2020/21 Undergraduate Module Catalogue
HIST2101 Victorian England: Aristocracy and Democracy, 1865-1901
20 creditsClass Size: 38
Module manager: Professor Simon Green
Email: s.j.d.green@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2020/21
This module is approved as a discovery module
Module summary
This course studies the workings of democracy during the high Victorian age. The political emphasis is on the combination of stability and progress that gave old deferences a longer lease of life than anyone had expected.The course covers the aristocracy's political and social ideals, the business and professional classes, working class culture, sectarian tensions, religion, imperial expansion, diplomacy and other aspects of later 19th-century England (and Britain).Objectives
- To promote a better understanding of the problems of continuity and change over time.- To explore the relationship between political and economic change, and the role of religion in later Victorian society.
- To develop an understanding of the interplay between internal and external factors in political and economic life of later Victorian England.
Skills outcomes
Enhances Common Skills listed below:
- High-level skills in oral and written communication of complex ideas.
- Independence of mind and self-discipline and self-direction to work effectively under own initiative.
- Ability to locate, handle and synthesize large amounts of information.
- Capacity to employ analytical and problem-solving abilities.
Ability to engage constructively with the ideas of their peers, tutors and published sources.
- Empathy and active engagement with alternative cultural contexts.
Syllabus
This module may be taken in conjunction with HIST2100 Victorian England 1837-1865 to form two modules covering the whole Victorian period. It studies the workings of democracy in a mature industrial society during the high Victorian age. The political emphasis is on the combination of stability and progress that gave old deferences a longer lease of life than anyone had expected. What J S Mill had called an 'open aristocracy' was gently declining but displayed a remarkable ability to adjust to change in its many forms.
The aristocracy's political and social ideals were largely shared by business and professional men, now partners rather than clients or rivals of the landed interest. The same ideals were respected in the distinctive working class culture that grew up in industrial England. Rising living standards isolated the substantial minority condemned to extreme poverty.
Despite sectarian tensions, religion was on the whole a unifying and not a divisive force. Imperial expansion and prudent diplomacy added to national self-esteem and prosperity. Above all, this was a free society, able to tolerate the presence of harsh critics in Marx, Engels and others from abroad.
These and other aspects of later 19th century England (and Britain) are covered in a module that seeks to explain the country's envied position in the world then.
Teaching methods
Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
Lecture | 11 | 1.00 | 11.00 |
Tutorial | 9 | 1.00 | 9.00 |
Private study hours | 180.00 | ||
Total Contact hours | 20.00 | ||
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 200.00 |
Private study
- Exam preparation- Researching, preparing, and writing assignments
- Undertaking set reading
- Self-directed reading around the topic
Opportunities for Formative Feedback
Contributions to class discussions, an assessed exercise or exercises worth 10% of module marks, an assessed essay.Methods of assessment
Coursework
Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
Assignment | Weekly pieces of writing (to add up to no more than 2000 words over the course of the semester; to be sent in as indicated by the tutor for formative feedback but to be submitted to turnitin as a portfolio by the end of week 11 | 40.00 |
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 40.00 |
10% oral presentations are redone with 'an equivalent written exercise'
Exams
Exam type | Exam duration | % of formal assessment |
Online Time-Limited assessment | 48 hr 00 mins | 60.00 |
Total percentage (Assessment Exams) | 60.00 |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
Reading list
The reading list is available from the Library websiteLast updated: 10/08/2020 08:40:25
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