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Uniting the Kingdom: Britishness & the Four Nations 1707-1815 - HIS00029I

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  • Department: History
  • Module co-ordinator: Dr. Catriona Kennedy
  • Credit value: 30 credits
  • Credit level: I
  • Academic year of delivery: 2021-22

Module summary

At a time when the future of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland looks increasingly uncertain, this module will examine the period between the Anglo-Scottish union of 1707 and the British-Irish union of 1801 when the United Kingdom came into being. We will explore how a unifying sense of Britishness was fostered in this period, as embodied in symbols such as the union flag and songs such as Rule Britannia!, and how far it came to overlay other religious, regional and national identities. Was the idea of ‘Britishness’ a cover for English dominance, or a useful tool for advancing the interests of the Scots, Welsh and Irish? Was it imposed from above by ruling elites, or enthusiastically championed from below? 

Different seminars will examine the impact of Jacobitism, the Enlightenment, the American war and the French Revolution on each of the four nations of the British Isles. And we will interrogate whether the history of the British Isles in this period is best understood in terms of increasing convergence as war, empire and commerce bound disparate peoples together in a common endeavour, or continued conflict and division as reflected in the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745 and the Irish rebellion of 1798.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Spring Term 2021-22 to Summer Term 2021-22

Module aims

The aims of this module are:

  • To provide students with the opportunity to study particular historical topics in depth;
  • To develop students’ ability to examine a topic from a range of perspectives and to strengthen their ability to work critically and reflectively with secondary and primary material; and
  • To combine seminar preparation and discussion of the topic being studied with extended independent work on a project devised by the student.

Module learning outcomes

Students who complete this module successfully will:

  • Have acquired a deep knowledge of the specific topic studied
  • Have developed their ability to use and synthesise a range of primary and secondary sources
  • Be able to evaluate the arguments that historians have made about the topic studied
  • Have developed their ability to study independently through seminar-based teaching
  • Gain experience of working collaboratively through an assessed group project

Module content

This 30-credit module is taught through a weekly two-hour seminar run from weeks 2-10 in the spring term and a four week period of project work undertaken in weeks 1-4 of the summer term. Students will complete their group project work within that period and tutors should arrange to be available for consultation with students twice during that time. There will be no formal seminar teaching during this period.

Seminars will likely cover the following areas:

1. Introduction: The ‘new’ British history
2. The Anglo-Scottish union of 1707
3. Jacobitism
4. Enlightenments
5. Celticism, antiquarianism and the Ossian controversy
6. The American War (1775-1783) and British imperialisms
7. The French Revolution and four nations’ radicalism
8. War and loyalism (1793-1815)
9. The British-Irish Act of Union (1801) and Romantic nations

The group project will draw on some of the rich primary source material available for this period from satirical cartoons to radical songs and Romantic-era novels.

Assessment

Task Length % of module mark
Groupwork
Project		 N/A 33
Online Exam - 24 hrs (Centrally scheduled)
Open Exam - Uniting the Kingdom: Britishness & the Four Nations 1707-1815		 8 hours 67

Special assessment rules

None

Additional assessment information

Formative assessment will be a group presentation between weeks 5 and 7 of the spring term.

For summative assessment students take a 24-hour open exam in the summer term assessment period, usually released at 11:00 on day 1 and submitted at 11:00 on day 2. For those taking two Explorations modules the 24-hour open exams are held on consecutive days, with both papers released at 11:00 on day 1 and both due for submission on 11:00 of day 3.

Students also submit a piece of written work for their group project of no more than 3,000 words in week 5 of the summer term.

The exam carries 67% of assessment and the project element 33% for this module.

Students who need to be reassessed in the project component of this module (for example due to Exceptional Circumstance) will be required to submit in the summer reassessment period a shorter individual project (2,000 words) which should include a short reflection (500 words max) on group work, considering how this project could be expanded if a team of three to four people were working on it. Students should consider how they would divide up the research tasks, and reflect briefly on problems which might arise and how they would manage them. Module tutors will advise on the content and design of this project.

Reassessment

Task Length % of module mark
Groupwork
Project		 N/A 33
Online Exam - 24 hrs (Centrally scheduled)
Open Exam - Uniting the Kingdom: Britishness & the Four Nations 1707-1815		 8 hours 67

Module feedback

Following their formative assessment task, students will typically receive written feedback that will include comments and a mark within 10 working days of submission.

Work will be returned to students in their seminars and may be supplemented by the tutor giving some oral feedback to the whole group. All students are encouraged, if they wish, to discuss the feedback on their procedural work during their tutor’s student hours. For more information, see the Statement on Feedback.

For the summative assessment task, students will receive their provisional mark and written feedback within 20 working days of the submission deadline unless submitted in week 5 of the summer term, in which case these are available within 25 working days. The tutor will then be available during student hours for follow-up guidance if required. For more information, see the Statement of Assessment.  

Indicative reading

For term time reading, please refer to the module VLE site. Before the course starts, we encourage you to look at the following items of preliminary reading:

Colley, Linda. Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837. New Haven: Yale UP, 1992.
Pocock, J.G.A. “British history: a plea for a new subject.” The Journal of Modern History, 47, 4 (1975).
Smyth, Jim. The making of the United Kingdom, 1660-1800: state, religion and identity in Britain and Ireland. Harlow: Longman, 2001.


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University is constantly exploring ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary by the University. Where appropriate, the University will notify and consult with affected students in advance about any changes that are required in line with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.