Course Description
Political culture, intellectual change, and economic/imperial readjustment in twentieth-century Britain and beyond.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Additional readings and a more substantial research paper based on original source materials will be required.
Athena Title
BRITAIN SINCE 1901
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This course will provide students with a thorough grounding in the major developments in British history since 1901. Students will come to understand as well events and transformations of importance not just to Britain's national history but to western history more generally: two world wars, the Depression, the creation of welfare states, the sloughing off of empires, and the attempt to bind Europe together economically and militarily. A principal objective of the course is to teach students to think critically for themselves about the relationships between the past and the present, to learn to ask questions of the past that enable them to understand the present and mold the future, and to become attuned to both the limitations and possibilities of change. The course seeks to acquaint students with the ways in which past societies and peoples have defined the relationships between community and individual needs and goals, and between ethical norms and decision-making. In general students will be expected to: 1. read a wide range of primary and secondary sources critically. 2. polish skills in critical thinking, including the ability to recognize the difference between opinion and evidence, and the ability to evaluate--and support or refute--arguments effectively. 3. write stylistically appropriate and mature papers and essays using processes that include discovering ideas and evidence, organizing that material, and revising, editing, and polishing the finished papers.
Topical Outline
1. Britain in 1901: Society, Economy, Politics 2. Liberal Achievement 1906-14 3. Liberal Frustration 1906-14 4. The Great War on the Home Front 5. Readjustment and Reconstruction after 1918 6. Political and Economic Turmoil 1919-31 7. The Slump 1931-9
Syllabus