Slavery W: Abolitionism: The Fall of British Slavery F: America s War and the Reformation of the British Empire, ESSAY DUE IN CLASS (Friday, 9 November) Monod, , *Samuel Johnson, Taxation No Tyranny, (1775) X. George III [12-16 Nov.] M: George III, the Patriot King? ( ) W: Radicalism and the Birth of Conservativism ( ) F: Film: [shown in Room 101, 3475 Peel St. at 7 pm] Alan Bennett, The Madness of King George, Nicholas Hytner, dir., (1994), 107 min. Colley, Britons, Monod, *Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents, (1770) [90pp.] XI. Revolutions and Counter-Revolutions [19-23 Nov.] M: Britain s French Revolution ( ) W: Reform and Revolution in Ireland ( ) F: Uniting and Reforming the British Kingdoms ( ) Monod, Colley, Britons, * Wolfe Tone, An Argument on Behalf of the Catholics of Ireland, (1791) [20pp.] XII. Early Nineteenth-Century State and Society [26-30 Nov.] M: Regency and Reform ( ) W: Class Consciousness & the Modern Social Order F: Conference: Class Formation and the End of the Old Regime Colley, Britons, E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (1963), 9-14, Monod,

6 6 XIII. Conclusion [3-4 Dec.] M: Reform as Revolution: The Dismantling of the Old Regime ( ) Tu: Conference: Review and Preparation for the Final Exam Monod, * Macaulay, Speeches on Parliamentary Reform (1831 and 1832) Classes end Tuesday 4 December: Our last class will meet on Tuesday, 4 December 2012.

7 7 ESSAY: [40% of final course mark] (12 pages with notes) Use James Boswell s Journal to discuss an aspect of eighteenth-century British history. You may write on social, economic, intellectual, or political history. Please remember that your essay should be about 12 pages each, including notes but excluding bibliography. Please use Times New Roman, 12 point font. Papers longer than 12 pages will be penalized with a lower mark. You may write in English or French. The essay requires you to focus on Boswell s Journal as a primary source. You may use additional source material if you believe it is appropriate to make your case. Feel free to refer to scholarly secondary sources, but you must base your argument on the primary source specified. Please note that all written work should conform to the citation and style conventions of the Chicago Manual of Style: The paper should be an interpretive essay rather than an elaborate work of original research. But for an interpretation to hold up, it must be based on solid evidence. So be careful to substantiate what you say by reference to the assigned text as well as other source materials. You should struggle to make your argument clear and concise. I would expect the best work to have these qualities: 1) clarity (in exposition of general themes and in structure) 2) specificity (in the use of evidence drawn from the readings) 3) rigour (logic in the argument and thoroughness in substantiating it) 4) originality (nothing of this sort can be completely original, but it is good to see signs that you think for yourself) FINAL EXAM: [40% of final course mark] The date for the final examination will be scheduled by the Faculty of Arts. You may write in English or French. Remember that all the university rules and regulations regarding academic integrity apply to this exam. Please see: for full details.

8 8 HIST 383 Eighteenth-Century Britain and Ireland 1. Marquis of Halifax, Advice to a Daughter in The Works of George Savile Marquis of Halifax, Mark N. Brown, ed., 3 vols., (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), 2: Duke of Newcastle s Advice to Charles II in Ideology and Politics on the Eve of Restoration, Thomas P. Slaughter, ed., (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1984). McGill, McLennan Library, Q11 P612 v Titus Oates, A True Narrative of the Horrid Plot and Conspiracy of the Popish Party against the Life of His Sacred Majesty, (London, 1679), Declaration of his Highness William Prince of Orange, (1688) 5. Jonathan Swift, The Conduct of the Allies, (1711) in The Prose Writings of Jonathan Swift, Herbert Davis, ed., 14 vols., (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1964), 6: Daniel Defoe, The Shortest Way With the Dissenters: Or Proposals for the Establishment of the Church, (1702), and A Brief Explanation of a Late Pamphlet, [1703], in Political and Economic Writings of Daniel Defoe, vol. 3, W. R. Owens, ed., (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2000), Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal (1729) in The Prose Writings of Jonathan Swift, Herbert Davis, ed., 14 vols., (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1964), 12: Jonathan Swift, Drapier s Letter, no. 4, (1724), in The Prose Writings of Jonathan Swift, Herbert Davis, ed., 14 vols., (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1964), 10: Brian Cowan, Civilizing Society, in The Social Life of Coffee: The Emergence of the British Coffeehouse, (New Haven, 2005), 79-88, Samuel Johnson, Taxation No Tyranny, (1775) in Political Writings, Donald Greene, ed., (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977), Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents, (1770) in Pre-Revolutionary Writings, Ian Harris, ed., (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993), Wolfe Tone, An Argument on Behalf of the Catholics of Ireland, (1791) in The Writings of Theobald Wolfe Tone, , T.W. Moody, R.B. McDowell, and C.J. Woods, eds., (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998), E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (New York: Vintage, 1963), 9-14, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Speeches on Parliamentary Reform (16 Dec. 1831) and (28 Feb. 1832) in The Works of Lord Macaulay Complete, 8 vols., (London, 1879), 8:63-85.