Unit information: From Balloons to the Beagle: Exploration, Discovery and Invention in the Romantic Age c.1780 - c.1835 (Special Field) in 2012/13

Unit name	From Balloons to the Beagle: Exploration, Discovery and Invention in the Romantic Age c.1780 - c.1835 (Special Field)
Unit code	HIST26025
Credit points	20
Level of study	I/5
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Professor. MacLeod
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of History (Historical Studies)
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

When a hot-air balloon rose into the skies above Paris on 21 November 1783, humanity's dream of flying was finally achieved. The most spectacular experiment yet witnessed by a society entranced by scientific spectacle, ballooning symbolized the flights of imagination which characterized the Romantic age and which make its poetry and paintings a surprisingly good source for historians of science. It was by no means alone, however, in offering new perspectives on the heavens or the earth and its inhabitants. By the time that Charles Darwin set sail in the Beagle in 1831, discoveries in astronomy, geology, chemistry, electricity and biology were prompting new questions about the age of the earth, the origins of life and the uniqueness of humanity that seemed increasingly at odds with biblical accounts. Using contemporary texts and images, we will explore these discoveries and debates (primarily in Britain) and analyse their cultural significance.

Aims:

• To place students in direct contact with the current research interests of the academic tutor

• To enable students to explore the issues surrounding the state of research in the history of invention

• To develop students' ability to work with primary sources

• To develop students' abilities to integrate primary source material into a wider historical analysis

• To develop students' ability to learn independently within a small-group context

• To introduce students to current debates in the cultural history of science and technology in the period c.1780-c.1835

• To raise students' awareness of methodological issues in the history of science and technology.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the unit students should have:

• become more experienced and competent in working with a widening range of primary sources

• become more adept at contributing to and learning from a small-group environment

• acquired a fuller and more sophisticated understanding of British culture and society in the period c.1780-1835

• developed an understanding of methodological issues in the history of science and technology.

Teaching Information

• Weekly 2-hour seminar

• Tutorial feedback on essay

• Access to tutorial consultation with unit tutor in office hours

Assessment Information

1 x 2 hour exam

Reading and References

S. Bainbridge (ed.), Romanticism: a source book (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008)

P. J. Bowler and I. R. Morus, Making Modern Science: a historical survey (University of Chicago Press, 2005)

D. Cadbury, The Dinosaur Hunters: a true story of scientific rivalry and the discovery of the prehistoric world (Fourth Estate, 2000)

R. Hamblyn, The Invention of Clouds: how an amateur meteorologist forged the language of the skies (Picador, 2001)

R. Holmes, The Age of Wonder: how the Romantic generation discovered the beauty and terror of science (Harper Press, 2008)

J. Uglow, The Lunar Men: the friends who made the future, 1730-1810 (Faber, 2002)