19 - 032
British History
& Culture
Brother Anthony (An Sonjae)
Spring Semester 2005
Tuesday, Thursday 9:30
The syallabus is online at
http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/CultBA2005.htm
This course is designed to give students a deeper understanding
of the historical origins and the development of the nations and cultures that
today form the United Kingdom. The first half of the course will focus on
British history and the second half will examine the cultural heritage which
has accumulated over the centuries, as it now exists.
Course
method
: Lectures, with group discussions and class
presentations. All lectures and presentations will be in English.
The
main text book (available from the University Bookstore) will be :
An
Illustrated History of Britain by David McDowall (Longman, 1989).
(Britain
In Close-Up by David McDowall (Longman, 2000) will be very useful for the
second half of the semester, if it is available)
Lots
of other resources will be found on the shelves of Loyola Library (go
and look in history, British literature, art and music). Otherwise, the Web is
there for you. A few useful resources are listed in Brother Anthony's Links to Resources
(especially the British
Culture links) but there are many others. Click here for a map of Britain, statistics (from the US State Department) also the Britannia
Magazine (which has a very useful History
Page among many other things)
Grading: The two
Reports and the two Exams (midterm and final) will have equal
value.
If you
have questions you may write
emails to Brother Anthony or visit him in his office (X109)
Class topics and linked materials
Page numbers for
the first 7 weeks refer to "An Illustrated History of Britain"
Week
1 (no class Tuesday) Introduction; Basic Geography
Week 2
(Pages 1 - 33) Early history, Celtic, Roman Britain Stonehenge
(+ in English Heritage),
(BBC) Roman Britain,
The Romans in
Britain, Roman
roads, Hadrian’s
Wall, Roman
Bath. Roman
London.
Week
3 (Pages 34 - 65) Medieval England: Anglo-Saxons, Vikings,
Norman Conquest... Bayeux
Tapestry Part : 18, Magna Carta, Turning the
pages, Canterbury
Cathedral 1, Westminster
Abbey,
Week
4 (no class Thursday) (Pages 67 - 85) Renaissance and
Reformation, Tudor England
Week
5 (Pages 87 - 129) 17th - 18th Century: Revolutions, Romanticism
Week
6 (no class Tuesday) (Pages 131 - 150) 19th-century
Britain : Industry, Empire, Progress
Week
7 (Pages 151 - 184) 20th-century British History
Week
8 Mid-term Exams
Week
9 Major Issues in Britain today, using BBC, Guardian etc
Week 10
(no class Thursday) The Crown, the State, politics
Week 11 Cultures,
religions and regions
Week
12 British lifestyles: work, home, family, leisure
Week
13 The Media : TV, Newspapers
Week 14 Art,
literature and music in Britain today Education
Week
15 Final Exams
Assignments : Each student will prepare two
illustrated reports:
The first report
will be
1. A short
historical description of the development of the English Parliament, from the earliest
times to the present, with a number of pictures. Give an outline of the
different governing parties and prime-ministers Britain has had since 1960
(The first
report will be due at the first class after Mid-term Exams)
The second report
will cover one important aspect of contemporary Britain, to be chosen freely.
Suggested possible topics would include:
* Today's main
social issues and / or party politics
* Britain's relationship with the rest of Europe
* Britain and the U.S. in Iraq
For this second report each student will need to keep track of news
developments about their chosen topic throughout the semester. This will
require students to read the news from Britain almost every day, using the BBC News, (especially the UK news) and the Guardian.
(The second report will be submitted on the Monday after the Final Exam)
