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The Politics of Evolution in Britain, c.1844-c.1918 - HIS00037I

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  • Department: History
  • Module co-ordinator: Prof. Chris Renwick
  • Credit value: 30 credits
  • Credit level: I
  • Academic year of delivery: 2022-23

Module summary

Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859) is one of the most important books of the past two centuries. Yet despite most people accepting evolution as true of nature, they have argued constantly about what it means for society. Indeed, thinkers have claimed, and continue to claim, that evolution supports all kinds of ideas and political programmes, from free-market economics to selective human breeding. This module - for which students will require absolutely no prior scientific knowledge - throws light on these debates by exploring the context in which Darwin’s ideas were developed, received, and appropriated in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain.

Beginning with the controversies about and widespread interest in evolutionary thought during the 1840s and 50s, the module explores the relationship between Darwin s work and its political and social context, before examining how evolutionary ideas were adapted for a variety of political and ideological purposes, including capitalism, socialism, and what we would now call feminism. In so doing, the module traces the interaction of evolutionary ideas and political debates in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain and gives students the opportunity to consider how they have shaped our own era’s understanding of Darwin and his legacies.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Spring Term 2022-23 to Summer Term 2022-23

Module aims

The aims of this module are:

  • To provide students with the opportunity to study particular historical topics in depth;

  • To develop students’ ability to examine a topic from a range of perspectives and to strengthen their ability to work critically and reflectively with secondary and primary material; and

  • To combine seminar preparation and discussion of the topic being studied with extended independent work on a project devised by the student.

Module learning outcomes

Students who complete this module successfully will:

  • Have acquired a deep knowledge of the specific topic studied

  • Have developed their ability to use and synthesise a range of primary and secondary sources

  • Be able to evaluate the arguments that historians have made about the topic studied

  • Have developed their ability to study independently through seminar-based teaching

  • Gain experience of working collaboratively through an assessed group project

Module content

Teaching Programme:

This 30-credit module is taught through a weekly two-hour seminar run from weeks 2-10 in the spring term and a four week period of project work undertaken in weeks 1-4 of the summer term. Students will complete their group project work within that period and tutors should arrange to be available for consultation with students twice during that time. There will be no formal seminar teaching during this period.

Seminar topics are subject to variation, but are likely to include the following:

  1. Evolution in the age of reform

  2. On the Origin of Species as Whig politics?

  3. The God delusion? Darwin, science, and religion

  4. Society red in tooth and claw? Late nineteenth-century “social Darwinism”

  5. Cooperation not competition? Socialist and anarchist evolution

  6. Evolution and ethics – Huxley, philosophy, and nature

  7. Eugenics: British origins and debates

  8. Love, reproduction, and the “New Woman”

  9. Social evolution in international context: empire and war

Working in groups, students will put a thinker, thinkers, or debate from the module into its historical context. The project will demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the sources historians use in order to place the project into its historiographical context and provide an analysis of the significance of the thinker, thinkers, or debate.

Indicative assessment

Task Length % of module mark
Groupwork
Group Project		 N/A 33
Online Exam - 24 hrs (Centrally scheduled)
Open Exam -The Politics of Evolution		 8 hours 67

Special assessment rules

None

Additional assessment information

Formative assessment will be a group presentation between weeks 5 and 7 of the spring term.

For summative assessment students take a 24-hour open exam in the summer term assessment period, usually released at 11:00 on day 1 and submitted at 11:00 on day 2. For those taking two Explorations modules the 24-hour open exams are held on consecutive days, with both papers released at 11:00 on day 1 and both due for submission on 11:00 of day 3.

Students also submit a piece of written work for their group project of no more than 3,000 words in week 5 of the summer term.

The exam carries 67% of assessment and the project element 33% for this module.

Students who need to be reassessed in the project component of this module (for example due to Exceptional Circumstance) will be required to submit in the summer reassessment period a shorter individual project (2,000 words) which should include a short reflection (500 words max) on group work, considering how this project could be expanded if a team of three to four people were working on it. Students should consider how they would divide up the research tasks, and reflect briefly on problems which might arise and how they would manage them. Module tutors will advise on the content and design of this project.

Indicative reassessment

Task Length % of module mark
Groupwork
Group Project		 N/A 33
Online Exam - 24 hrs (Centrally scheduled)
Open Exam -The Politics of Evolution		 8 hours 67

Module feedback

Following their formative assessment task, students will typically receive written feedback that will include comments and a mark within 10 working days of submission.

Work will be returned to students in their discussion groups and may be supplemented by the tutor giving some oral feedback to the whole group. All students are encouraged, if they wish, to discuss the feedback on their procedural work with their tutor (or module convenor) during student hours. For more information, see the Statement on Feedback.

For the summative assessment task, students will receive their provisional mark and written feedback within 20 working days of the submission deadline. The tutor will then be available during student hours for follow-up guidance if required. For more information, see the Statement of Assessment.

Indicative reading

For term time reading, please refer to the module VLE site. Before the course starts, we encourage you to look at the following items of preliminary reading:

Peter Bowler, Evolution: The History of An Idea (2009).

Diane B. Paul, Controlling Human Heredity (1998)

David Stack, The First Darwinian Left: Socialism and Darwinism, 1859-1914 (2003)


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University constantly explores ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary. In some instances it may be appropriate for the University to notify and consult with affected students about module changes in accordance with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.