Course Details in 2025/26 Session

Module Title	LH Advanced Option: Reason and Romance: The Cultural History of Nineteenth-Century Britain
School	History and Cultures
Department	History
Module Code	09 38753
Module Lead	Dr David Gange
Level	Honours Level
Credits	20
Semester	Semester 1
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions	None
Contact Hours	Lecture-10 hours Seminar-20 hours Guided independent study-170 hours Total: 200 hours
Exclusions
Description	Simultaneously one of the most vibrantly radical periods in British history and an era of prudish conservatism, the nineteenth century is best characterised by its contradictions. This module explores these paradoxes, investigating the cultural history of the new urban streets and the ideas of literary and scientific thinkers from Dickens to Darwin. The emphasis in this module will be on discovering how nineteenth-century Britons saw themselves, and investigating how their ideas on themes such as the arts, gender, empire, religion, crime and class were part of lived experience. Seminars follow a broadly chronological structure, beginning in the eighteenth-century 'age of revolutions' and ending with the outbreak of the first world war, introducing the most important themes in this period's history along the way. For each seminar there will be focused 'essential reading' (all available electronically) as well as more expansive 'further reading' that will allow you to explore these themes in greater depth.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module students should be able to: analyse and explain key events and historical processes relevant to the subject under scrutiny, analyse and explain reasons for and implications of these events and processes (including analysis of primary evidence where appropriate) compare and evaluate the main scholarly views on the subject under investigation, critically evaluate the historiographical context and trends of the subject under exploration work with an appropriate degree of learner independence to explain and analyse the material under scrutiny summarise, analyse and evaluate the subject material clearly and effectively in writing, synthesise and evaluate themes across a wide range of diverse material
Assessment
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	Assessment: S1 = 1 x 3,000 word essay (100%)
Other
Reading List