This module will examine the history of popular movements in Britain in the period of the industrial revolution and its aftermath. It will begin with an examination of the process and nature of industrialisation. Questions will be raised about the social effects of industrialisation, including its impact upon living standards, gender relations, the labour process and class structure. Having established the socio-economic context, the module will then examine the various popular movements and ideologies that developed during the period, including the Corresponding Societies of the 1790s, subsequent movements for political reform, industrial movements such as Luddism and trade unionism, Owenism and early socialism and Chartism. A range of questions will be explored: How revolutionary were such movements, and why did Britain escape the revolutionary convulsions that affected other European countries? What were the main ideological characteristics of these movements? Is it possible to perceive ideological continuities through the period? To what extent were such movements ‘national’ and how did various parts of the British Isles relate to one another through them?

• Demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of the development and nature of industrial society in Britain during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
• Demonstrate wide and systematic knowledge of the history of popular movements and radical ideas in Britain in the period 1789-1880.
• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of historiographic debates concerning the industrial revolution and its social and political impact in Britain.
• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the development of the historiography of popular movements in Britain in this period.
• Evaluate the various historiographic approaches to both industrialisation and the history of popular movements in Britain in this period.
• Conceptualise and pursue a ‘four nations’ approach to the study of this field.
• Evaluate and interpret selected examples of both primary and secondary material relating to this field.

A range of teaching methods will be used in each of the sessions of the course, comprising a combination of lectures, seminar discussion of major issues and workshops for the study of primary source material. The syllabus is divided into a series of major course themes, then sub-divided into principal topics for the study of each theme.

By the end of the module students will be better able to:

• Assimilate and evaluate information and knowledge, using relevant research techniques and technology.
• Articulate and communicate ideas and arguments effectively, with supporting evidence, orally and in writing.
• Modify and develop, as well as defend, their own intellectual position.
• Work effectively, both independently and as part of a team, to manage their own workload and use of time.
• Think critically and challenge assumptions, particularly in relation to secondary historical sources.
• Evaluate, analyse and interpret selected primary historical source material. 

Summative assessment takes the form of one 3,000 - 4,000 word essay (excluding empirical appendices and references).

The Industrial Revolution: Concept and Historiography.

1. Consequences of Industrialism: Living Standards and the Labour Process.
2. Consequences of Industrialism: Social Class and Gender
3. E.P. Thompson and The Making of the English Working Class: Influences, interpretation, criticism and responses.
4. The Impact of The French Revolution.
5. The Movement for Electoral Reform 1790s -1832.
6. Industrial Protest: Luddism, Machine Breaking, The Scotch Cattle.
7. Rural Protest: ‘The Crowd’, Swing and Rebecca.
8. Early Trade Unionism.
9. Owenism, Early Socialism and Chartism.

 Seminars:

1. A Four Nations Approach to Industrialisation.
2. Class, Gender and the Industrial Revolution.
3. Religion and Industrial Society.
4. The Threat of Revolution.
5. A Four Nations Approach to Radical and Labour History.
6. Ireland and British Radicalism.

Please see Background Reading List for an indicative list.

Malcolm Chase, The People’s Farm: English Radical Agrarianism 1775-1840 (1988).

Malcolm Chase, Chartism: A New History (2007).

Gregory Claeys, Citizens and Saints: Politics and Anti-Politics in Early British Socialism (1989).

Anna Clark, The Battle for the Breeches: Gender and the Making of the British Working Class (1997).

James Epstein and Dorothy Thompson (eds.), The Chartist Experience: Studies in Working Class Radicalism and Culture, 1830-1860 (1982).

David J.V. Jones, Before Rebecca (1974).

David J.V. Jones, Rebecca’s Children: A Study of Rural Society, Crime and Protest (1989).

David J.V. Jones, The Last Rising: The Newport Insurrection of 1839 (1985).

Iain McCalman, Radical Underworld: Prophets, Revolutionaries and Pornograhers in London, 1795-1840 (1988).

Iorwerth Prothero, Artisans and Politics in Early Nineteenth Century London: John Gast and his Times (1979).

Edward Royle, Chartism (1996).

Edward Royle, Revolutionary Britannia? Reflections of the Threat of Revolution in Britain, 1789-1848 (2000).

John Rule, British Trade Unionism 1750-1850: The Formative Years (1988).

Dorothy Thompson, The Chartists (1983).

E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (1963).

Ryland Wallace, Organise!,Organise!,Organise!: A Study of Reform Agitations in Wales, 1840-1886 (1991).

Ivor Wilks, South Wales and the Rising of 1839: Class Struggle as Armed Struggle (1984).

Gwyn A. Williams, The Merthyr Rising (1978).

D.G. Wright, Popular Radicalism: The Working Class Experience (1988)