Undergraduate Course: London Life in the Eighteenth Century: Society and Culture (ECSH10091)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Eighteenth-century London was a marvel of the age, in Britain and beyond, because of its size, innovation and spectacle. Contemporaries were preoccupied with London as a place and idea and it is estimated that as many as 1:6 Britons lived in London at some stage in their life. Modern historians have mirrored this interest, with many of the high profile and innovative digital engagements with the past, famously exemplified by the Old Bailey Online project, having a London focus.
This course offers a survey of some of the major recent themes in the study of London life in the 18th century, taking a social and cultural history approach with a focus on the use and interpretation of a wide variety of sources including personal testimony, court records, contemporary fiction and material and visual resources. Each theme is also explored through a close reading of key texts that allow students to better understand the historiographical evolution of scholarly and popular understandings of London.
The intellectual point of departure for this course is the pioneering work of Dorothy George (1878-1971) whose study, London Life in the Eighteenth Century (1925) and subsequent British Museum catalogue of political and social print satires, published between 1935 and 1954, provided the foundation for modern scholarly research on and understandings of London. |
| Course description |
1: Historiography: Dorothy George to the present.
2: Society of strangers: migration and emigration
3: Court life
4: Professional culture
5: The ¿mob¿
6: Print culture
7: Sex and satire
8: Luxury and spectacle
9: Crime and violence
10: Domestic life and houses
11: Designing the city: spaces of modernity
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | A pass or passes in 40 credits of first level historical courses or equivalent and a pass or passes in 40 credits of second level historical courses or equivalent.
Before enrolling students on this course, Directors are asked to contact the History Honours Admission Secretary to ensure that a place is available (Tel: 503783). |
| Additional Costs | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 3 History courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses. Applicants should note that, as with other popular courses, meeting the minimum does NOT guarantee admission.
** as numbers are limited, visiting students should contact the Visiting Student Office directly for admission to this course ** |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2014/15, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 26 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 8,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 14,
Summative Assessment Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
172 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
75 %,
Coursework
25 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
There will be one assessed 3,000 word essay due at the end of the course and comprising 25% of the course assessment, plus one 2 hour exam, undivided paper, from which students will answer two questions , comprising 75% of the course assessment. |
| Feedback |
Not entered |
| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Hours & Minutes |
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| Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May) | | 2:00 | |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- To encourage a critical awareness of varying historiographical approaches to the study of 18th century London as they have evolved since the 1920s.
- To promote an understanding of the concepts, methods and analytical challenges of inter-disciplinary history as applied to the study of 18th century London.
- To introduce students to the diversity of sources available for the study of 18th century London, and to encourage a critical evaluation of their use.
- Student-led seminars are intended to develop the presentation and verbal skills of participants as well as their organizational abilities.
- Written assignments will develop the literary skills of students, and advance their ability to construct coherent arguments and analysis using relevant illustrative data.
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Reading List
Arnold, Dana, ed. Metropolis and its Image: Constructing Identities for London c.1750-1950 (Oxford, 1999).
Bailey, Craig, Irish London: Middle Class Migration in the Global Eighteenth Century (2013) ebook.
Corfield, P. J. Power and the Professions in Britain, 1700-1850 (1995).
Earle, Peter, A City Full of People: Men and Women of London, 1650-1750 (1994).
Ellis, Markman, Coffee House: A Cultural History (2004).
Evans, T. 'Unfortunate Objects': Lone Mothers in Eighteenth-Century London. (Basingstoke, 2005).
Gardner, Victoria & John Hinks, eds., The Book Trade in Early Modern England: Practices, Perceptions, Connections (2013).
Gatrell, Vic, City of Laughter: Sex and Satire in Eighteenth-Century London (2006).
George, Dorothy, London Life in the Eighteenth Century (1925).
Greig, Hannah, The Beau Monde: Fashionable Society in Georgian London (Oxford, 2013).
Griffiths, P. and Jenner, M.S.R., eds, Londinopolis: Essays in the Cultural and Social History of Early Modern London (Manchester, 2000).
Handcock, David, Citizens of the World: London Merchants and the Integration of the British Atlantic Community, 1735-1785 (Cambridge, 1995).
Hitchcock, Tim and Robert Shoemaker, Tales from the Hanging Court (2006).
Innes, Joanna. Inferior Politics: Social Problems and Social Policies in Eighteenth-Century Britain. (Oxford, 2009).
Linebaugh, Peter. London Hanged: Crime and Civil Society in the Eighteenth Century (1991).
Merritt, J. F., ed., Imagining Early Modern London: Perceptions and Portrayals of the City from Stow to Strype, 1598-1720 (Cambridge, 2001).
Nenadic, Stana, ed., Scots in London in the Eighteenth Century (Lewisburg, 2010).
Rude, George. Hanoverian London, 1714-1808. (1971).
Sands, Mollie, The Eighteenth-Century Pleasure Gardens of Marylebone, 1737-1777 (1987).
Shoemaker, Robert. The London Mob: Violence and Disorder in Eighteenth-Century England (2004).
Schwarz, L. D. London in the Age of Industrialisation: Entrepreneurs, Labour Force and Living Conditions, 1700-1850 (Cambridge, 1992).
Solkin, David, Painting for Money: the Visual Arts and the Public Sphere in Eighteenth-Century England (New Haven and London, 1993).
White, Jerry, London in the Eighteenth Century: A Great and Monstrous Thing (2012).
Indicative Contemporary Sources
Fanny Burney, Early Diaries, 1766-1778, with a Selection from her Correspondence (1889) Available online.
Robert Campbell, The London Tradesman. Being a Compendious View of all the Trades, Professions, Arts, both Liberal and Mechanic, now Practised in the Cities of London and Westminster. Calculated for the Information of Parents, and Instruction of Youth in their Choice of Business (London, 1747). Available online.
Patrick Colquhoun, Treaties on the Wealth, Power and Resources of the British Empire (London, 1815). Available in EUL Special Collections. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
The study of the past gives students a unique understanding of the present that will enable them to succeed in a broad range of careers. The transferable skills gained from this course include:
¿ understanding of complex issues and how to draw valid conclusions from the past.
¿ ability to analyse the origins and development of historiographical debates.
¿ a command of bibliographical, library and IT-based online research skills.
¿ a range of skills in reading and textual analysis.
¿ ability to question and problematize evidence; considering the relationship between evidence and interpretation.
¿ ability to marshal arguments coherently and concisely, both orally and in writing.
¿ ability to deliver a paper or a presentation in front of peer audiences.
¿ ability to design and execute a sustained piece of written work. |
| Keywords | London Life |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Stana Nenadic
Tel: (0131 6)50 3839
Email: Stana.Nenadic@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Caroline Cullen
Tel: (0131 6)50 3781
Email: caroline.cullen@ed.ac.uk |
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