BA History and Sociology / Course details

This course unit encourages students to reassess the nature of Anglo-American relations. It does this by going back to the long nineteenth century and asking them to consider the ways that the shared sense of identity which underpinned the so-called ‘special relationship’ originally emerged. It looks at why Anglo-American reference points were so important in formulations of national identity during this era of monumental change in the gendered, racial and class parameters of the nation. It highlights the ways in which those advocating reform within one nation were able to frame their ideas with reference to the other and why this was such a common thing to do. It also demonstrates how those in power came to formulate an exclusive form of Anglo-American identity which would go on to underpin all aspects of the 20^th century relationship.

• To provide an examination of the different ways in which Britain and the United States interacted during the long 19^th century and how this influenced changing ideas of national identity in each.
• To engage with the relationship from various perspectives.
• To encourage students to consider both the practical and symbolic entanglements between the two.
• To utilize a broad array of primary source materials.
• To critically interrogate relevant historiography.
• To understand the ongoing implications of this period in both nations.

1 x 3-hour seminar session per week.  

Seminar reading lists and source materials will be made available on Blackboard, as will links to digitised content and other online source/databases

Lecture slides will be uploaded onto Blackboard.

All coursework to be submitted and marks returned via Turnitin 

Through this unit learners will:

• Engage with relationship between Britain and the US in the long 19^th century and examine how transnational processes impacted the development of both.

• Consider a wide range of primary texts including pamphlets, poetry, songs, newspaper articles, novels and cartoons as a way to explore various aspects of the Anglo-American relationship.

• Examine the ways in which the parameters of national identity within each nation were constructed by those in power and the ways that others challenged these ideas.

Develop knowledge of the material and key analytical skills.

By the end of the unit students will be able to:

• Understand the multifaceted relationship between Britain, the US and the Atlantic world.

• Engage with historiographical debates at an advanced level.

• To identify and interpret primary sources.

• Assess primary sources within the context of existing scholarship.

• To develop and defend intellectual positions with the use of evidence.

By the end of the unit students will be able to:

• Identify and critically analyze primary texts.

• Conduct original research and present ideas in written and oral forms.

• Develop intellectual positions.

• Contextualize their ideas with reference to existing scholarship.

By the end of the unit students will be able to:

• Undertake independent research tasks.
• Interpret both primary and secondary sources.
• Communicate sophisticated ideas in both written and verbal form.
• Work effectively within a group and independently.

Seminar Participation (Summative) 10%

Research Essay (Summative) 55%

Group Presentation (Summative) 35%

• Butler, Leslie, Critical Americans: Victorian Intellectuals and Transatlantic Liberal Reform (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007)
• Campbell, Duncan Andrew, Unlikely Allies: Britain, America and the Victorian Origins of the Special Relationship (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007)
• Dzelzainis, Ella & Ruth Livesey, eds., The American Experiment and the Idea of Democracy in British Culture, 1776-1914 (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013)
• Fisch, Audrey, American Slaves in Victorian England: Abolitionist Politics and Popular Culture Literature and Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000)
• Giles, Paul, Virtual Americas: Transnational Fictions and the Transatlantic Imaginary (Durham: Duke University Press, 2002)
• Haynes, Sam W., Unfinished Revolution: The Early American Republic in a British World (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010)
• Kilbride, Daniel, Being American in Europe, 1750-1860 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013)
• Pace Vetter, Lisa, The Political Thought of America’s Founding Feminists (New York: New York University Press, 2017)