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ENS103G British History and Culture

Explore the complexities of British history and culture through narratives, symbols, and contrasting views of continuity, from William Blake to Margaret Thatcher. Discover the dialectics of British identity within the context of historical events and key figures. This course delves into the multifaceted nature of the British Empire, cultural symbols, and societal transformations over time.

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ENS103G British History and Culture

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  1. ENS103GBritish History and Culture Gregory Phipps

  2. Introducing Methodology • Historiography • Narratives • Dialectics G.W.F. Hegel (1770-1831) Karl Marx (1818-1883)

  3. Britain is . . . • An island • Janus-faced • Conflicted about its identity • Four nations • Full of characters and symbols

  4. Continuity • Last successful invasion: The Norman Conquest in 1066 • Last major social revolution: The Glorious Revolution in 1688 • Contrast Germany: German Empire (1871-1918), Weimar Republic (1919-1933), Third Reich (1933-1945), West and East Germany (1945-1990), Federal Republic of Germany (1990-present)

  5. The Queen

  6. Contrasting Views of Continuity • Pragmatic, commonsensical, and a distrust of ideologies and theories George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four • Traditions, inequalities, and entrenched power structures

  7. Janus-Faced Tendencies

  8. The British Empire, circa 1913

  9. A Landscape in Wales A Village in the Cotswolds

  10. William Blake “The Chimney Sweeper” From Songs of Experience (1794)

  11. “The City” Quantitative Easing 1 British pound = 1.3 U.S. dollars

  12. Identity Crisis “Once upon a time the English knew who they were. They were polite, unexcitable, reserved, prone to melancholy and had hot-water bottles instead of a sex life: how they reproduced was one of the mysteries of the western world. They were doers rather than thinkers, writers rather than painters, gardeners rather than cooks. They were class-bound, hidebound, and incapable of expressing their emotions. They did their duty. Fortitude bordering on the incomprehensible was a byword.” Jeremy Paxman, The English (1998)

  13. Identity Crisis • Twentieth-century history The Casuals (1980s) • Key institutions (BBC, National Health Service, the universities, Royal Mail, British Rail, etc.) • Public perception In one 2010 poll, 70% of respondents feel that British society is broken • Individualism

  14. The Four Nations

  15. The Four Nations • Act of Union: 1707 (Great Britain) • Acts of Union: 1800 (The United Kingdom) • Partition of Ireland: 1922 (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) • Since the 1940s: Increasing ethnic and cultural diversity • Scottish referendum (2014) and Brexit (2016)

  16. Rough map of Anglo-Saxon invasions of Britain: Early 400s to mid 600s

  17. Characters and Symbols • Tudor Period (1485-1603) • Personae and Character Types • Symbols

  18. The Strong Woman Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013) The Falklands War (1982) Privatization Elizabeth I (1533-1603)

  19. John Bull

  20. The “Bulldog Breed” Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  21. The Sportsman Bobby Charlton (1937-)

  22. Spy or Detective

  23. Symbols

  24. Symbols

  25. Literary Works • William Shakespeare, Richard II • Martin Amis, The Information • Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting

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