The aim of this module is to provide students with the historical background to their other economics modules and to prepare them for the second and third year modules in economic and business history, namely: Modern British Economic History, International Economic History and Business History. Students are provided with an introduction to British economic history from the industrial revolution to the present day.

A    Knowledge and Understanding:

• show an awareness of the main methodological tools used in the study of economic history
• demonstrate an overall knowledge and understanding of the main economic and social trends in Britain since 1750
• undertake more advanced modules in economic history in the second and third years of their degrees.

B    Intellectual Skills: 

• synthesise and evaluate secondary data
• solve problems in the historical context
• exercise powers of inquiry, logic, and critical analysis, interpretation and evaluation of arguments of evidence
• Sustain a critical argument in writing

C    Discipline Specific Skills: 

• make use of the main sources of historical data employed in the subject.
• apply theoretical concepts to explain the development of the British economy since 1750

D    Transferable Skills: 

• to be able to seek out from libraries, databases or the Internet data of a statistical or documentary nature relevant to a particular topic of study
• to organise and formulate arguments based on this statistical and documentary data in answer to specific questions
• To give oral answers to specific questions and handle questioning from members of the group
• write assignments or essays in a structured and well argued fashion 

Teaching will take place in the Autumn and Spring semesters. There will be approximately 34 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes.

For each lecture students are supplied with data and/or stimulus material and are encouraged to take notes and to ask questions while the lecture is in progress. Lecture summaries are posted on the internet Blackboard database for students to download.

For each class, students are provided with reading material and a series of questions on a particular topic which will be prepared in advance for discussion within the class.

Indicative study hours:   200

Formal Assessment:

The two essays each count for 15% of the final mark. The assignments require a basic understanding of the topics augmented with further secondary research and reading. Students on this introductory course will be given strong direction in writing the essays during the tutorial programme.

Summer exam:

The examination paper consists of two sections: one compulsory section (A) of 25 short answer questions, and a second section (B) consisting of 12 questions on topics selected from all parts of the course from which they have to answer three questions. Section A is designed to test students’ factual knowledge of the subject, and in addition in section B to test understanding and an ability to order thoughts, and present them relevantly and cogently, and demonstrate skill in written presentation.

Informal assessment:

Informal assessment is provided through the class programme. Classes consist of a wide variety of questions/problems, based on lecture material but requiring further reading. The class questions are designed to get students to order their material and their own thoughts in order to answer specific questions in a focused and relevant manner.

The module provides an introduction to the economic history of Britain from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. First semester topics include the causes of the industrial and agricultural revolutions; population growth and the ideas of Thomas Malthus; proto-industrialisation; technological changes, capital and labour markets; transport systems; the growth of entrepreneurship; the factory system; the banking system; foreign trade and the social consequences of industrialisation. In the second semester, topics covered include Britain in the world economy; economic decline; the economic consequences of the world wars; the interwar depression; the growth of trade unions and the welfare state; the role of women in the labour market; full employment in the 1950s and 1960s, stagflation in the 1970s and the Thatcher revolution; the economy under Major, Blair and Brown including the banking crisis and current recession.

C More, The industrial Age:  Economy and Society in Britain 1750 – 1995 (Longmans, 2^nd Ed, 1997)

A Digby and C Feinstein, New Directions in Economic and Social History, vol 1 (MacMillan, 1989)

A Digby, C Feinstein and D Jenkins, New Direction in Economic and Social History, vol II (MacMillan, 1992)

Kenneth Morgan, The Birth of Industrial Britain:  Economic Change 1750 – 1850 (Longman, 1999)

Rex Pope, The British Economy Since 1914:  A Study in Decline (Longman, 1999)

Eric Hobsbawm, Industry and Empire:  From 1750 to the present day (Penguin, 1999)