Unit name | Political Culture in Stuart England (Level I Special Field) |
---|---|
Unit code | HIST20078 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | I/5 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Dr. Noah Millstone |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites | |
School/department | Department of History (Historical Studies) |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Seeing seventeenth-century Britain through early modern eyes means encountering a world marked by mob violence, treasonous conspiracies, and sexual corruption. This unit introduces students to the tumultuous underground of seventeenth century political culture, a nightmare world of plotting Jesuits, Irish rebels and hack pamphleteers. Students will learn to handle a larger source base for political history, considering not only the deeds of kings and great men and women but also printed and written pamphlets, songs, plays, paintings and ceremonies. We will try to learn from prosecutions, riots, drinking songs and rumours. We will explore how political actors used cultural production to advance their agendas, and how political culture in turn shaped their choices. We will also consider the origins, uses, and limitations of the concept of political culture itself. This unit will prepare students to conduct original research in early modern sources while undertaking the associated Special Field Project. Paleographical training will be provided in the project workshops to enable students to work on contemporary manuscript sources.
On successful completion of this unit students will have developed
Weekly 2-hour seminar
2-hour unseen written examination (summative, 100%)
The examination will assess ILOs 1-8 by assessing the students’ understanding of the unit’s key themes, the related historiography as developed during their reading and participation in / learning from small group seminars, and relevant primary sources. Further assessment of their handling of the relevant primary sources will be provided by the co-requisite Special Field Project.