Introduction

The Railway Age, c.1830-c.1914 is a Special Subject sometimes offered as part of the third year of the undergraduate degree in History at the University of York.

The tutor

Prof. Colin Divall.

Description

During the period from circa 1830 to circa 1914, the railway attained an unchallenged position of dominance in inland transport in Britain and had wide-ranging influence on the landscape, economy, society and culture of the age. Starting with the Victorians themselves, a series of debates have centred on the nature and extent of that influence. This course aims to provide an analysis of those debates, and thus of both the character and significance of the 'Railway Age' as a historical concept, and the place of the railway itself in the wider context of the age. Our analysis will involve consideration of a series of interlocking aspects of the Victorian era - including politics and parliament, business, finance and the economy, class structures and relations, industry and technology, literature and the arts, urban and rural societies - approached through the role played by the railway in their changing characters and interrelationships. This will not be a nuts-and-bolts, internalist history of the railway itself but an exploration of the society, economy and culture of Victorian Britain through the agency of the railway, and a study of the way in which not only social and economic relations but structures of perceptions and experience were changed by this vitally important technology. Teaching takes place at both the University and the National Railway Museum. Members of the NRM staff will be involved in some parts of the programme, and the course will give students the opportunity to study primary documentary sources from the NRM Library and Archive and the material evidence of the museum's collection.

Teaching programme

There will be two seminars per week throughout this course. Teaching will be based on the weekly two-hour topic-based seminars listed below, supplemented by weekly two-hour document/source study seminars which will look in detail at particular documents or other source materials. Students will each be expected to make a number of seminar presentations during the term.

• 1 | The nineteenth-century railway in context. This seminar will introduce the nineteenth-century railway as a subject of historical study, and relate it to the wider context of British nineteenth-century history. The secondary literature will be introduced, and some of the relevant historical approaches and historiographical debates considered.
• 2 | Sources and evidence. What kinds of materials, both documentary and otherwise, should historians engage with when approaching the study of the nineteenth-century railway? This seminar will provide an opportunity to consider the wide range of potential source material (textual, statistical, physical, visual, archaeological) which is relevant to the study of the nineteenth-century railway.
• 3 | The economic and social context. Why did the railways develop in the way they did? This seminar introduces the economic and social factors which played a part in influencing the development and spread of the railways during the nineteenth century.
• 4 | The first big business. The railways were the largest and most complex business organisations of their day. This seminar considers how they were structured and managed, and what effect the presence of these large and powerful private companies had on nineteenth-century Britain.
• 5 | Railways and the community. This seminar is concerned with what the railways did for the lives of the communities they served in Victorian Britain, the effects they had on social relations, class structures, values and practices.
• 6 | The railway in nineteenth-century culture. The railways affected not only the economy and society of nineteenth-century Britain, they also influenced the imaginations of the Victorians. This seminar looks at the railway in art and literature, the impact of the railway on the perceptions and imaginations of the people whose world it transformed.
• 7 | Railway technology in the nineteenth century: a story of progress? Railway technology came in many shapes and forms and reflected many different influences, social and cultural as well as technical. This seminar considers to what extent the Victorian railway, often seen as a paragon of industrial and technological progress, actually lived up to that expectation.
• 8 | Summing up. Summary and overview.

Assessment

Paper I: 3-day open essay paper. Paper II: A 5,000 word essay to be submitted in the Summer term. In both papers students will be expected to employ primary source material.

Miscellaneous

Preliminary reading: Jack Simmons, The Victorian Railway (1991). If you have not visited the National Railway Museum before (or have not done so for many years) a visit in advance of the course is recommended. Language: there is no language requirement for this course. Pre-requisites: you must have taken a second year History course or have equivalent experience.

Important note: This course is available only to undergraduates at the University of York and is not currently being taught. However the teaching programme of the Department of History is constantly revised and updated; for the latest position, please check the Department of History website.
 

academic programme

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IRS&TH / 25 Nov 09/CD