Module Identifier HY39420  
Module Title FOUNDING OF MODN AMERICA;SECTIONAL+SOCIAL CHANGE 1840-1900  
Academic Year 2001/2002  
Co-ordinator Dr Robert Harrison  
Semester Semester 1  
Pre-Requisite AS10120 , AS10220  
Mutually Exclusive HY38630  
Course delivery Lecture   18 Hours  
  Seminars / Tutorials   10 Hours  
Assessment Essay   2 x 2,500 word essays   40%  
  Exam   2 Hours   60%  

Learning outcomes


On completion of this module, students should be able to:
a) Demonstrate familiarity with a substantial body of historical knowledge in the field of nineteenth-century United States history
b) Demonstrate familiarity with a variety of approaches to the study of the relationship between war and social change
c) Gather and sift appropriate items of historical evidence
d) Read, analyse and reflect critically on selected secondary and primary texts
e) Develop the ability to evaluate strengths and weaknesses of particular historical arguments and where necessary challenge them.
f) Develop oral (not assessed) and written skills which will have been improved through seminar discussions and essays
g) Work both independently and collaboratively, and to participate in group discussions (not assessed).

Brief description


"My country in 1900," wrote the historian Henry Adams, "is something wholly different from my own country in 1860. I am wholly a stranger in it." Between the world of Adams's boyhood and his old age lay two transforming experiences: the Civil War, in which most of the young men of his generation were engaged, and the process of economic and social change which converted the predominantly agrarian society of the early nineteenth century into the largely urban-industrial society of 1900. These two historical experiences form the subject of this course. We shall consider how far they were related to one another; how far the sectional conflict was fuelled by the social and economic developments of the Civil War era; and how far, in turn, the outcome of the conflict accelerated the process of industrialisation. A major theme in the course is the diverging experiences of North and South. We consider how far the South had by 1869 become socially and culturally distinct from the rest of the nation. We then consider whether the war, along with the emancipation of the slaves and federal policies designed to reconstruct southern society, created a New South fundamentally different from the Old.