Undergraduate Course: Print Culture and the Enlightenment: Edinburgh and London, 1710-1814 (HIST10389)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course studies the cultural history of the Enlightenment, focussing on the circulation of manuscripts, correspondence, and printed books. We will consider the ways in which authors, publishers, readers, literary patrons, and civic trustees facilitated the circulation of ideas between its principal cultural centres: Edinburgh and London, from enactment of the world's first copyright law (An Act of Anne, 1710) to industrial adoption of the steam-powered press (at The Times, 1814). |
| Course description |
This course studies the cultural history of the Enlightenment, focussing on the circulation of manuscripts, correspondence, and printed books. Featuring unique resources held in the university's Centre for Research Collections, we will consider the ways in which authors, publishers, readers, literary patrons, and civic trustees facilitated the movement of Enlightenment ideas within and between its principal cultural centres: Edinburgh and London. The chronological reach of this course will extend from enactment of the world's first copyright law (An Act of Anne, 1710) to industrial adoption of the steam-powered press (at The Times, 1814). Readings will include classic statements in the historiography of the Enlightenment, with particular emphasis on their meaning for historians of eighteenth-century Britain.
Seminars will address: definitions of Enlightenment among intellectual, social, and cultural historians; early copyright law and its interpretations; the social emergence of authorship and publishing as professions; the extension of social networks from Scottish towns to the London metropolis through print trades; the construction and expression of moral controversies through manuscript and print; the changing technologies of print; the importance of coffee house culture; the roles of literary patrons and civic trustees in the circulation of Enlightenment and anti-Enlightenment ideas.
Students will learn how to handle, examine, and describe manuscripts and early-printed books that document the cultural history that our course readings discuss.
All of the course readings will be available online through the Learn interface; materials for preparation of student work are held in the University Library (CRC) and National Library of Scotland.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
Students MUST have passed:
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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, PTs are asked to contact the History Honours Admission Administrator to ensure that a place is available (Tel: 504030). |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students must have 3 History courses at grade B or above. We will only consider University/College level courses. Enrolments for this course are managed by the CAHSS Visiting Student Office, in line with the quotas allocated by the department. All enquiries to enrol must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. It is not appropriate for students to contact the department directly to request additional spaces. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2022/23, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 22,
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
0 %,
Coursework
80 %,
Practical Exam
20 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Coursework:
2000 word written assessment (30%)
3000 word final written assessment (50%)
Non-Written Skills:
Assessment based on weekly contributions to ALG discussion forums and one in-class presentation with bibliographical handout (20%) |
| Feedback |
Students will have the opportunity to submit outlines of the two essays two weeks in advance of each submission date, and they will receive feedback by email. In addition, students will be invited to meet weekly with the course organiser in-person and/or online, as they prefer. |
| 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:
- Through verbal, written, and group work: demonstrate a critical understanding of the social and material forces that enabled the circulation of ideas through print in eighteenth-century England and Scotland;
- exhibit a meaningful understanding of the cultural significance of authors and booksellers in contemporary Edinburgh and London;
- handle, describe, and examine materials that document 18th-century print culture;
- arrive at independent, well-argued, well-documented conclusions in an extended essay, which properly reference primary and secondary sources.
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Reading List
Berry, H. ¿Rethinking Politeness in Eighteenth-Century England: Moll King¿s Coffee House and the Significance of ¿Flash Talk,¿ Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 11 (2001): 65-81.
Brown, S. W. and W. McDougall, eds. The Edinburgh History of the Book in Scotland, 1707-1800, (Edinburgh: U of Edinburgh P, 2012).
Budd, A. ¿Merit in Distress: The Troubled Success of Mary Barber,¿ RES 53 (May 2002): 204-27. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3070372
Elliott, J. E. ¿The Cost of Reading in Eighteenth Century Britain: Auction Sale Catalogues and the Cheap Literature Hypothesis,¿ English Literary History 77 (Summer 2010). 353-84.
Holderton, E. ¿James Thomson¿s The Seasons and the Empire of the Seas,¿ Huntington Library Quarterly, 78 (Spring 2015): 41-60.
Jackson, I. "Approaches to the History of Readers and Reading in Eighteenth-Century Britain," Historical Journal, 47 (2004)' 1041-54.
Mandelbrote, G. and K. A. Manley, The Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and Ireland, 1640-1850, (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2006).
Raven, J. "The Book as Commodity," Oxford History of the Book in Britain, 1695-1830, eds. M. Suarez and M. Turner, (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2009) 85-118;
--. "The Industrial Revolution of the Book," The Cambridge Companion to the History of the Book, ed. L. Howsam (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2015) 143-161.
Reddick, A. ¿Introduction,¿ ¿From the Great Desire of Promoting Learning¿: Thomas Hollis¿s Gifts to the Harvard College Library, by W. Bond, Harvard Library Bulletin 19 (February 2010): 1-31.
R. B. Sher, "Toward a Book History of the Scottish Enlightenment," The Enlightenment and the Book, (Chicago: Chicago UP, 2007) 1-40.
W. St Clair, The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period, (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004).
M. Walsh, Shakespeare, Milton, and Eighteenth-Century Literary Editing, (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997) 4-29.
Wener, Sarah. Studying Early Printed Books, 1450-1800: A Practical Guide, London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2019. |
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 complex issues and how to draw valid conclusions from the past;
* ability to analyse the origins and development of current historiographical debates;
* demonstrate bibliographical research skills that enable access to restricted-access archival materials, including the safe handling, examination, and technical description of historical manuscripts and handpress books;
* make effective use of IT-based online research skills, using closed-access scholarly resources that are not searchable through Google;
* develop a range of skills in material and textual analysis;
* ability to question and problematise evidence, considering relationships between evidence and interpretation;
* ability to assemble arguments coherently and concisely, both orally and in prose;
* ability to deliver a presentation before an audience of peers;
* ability to design and execute written projects and to present them suitably, as evidenced by the assessed essay of 3,000 words.
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| Keywords | Print Culture |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Adam Budd
Tel: (0131 6)50 3834
Email: adam.budd@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Clara Burns
Tel: (0131 6)50 4459
Email: clara.burns@ed.ac.uk |
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