Savage Frontiers? Violence, Encounter, and Mythmaking in British and U.S. Empires - HIS00129I

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Module summary

The module explores the multiple and powerful ideas of ‘the frontier’ that emerged in British and American empires in the nineteenth century. Were frontiers ungovernable blindspots– the nemeses of empire? Or were they a forge for hardy ‘new men’ (and women) who might redeem civilization? We’ll consider frontiers as zones of encounter and struggle, and as an organising framework for contemporaries and later historians alike trying to make sense of immense change and instability.

The first two sessions will look at competing models of the frontier and map massive demographic and technological shifts that produced new and unstable contact zones in North America, South Asia, Africa, and Australasia by the mid-nineteenth century. With the world on the move, imperial states scrambled to extend their reach; new crises and opportunities emerged at those outer limits. Among other topics, we will go on to explore: the relationship between surveillance, security, and knowledge in the north of British India; romantic figures such as the gold-seeker, cowboy, and adventurer-explorer; and the growing gulf between the imperial cult of of the ‘man on the spot’ and critiques of arbitrary imperial violence. Moving thematically and chronologically from the heyday of global gold rushes and colonial annexations to the interwar period, we will contemplate the ways in which the many-sided ‘frontier’ informed imperial and anticolonial projects of race and global order well into the twentieth century.

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Semester 1 2024-25

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
   

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

Module content

Students will attend a 1-hour briefing in week 1. Students will then attend a 1-hour plenary/lecture and a 2-hour seminar in weeks 2-4, 6-8 and 10-11 of semester 1. Weeks 5 & 9 are Reading and Writing Weeks (RAW) during which there are no seminars. Students prepare for and participate in eight 1-hour plenaries/lectures and eight 2-hour seminars in all.

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

1. Locating ‘the frontier’ in global history
2. ‘Eureka!’: gold rushes and explosive migration
3. States of insecurity: information and surveillance on the imperial periphery
4. Manifest manhood and new edens
5. Explorers, scouts, and their imperial publics
6. The South African crucible 
7. Shock and awe: colonial violence and the limits of humanity after WWI
8. ‘New Wests’ and their legacies 
    

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100.0

Special assessment rules

None

Additional assessment information

For formative assessment, students will complete a referenced 1200 to 1500-word essay relating to the themes and issues of the module. This will be submitted in either the Week 5 or Week 9 RAW week (on the day of the weekly seminar).

For summative assessment, students will complete an Assessed Essay (2000 words, footnoted). This will comprise 100% of the overall module mark.

Summative assessments will be due in the assessment period. 

Indicative reassessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100.0

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 seminars 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 formative work during their tutor’s 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 25 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:

• Greenberg, Amy S. Manifest Manhood and the Antebellum American Empire. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
• Hopkins, Benjamin D. Ruling the Savage Periphery: Frontier Governance and the Making of the Modern State. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2020.
• Kennedy, Dane. The Last Blank Spaces: Exploring Africa and Australia. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013.