Collective Action and Protest in Britain, c.1760-1848 (U03216)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 10 ? Acronym : HCA-3-CollAct

This course analyses the motivations and momentum that inspired all kinds of collective action and protest in Britain, 1760-1848. We consider the politics of the crowd in food riots, extra-parliamentary pressure, strikes, and religious and political riots during this period of turbulent political and socio-economic change. The course highlights flashpoints of socio-political conflict, including: the Wilkes trial, Gordon riots, anti-Jacobin mobs, the radical mass platform, and Chartism. The course also surveys wider patterns of collective action over the whole of the period. We look at early trade unionism and working-class collective action, offering a more cultural approach to the traditional histories of this topic. Female protest and radicalism is also addressed. The course encourages the use of inter-disciplinary approaches, particularly cultural geography and historical sociology. We investigate the politics of activists in relation to the crowd, and how socio-political movements emerge and dissolve. We discuss the contested theories of social movements, the use of space in popular protest and the cultural narrative of banners and imaginary leaders.

Entry Requirements

? Pre-requisites : A pass in any first level historical course and any second level historical course or equivalent. Visiting students should normally have 3 to 4 History courses at Grade B or above. Before enrolling students on this course, Directors of Studies are asked to contact the History Honours Admissions Secretary to ensure that a place is available (Tel. 50 3783).

Subject Areas

Home subject area

History, (School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Schedule E)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : 3rd year

? Delivery Period : Semester 2 (Blocks 3-4)

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 11 weeks

First Class Information

Date	Start	End	Room	Area	Additional Information
08/01/2008	09:00	10:50	Room 1.110, William Robertson Building	Central

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Lecture	Tuesday	09:00	10:50	Central

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

This course develops students? abilities to apply theoretical models to empirical evidence. It will enhance their knowledge of the history of social movements and popular protest in Britain in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and their critical thinking about the causes and outcomes of various historiographical debates. The course encourages students to take an interdisciplinary approach, introducing them to recent methodologies of historical sociology and cultural geography. It will thereby extend their flexibility to think conceptually outside the traditional historical framework of this period and topics. It offers wide opportunities for online learning and research from digitised archives.