What does a jug tell us about attitudes to slavery? What can a board game say about our place in the empire? How can we learn anything from a chair? In this seminar, students will engage with modern British history through a series of primary source objects and academic secondary sources. The asterisk in the course title denotes how this course will unpack the ways we think about Britain, “Britishness,” and the British Empire. We will explore urban, rural, and imperial perspectives about religion, family, love, violence, consumerism, and so much more from approximately 1800-1900. You will leave the course with a fuller understanding of how to do history from a material culture perspective, and a better sense of the legacies imperial Britain has left on our world.
The course is structured in a mostly chronological order, but each week will have a specific thematic focus that the assigned secondary source readings and primary source objects will interrogate from different perspectives. The assignments will include a short paper analysing your choice of material culture primary source, in-class assignments and a mini presentation, and a final paper that will be worked in stages throughout the term in order for students to receive feedback that will strengthen their final submission.
