Instructor: Thomas Prasch
Office: HC 311 B
Office hours: 1:00-3:00 MTWR or by appt.
Office telephone: 231-1010 x 1892
E-mail: zzprasch@washburn.edu

COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES: HI 338 provides a thematic approach to the Victorian period in British history, covering the period from around 1830 (with some glances back to earlier developments) till the end of the nineteenth century (with some nods forward toward World War I). The course emphasizes doing history by introducing students to primary sources--works produced at the time under study--and the methods historians employ to interpret them; this will be supplemented by lectures and text material that demonstrate how historians shape material into historical narratives and arrive at interpretations of the past. Students will be taught how to think historically as well as learning the broad outlines of British history in the period. Critical and evaluative skills will be developed in part through direct encounters with primary sources, with some lectures employed to acquaint students with the methods with which historians deal with such sources. Lectures and text readings will also augment students' reading and interpretive abilities. Reading and writing skills will also be developed and assessed through both take-home and in-class tests, as discussed below.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS: The required texts for HI 338 will be Norman McCord, British History 1815-1906; Patrick Brantlinger, Rule of Darkness; and Judith Walkowitz, City of Dreadful Delight. McCord surveys the history of the period; Brantlinger and Walkowitz provide more detailed analyses of specific aspects of Victorian history. Lectures will provide topical treatments of significant subjects in Victorian history, including subjects not dealt with in the texts. Students will also be required to read three primary source selections through the course of the semester, from choices indicated on the syllabus or choices of their own approved by the professor. These will be available at the library reserve and at the professor's office; students will not have to purchase additional texts.

The syllabus indicates a range of primary sources. Students do not have to read all of them. Students will select one of the suggested primary sources for each test period (three over the course of the semester), or they will select alternative primary sources of their own, subject to the professor's approval. This allows students to tailor their readings to their specific interests; the professor's selections are designed to give students a sense of the range of possibilities in terms of thematic focus and genre. Lectures will provide students with some assistance in how to read and interpret primary sources.

The three hour examinations will each have both in-class and take-home components. The in-class examinations will consist of short identification questions and essay questions; they will cover material in lectures and assigned text readings. Students are expected to provide blue books for the in-class portions of tests; these are available at the Washburn Bookstore. The take-home portion of the test will consist of a longer (3-5 page, typed) essay question concerning the primary source the student has chosen. Questions will be designed both to ensure that the students have actually read the primary sources they have selected and to make them connect their reading of the primary source with other knowledge (from text and lectures) of the period and place in which it was composed. For the first two tests, questions for the take-home portion will be available at the review session preceding the in-class test, and the essays will be due the class following the in-class examination, at the beginning of class. For the final, take-home questions will be distributed at the beginning of the last week of class, and the take-home portion will be due on the last day of class. The final examination will not be comprehensive, covering only material covered after the second examination.

In addition to the tests, students will be required to turn in book reports of 5-7 typed pages on the two monographs required for the course, Brantlinger and Walkowitz. Lectures will include material that will provide background for students' reading of these other works. Expectations for book reports will be discussed in class.

In-class and take-home portions of tests will each be graded on a 100 point scale. On in-class tests, identification will be worth 20 points (5 points per identification), and essays will be worth 40 points each. Take-home portions of the test will also be worth 100 points. The two book reports will be worth 100 points each. The final grade will consist of an average of these scores. Active class participation will be taken into account as a positive factor in borderline cases or, at the discretion of the professor, to raise grades up to one level higher(for example, from a high C to a B) when participation seems to indicate that the student has a better grasp of material than test averages indicate. Evidence of cheating on in-class tests or plagiarism on take-home portions of the tests will result in automatic failure. What plagiarism consists of and how to avoid it in writing assignments will be discussed in class before the first test.

Students who are having difficulties with either the reading or writing demands of the class should avail themselves of assistance from departmental tutors or from the English Department's Writing Center (Morgan 257). Students having trouble with the material should also meet with the professor during scheduled office hours (or by appointment).

Class attendance is not required. Students should be aware, however, that lecture material will not duplicate text readings, and students will be responsible for lecture material on tests. And, obviously, routine absence will prevent active class participation. Students who miss scheduled tests or due dates for take-home test portions will be required to provide valid excuses for their absence.

Students with disabilities who want to request accommodations must contact the Office for Students with Disabilities, located in MO 150 or contact them by telephone at (785) 231-1010 ext. 1629. This office has the responsibility to assist students and advise faculty regarding reasonable accommodations (including in-class notetakers, test readers and/or scribes, adaptive computer technology, and brailled materials). In addition, students may voluntarily identify themselves to the instructor to discuss accommodations.

Students taking the course for graduate credit will be expected to fulfill all the work required of undergraduates enrolled in the course. Their tests and book reports will be graded on a higher standard. In addition, graduate students will be expected to write an article-length (15-page minimum) paper on any subject in Victorian British history; preliminary proposals for the paper, consisting of a one-page summary of the topic chosen and a preliminary bibliography, will be turned in at the time of the second in-class test, and final papers will be due on the final day of class. Papers will be expected to include significant research in both primary sources and recent scholarship relevant to the chosen topic. In determining final grades for graduate students, the final paper will count as 400 points (with all other tests and book reports totaling 800 points), and the final grade will average all scores. As with undergraduates, active class participation can raise a grade in borderline circumstances.

Reading Assignments and Tentative Lecture Schedule

January 17: Introduction
January 19: Background I: The English State
Text reading:McCord, chapter 2
January 22: Background II: Britain vs. The Revolution
January 24: Background III: Britain Between Empires
Text Reading: McCord, 56-58
January 26: Rethinking the "Industrial Revolution"
Text reading: McCord, chapter 3 and pp. 210-35
January 29: The Development of a Class Society
Primary source option: Selections from Friedrich Engels, Condition of the English Working Classes
January 31: The Great Reform Bill (1832) and Victorian Politics
Text reading: McCord, pp. 129-144
February 2: Bourgeois Culture and Mass Culture
February 5: The Victorian City
Text reading: McCord, pp. 337-365
Primary source option: selections from Charles Dickens, Sketches by Boz
February 7: The Idea of Poverty
Text reading: McCord, pp. 190-96
Primary source option: Selections from Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor
February 9: Evangelicism and Victorian Reform
Text reading: McCord, 235-243
February 12: Utilitarianism and Victorian Reform
Primary source option: John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
February 14: Review session
February 16: FIRST IN-CLASS TEST
February 19: FIRST TAKE-HOME TEST DUE
Separate Spheres and Victorian Gender Norms
February 21: Demystifying Victorian Sexuality
February 23: Working-Class Culture and the Chartists
Text reading: McCord, 146-152
Primary source option: selections from Dorothy Thompson, Early Chartists
February 26: The Crystal Palace and the Crisis of Design
Text reading: McCord, pp. 315-37
February 28: The Museum Movement and Victorian Society
March 2:The Darwinian Revolution
Text reading: McCord, 355
Primary source option: Selections from Charles Darwin, Origin of Species
March 5: Social Darwinism, "Scientific Racism," and the Social Contract
Primary source option: Selections from Carlyle, Mill, and Burton
March 7: Explaining New Imperialism
Text reading: McCord, 204-09, 300-02, 425-28
March 9:The Expansion of Empire
Primary source option: Selections from Rudyard Kipling
March 12: Imperialism in Action: The Case of Benin
March 14: The Empire Strikes Back: The Transformation of the Metropole
March 16: NO CLASS
March 17-25: SPRING BREAK
March 26:BOOK REPORT DUE: Brantlinger, Rule of Darkness
Gladstone and Victorian Liberalism
Text reading: McCord, chapter 7
March 28: Disraeli and Victorian Conservatism
Primary source option: Disraeli, Sybil
March 30: The Reform Bill of 1867: Revising the State
April 2: Irish Nationalism & the Politics of Home Rule
Text reading: McCord, 288, 371-74, 376-81, 428
April 4: New Labour and Working-Class Culture
Text reading: McCord, 433-452, 459-466
April 6: The New Politics of Labour
Primary source option: William Morris, News from Nowhere
April 9: Naturalism in Victorian Art and Literature
April 11: REVIEW SESSION
April 13: SECOND IN-CLASS TEST
April 16: SECOND TAKE_HOME TEST DUE
Women in Public and Public Women
Text Reading: McCord, pp. 452-459
April 18: "The New Woman"
April 20: Locating Jack the Ripper
Primary source option: Ripper readings
April 23: BOOK REPORT DUE: Judith Walkowitz, City of Dangerous Delight
Decadent Culture and Homosexual Panic
Primary source option: Oscar Wilde, Salome, ill. Aubrey Beardsley
April 25: The Victorian Eugenics Movement
April 27: NO CLASS
April 30: The Boer War: Questioning of Empire
Text reading: McCord, 390-95
May 2: From Jubilee to World War: The Edwardian Transition
May 4: THIRD TAKE-HOME TEST DUE
Review session
Thursday, May 10, 9:00 a.m.: Final Examination