Course Resources Archive

This module aims to explore different manifestations of rural disorder in Nineteenth and early Twentieth Britain. In this period overt forms of rural protest exhibit significant shifts in geographical foci. In the early nineteenth century disorder was focussed on southern England but the main focus rapidly became the ‘peripheral’ areas: Wales, Ireland and Scotland. This module therefore builds on work begun in HM5404 but it is not necessary to have taken that module in order to complete this one successfully. 

The module takes a case study approach to expressions of rural disorder in nineteenth and twentieth century Britain. The various events will then be used to explore in some depth the contrasting interpretations of protest forms, both covert and overt. For the case studies topics will vary from year to year and may include: the Captain Swing disturbances; Luddism; the Rebecca riots; the Irish Land Wars; the Highland Land Wars; anti-enclosure protests in north-Wales; the Nineteenth Century poaching 'wars'; the growth of agricultural trade unions. The relative importance of acts of covert protest such as arson, threatening letters, and sheep and wood stealing will also be considered. Discussion will ultimately turn to the consideration of the ways in which historians have variously understood events of protest. Here, the relative merits of interpretations such as moral economy, class conflict, cultural hegemony, popular politics and hidden transcripts will be explored and discussed in depth and in the context of the case studies under consideration.

A student passing this module should be able to:

1. Critically engage with recent debates in the interpretation of rural social protest
2. Demonstrate a critically informed understanding of the reaction to the full development of the capitalist mode of production in the countryside.
3. Demonstrate a good knowledge of key themes in modern British rural history.
4. Demonstrate the ability to make links between spatially and temporally diverse historical events and critically assess the arguments of historians.
5. Deliver clear exposition and argument in written and oral form

The Library Catalogue contains full details of the current reading list for this module. Further details may also be found in the Module Guide.