Studying at York
'What News?' People & Politics in Early Modern Britain - HIS00114I
- Department: History
- Credit value: 30 credits
- Credit level: I
- Academic year of delivery: 2022-23
Module summary
What did people know about politics in early modern Britain and how did they find out? Much of the British male population – and, with rare exceptions, almost all women - were excluded from formal structures of governance and representation. Governing elites broadly agreed that ‘the people’ could not be trusted either with the responsibility of governing or knowledge of policy-making. Yet this does not mean that people were uninterested in politics. It has often been argued that this period saw a ‘print revolution’ that enabled people to engage with politics in new ways. Print has been seen as a key means by which ‘public opinion’ could begin to emerge as a political force. A growing market for print publications enabled the development of new genres, such as the serialised newsbook, which further stimulated demand.
Using a wide range of accessible primary source material – libels, ballads, petitions, newsbooks – this course will investigate the ways in which politics was constructed and debate stimulated, not only through the circulation of print alone, but also through its creative interactions with existing oral and scribal forms of communication. In what ways did the expansion of cheap print affect how people thought about the Stuart monarchs, the Protestant church, the royal Court, and the role of parliament? To what extent did governing regimes engage with, rather than try to shut down, public debate? What was the role of print in shaping contemporary understanding of major political events, such as the civil wars and the 1689 Revolution?
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:
- Introduction: sources and historiography
- Literacy and orality
- Protestants and print
- Libeling and satire
- Print starts a war: pamphlets and petitions
- The newsbook
- Print, popery, and plot in the reign of Charles II
- Conclusions: a print revolution?
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Groupwork | 33 |
| Online Exam - 24 hrs (Centrally scheduled) | 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 | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Groupwork | 33 |
| Online Exam - 24 hrs (Centrally scheduled) | 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:
Eastman, L. Family, Field, and Ancestors: Constancy and Change in Chinas Social and Economic History, 1550-1949. New York, 1988
Spence, Jonathan D. The Search for Modern China. New York, various editions.