notes for final project

History Boys has three teachers: one emphasizes facts, one emphasized eclectic interest, one emphasizes new theory. Which is history? I always suggest that history is discussion and argument about the past. History cannot be reduced to a set of agreed upon facts (can anything?, can biology?). History cannot be whatever in the past takes your fancy. History cannot be changed completely with each new theory just because one student needs to get into a posh school or one professor needs tenure. But no history paper is going to convince without being buttressed by relevant facts (evidence) with quotes and/or citations that suggest they are true facts. No paper is going to hold the reader’s/professor’s interest if it doesn’t hold the author’s/student’s interest. No list of facts or interesting gobbets from the past is worth our time unless it (they) are in service to a theory or argument about the past. So the reason I found the movie interesting–besides the subject matter of a middling grammar school for upwardly mobile working and lower middle class students deciding that the top students need a special push if they are to compete with the public (elite) school students for places at Oxbridge (Oxon. and Cantab.–notice that the abbreviations are in Latin; the subtle markers of “class” are everywhere)–is that it suggests how history is all three approaches (and, I fear, your final paper for this course should draw from all three approaches).

So you are writing a paper about British society in Moll Flanders, Persuasion, Hard Times, or Down and Out in Paris and London (Michelle, Jim, and Krystal have slightly different projects). For theory, you may restrict yourself to David Cannadine if you wish (or, rather, Cannadine’s three approaches–which historian thinks which approach fits Defoe’s early 18th century, Austen’s late 18th–early 19th century, Dickens’s mid-19th century, Orwell’s early 20th century?). You may also use Cannadine as well as a collection of relevant quotes from your period which you should compare and contrast with your chief text for aspects of class, hierarchy, social relations.

But you are seeking to contextualize discussion of social relations, hierarchy, class, status, etc. in one of these books. Context is provided by other contemporary sources (literary, statistical, material) as well as by historians’ views based on same. We have two sets of easily searchable online primary sources for the 18th-20th centuries: the Old Bailey online (for Moll), and the Times of London (for Persuasion, Hard Times, and Down and Out). I describe below how you might use them. You don’t need to use all of the suggestions below for your particular text. But if you plan to use none of them you’d better have a pretty compelling reason.

I took an extra couple of days in getting this out, so let’s say August 3rd is the deadline.

1. Context for specific texts
a. Defoe, Moll (1722)
i. "Cloth, Clothing, and Cloth-theft in Defoe's England" (a student paper) http://www.eiu.edu/%7Ehistoria/1999/moll99.htm
ii. Complete etext (for ease of cut-and-paste quotes; I still need a page number from your edition) http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/370
iii. The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, London 1674 to 1834 (criminal court which Moll found herself before; try searching women, or “Moll,” or clothing for the early 18th century and you will find real-life Molls) http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/
iv. Fiennes, Celia. The North Journey and the Tour of Kent (1697) (EIU, Booth Library, eReserves, for contrast with a woman of means)
v. Houghton Hall, Norfolk; Darby House, Ironbridge; Geffrye Museum; East End/West End; Cambridge (she went to Oxford)
vi. Hogarth
vii. Articles from History Today (a popular, illustrated, reputable journal available online from Booth Library, EBSCO Host)
(1) “Hogarth's London,” review of an exhibition by Christine Riding, History Today, Feb2007, Vol. 57 Issue 2, p12-20, 8p, 8c, 2bw
(2) “Hogarth's Four Times of Day,” analysis of the four pictures, History Today, Feb2007, Vol. 57 Issue 2, p18-18, 1p, 1c
(3) “From Rank to Class: Innovation in Georgian England,” by Penelope J. Corfield, History Today, Feb87, Vol. 37 Issue 2, p36, 7p, 14bw
b. Austen, Persuasion (1816, 1818)
i. Complete etext (for ease of cut-and-paste quotes; I still need a page number from your edition) http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/105
ii. Times (London) Digital Archive (Info trac online from Booth Library; Requires Library ID when used off-campus) full-text articles, editorials and advertising. (1785-1985) {Recommended: but note that if you do a search, the answer appears down the page; for example, searching Bath between 1816 and 1826 retrieves 74 articles (a few are adverts for bath lotion), but you have to scroll down and then click on the 74 for them to appear; then click on article (or page) for the pdf to appear.}
iii. Bath Abbey; Museum of Costume, Assembly Rooms, and Pump Room, Bath; Darby House, Ironbridge; Geffrye Museum
iv. The Republic of Pemberley http://www.pemberley.com/ (perhaps too much on Jane Austen, but includes lots on Persuasion
(1) including an Advertisement for Gowlands' Lotion (recommended by Sir Walter Elliot)! http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/gowlands.gif
v. Articles from History Today (a popular, illustrated, reputable journal available online from Booth Library, EBSCO Host)
(1) “The Naval Career of Jane Austen's Brother,” by David Hopskinson, History Today, Sep76, Vol. 26 Issue 9, p576
(2) “Britain 1800,” by Jeremy Black, History Today; Nov2000, Vol. 50 Issue 11, p29, 7p, 11c
(3) “Georgian Bath,” by Penelope Corfield, History Today, Nov90, Vol. 40 Issue 11, p26, 8p, 5c, 7bw
(4) “From Rank to Class: Innovation in Georgian England,” by Penelope J. Corfield, History Today, Feb87, Vol. 37 Issue 2, p36, 7p, 14bw
vi. “A Class Act: Persuasion and the Lingering Death of the Aristocracy,” by Paul A. Cantor, Philosophy and Literature 23.1 (1999) 127-137 (available online Project Muse from Booth Library)
c. Dickens, Hard Times (1854)
i. Complete etext (for ease of cut-and-paste quotes; I still need a page number from your edition) http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/786
ii. Tocqueville, Alexis de. Journey to England (1853) (EIU, Booth Library, eReserves, use like Cannadine for theories of class to compare with Dickens)
iii. Times (London) Digital Archive (Info trac online from Booth Library; Requires Library ID when used off-campus) full-text articles, editorials and advertising. (1785-1985) {Recommended: but note that if you do a search, the answer appears down the page; for example, searching Dickens between 1854 and 1864 retrieves 26 articles, but you have to scroll down and then click on the 26 for them to appear; then click on article (or page) for the pdf to appear.}
iv. Coalbrookdale, Ironbridge; East End/West End London; National Portrait Gallery; Geffrye Museum; Victoria & Albert, British Galleries; Houses of Parliament (Gradgrind as an MP; social status of an MP in 18th c., in 19th c.)
v. Great Exhibition, 1851 http://spencer.lib.ku.edu/exhibits/greatexhibition/
vi. Articles from History Today (a popular, illustrated, reputable journal available online from Booth Library, EBSCO Host)
(1) III: The changing face of 19th-century Britain,” by Gareth Stedman Jones, History Today; May91, Vol. 41 Issue 5, p36-40, 5p, 1c, 5bw
(2) The Industrial Revolution: Ironbridge: The Cradle of Industrialisation,” by Barrie Trinder, History Today; Apr83, Vol. 33 Issue 4, p30, 5p, 9bw
vii. Articles available online from Jstor, Booth Library
(1) “The England of Marx and Mill as Reflected in Fiction,” by William O. Aydelotte, The Journal of Economic History > Vol. 8, Supplement: The Tasks of Economic History (1948), pp. 42-58 http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-0507%281948%298%3C42%3ATEOMAM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-6
d. Orwell, Down and Out (1933)
i. Complete etext (for ease of cut-and-paste quotes; I still need a page number from your edition) [this is from a russian website] http://www.orwell.ru/library/novels/Down_and_Out_in_Paris_and_London/english/e_dopl
ii. East End, Mile End, Limehouse, Geffrye, Spitalfield
iii. Times (London) Digital Archive (Info trac online from Booth Library; Requires Library ID when used off-campus) full-text articles, editorials and advertising. (1785-1985) {Recommended: but note that if you do a search, the answer appears down the page; for example, searching Limehouse between 1923 and 1936 retrieves 35 articles, but you have to scroll down and then click on the 35 for them to appear; then click on article (or page) for the pdf to appear.}
iv. Mass-Observation. Doing the Lambeth Walk (EIU, Booth Library, eReserves, MO was very important in collecting material on everyday life from the 1930s to 1950s http://www.massobs.org.uk/index.htm and this article suggests working poor as opposed to the
v. Articles from History Today (a popular, illustrated, reputable journal available online from Booth Library, EBSCO Host)
(1) “Down but not out,” review essay on works on early 20th century poor, by Pat Thane, History Today; Dec96, Vol. 46 Issue 12, p54, 3/4p
(2) “Sweep Them off the Streets,” article on attitudes towards the poor in London, by John Marriott, History Today, Aug2000, Vol. 50 Issue 8, p26, 3p, 1b
(3) “Retrieved riches: Charles Booth's Life and Labour of the People in London,” on a work published in 1903, by Rosemary O'Day, History Today; Apr89, Vol. 39 Issue 4, p29-35, 7p, 5 illustrations, 1 map, 9bw
vi. Articles available online from Jstor, Booth Library
(1) “Social Class and Social Observation in Edwardian England,” by R. I. McKibbin, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society > 5th Ser., Vol. 28 (1978), pp. 175-199 http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0080-4401%281978%295%3A28%3C175%3ASCASOI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-L

sir walter's bath, roman bath, eastern illinois's bath

We traveled to Bath to view the world of Austen's Persuasion, a world heritage site. We arrived, it was sunny, and so we decided to do a walking tour first, and to save the older, Roman Baths for the second day.

• Bath was, of course, baths (the King's and Queen's Baths, the Helte Pump Room) in every age.
• It was also one of development in Austen's time. The Pulteney Bridge from the mid-18th century is a beautiful version of the Ponte Vecchio with shops on both sides. But it also allowed a high-class development of the area across the river.
• Queen Square by John Wood Sr. and the Royal Crescent by John Wood Jr. were also high-class housing developments, in the early and mid-to-late 18th century respectively. (The latter is also a photo op. for the Eastern gang.)
•