Industrialisation in Britain and France, 1750-1870
Trinity Term, 2020
Lecturer and tutor
Dr. Brian A'Hearn, Pembroke College
e-mail: brian.ahearn@pmb.ox.ac.uk
phone: 276 435
Overview
Industrialisation in Britain and France 1750-1870 is a first-year optional history subject. The course is intended as a sort of bridge paper between the disciplines of history and economics for "Heco" students. It offers an introduction to both the substance and the methods of economic history, in the context of what might be considered the field's founding question: what were the causes and consequences of the Industrial Revolution? Students will work with both literary sources and quantitative data, apply theoretical frameworks (some introduced in the Approaches to History lectures on economics), and develop a feel for comparative history.
Readings
General background and reference readings are
here.
Links to readings for particular lectures and tutorial essays are found below.
Lectures
| Week 1: a quantitative portrait | notes1 | readings | recording1 rec2 |
| notes2 | recording | ||
| Week 2: property rights and agriculture | notes1 | readings | recording |
| notes2 | recording | ||
| Week 3: the British state | notes | readings | recording |
| Week 4: the French state | notes | readings | recording1 rec2 |
| Week 5: technical progress | notes | readings | recording1 rec2 |
| Week 6: demand - the internal market | notes | readings | recording |
| Week 7: revolution and beyond | notes | readings | recording |
Tutorials
The links below suggest some essay titles and associated readings. There is a logic to the
order, but rarely do the lecture and essay topics for a particular week overlap. You may
write on any topic in any week, or propose topics of your own. Essays should not exceed
2,000 words and should include full bibliographic information (and appropriate references to)
your sources. You must share a copy of the file with your tutorial partners and the
instructor before each tutorial meeting. You should be prepared to present the main
argument and evidence of your essay in about ten minutes at the start of the the tutorial.
| Week 2 | Institutions, property rights and agriculture |
| Week 3 | Population and living standards |
| Week 4 | Ancien regime finance and revolution |
| Week 5 | Popular protest and machine breaking |
| Week 6 | Child labour | Week 7 | Railways |
| Week 8: | Your choice - some ideas... |
Tutorial groups
| Thu. 3:00 | Finbar, Talav |
| Thu. 4:00 | Isabel, Charlotte |
| Fri. 4:00 | Leo, Joe, Jack |
| Fri. 5:00 | Mike, Zara, Maggie |