Robert Travers, Associate Professor of History

Office phone: 5-5040

Email: trt5@cornell.edu

Office hours: McGraw 345, Tuesday 1.30 pm. - 3.30 pm.

 

THE MODERN BRITISH EMPIRE

(History 3260, Fall 2009)

TR 11.40-12.55, STM 206

 

The course undertakes a general survey of British imperial history from the late 18th century until the period after World War II. Major themes include: the causes of imperial expansion and decline, ideologies of empire, the nature of imperial power, and the relationship between imperialism and globalization. We will also reflect on the changing character of imperial history itself. Imperial politics always involved contested ideas about history, both the history of the British themselves and also of colonized peoples. We will study how historical perspectives on empire have changed through time, and also assess the significance of imperial history today. How might current historical arguments about the British empire affect our own understanding of the contemporary world?

 

Requirements: required readings listed on the syllabus must be completed before each class. Students must come to each class prepared for active participation – ready to ask questions, to discuss readings, and to argue with the professor and each other. Class participation will count towards the final grade. To prepare for the mid-term and final exams, you will need to read the set texts carefully, taking notes, and be ready to offer written interpretations of the texts. You will also need to go over your notes from lectures. Attendance at lectures is mandatory. The final grade will be awarded on the basis of section participation (10%), two writing assignments during the term (40%), the mid-term (20%) and final (30%). Grades will be subject to penalties if work is submitted late, or after more than two unexcused absences from section.

 

Readings: Readings marked with a single asterisk (*) will be in the course-pack (available at the Campus Store). Other readings are available for purchase in the Campus Store, or on reserve in the Uris library.

 

Schedule of Lectures and Readings

 

  1. 27th August: Introductions

 

 Part 1. The Growth of Empire to 1815

 

  1. 1st September: Historical Approaches to Empire

Philippa Levine, The British Empire. Sunrise to Sunset (Harlow, 2007), Preface

  1. 3rd September:  Kipling’s Myth of Origins

* R. Kipling, ‘Man Who Would be King’ (1891), Collected Stories, pp. 217-255.

 

  1. 8th September: Making Empire/ Making Britain

Levine, British Empire, ch. 1, pp. 1-12

  1. 10th September: The First ‘World War’ and the British Empire, 1756-63

L. Colley, Captives. Britain, Empire and the World 1600-1850 (Anchor, 2004) Introduction, pp. 1-20, Part 2 ‘America’, pp. 137-238.

Exercise: Students will bring copies of their notes on Captives to class.

 

  1. 15th September: Slaves, Settlers and Rebels: The Atlantic Empire in Crisis

Levine, British Empire, pp. 13-21, 31-42

  1. 17th September: Traders as Conquerors: the British in India

Colley, Captives, Part 3, ‘India’, pp. 241-346, and pp. 374-379

 

  1. 22nd September: The Eighteenth Century Debate about Empire
  2. 24th September: Empire in an Age of Revolutions: a New World Order?  

Assignment 1 (10% of final grade): 4 page essay analyzing an eighteenth century text about empire.

 

Part 2. Managing Empire, c. 1815-1913

 

  1. 29th September: Liberalism and Empire

Levine, British Empire, pp. 21-29, 43-60.

  1. 1st October: Anti-Slavery and Imperial Politics

Mary Prince, The History of Mary Prince, (1831) (Penguin, 2004), pp. 1-70.

*Thomas Carlyle, ‘Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question’, (1849), Fraser’s Magazine, Vol. XL, No. CCXL, pp. 670-679

 

  1. October 6th: The Imperialism of Free Trade

Levine, British Empire, pp. 61-81.

  1. October 8th: The Age of Reform in India

*Lata Mani, ‘Contentious Traditions’, Recasting Women: Essays in Colonial History, edited by K. Sangari and S. Vaid (Delhi, 1999), pp. 88-126.

*Documents on Sati and Indian Education (see course-pack, numbers 4-7).

 

MIDTERM BREAK

October 15th: Midterm exam (20% of final grade)

 

  1. October 20th: Rebellions and the Imperial Backlash

15. October 22nd: The New Imperialism, c. 1870-1913

Levine, British Empire, 82-122

*Benjamin Disraeli’s Crystal Palace speech (1872)

 

16. October 27th: The British Empire and the First Age of Globalization

Levine, British Empire, 123-165

17. October 29th: Imperial Masculinity and Imperial Control

*Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen, selections from Kenya Diary, 1902-6 (Edinburgh, 1957), pp. v-viii, 1-12, 30-53, 59-75, 138-157, 177-9.

*Rudyard Kipling, ‘Ballad of East and West’ (1889), Rudyard Kipling. The Complete Verse (London, 1990), pp. 190-3.

 

18. November 3rd: An Imperial People? The New Imperialism and British Society

Assignment 2: final paper proposal due in class (1 page)

 

Part 3. War, Nationalism and the End of Empire

 

19. November 5th:  Imperialism, Anti-imperialism, and the First World War

Levine, British Empire, pp. 166-90

*Sayer, ‘British Reactions to the Amritsar Massacre’, Past and Present, 131, pp. 130-164

 

  1. November 10th: Reconfiguring Empire, 1918-1939
  2. November 12th: Debating Empire through Mother India I

Katherine Mayo, Mother India, (edited with introduction by Mrinalini Sinha), (Michigan, 2000), editor’s introduction, pp. 1-63, and Part I, pp. 63-118.

 

  1. November 17th: Debating Empire through Mother India II

Mayo, Mother India, pp. 119-176, and 275-298.

  1. November 19th: The Phases of Decolonization

Levine: British Empire, 191-209

*Harold Macmillan, Winds of Change Speech (1960)

 

  1. November 24th: Legacies: Asia and the Middle East

THANKSGIVING BREAK

 

  1. December 1st: Legacies: Africa

Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (1959) (Anchor, 1994), pp. 1-207.

  1. December 3rd: Legacies: from Greater Britain to Little Britain

 

Final Paper (10-12 pages, 30% of final grade) due on Friday December 4th, by 5.00pm

 

FINAL EXAM (30% final grade)

 

Statement on University Policies and Regulations:

This instructor respects and upholds University Policies and regulations pertaining to the observation of religious holidays; assistance available to the physically handicapped, visually and/or hearing impaired student; plagiarism; sexual harassment; and racial or ethnic discrimination. All students are advised to bring any questions or concerns to the attention of the instructor.

 

NB All the work you submit in this course must have been written for this course and not another and must originate with you in form and content with all contributory sources fully and specifically acknowledged