History of the British Isles, the USA and the Commonwealth 15-HBIUC-ES-12

https://www.elearning.amu.edu.pl/wa/course/view.php?id=1262

(First semester of a two semester course. Continued as 15-HBIUC-ES-22 in the second semester.)

The Prehistory of the British Isles and Antiquity
The Cultural heritage of the Celts and Anglo-Romans
The Christianization of the British Isles
Celts, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings
The Normans and Plantagenets
The Hundred Years War and the Wars of the Roses
The Early Tudors and the Reformation in England and Scotland
The Elizabethan Era
The Early Stuarts
The English Civil War, Commonwealth and Cromwell
The Restoration, the Glorious Revolution and the United Kingdom
The Hanoverians
The Anglo-French colonial wars of the 18th century
Victorian England: politics and society
The British Empire
Great Britain in World War I and during the interwar years
Great Britain in World War II
Political history of the British Isles in the second half of the 20th century
Social and cultural history of the British Isles in the second half of the 20th century
British expansion in the Caribbean and North America
British India; Indian and Pakistan
Australia and New Zealand
Canada
Colonization in Africa
Decolonization
The Commonwealth of Nations, the heritage and remnants of the British Empire
Pre-Columbian cultures of North America
The colonization of North America
Causes and events of the American Revolution
The American Constitution and the early years of the nation
The Frontier, Expansion, Jeffersonian and Jacksonian Democracy
Compromises and causes of the Civil War
The Civil War and Reconstruction
Industrialization, immigration and the „Wild West”
The Gilded Age, Progressivism and Teddy Roosevelt
Wilson and the USA in World War I
The Roaring 20s and the Great Depression
The United States in World War II
The United States during the Cold War
Later 20th century social and cultural history
The United States after the „End of History”

Module learning aims

Conveying knowledge about the most significant events, processes and figures in the history of the Anglophone countries. Developing students’ abilities to associate and understand the connections between events and processes in history. Providing students with the ability to recognize the historical events and context conditioning the past and contemporary literature of Anglophone countries. Providing students with an essential vocabulary base for historical names and terminology in English. Developing students’ abilities to take advantage of source literature.

Information on where to find course materials

Summaries of lecture topics, links and additional resources are available via the department’s Moodle platform.

Major

English studies: Literature and culture

Methods of teaching for learning outcomes achievement

The course consists of lectures with multimedia presentations via Powerpoint. Discussions follow from questions posed to the students or from the examination of passages from primary sources. Discussions are carried out on the basis of primary source documents made available via the Moodle platform.

Course module conducted remotely (e-learning)

None.

Student workload (ECTS credits)

Cycle of studies

1st cycle

Module type

compulsory

Year of studies (where relevant)

Year 1

Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences

Course participants must be fluent English speakers, and ought to have basic general world history knowledge.

Course coordinators

Jeremy Pomeroy

Learning outcomes

The student will be able to:

Recognize and be able to characterize specific epochs in the history of Anglophone countries.

Identify and relate key events and process from the history of Anglophone countries.

Describe and appraise the actions of historically significant individuals in the civilizational development of Anglophone countries.

Recognize historical contexts and allusions in contemporary literature, culture, cinema and public/quotidian life.

Make use of historical literature and resources in English.

Correctly use relevant historical terms and vocabulary.

Assessment criteria

Each semester ends with an exam for a mark. The passage of three short quizzes on basic geographical knowledge are an additional exit requirement.

excellent (bdb; 5.0): The student demonstrates exceptional knowledge of the most significant trends, figures, events and dates in the history of the Anglophone countries, demonstrated by their having correctly identified or briefly defined these on the semester exams.

very good (+db; 4.5): The student demonstrates broad knowledge of the most significant trends, figures, events and dates in the history of the Anglophone countries, demonstrated by their having correctly identified or briefly defined these on the semester exams.

good (db; 4.0): The student demonstrates good knowledge of the most significant trends, figures, events and dates in the history of the Anglophone countries, demonstrated by their having correctly identified or briefly defined these on the semester exams.

satisfactory (+dst; 3.5): The student demonstrates reasonable knowledge of the most significant trends, figures, events and dates in the history of the Anglophone countries, demonstrated by their having correctly identified or briefly defined these on the semester exams.

sufficient (dst; 3.0): The student demonstrates basic knowledge of the most significant trends, figures, events and dates in the history of the Anglophone countries, demonstrated by their having correctly identified or briefly defined these on the semester exams.

failing (ndst; 2.0): The student’s result has not demonstrated mastery of basic historical and cultural information regarding the history of the Anglophone countries.

Bibliography

Bothwell, Robert. 2006. The Penguin History of Canada. Penguin Group.
Brun, Erik and Jay Crosby (ed.) 2012 The American Experience: The History and Culture of the United States through Speeches, Letters, Essays, Articles, Poems, Songs, and Stories. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers.
Cunliffe, Barry (ed.) 2004. The Penguin Illustrated History of Britain and Ireland. From the Earliest Times to the Present. London: Penguin Books.
Davies, Norman. 2000. The Isles. A History. Basingstoke and Oxford: Papermac.
Jackson, Ashley. 2013. The British Empire. A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.
Jenkins, Philip. 2007. History of the United States. London: Macmillan.
Johnson, Robert. 2003. British Imperialism. Palgrave Macmilan.
Kearney, Hugh. 2006. The British Isles. A History of Four Nations. Second Edition. Cambridge: CUP.
Leinve, Philippa. 2007. The British Empire. Sunrise to Sunset. Pearson Longman.
McDowall, D. 2001. An Illustrated History of Britain. Longman.
Morgan, Kenneth (ed.). The Oxford History of Britain. Revised Edition. Oxford: OUP.
O’Callaghan, B. 2001. An Illustrated History of the USA. Longman.
Remini, Robert V. 2008. A Short History of the United States. HarperCollins.

Additional information

Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system:

Description of 15-HBIUC-ES-12 in USOSweb