ELL507 HISTORY AND POLITICAL STRATEGIES
Fall Semester 2011 Course Syllabus
Course Description:
The course aims at bridging the literary works students read for their coursework and what happened in historical context, at creating a social and political background for intellectual clarity in their studies. Therefore, several political figures and movements, social classes and their formation processes, the 1648 English, the 1689 Glorious, and, the 18th and 19th century Industrial Revolutions, the development of colonialism, British take on colonialism will be analysed with political thought and social dynamics behind them and their consequences in Britain, the United States, and in the rest of the World.
Course Subjects:
The 1648 English Revolution and Thomas Hobbes.
The Republican Interregnum, Restoration of Monarchy and the 1707 Union Treaty
Social Change, Puritans, Immigrantion to the New World and formation of colonies in Virginia, Massachusetts, and Connecticut as examples.
The Glorious Revolution and John Locke.
Social consequences of the Industrial Revolution-1: Rise of the cities.
Social consequences of the Industrial Revolution-2: Rise of social classes and class consciousness.
The loss of the 13 Colonies in North America and a new era of Commercial Colonialism.
New Ideas for the 19th Century: Anarchism, Labour Movements, Utilitarianism: William Godwin, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx.
The Napoleonic Wars, Nationalism and Restoration of the Old Order in Europe.
The Imperial Expansion: India, the Far East, South America, and Africa.
The Victorian Era: The Empire of India, the Zulu War, the Boer Wars.
The Victorian Mind and Social Structure.
The Irish Question and Reforms.
The World in Crisis: World War I into World War II.
British Empire on Decline 2: World War 2 into the Cold War.
The Dissolution of the Colonies and the Birth of the Commonwealth.
The 1998 Devolution: Scotland, Wales and Ulster.
There will be one in-class presentation of assigned chapters from British History books; a short paper based on the presentation; and one 2,000 to 2,500 words long (circa 5 to 7 double-spaced Microsoft Word pages) term paper for the course in terms of grading. Attendance is not compulsory, yet beneficiary for all students. All university rules, especially concerning cheating and plagiarism will be applied very firmly.