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Nancy J. Curtin
PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, FORDHAM UNIVERSITY
HSRU 4450
Prof. Nancy Curtin
Spring 2009
SEM: MODERN BRITAIN AND IRELAND
Course description
This seminar focuses on a selected topic in the history of Great Britain and Ireland ---- history and historiography of the British Empire and decolonization from the 16th to the 20th centuries. We will look at specific case studies, including Ireland, India, Jamaica, and South Africa, to explore both a typology and chronology of empire as well as the more detailed interaction between metropole and periphery. We will also take a more general and critical look at explanatory metanarratives of empire such as western capitalist expansion or cultural notions of European superiority. Each student will be assigned a colony to report on and make the subject of an historiographical essay.
Requirements
Meaningful class participation – 50%
Paper (15-20 pages) – 50%
Required Texts
Niall Fergusson, Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power
Elleke Boehmer, Empire Writing: An Anthology of Colonial Literature, 1870-1918
All journal articles are available on-line as Electronic Journals via Fordham Library
The syllabus as well as forthcoming course documents and a discussion board are on Blackboard.
Schedule of Meetings
Jan. 14 – Introduction
Jan. 21 – Empire I
Fergusson, ch. 1-3
Jan. 28 – Empire II
Fergusson, ch. 4-6
Feb. 4 – The Economies of Empire
P.J. Cain and A.G. Hopkins, “Gentlemanly Capitalism and British Expansion Overseas I. The Old Colonial System, 1688-1850,” The Economic History Review, New Series, Vol. 39, No. 4 (Nov., 1986), pp. 501-525
P.J. Cain and A.G. Hopkins, “Gentlemanly Capitalism and British Expansion Overseas II. New Imperialism, 1850-1945,” The Economic History Review, New Series, Vol. 40, No. 1 (Feb., 1987), pp. 1-26
Patrick O’Brien, “The Costs and Benefits of British Imperialism, 1846-1914,” Past and Present, No. 120 (Aug., 1988), pp. 163-200
Paul Kennedy, “The Costs and Benefits of British Imperialism, 1846-1914,” Past and Present, No. 125 (Nov., 1989), pp. 186-192
Patrick, O’Brien, “The Costs and Benefits of British Imperialism 1846-1914: Reply,” Past and Present, No. 125 (Nov., 1989), pp. 192-199
Feb. 11 – Irish Studies Lecture
Michael Gillespie, “The Myth if Irish Cinema”
2:00, Flom Auditorium, Walsh Library
Feb. 18 – Gender, Race, and Sexuality
Mary A. Procida, “Good Sports and Right Sorts: Guns, Gender, and Imperialism in British India,” The Journal of British Studies, Vol. 40, No. 4 (Oct., 2001), pp. 454-488
Luise White, “Separating the Men from the Boys: Constructions of Gender, Sexuality, and Terrorism in Central Kenya, 1939-1959,” The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 23, No. 1 (1990), pp. 1-25
Seymour Drescher, “The Ending of the Slave Trade and the Evolution of European Scientific Racism,” Social Science History, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Autumn, 1990), pp. 415-450
Douglas Lorimer, “Theoretical Racism in Late-Victorian Anthropology, 1870-1900,” Victorian Studies, Vol. 31, No. 3 (Spring, 1988), pp. 405-430
Feb. 25 -- An Empire of Law or Force?
B. A. Knox, “The British Government and the Governor Eyre Controversy, 1865-1875,” The Historical Journal, Vol. 19, No. 4 (Dec., 1976), pp. 877-900.
Charles Townshend, “Martial Law: Legal and Administrative Problems of Civil Emergency in Britain and the Empire, 1800-1940,” The Historical Journal, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Mar., 1982), pp. 167-195
Purnima Bose; Laura Lyons, “Dyer Consequences: The Trope of Amritsar, Ireland, and the Lessons of the "Minimum" Force Debate,” boundary 2, Vol. 26, No. 2 (Summer, 1999), pp. 199-229.
Barbara English, “The Kanpur Massacres in India in the Revolt of 1857,” Past and Present, No. 142 (Feb., 1994), pp. 169-178
Rudrangshu Mukherjee, “’Satan Let Loose upon Earth’: The Kanpur Massacres in India in the Revolt of 1857,” Past and Present, No. 128 (Aug., 1990), pp. 92-116
Rudrangshu Mukherjee, “The Kanpur Massacres in India in the Revolt of 1857: Reply,” Past and Present, No. 142 (Feb., 1994), pp. 178-189
Derek Sayer, “British Reaction to the Amritsar Massacre 1919-1920,” Past and Present, No. 131 (May, 1991), pp. 130-164
Mar. 4 – God and Mammon
Brian Stanley, “'Commerce and Christianity': Providence Theory, the Missionary Movement, and the Imperialism of Free Trade, 1842-1860,” The Historical Journal, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Mar., 1983), pp. 71-94
Andrew Porter, “'Commerce and Christianity': The Rise and Fall of a Nineteenth-Century Missionary Slogan,” The Historical Journal, Vol. 28, No. 3 (Sep., 1985), pp. 597-621
Felix Driver, “Henry Morton Stanley and His Critics: Geography, Exploration and Empire,” Past and Present, No. 133 (Nov., 1991), pp. 134-166
John Darwin, “Imperialism and the Victorians: The Dynamics of Territorial Expansion,” The English Historical Review, Vol. 112, No. 447 (Jun., 1997), pp. 614-642
Mar. 11 – Empire and Popular Culture
Patrick A. Dunae, “Boys' Literature and the Idea of Empire, 1870-1914,” Victorian Studies, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Autumn, 1980), pp. 105-121
Brian Stoddart, ”Sport, Cultural Imperialism, and Colonial Response in the British Empire,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 30, No. 4 (Oct., 1988), pp. 649-673
Martin Hall, “The Legend of the Lost City; Or, the Man with Golden Balls,” Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 21, No. 2 (Jun., 1995), pp. 179-199
Paul R. Deslandes, ”’The Foreign Element’: Newcomers and the Rhetoric of Race, Nation, and Empire in "Oxbridge" Undergraduate Culture, 1850-1920,” The Journal of British Studies, Vol. 37, No. 1 (Jan., 1998), pp. 54-90
Andrew S. Thompson, “The Language of Imperialism and the Meanings of Empire: Imperial Discourse in British Politics, 1895-1914,” The Journal of British Studies, Vol. 36, No. 2 (Apr., 1997), pp. 147-177
Mar. 25 – Reports
Ireland
Jamaica
India
Apr. 1—Reports
Canada
Australia
South Africa
Apr. 8 – Selected readings from Boehmer, TBA
Apr. 15—Reports
Egypt
Singapore
Nigeria
Apr. 22—Reports
Aden (Yemen)
Palestine
Iraq
Apr. 29 – Reports
Cyprus
Kenya
Rhodesia
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