Heap of Shot or Pot of Treacle? Social History in Britain, 1870-1914

This course will examine the way in which British society was transformed between 1870 and 1914.

This was partly due to the impact of significant concrete events, such as the depression in the 1880s, increased industrialization and urbanization, and the effects of the Boer War. But it was also because contemporaries changed the way in which they conceived of the nature of society and the state, as new ideas about class, religion, poverty and imperialism all had a major impact.

Students’ knowledge of a crucial period of transition in modern British history will be enhanced and focus will be placed on the huge period of industrialization, the most aggressive period of imperialism, and when mass politics and social investigation became a reality for the first time.