MO3025 Empire and Nation: The Development of Colonial British America, 1607-1770
   
Lecturer Dr Emma Hart
   
Credits 30
   
Availability 2012-13, Semester 2
   
Class Hour view timetable
   
Description This course will explore the cultural and social aspects of European
settlement in British North America, with a view to introducing students to the factors that shaped and challenged the formation of these new societies. Special emphasis will be placed on the wide-range of expectations and experiences that early settlers had of their New World, and the effect of these forces on the ensuing colonies. The course will also address the question of an emerging American culture and identity and its relationship to metropolitan-colonial interaction.
   
Basic Reading Jack P. Greene and J.R. Pole, Colonial British America
Bernard Bailyn, The Peopling of British North America
Alan Taylor, American Colonies
   

Course Structure
  1. Introduction
  2. Paths to the New World
  3. Unsettling America: The Challenge of Early Settlement
  4. Whose New World? Europeans and Native Americans
  5. An Empire of Goods: Commerce and Consumption
  6. From Piety to Public Assemblies: Colonial American Culture
  7. Reading Week
  8. A Land of Opportunity? Have and Have-Nots
  9. Confronting Empire: The Seven Years War
  10. The Storm Clouds of Conflict
  11. Documentary Exercise: Reading Colonial Newspapers
   
Assessment 60% examination - 3-hour paper
40% coursework - 2 essays and a presentation
   

Learning Outcomes
  • Use of a wide range of material, visual, and written evidence
  • An increased understanding of contemporary American society and nationhood
  • Better comprehension of the changing role and influence of Europe on a global scale
 
   
Restrictions None