Studying at York
Liberty and Identity: Britain in Revolution, 1603-1714 - HIS00157I
- Department: History
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: I
- Academic year of delivery: 2024-25
Module summary
Britain’s ‘century of revolution’ was an era of transformation, but also of anxiety and uncertainty. Political identities in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales had been thrown into flux by the Protestant Reformation of the previous century. The resulting vexed relationship with their European neighbours has arguably had repercussions into modern times. Further soul-searching was generated by the accession of the Scottish king, James VI, to the English throne. James thereafter styled himself king of Britain, but was probably the only person in the realm who knew what this meant.
Within a generation, James’s dream of British integration was torn apart by a devastating civil war that ended with the judicial execution of his son, Charles I, a republican government, and the military conquest of Ireland and Scotland. Charles II was restored peacefully in 1660, only for Britain to be thrown into crisis once more after the accession of his brother, James II. The ‘revolution’ of 1689 dragged Britain into long years of war with France and its allies. Yet on the death of the last Stuart monarch in 1714, Queen Anne, Britain was on the brink of becoming a world power. The British peoples prided themselves on their ‘liberty’, but the power they exerted over the subject and enslaved indigenous peoples of Africa and North America calls into question what contemporaries understood by the term. This course invites you to take part in these debates and to explore the fundamental questions about the exercise of power in an evolving ‘early modern’ state.
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:
- Historians at war: A revolutionary century
- Kingship, nations, and identities
- Britain and Europe
- ‘A dark equal chaos of confusion’: the civil wars
- ‘Our just freedom’: people, Protestants, and political ideas
- Regicide, republic, restoration
- 1689 and all that
- Power and the state: Britain goes global
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
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 |
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:
- Derek Hirst, England and its Island Neighbours, 1500-1707 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).
- Elizabeth Mancke and Carole Shammas (eds), The Creation of the British Atlantic World (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005).
- Laura A.M. Stewart and Janay Nugent, Union and Revolution: Scotland and Beyond, 1625-1745 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2021).