history @ harlaxton

Scotland and a Greater England?

2009-06-19T11:58:00.003-05:00

South of the Bridge

2009-02-28T15:00:00.007-06:00

Another week at Harlaxton (no pix, hey we are busy) and another weekend (last weekend) in London.

A coffee in a little shop next to the Exchange (here, looking across to the Bank), and then off to Guildhall.

Huge plug for their online Collage image database, but at least one 19th-century plan of Bedford House ca. 1690 and its gardens bordering on Covent Garden was not yet in the database, so they kindly allowed me to take some photographs (unsure of copyright on putting that online, so will not for the time being).

Another day at the British Library and then across London Bridge by night. (This image reflects an attempt to be arty.)

Monument from across the river (flame lit at the top). [The Monument can be seen on the Shaftesbury Medal of 1681 and the broadside Erra Pater’s Prophecy or Frost Faire 1684/3 for the historians in the audience.]

Finally, some modern meets post-modern interior for my interior designer daughter (actually there was nothing post-modern about the very real glass that I crashed into trying to take this picture a little too close at first).

And Dagni looking remarkably good-natured considering that her full bout of flu would settle in about 30 minutes later in the midst of London Bridge Market. And so, back to Harlaxton on the evening train.

North of Bank, West of Liverpool Street

2009-02-18T11:01:00.006-06:00

Walking north from Gracechurch Street (little plug for ClubQuarters Hotel).

Went through the center of London, and happened upon some pretty interesting buildings.

This is something called the Arena with skating.

Bloomsberg Space.

Whitecross Place?

Newton and Newton

2009-02-18T10:50:00.001-06:00

Grantham is the home of Newton. Permanently and temporarily.

panthers & lions & snow

2009-02-08T04:42:00.009-06:00

The continuing saga of the Eastern Illinois pennant. When I first arrived here in the Summer of 2006, all the partner colleges were represented by a pennant hanging at reception except EIU. So I asked my daughter who was arriving a week or so later to purchase and bring one. I didn't know, however, that there were different size pennants, and the one she brought was a bit, well, small. (My department sent over one in 2007, but it was, alas, a square wall hanging, not a pennant.) Fast forward to 2009 where, this week, graduate student Erin Crawley brought one (purchased by EIU MA Mike Swinford, hi Mike!) over braving snow and all. I picked it up in London.

And on Thursday, in the middle of a snowstorm, I met with EIU English prof, Dagni Bredesen, and EIU students @ Harlaxton Ashley Nolan, Dagmara Sokol, and Erin Wise, in order to display the Panther's pennant.

For the benefit of the History Department, here is Newton Key and history student Erin Wise in front of a rather chilled Harlaxton lion.

Except that Britain has snow like this only once every twenty years and thus has no snow removal equipment to speak of, it was all rather beautiful.

eastern illinois @ london town

2009-02-08T04:02:00.009-06:00

On Tuesday, Eastern Illinois University student, Erin Crawley, flew into a snow-bound Heathrow airport to fine-tune her research for her MA thesis in History. On Wednesday, I travelled down from Harlaxton College, where I am teaching this semester, in order to introduce Ms. Crawley to the Institute of Historical Research, the Center for Metropolitan History, and the British Library. As Ms. Crawley's research project is on the London Irish ca. 1800, we also made a quick circuit of Irish environs in the late Hanoverian metropolis: from Seven Dials near Covent Garden, to Fleet Street/Holborn/Clerkenwell (latter just in passing), to Wapping in the East End. Walking from Covent Garden to Fleet Street took us through Lincoln's Inn Field.

Here is the Great Hall of Lincoln's Inn itself, looking quite old, but mid-19th century. (We did walk through the 16th century Gate House, however).

And, for Postman Pat afficianados, Erin pointed to the Royal Mail van in Lincoln's Inn.

In a niche off of Fleet Street ISt. Dunstan's), is this Elizabeth (is there another statue of the Queen?), which was removed from Ludgate, when that was demolished in 1760. Forgotten in a basement for almost a century it stands regally, if a bit out-of-the-way, today.
.

Wapping is, of course, the beginning of the East End docklands. Much of it is relatively tranquil as is this Bluecoat School, founded in 1690, but refounded in 1760, from which date, I assume these statues on its entrance date.

On our way back West, a quick stop to view the Tower of London from afar (and snap a pic of myself).

Finally, back to the British Library, where Erin offered a shoutout to the EIU History Department and Graduate School, before re-entering the books and manuscripts ca. 1800.

harlaxton rediviva

2009-02-01T09:34:00.005-06:00

It is now a year and a half later, and..., it is back to Harlaxton! Well it is a slightly different temperature in January/February 2009 than June 2007. I am teaching the regular Spring semester here until April 2009 (although no hint of Spring at present). Dagni and I and three intrepid students are representing Eastern Illinois University. Dagni is teaching English lit courses, while I am teaching British and Irish history courses for students from EIU, Western Kentucky U, Baker, William Jewel, Texas Women's U, Marion, Evansville, and beyond.

We have already spent a long weekend researching in London (staying off Gracechurch street in the City, but visiting the East and West End when not in the BL).

tower hamlets as good as highgate?

2007-09-02T12:14:00.001-05:00

Just south of Mile End station is Tower Hamlets cemetery. Not quite Highgate cemetery for the famous and the odd (nor as old--graves date from 1841 to 1966), Tower Hamlets intrigues with its shabbiness. Although it is now maintained as a nature preserve, that preservation has not extended to repairing funerary statues or even removing vines from the gravestones. To see recent (well, 1930s) graves derelict is as arresting as the Victorian bits from Highgate (which Matt's group reconnoitered if I am not mistaken).

home to mile end

2007-09-02T04:34:00.000-05:00

back at queen mary, same building as before. just thought the class on class would find it amusing that a foreign type (I am, of course, a foreign type here) was standing inside my block at the front door when I came back from a long run this morning, asking "how does one get out of the building?" I pointed to the switch that you pressed to release the door. After our week here, I know all the ropes. (By the way, went north on the canal this time, past Victorian Park, to Shoreditch. If you are ever back here, you need to go on the canal path from Limehouse around to Camden Lock. I like it.)

Also, I will be putting up descriptions and pix from our last two weeks onto this website over the coming weeks. Apologies for the delay: sabbatical research is as time consuming as teaching/service.

notes for final project

2007-07-21T14:13:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-01T15:48:00.000-05:00

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.)

whoops: insert norfolkiana

2007-06-30T15:02:00.000-05:00

That was the week that was. After visiting Cambridge on Tuesday, and Lincoln on Wednesday, we visited Norfolk on Thursday, before jetting off to Dublin on Friday (remind me to look at a calendar before accepting an additional afternoon jaunt; or a whole weekend in Dublin!). So between the entry on Lincoln and that on Dublin add the following.

Norfolk is east of Lincolnshire through the (very flat) Fens. Near Kings Lynn and the Wash is Castle Rising. Castle Rising is

a small town (why does Jeff's picture look pasted in?) and a borough with a charter--which means it returned MPs (2 Members of Parliament) between the late medieval period and 1832 (and then, like other pocket boroughs, lost representation by the Great Reform Act)
the home of a Norman keep (note the nice Romanesque [Norman] rounded arch and hatchings).

From there we traveled a small distance to Houghton Hall. Houghton is

Built in a Palladian style, designed by William Kent, for Sir Robert Walpole
Basically the hunting lodge for Sir Robert who spent most of his time at No. 10 Downing Street in Westminster (he becoming known as the first Prime Minister, who held power from about 1720 until about 1740)
photo opportunity for Eastern Illinois University British Rulers and British Ruled group (you'd think I could take the picture in focus)
great place for croquet.

london week

2007-06-29T01:10:00.000-05:00

London Week (times not mentioned are free time for exploring London–you have a 7 day pass for all 6 zones; use it)
1. F 29 June
a. 9 am, coach to London (note checkout of room procedure for Harlaxton)
b. Noonish, Setup/orientation/shopping for rooms in Queen Mary College, Mile End (main campus)
c. 3-4 pm (Orwell and Exam discussion, common room in the student village)
d. 4:15 leave for Covent Garden for “Beat the Clock” special meal at Belgo Central (50 Earlham St., 0207 813-2233)
e. The Scoop at More London, Next to City Hall, Riverside, The Queen's Walk, London, SE1 2AA Free movie screening Fri: Bollywood comedy-drama 'Monsoon Wedding' (15) (Mira Nair, 2001). The Scoop is the sunken amphitheatre on the south side of the Thames Path next to City Hall near Tower Bridge. There's no need to book but you should be seated by 9.15pm.
2. S 30 June
a. morning, trips to markets (Brick Lane, Petticoat Lane)
b. one group may be touring to Stonehenge (by train to Salisbury, or by bus [cheapest option], then local bus to Stonehenge
c. Noonish, National Portrait Gallery (S or Su)
d. study for final exam
e. graduate research
3. Su 1 July
a. Trips to market (Portobello Road)
b. Weekly blog question-response due Sun
4. M 2 July
a. 9-10am (Orwell, "Lambeth Walk") room 125, the Arts Building
b. Class: 11 am-12:30, Dr. Peter Catterall, Queen Mary College, University of London (his office in the history dept., upstairs in the Arts Building)
c. "Assignments": groups to explore/find specific markers and areas in London report back to the group (join one of the groups below, or construct your own–run it by me for approval first–and feel free to do more than one)
i. Leah, the Geffrye Museum of interiors (Kingsland Road, London, E2 8EA; Tel: 020 7739 9893)
ii. Jeffrey, the Jeffrye Museum (sorry, no, that is a joke), Jeremy Bentham’s Corpse (Jeremy Bentham's Auto-Icon can be seen 07:30-18:00 Monday to Friday in UCL's South Cloisters)
iii. Matt, Karl Marx’s Grave in Highgate Cemetery (East Cemetery, Entry £2.00, Camera Permit £1.00)
iv. Kelly, Abbey Road Studios (3 Abbey Road | St Johns Wood | London NW8 9AY)
d. graduate research (including Institute of Historical Research)
e. study for final exam
5. T 3 July
a. Class: 9-10 am (final class, Johnny Rotten, Orwell), room 125, the Arts Building
b. 11 am, visit and tour of Houses of Parliament with MP
c. 2* pm-4, tour of West End and the Courts (from Leicester “House,” to the old Royal Stables, to Pall Mall, to St. James Palace, to Buckingham Palace to St. James Gardens, to Whitehall/Downing Street). *about an hour to start after HP visit and time for lunch
d. OR, 2-4*, Tour of City of London (especially Museum of London)
6. W 4 July
a. Class: 9 am-12 noon (EXAM), room 125, the Arts Building
b. 1-3, Tour of South Kensington/Exhibition Road area (especially British Galleries of V & A British Galleries, with guest lecturer, Dr. Angela McShane, V & A Museum/Royal College of Art)
7. Th 5 July
a. 10, Tour of River Thames, Greenwich, and East End (boat trip down Thames from Embankment to Greenwich, Greenwich Observatory, then back via light railway, and London Transport through East End, walk through Smithfield, etc.)
8. F 6 July
a. AA 0067, Departs: Heathrow, 12:15pm (check-in 10:15, leave from Mile End, 8:57am; journey takes 1:26 using tube; alternate journey at 1 hour goes to Paddington to use Heathrow Express from there–the latter is not paid for with your travel card, however)
b. Return to "sweet, home Chicago"
9. Additional note
a. I will have my cell-phone so call in an emergency or if you are lost. We are staying at: Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS
i. mobile: (07892) 792 705

blog query week four

2007-06-29T01:05:00.000-05:00

Ins and Outs of the down-and-outs in London. Of the vagabonds, tramps, street performers, etc. that George Orwell meets in London, who is the most well off and who is the worst? And what specifically is stated about these two characters that allows you to know this? Are any of these characters members of the working class? (Specific examples please.) Last blog entry

blog query week three

2007-06-23T13:02:00.000-05:00

Gradgrind at Bath? Mary Musgrove in Coketown? Take one character from Persuasion and place him or her in Hard Times. Or one from Hard Times and place in Persuasion. How would that person react to the other situation? How would the other characters react to yours? Discuss how your person fits into the other society portrayed generally, but give specifics of setting and at least one quote from your character and suggest how it might affect the other novel. Is it a different time? A different place? A different class?

protestant ascendancy, georgian architecture...., nah, it was a weekend off

2007-06-18T15:23:00.000-05:00

Ireland transmetropolitan style (Trinity College playing fields above). Dublin is:

James Joyce
Arthur Guinness
Phil Lynott
Jonathan Swift
and
Mario Queen of the Circus's tribute to Queen! (with his brave sidekick Andrew)

oratore, bellatore, laboratore anyone?

2007-06-18T15:02:00.000-05:00

Lincoln is a Norman Castle, which, after various uses housed a prison which for a few, unfortunate years was run according to the silent system. As such, the sectioned off chapel, entering which all inmates wore masks until in there separate box, is the only one still standing. Lincoln is also, of course, a Norman Cathedral. As a display of the new power bases, its situation on a hill in a flat fenland type area was/is superb.

Oh, and the wheels on the bus go round and round.

blog query week two

2007-06-18T11:08:00.000-05:00

(posted Monday, due Thursday, by 8 am)

We have discussed Moll (1722) and begun to discuss Anne and the others of Persuasion (1816). In the world of Jane Austen, circa 1800, why do people visit Bath (health, love, society [what does that mean?], finances)? Find two reasons for going to Bath which represent two characters' distinct rationale for visiting or living at Bath. Give a quote each which shows this rationale and discuss. How are these reasons different from or similar to Moll's rationale?

(Rather than retype quotes you may find it easier once you know which quotes you want to go this e-text of Persuasion (html by chapters) or that e-text of Persuasion (all one text file.)

the insider's guide to cantab

2007-06-14T14:37:00.000-05:00

Cantabrigiensis. Abbrev. Cantab. Latin for Cambridge. Grantabrygge. Its original name. What college? How to judge? Age? Beauty? Size? Place in the Tompkins Table? Emmanuel College places well in Tompkins (read, top), but is only a medium size or medium age being founded in the mid-16th century. We were able to gain entrance to the Christopher Wren designed 17th-century wing over and in front of his chapel as well as the Fellows Garden because our guide is a Fellow there. Beyond class?

london weekend

2007-06-14T14:14:00.000-05:00

This past weekend students were in Grantham, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Paris. I was in London. Sunday early I walked from myGracechurch Street hotel through Leadenhall Market (mostly pubs and boutiques now, but the 19th century fixtures remain) through to Petticoat Lane (active, with many Africans) to Brick Lane (Saturday is more active there, but still lots of stalls and Bangladeshis). Along the way is Hawksmoor's church in Spitalfields (went to the market there too) and almshouses. Towards the end of my East End jaunt saw a Soup Kitchen for the Jewish Poor circa 1902. Then back across Aldgate and into the City, where I saw Lloyd's Register of Shipping building (the original basis of their shipping empire).

contact info

2007-06-11T11:08:00.000-05:00

Just a reminder for your parents (and mine) that my contact information is as follows:

to June 29:Harlaxton Manor,Grantham, Lincs.,NG32 1AG
to July 6 by mobile: (07892) 792 705
or just email

blog query week one

2007-06-10T03:17:00.000-05:00

(Should be due Sunday, but I just posted it and most of you are on weekend journeys; due Monday evening, 11 June) Does a woman experience the social hierarchy of 18th century England differently from a man? Either give a couple of examples (and explanation) of how women had a different experience of class/status relations from men. Or give a couple of examples (and explanation) of how class/status relations are experienced differently when you are at the bottom of the hierarchy (poor, criminal, etc.) than when you are at the top (gentry, gentlewoman, etc.). Use Defoe's Moll Flanders and Celie Fiennes' travel diary.

Walking the Streets of London (2007)

2007-06-10T03:02:00.000-05:00

Trivia: or, the Art of Walking the Streets of London, written by John Gay in 1716, is a celebration of the metropolis. On Friday evening I walked the streets of London to the Norht and East for a few hours. I walked north, which, as I am in the center of the old city of London, meant going by the bank of england and institute of chartered accountants, and more banks, and bankers and would-be bankers, and would-be future wives of would-be bankers talking loudly and drinking in smart modern outdoor bistros in buildings that probably weren't here five years ago. And on past less smart banks, and office blocks, and would-be office blocks, and companies that did something not to clear but did it all over the world because they had clocks on the wall in a back room telling time all over the world. and then into a pub, small but brash, for half a pint. Then north and east and then east. I must look like I know what I am doing as a car driver asks me which way to Brick Lane, and I say I don't know but I point the general direction and a bicyclist confirms that, so I feel all right. But now we ARE in the east and it is getting quite seedier. I enter Brick Lane but I go on past the Bangladeshi restaurants as I am on a mission to get some chips, and i figure the east end is going to have more chippies than the area around the bank of england! I wanted to loop around, but the train tracks are in the way and, of course, I am literally on the wrong side of the tracks. There are lots of parties on second floors, although that would really be the first floor for Brits. I find a road under the train tracks and then there are council house estates, and I cut through some and some have elaborate iron grills on lower floors which means that Thatcher's privatization of council housing must have taken, but these are all South Asians, with those low white caps they must be Pakistani or Bangladeshi. And then there I walk through a small park with lots of young African men. Now I am in Whitechapel (which is where Jack the Ripper did his business) and I finally find a chippie and buy a saveloy (a rather questionable slightly spicy hotdog) and chips open. And I eat this with a wooden fork while I walk. and I see a statue and start to see if I can read what it is but there are folks dossing down for the night around it and others arguing rather drunkenly so I continue. and then i try to double back or at least get to the river, but forget that this part of the river swings way to the south, so that instead of going back west, I am just going south. And then I look into a window and see people working around a table. It is a maddrassa. I can't see the identifiable buildings of the city any more so I stop someone and ask how to get to the city. And he is very helpful but without a lot of English ("you go and take the step," meaning stairs) and the directions he gives me are great. I want to go back and thank him. The London Docklands Light Railway is fairly new and this took me from Shadwell one stop (but the longest between stops I have ever been on in London) all the way to Bank. Then I walk back past all the beautiful people queuing at velvet ropes for trendy nightspots. As Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary: And so to bed.

chatsworth chatter

2007-06-07T14:07:00.000-05:00

We came, we walked, we conquered. Bakewell to Chatsworth is a quick trip. By bus. But we walked. And walked. But we made it over the hill and saw Chatsworth in all its glory. Its glory, by the way, is Palladian. More on that style when we reach Houghton. (Palladio, a sixteenth century Italian designed Venetian villas, not in the city, but in the newly conquered back country. His designs were supposedly based on Roman villas of antiquity. They were all the rage when rediscovered in the late-17th and early-18th century.) You will be able to distinguish the style by the end. Think threes. Three bays of three windows (the back is three windows, then five windows, then three, but the symmetry remains). Think a bit classical. Think proportioned. Palladian states that the owner is the rightful owner of the land and will be there a long time. Of course, when it is built it is new. Dress is an argument. Architecture is an argument.

I suppose even chickens are an argument, and they had some odd ones at Chatsworth.

pre-departure query four (on Defoe)

2007-06-01T10:33:00.000-05:00

ok you don't really have time for pre-departure question four. i just insist that i receive 3 postings from each of you by the time of the first class on 5 june. readings are below, although you should have already read the first chapters of cannadine and the beginning of defoe.

extra credit: quote a sentence from defoe (within the first approx. 80 pp.) that discusses social relations (class?) and a sentence on what you think it shows.

Readings for British Rulers & British Ruled since 1700

2007-06-01T10:31:00.000-05:00

1. David Cannadine, The Rise and Fall of Class in Britain, introduction (by 5 June), ch. 1 on 18th c. (by 6 June), ch. 3 on 19th c. (by 21 June), ch. 4 on 20th c. (by 28 June)
2. Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders, there are no chapters but from her birth in Newgate Prison, to be taken by gypsies to Colchester, Essex, and then the countryside near Colchester, a perhaps too long part of the book, to London where she meets her gentleman-tradesman (by 5 June), to Oxford, to the Mint (part of London where insolvent debtors hide), to Redriff (Rotherhithe) near London, then to Virginia (York River), before returning to Milford Haven, London again (by 11 June), Bristol, Bath (we will return to this on our Bath week), Gloucester, Reading, Hammersmith, London (Bloomsbury, the Bank), Lancashire (Warrington to Liverpool), Chester (Black Rock), Dunstable (within 30 miles of London), London (St. Jone's near Clerkenwell), to end (by 13 June)
3. Celia Fiennes, “The North Journey and the Tour of Kent (1697),” part (e-Reserves, by 6 June).
4. Bruce Feiler, “Prologue: Coming Up,” part; & “Matriculating: Town and Gown,” part (e-Reserves, by 11 June).
5. Jane Austen, Persuasion (by 18 June)
6. Alexis de Tocqueville, “Journey to England (1835)” (e-Reserves, by 25 June).
7. Charles Dickens, Hard Times (by 25 June)
8. Mass-Observation, “Doing the Lambeth Walk” (e-Reserves, by 28 June).
9. George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London, esp. London part (by 28 June)
10. John Lydon, Segments 01-03 from Rotten (e-Reserves, by 4 July).

pre-departure query three (Cannadine, "The Eighteenth Century")

2007-05-29T20:01:00.000-05:00

The third of the four pre-departure questions refers to Cannadine, "The Eighteenth Century: Class Without Class Struggle." Cannadine's title is an inversion of E. P. Thompson's view of the 18th-century (the long eighteenth century dates from the Glorious Revolution, 1688-89 to the Great Reform Act of 1832; in Cannadine's version, it dates to 1776). But in this chapter (as in most of his chapters) he notes that there are 3 models at play of what English and British society looked like (both then and by historians now):

a two-class, polarized model ("us" versus "them," "rich" vs. "poor," "patricians" vs. "plebeians");
a three-layer model (elite-middle-lower; "landowning sort," "middling sort," "labouring sort");
and a hiearchical, layered, continuous chain model (from a Great Chain of Being in which people are ranked between and even within a myriad of stations). (Cannadine introduces them in the opposite order.)

Your job is to come up with an understanding of which model William Hogarth used and which group or rank or class he valued most. (The following picture is The Four Times of Day Plate I, Morning, 1738; the church the one woman appears to be going to is still in Covent Garden; there also appear to be a number of drunks--in the morning?)

I ask you to look at Hogarth

because his paintings and engravings are easily available on the web; and
because Cannadine does not give you too many examples of what happened within the 18th century (and I certainly don't expect that you all have had a class on 18th-Century Britain).

Cannadine is correct to note that England was one of the most urbanized countries in 18th-century Europe: London housed perhaps 10% of the English. But, compared to 19th and 20th century Britain, this was a rural, agricultural country. And landed values remained dominant. "A nobleman, a gentleman, a yeoman; the distinction of these, that is a good interst of the nation, and a great one!": thus said, Oliver Cromwell in a speech in 1654. His 18th-century descendants would understand the values embraced in that. One distinction that Cannadine does not make much of is the contemporary distinction between the landed interest (the gentry, the "acre-ostracracy"--to use the title of a 19th-century book) and the new, monied interest (the latter centered mainly in "the City"--London).

Again, the assignment for this chapter is to read it, decipher what the three models of class are, then examine several paintings or engravings by Hogarth, and tell what model you think he is using in two of them, why you think this is the model, and which group he tends to support. Hogarth prints are available at:

pre-departure query two (alternative)

2007-05-29T11:46:00.000-05:00

For the second of the four pre-departure questions (you should already have read, Cannadine, "Chapter One, Introduction: Beyond Class - Forward to Class?"), I have two options:

Marx discusses class "in itself" and "for itself" (summarized in Rise and Fall of Class in Britain, 1999, pp. 2-4). What does Marx mean? Give two examples [either "in itself" and "for itself" from either history or private life; or either "in itself" or "for itself" from both history and private life, or....] of what he means. That is, can you describe an example from history that shows class "in itself" at work or as a factor, one from history that shows class "for itself," one from your own life or that of your family that shows class "in itself," or from your own life/family that shows class "for itself." Those drawn from British history would be nice, but not necessary.
Alternately, Cannadine gives several reasons why historians have become less interested in class explanations since 1980. Explain three of them in your own words and then state which reason you find most compelling and why.

newton as roger ebert

2007-05-27T12:52:00.000-05:00

Three of our crew–Leah, Cole, and Andrew–need credit for EIU 4170G (History on Film, 3 c.h.). Partially to accommodate them, and partially because it is the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act, I asked everyone to view Amazing Grace (about William Wilberforce and the attempt to end the slave trade from the 1780s onwards). (If you weren’t able to view it, Harlaxton has it on order and it may be on DVD in the UK by the time we arrive.)

I just viewed The History Boys (2006) and, if you are able to do so, please view this film this week. (It was in London as a play last year, but even Keanu Reeves' people couldn't get that intellectual a seat, so what chance was there for me?) It is about some grammar school boys in the early 1980s who have passed their A-levels with flying colors and are pegged to apply to Oxford and Cambridge. It is their 7th term, since abolished in favor of a more “secondary modern” style of education which is not unlike the U.S. high schools. The term-long period of swotting (studying hard, cramming) for the exams was focused almost entirely on the field they want to go into (in this case, history). Not only are there a number of references to Oxbridge (combined term for both prestigious universities) and the college system within the universities (and some beautiful footage of both towards the end shot at these locations), but the grammar school system was also traditionally a way of bringing working class and lower middle class children (often boys) up to a level competitive with students of an upper class background who had gone to the elite “public” (prestigious private) schools. So a bit of class, a bit of discussion of what history is, a bit of preparation for Cambridge, even a bit of English history: what’s not to like? I should warn you: the "boys" in the movie are healthy 18-year old men, so the subject and language of sex does arise (this is not your grandmother’s Masterpiece Theater). But for our class on class, our study of the British in Britain, this is highly recommended (even the extra features are recommended).

I will arrange a showing of one film a week in the evening @ Harlaxton, from the following (all are in the Harlaxton library):

Pride & Prejudice (2005 version, which used Chatsworth House as Pemberley, see locations)
Amazing Grace (2006) [on order]
The Shooting Party (1985) or Chariots of Fire (1981)
Gosford Park (2001) or The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962)
Scandal (1989) or Billy Elliot (2000)

All of these are about some period/issue in British history and all have at least a sub-theme of social class interrelations (brief synopses of these and other films on British history are available at a Modern Britain Film List webpage). I will ask the students above in particular, and all in general, to see at least two of these films, including Amazing Grace or The History Boys (you may view them before arriving at Harlaxton if you wish, of course), and to comment on same in your journals (something related to class relations, of course, and “It’s a good film about class” will not do).

what do john wayne, miles davis, fianna fail, and newton key have in common?

2007-05-26T10:11:00.000-05:00

well, three of us have our birthday today. Fianna Fail just won the most seats in the Irish Parliament yesterday and so will form the new government. Fianna Fail's roots are in the one part of the IRA who refused to accept the Peace Treaty with Britain (which by far the majority of the Irish voted for) and continued to fight, this time agains the other part of the IRA, who were the new government and became the roots of the other Irish party, Fine Gael.

Fianna Fail (pronounced FEEN-uh Fall) and Fine Gael (FIN-uh Gwayle) trace their roots to opposing sides in the 1922-23 civil war that followed Irish independence from Britain. Their Gaelic party names mean "Soldiers of Destiny" and "Clan of the Irish," respectively. (Fianna Fail triumphs in Irish election, By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press Writer)

chronology

1916		Easter Rising. After the leaders are executed, public opinion backs independence.
1918		Sinn Fein wins 73 out of 108 Irish seats in the general election. Nationalist MPs convene Dáil Éireann in Dublin. War of Independence begins.
1921		Northern Ireland Parliament opened by King George V. Anglo-Irish Treaty creates the Irish Free State.
1922		Civil war breaks out.
1926		Fianna Fáil founded in the La Scala Theatre,O’Connell Street Dublin.
1932		First Fianna Fáil government led by Eamon De Valera elected.Oath of Allegiance abolished.
1937		New constitution enacted in the Irish Free State. The British Monarch is replaced as head of state by an elected president. The name of the state is changed to Éire (Ireland).
1938		End of British occupation of three naval bases that had been left in British hands by the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921.
1939		The Emergency - Ireland remains neutral.
1949		Ireland leaves the Commonwealth.

Anyway, happy birthday to me. We have a week. I will post a modified pre-departure question 2 (as it may have been too difficult), and a pre-departure question 3 today.

odd london

2007-05-25T22:03:00.000-05:00

For Monday, 2 July, if not other times:

Highgate Cemetery (includes Marx's Grave [you can't dance on it, it is too high] which is in the East Cemetery--free--along with a lot of much more 19th-century style plinths, etc.; used in horror films; great for markers of Victorian social hierarchy; Tours of the older West Cemetery are every weekday @ 2, I believe, and every hour on the weekends, for a fiver; Archway Tube, then walk or bus north)
Jeremy Bentham Cabinet (part of his will is that his body would be kept, seated, and "If it should so happen that my personal friends and other disciples should be disposed to meet together on some day or days of the year for the purpose of commemorating the founder of the greatest happiness system of morals and legislation my executor will from time to time cause to be conveyed to the room in which they meet the said box or case with the contents therein to be stationed in such part of the room as to the assembled company shall seem meet." And so it has been since 1832. At the end of the South Cloisters of the main building of UCL; University College, London, north of Senate House)
Abbey Road Studios (more famous than odd; 3 Abbey Road; St. John's Wood; zebra crossing out front, used for the Abbey Road album by the Beatles and countless imitators is oddly just as famous. It is a fairly busy road, so be careful if taking someone else's picture--the cars should stop for someone in the zebra crossing but the camera person outside that area is fair game; here, for example, is a Dutch chap's mijn Abbey Roadpagina)

1807, 1907, 2007

2007-05-25T16:58:00.000-05:00

I asked you to view Amazing Grace (and we may be able to view it as a DVD at Harlaxton). Britain voted to abolish the slave trade in 1807, although slavery continued after that date within the empire (and outside, like in the U.S. South, far longer, as we know). As a result there are a number of exhibitions based on the bicentenary in the metropolis and, indeed, London has announced a Abolition of the Slave Trade Bicentennial 2007. We will attempt to see the one at Westminster Hall)

Scratch the Surface (National Gallery, not until 20 July)
Portraits, People And The Abolition Of The Slave Trade (National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, London, WC2H 0HE)
The British Slave Trade: Abolition, Parliament and People (Westminster Hall, Parliament)
Westminster and the transatlantic slave trade - Exhibition; near St James’s Park tube, City of Westminster Archives Centre, 10 St Ann’s Street, London, SW1P 2DE)
Enslavement and the Struggle for Liberation: Commemorating the Bicentenary of the Parliamentary Abolition of the British Transatlantic Slave Trade, 25 March 1807 (British Library, ends 1 July)
Uncomfortable Truths – the shadow of slave trading on contemporary art & design (Victoria & Albert Museum, only to 17 June)

bloomsday weekend

2007-05-25T12:53:00.000-05:00

We will be in Dublin the weekend of Bloomsday.

THE date is as well known to students of English literature as the beginning of the first world war is to military historians: June 16th 1904 is Bloomsday, the 24 hours into which James Joyce compressed the wanderings of a Jewish Dubliner--a decent, lustful, advertising salesman named Leopold Bloom. He is the principal figure in Ulysses, a sprawling, difficult novel that marked the start of the modern movement in English literature. Its adoption of an original style known as stream of consciousness made it one of the seminal works of the 20th century <http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=2745294>.

James Joyce's Ulysses follows a number of characters, Molly and Leopold Bloom, for example, as they cross and re-cross Dublin, on, well, 16 July. This is both good and bad. Good because there will be a number of activities. Bad because there will be even more tourists than usual. My question is whether any of us have read Dubliners (me), Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (me), or Ulysses (me)? Or Finnegan's Wake?; although if you have read that, then you can lead the tour. If not, perhaps we will avoid things Joycean; although I think we will find that impossible.

I'm interested in showing you the following (E = costs; * = highest guidebook rating):

O'Connell Bridge (centerpiece of Dublin)

South Central

Bank of Ireland (home of Irish Parliament until Act of Union, 1801; exhibit on "200 years"): across the street from
Trinity College (oldest college, for years free to Catholics--provided they become Protestant!; 18th & 19th century buildings and quads), includes *
Old Library (9th century Book of Kells; 7th century Book of Durrow; often very long lines, 8 euros) E*
St. Stephen's Green (place for pnishment to 19th c., then a private park, then Guinness made it a public park; Georgian square, memorials to Joyce, Yeats, etc.) *
Leinster House (from 16th c., though largely 18th/19th c. Palladian; now seat of the Dail--Parliament)
Merrion Square (more Georgian--that is the 18th c.--square) *
National Gallery of Ireland (esp. 17th-20th c. Irish painters) *
National Museum of Archeology and History (esp. Road to Independence room focusing on 1916-1921; Kildaire Street)

Temple Bar (although I am sure you will be in this area a lot at night anyway; aren't you staying near here?) *

Meeting House Square (so-called because used to be a Quaker Meeting House; Krystal will tell us more about Irish Quakers)
Wall of Fame (pictures of some group called U2; and the immortal Shane McGowan; and isn't that Phil Lynott; perhaps best to see at night)

Northside

Custom House (beautiful 1781 building completely rebuilt after a bit of both during the War of Independence--the Republicans burnt it to the ground in 1921; a visitors center explains all, 1 euro) E
Dublin City Gallery (The Hugh Lane; less important, perhaps; but a great collection; I'd like to see this)
General Post Office (built 1818; taken over by republicans during Easter Rising 1916; Pearse read statement of independence outside this; of course, successful military engagements don't work by taking over a post office and it was put down; Pearse, Connolly, etc. became martyrs when put to death--this was in the middle of WWI, which was not going well for the UK, and so they took a dim view of treason; still bullet holes in edifice)
Parnell Square and Mountjoy Square (although now we are getting in the Joycean area; still the home of more spit-and-sawdust pubs as opposed to the more trendy Temple Bar area) *

West

Chester Beatty Library (Islamic and Far East Art; I don't know it, but it is Highly recommended); connected, I believe, to: *
Dublin Castle (see Michael Collins the movie; this was the center of British rule from the 13th century, Lord Lieutenant, etc.; an old edifice but more modern interiors; toured this years and years ago, but I remember it as interesting even when I was much younger; 4.50 euros) E
Four Courts (built by 1802 by same architect that did Customs House; almost totally destroyed in 1922, this time not during war of Independence against the British but in the more vicious Irish Civil War that pitted the Irish Free State army run by Michael Collins and former members of the IRA against, well, the IRA; one really should take my Irish History course!; not open unless courts are in session)
Guinness Brewery and Storehouse (see Jeff Lange's email; I am not encouraging drinking [I hope the above suggests there is a lot in Dublin outside drinking], but this is really recommended by friends and guidebooks; 14 euros--discount if booked online) E*
Kilmainham Gaol (Robert Emmett and Charles Steuart Parnell were inmates at one point here; but Pearse, Connolly, and others of the 1916 rising were housed here; and this is a real shrine of the Irish Nationalist viewpoint, 5 euros--2.10 with student id) E
St. Michan's Church (Just for one reason--Roger Beck remembers seeing the mummies in the crypt, touching leathery skin and all; this one has to be included for the creepiness factor!; 3 euros--2 with student id) E

taxi to the terminal zone

2007-05-20T11:29:00.001-05:00

If you are planning a weekend trip, you may want to contact the following to see if there is an inexpensive and timely way to get to airports, train or bus stations. Note: Harlaxton College (cab companies refer to it as Harlaxton Manor) runs a free shuttle to the train station and to the bus depot at Grantham at set times (they will hand us the schedule when we arrive).

Can Cabs (01476) 575-557
Grantham Cab (01476) 594-594
Street Cabs (01476) 590-008
from USA (and drop the 0 outside the region) 011 + 44
thus, for Can Cabs 011 + 44 + 1476 + 575-557

recommended day trips from Harlaxton: York; recommended overnights for weekends: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberystwyth, Oxford, Brighton (we will miss Trooping the Color [celebration of the Queen's Birthday] in London this year as it is 16 June [her birthday is actually in April; May Balls at Cambridge are in June; it is a different country]. (posting title courtesy of Chuck Berry via Ducks Deluxe, a pub rock band)

pre-departure query two (on Cannadine, Introduction)

2007-05-19T16:33:00.000-05:00

For the second of the four pre-departure questions (you should already have read, Cannadine, "Chapter One, Introduction: Beyond Class - Forward to Class?"), I am basically repeating one I made last year about Marx's concepts of class "in itself" and "for itself" (summarized in Rise and Fall of Class in Britain, 1999, pp. 2-4). What does Marx mean? Give two examples [either "in itself" and "for itself" from either history or private life; or either "in itself" or "for itself" from both history and private life, or....] of what he means. That is, can you describe an example from history that shows class "in itself" at work or as a factor, one from history that shows class "for itself," one from your own life or that of your family that shows class "in itself," or from your own life/family that shows class "for itself." Those drawn from British history would be nice, but not necessary. Finally, why do you think historians have become less interested in class explanations since 1980?

This is the first one so I'll start. In history, I might give the example of the sans culottes in the French Revolution. The sans culottes were a group of artisans and small shopkeepers who became briefly influential in the revolution in Paris, during the radical phase, 1792-94. They demanded fixed prices which helped them compete and able to earn a living. Because many of them were of this one social level (lower bourgeoisie?), they (or many of them) were objetively a class "in itself." But they also defined themselves as the sans culottes (or, "without breaches") which means that they saw themselves as without breaches and fine stockings which were the clothes of the nobility. This class consciousness meant they were to some extent a class "for itself."
In my own life, my father was a junior officer when I was young, so we lived in fairly small houses. But not only did he save his money a rise through the ranks, he inherited a small ranch and stocks. So, even though I did not attend private prep schools, it was unsuprising that I attended and succeeded at a fairly elite college. Shorthand, I was from upper, or lower upper, middle class "in itself," and so my college career reflected that. As far as class "for itself," while in London in the mid-70s living with my parents, I adopted the phrase "ta" (meaning, "thank you, very much"). A British friend of my father's told him that I probably shouldn't use that slang as it was very lower class ("'kyou," pronounced "kew," was probably a bit more elevated). My father's friend, then, seems to have been aware of his class "for itself."

OK, you aren't going to want to go on at that length (and I haven't answered the question of why I think there is a decline in interest in class), but that is the sort of thing I am looking for.

history of us; class as history

2007-05-19T16:19:00.000-05:00

OK, now we are thinking. As Keith Thomas, a historian quoted in the Preface of Cannadine's Rise and Fall of Class in Britain (p. xii), states "History enhances our self-consciousness, enables us to see ourselves in perspecitve, and helps us towards that greater freedom and understanding which comes from self-knowledge." So the comments of five of you so far on pre-departure question one start pushing us gently into thinking about our own identities in class terms. From there we need to begin to think historically of class(es) as a process: how did x become associated with y class or sub-class?; how did such a class or sub-class begin thinking of itself as a thing (with particular markers or barriers)?

pre-departure query one (culture chest revisited)

2007-05-11T16:05:00.000-05:00

We all should be reading Cannadine by now. I'd like to re-visit the Culture Chest we did at the dinner party at my house with a view towards exploring social class. (And, for Jeff, Allison, Andrew, this will be the first time we have heard anything about your culture chests.) That is, pick one item/subject (on the outside) and note how that relates to how others situate you with regard to class, social relations, social status. Then pick a similar (or even the same) item (on the inside) and note how this helps you situate yourself with regard to class, social relations, or social status. One paragraph should be fine. Again sign with last name and first initial.

Thus, I might write: My British education (private school, senior year @ the American School in London; M.Phil. in Social Anthropology @ University of Cambridge) might associate me with the upper class, and certainly I associated with elite teenagers and college students @ both London and Cambridge. So my outside of my "letter" from ASL (basketball, of course, and band) would denote the elite class of the St. Johns Wood area. But, inside, my Harrods' pay-stub would denote that I worked first Summers and then a whole year while living on my own as first a "packer" employee at Harrods and then for an agency--mainly cleaning. I liked my fellow workers and adjusted my accent accordingly (dropping aitches--ask Jeff & Matthew what that means). I have a different view of the upper class having been a servant for them at different times. (Newton K)

we arrive with a bla(re) and depart with a brown

2007-05-11T15:26:00.000-05:00

Tony Blair steps down as Prime Minister and leader of the Labour party on 27 June. So we arrive in the UK in the 10th and final year of Blair's government. Does this mean a new election? Well, no. (Do we all know that the people of the UK did not vote for Tony Blair--outside his constituency as Member of Parliament, MP, for Sedgefield? That PMs are selected by the Queen as the leader of the majority party of elected MPs for different constituencies? That that is how a parliamentary election works? We do now.)

But, it is fairly certain that Blair will be replaced by Gordon Brown current Chancellor of the Exchequer.

So, politics shall be a little more at the forefront than usual while we are there. Accordingly, we will discuss the parliamentary system with my friend and colleague Dr. Peter Catterall, an instructor at Queen Mary College and a Conservative elected councillor for his district, at his office at Queen Mary Monday morning, 2 July. Dr. Catterall has also arranged a visit to the Houses of Parliament for 11am on 3 July, to be guided by David Evennett MP, Member of Parliament for Bexleyheath & Crayford, and Opposition (Conservative) Whip, who talked with us last year and gave us an impromptu tour. Ask Krystal, but I found this MP (who clearly loves politics) to be fascinating. The Conservatives will probably be buzzing with excitement at the change. We are chock-a-block with student senate officers this year so--Leah, Jeffrey, Allison, Cole--I expect some good questions! (Like, what's a whip?) [Additional note: plan on packing at least one set of nice clothes; suit and tie is not necessary in Parliament (although I will have on a tie), but shorts and sandals are not acceptable.]

While we are at Queen Mary there is on 3 July @ 6:30 pm, a public lecture by Sir Michael Barber (former senior civil servant), on "Blair and Public Service Reform Delivery." OK, perhaps not your cup o' tea as they would say, but it is on our doorstep and free. (And, of course, optional.)

2007-05-02T11:15:00.000-05:00

As noted, we have five required books for the course and I am asking that you purchase 3 of them in advance. I have linked with amazon at our syllabus website for three of them.

While @ $5.45 used the Cannadine is the most expensive, I note as alibris.com it is available for 3.43. The others were the most inexpensive editions of the books (@ 19 cents for Moll Flanders and 47 cents for Persuasion). Any edition of these works will do (for used works on amazon, "acceptable" is sometimes NOT; good is ok, very good and like new you will enjoy, but, again, any full-length version and any quality will do). Amazon shipping is $3.49 per book. Alibris shipping varies. Make sure it is a paperback as you need to pack it. But order these this week in case there are problems with delivery.

phone phacts

2007-03-18T11:46:00.000-05:00

It can be expensive to use your USA cell phone policy while abroad. The New York Times online has a list of useful tips to configure your cell phone plan for travel abroad.

Note, however, that another commentator on this added: when I went to get a new sim card (in the UK) as this article suggests, I found it was cheaper to just buy a bottom-of-the-line UK mobile and do pay as you go with it. (And I believe that is what I did last year.)

let the countdown to 3 July begin!

2007-03-09T15:12:00.000-06:00

Greetings to the 2007 British Rulers and British Ruled group.

I will be putting all general email updates (and occasional general information) on this History @ Harlaxton site as well as emailing them, so check there periodically (and if you want to check past information). This class blog is open to anyone, but is not open to be indexed by search engines. Thus, unless you type in that url, you won't get to it. Still, it is on the open web. Thus, I will not put last names on the blog. And you are allowed to post comments on any messages (and, once the assignments are narrowed down, will be required to do so for class in the month before the flight). Please add your name, but not last name: thus, Krystal R., etc.
Several of you have noted (even my mom noted!) the following (LA Times, March 7, 2007: "The U.S. State Department’s Passport Services division is recommending a 10-week lead time for all passport applications.... The reason for the delay is 'unusually high demand,' the State Department said, which may be attributed at least partly to rules that took effect Jan. 23. They require passports for travel by air between the U.S. and the Caribbean, Canada and Mexico. (Land and sea travel to these areas are not affected.)”
I am hoping that all of you have applied already. If not, you should probably consider "expediting" the process, which is a "service" they offer at some $250 (I have not checked the price lately; this is what others have told me). According to the NYTimes (October 1, 2006): "There are shortcuts for a price. Someone in urgent need of a passport can pay an extra $60 for expedited service, which typically cuts wait time to two weeks. A traveler leaving in less than two weeks can make an appointment to go in person, with proof of travel plans in hand, to one of 14 passport agencies located in major cities, including New York, Boston and Los Angeles, by calling (877) 487-2778. There are also private rush services that specialize in speeding customers through the bureaucracy. For varying fees, these companies can often get passports approved in as little as 24 hours. (A list of expediting services is at www.napvs.org.) But in recent years, some passport agencies have been reducing the number of daily submissions such rush companies are allowed.
The New York regional passport agency used to allow them to submit applications in unlimited numbers; in February it limited each company to 20 or fewer a day."
I will ask Study Abroad office to follow this and get back with recommendations for those who have already applied.

Update on the passport issue (18 April):

State Department Answers Nation’s Call for Passports
The Department of State has committed additional resources and personnel to meet Americans’ unprecedented demand for passports. Passport production has hit record highs as the Department works diligently to honor its mission and ensure that every citizen gets a passport in time for planned travel.
Record Production of Passports: In the week ending March 29, the Department issued a record 412,000 passports. The weekly tally surpasses the record set the previous week, when the Department issued 379,000 passports.
Regional Agencies Working through the Weekend: Employees at the 17 Passport Agencies nationwide continue to work overtime daily and throughout the weekend to process applications to meet Americans' spring travel plans.
Expanded Call Center for Information and Appointments: The National Passport Information Center (1-877-487-2778) remains open for limited weekend hours to make emergency arrangements for travelers departing in seven days or less. NPIC has expanded its business hours and is now staffed Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. until midnight, Eastern Time.
Volunteers on the Phones: On top of their regular duties, State Department employees are volunteering on task forces to answer questions and help Americans get their passports. The Department has installed high-capacity telephone lines to increase the volume of telephone calls it can receive.
Volunteers at the Desks: Qualified State Department employees are also volunteering to help process passport applications. These volunteers, who approved 10,000 applications last week, supplement the Department's corps of passport specialists, which has increased by 250 new hires since 2005.
Establishing the Newest Passport Center: Test runs at the new Arkansas Passport Center in Hot Springs indicate that this center will begin operations in April, as planned. At full capacity, this Center will produce as many as 10 million passports a year.
Important Points for Travelers
Travelers can check the status of their pending passport applications online at http://travel.state.gov. Information is normally available online approximately four weeks after the application is submitted.
Those who have applied and are leaving within two weeks can visit http://travel.state.gov/passport/about/npic/npic_895.html to send an email inquiry to check the status or call the National Passport Information Center at 1-877-487-2778. We ask that other travelers leave the phone lines open for those with immediate travel needs.
Travelers who have not applied for passports to date should plan ten weeks for standard passport processing and two weeks for expedited processing. Information on how to apply for a passport, including how to expedite processing, is available at http://travel.state.gov. Applicants requesting expedited service must write "EXPEDITE" on the outside of the envelope containing their application.

Punters Punting

2006-11-02T16:53:00.000-06:00

Some people had a question as to what is punting. This is Newton before being a Dr., punting (or being punted?) in 1980.

Class Dismissed?

2006-08-16T10:57:00.000-05:00

Your final presentations have been posted online. Please take a moment to review what your colleagues, compatriots, or comrades (however you view each other) put together, from Krystal incorporating great pictures from our trip, to Ashley's synthezing many different aspects of what we did, to Ray demonstrating graph building skill I didn't know he had.

Londinum was probably a port before it was a fortress: exploring the Thames down to Greenwich

2006-07-23T18:15:00.001-05:00

And then there was one. The last full day of the program in Britain, and the last full day in London. Both the English literature group and the history group set off from the Embankment down the River Thames to Greenwich. London was important because it was on an important waterway, and, while we saw sites such as the Tower of London (in the background, here), it was really the docklands to the East of the Tower (the East End) that was most important for our purposes.

Today, the warehouses and docks have closed, to be replaced by upmarket condos, and the Canary Wharf financial district, but, for hundreds of years the East Ends docks were the center of a vibrant community of poorer Londoners.

At Greenwich itself are the buildings designed by Christopher Wren, surrounding one or two buildings of a royal palace, the Palace of Placentia, surviving from the days of Henry VIII and Elizabeth. Under the Stuarts, Greenwich declined until rebuilt by Charles II. But, after the Glorious Revolution, William had little interest in Greenwich, which was built to Wren's design (and largely completed by Hawksmoor). It became a hospital and home for retired sailors, the Royal Naval Hospital. After that it became the Royal Naval College, and, currently, is the home of Greenwich University. I didn't take you all to the Painted Hall in the old Naval College buildings, which was a mistake, but I did a quick run there myself.

The Painted Hall is a masterpiece of decoration. The artist was Sir James Thornhill, and it took him nineteen years to complete the work, finishing in 1727. He was paid three pounds a square yard for the ceiling and one pound a square yard for the walls. The Hall was designed as a dining room for the pensioners, but proved to small for the population. It was not used for this purpose again until 1939, when the Navy used it as their Mess until 1998. In 1806 the body of Nelson lay in state in the Painted Hall until he was taken upriver by funeral barge for burial at St Pauls Cathedral. (Greenwich Guide)

Next time, you really ought to poke your head in there. Walls and ceilings are all upholding the Glorious Revolution by focusing on William and Mary. I also visited and ate at Goddard's Pie and Eel shop (although I didn't have eels), while most of you had TexMex food. It is one of the last of a kind serving more traditional East End working class hot lunches, but I thought I might have trouble convincing you of the joys of meat pie, mash, and mushy pees with "liquor" (a green flecked clearish white liquid of indertiminate origin). I enjoyed the experience.

What we all seemed to enjoy is hiking up to the Greenwich Observatory, founded and built under Charles II in the late seventeenth century. Observation of the skies was vital for determining latitude and longitude of ships travelling the globe in the 18th century and beyond, as was, for longitude, the exact measurement of time. Greenwich became the home Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), from which all other times zones derived. So, we became quite proficient at taking our picture on the Prime Meridian outside the Observatory.

Prime(-Time) Meridian

2006-07-23T18:15:00.000-05:00

(Left) Ray, Amanda, Cassie, Ashley, Kristie, Krystal. (Right) Uhhh, ditto.

(Left)Krystal, Amanda, Cassie, Jessie, Kristi, Ashley, Megan, Kelly, Carrie, Andrea, Ray, Ben, and ? (is that right?)

London: the pre-industrial, industrial, and post-industrial city?

2006-07-22T16:45:00.000-05:00

A quick tour through London's and Britain's past at the Museum of London, Barbican, and the British Galleries of the Victoria & Albert Museum, South Kensington. I went early to Barbican to find a coffee shop and grade and to walk through Smithfield. Smithfield markets have long been the meat markets of London (here is the storefront of a tripe and offal establishment) from which restaurants and local butchers buy wholesale. (It was also infamous for the "fires of Smithfield," where unrecanting Protestants were burnt under Mary Tudor.)

We then met for a quick tour through Barbican, an area that was basically a large bomb crater after World War II and then was rebuilt into either an ideal urban residential area, or, if you see it that way, a concrete dystopia. The idea was that upper class and lower class flats would be intermingled (as many streets were in the early modern period). At least at its center (as in this photo), I find it more an ideal than a dystopia, but there are some walkways which are vaguely A Clockwork Orange.

Then on to South Kensington and Exhibition Road. At the bottom of Exhibition Road are the Victoria & Albert, the Science, and the Natural History Museum. Dr. Angela McShane-Jones walked us through the British Galleries focusing on the argument made in the panels that there is little to differentiate the Industrial Revolution between 1760 and 1830 from the mass production of the 17th, even 16th centuries. Perhaps one might find a full-fledged industrial revolution from the 1890s or even 1950s, but not, so the argument goes, before. The argument is interesting because it notes that historians have focused on cotton textiles because parliamentary committees focused on the cotton textile factories and, thus, produced reams of documents (which we historians love). But many industries were producing in mass quantities for the market much earlier, but left material culture artifacts not documents. Agree or disagree, the argument and the Galleries provoked thought and discussion (which is amazing because we were quite tired by Wednesday and thinking of flying home on Friday).

Most of us then walked up Exhibition Road towards Albert Memorial. I don;t have much to add about this recently cleaned monument, except to say "what was she thinking!?" Like Barbican, it can be seen as both beautiful and a monstrosity. On our way towards the Memorial in Kensington Gardens, we came to the gates at the end of Exhibitiion Road, which was the place where the Great Exhibition of 1851 (or the Crystal Palace) had been built and opened. The gates are, of course, the Coalbrookdale Gates, and they are still there (though turned 90 degrees so they don't block the road which now goes through the park dividing Kensington Gardens from Hyde Park) as are (in the photo) Ben, Carrie, Ashley, Krystal, Megan, Amanda, Cassie, Derrick, and Raymond.

West of the West End?: Westminster

2006-07-22T16:07:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday, our first full day in London, we travelled to Westminster, just a short tube ride away from our hotel. The West End is to the west of central London, obviously, the old "mile square" walled city that now houses the nation's (and one of the world's major) financial districts. (The East End is to the, uh, east.) But the West End was also the area towards (and eventually interfilling the area between London and) Westminster.

Ever since Edward the Confessor, as Dr. Peter Catterall noted, who spent much time and money on refounding and expanding Westminster Abbey, Westminster has been associated with England's and then Britain's governmental center. The Court was at Whitehall Palace (which burned in 1698, leaving only the Banquetting Hall designed by Inigo Jones in the early 17th century), and at St. James's Palace, and, more recently, at Buckingham Palace. The House of Lords and the House of Commons were also at the Palace of Westminster, and the houses of Parliament, also burnt in 1834, so the new Parliament dates from the mid-19th century. (We had a very interesting discussion with a Tory whip and toured the buildings, but, of course, were unable to photograph inside.) From the late 17th or early 18th century, the head of the political party with the most MPs was, more or less, heading the government. In the 1720s and 1730s, that leader of the Whigs was Sir Robert Walpole, and he became known, derisively at first, as the Prime Minister. We visited his Norfolk home, Houghton Hall, which he rebuilt at great expense. But he probably spent more time at his home in Westminster, No. 10 Downing Street. That address has become the home of all Prime Ministers, and it is the non-descript grey building in this photograph (upper right, taken as we walked down Whitehall). One used to be able to walk through Downing Street but security tightened when there was an IRA mortar or missle attack on the building a few decades ago. Whitehall is also the home of the various governmental adminsitration buildings: Cabinet Office, Foreign Office, Ministry of Defence.

But Whitehall and Westminster is also home to many quasi-governmental bodies: offices of political parties, political journalists' offices, offices of solicitors who draft parliamentary legislation, institutes and associations which lobby for particular Acts (or for government to act).
Here is our intrepid group about to turn down Great Peter Street (which I realized by enlarging the photograph). The Institute of Economic Affairs, the Royal Academy of Engineers: these are both on Great Peter Street in Westminster just south of Westminster Abbey, and the work of these various lobbying associations are very important for the working of British government today. If one solely examines government from the perspective of Parliament, one doesn't realize its scope.

Westminster to Greenwich--West End to East End: the metropolis beckons

2006-07-20T12:05:00.000-05:00

Greetings. finally catching up with postings regarding the last week. We did not read the novel Brick Lane as did the English literature group. But we did discuss the East End. In any case, we all partook in the adventure of dining in the East End. It was a long series of tables so I include a picture from each end. On the walk to the restaurant, you might have noticed the nearby church (on the corner of Fournier St. and Commericial St. , a block off Brick Lane). It was designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor (in the 1710s), a student of Christopher Wren (who had designed St. Paul's and the Emmanuel College Chapel we saw). A block further on is The Jamme Masjid or Great London Mosque on the corner of Brick Lane and Fournier Street.

This building is a perfect illustration of the East End's role as the point of entry for immigrant groups. It was originally founded as a church for Hugenots - French protestants who fled to London to avoid persecution at home. The chapel was later used by Methodists. In the late 19th century, when Whitechapel became the centre of the Jewish East End, it became the Machzike Adass, also known as the Spitalfields Great Synagogue. With the dispersal of the Jewish community and a new influx of Bengali immigrants, it became the Jamme Masjid or Great London Mosque in 1976. (PortCities London)

Huguenots, as we discussed, were French Protestants, and many of them had fled France after the Revocation of Nantes in 1685. In any case, the area from Spitalfields to Brick Lane still has the simple 2-3 story buildings with the huge windows on the ground floor. Many of these housed Huguenot silkweavers and their looms (for which intricate work they needed light). I'd like to do more with the history of the Spitalfields area, next program. In any case, it is notable that the Brick Lane area housed Huguenots, working class Methodists, Jews immigrating from continental Europe, and Bengalis in succession from the 18th to the 20th centuries. You might have noticed that, in the 21st century, the area around Brick Lane has gone decidedly upmarket (at least the area around Spitalfield Market). Orwell's "Spikes" are nowhere to be seen.

From Darbys's Coalbrookdale to Dickens' Coketown

2006-07-02T03:59:00.000-05:00

(Apologies. Did not have my battery charged for my digital camera so took pictures with a regular camera. I have "borrowed" a couple of pictures from Ashley's site--she does have a great photographer's eye.) The first picture is on the Ironbridge of Ironbridge Gorge, the first bridge made out of iron as one would expect. Abraham Darby began casting it in 1779 and that is the date on the central piece around which the students are gathered. Darby almost went broke as the bridge was a marvel and everyone visited it, but they went back to making bridges out of wood and brick, until a flood towards the end of the century washed out all bridges on the River Severn, except this one.

Even with the success of Ironbridge, the Darbys and their successors soon had to shift from making large practical items to focusing on the ornamental and the decorative. Of course, some of the decorative pieces, like the great gates to the Great Exhibition (Crystal Palace) of 1851 or the iron lamp posts for London, were massive or massive projects. Still, by the mid-19th century, the Darbys sought to market themselves as cast iron artists (and some of the pieces shown in the museums at Ironbridge make iron look like a rare mineral). One of the reasons for the change is that Coalbrookdale and the other places where there were blast furnaces (like Blists Hill) were started because it was a great place to use the river and the canal system to bring in materials (iron ore, coke made from coal, and limestone for the catalyst) from a short distance away. The picture to the right shows a rail bridge crossing the river. The railways were important for the area (iron rails and steam engine boilers were made here and nearby) and also were the undoing of the area (it was too costly to build many railroads in an area cut by rivers, valleys, and canals). One of the reasons that Ironbridge is a World Heritage Site is that there was no modernization after the mid-19th century and much of the place remains as it was during the first Industrial Revolution (or is that Evolution?).

Note: the UNESCO World Heritage List includes 26 sites in the United Kingdom (probably the highest number in any one country), including: Ironbridge Gorge (1986), Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites (1986), City of Bath (1987), Westminster Palace, Westminster Abbey and Saint Margaret's Church (1987), Tower of London (1988), Maritime Greenwich (1997), all of which we have seen or will see (well Tower in passing). If you add Tintern Abbey (as it is very similar to Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of Fountains Abbey, 1986), and the various places many of you have seen or will see--Old and New Towns of Edinburgh (1995), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (2003), Liverpool, Maritime Mercantile City (2004)--we can say we did a fair portion of the list!

Whose 18th Century?

2006-07-02T02:59:00.000-05:00

Moll Flanders and Walpole at the beginning of the century, Pride and Prejudice and Pitt at the end (with Persuasion just around the corner in 1811). A century dominated by the landed aristocracy or a century dominated by the monied interest, merchants, and traders of the metropolis of London? A stable society reinforcing hierarchy or a rich edifice unsteadily topping an ungovernable people?

Bath is there at the beginning and the end of the century, and it could be taken for representing both visions of 18th-century society. For our purposes, one of the great features of Bath, is that it remains largely Hanoverian (indeed, Georgian); in Jane Austen's time here, it must have been one huge builders' site. Here we are walking towards one of the pump rooms, where they are now rebuilding a spa.

Bath was about separating the classes in an infinite hierarchy of status. Thus, Sir Walter wants to be in the best rooms of Camden Place built on the highest hill. But the Royal Crescent, perhaps a built older remains a slightly more prestigious address (seen here to the right). Bath was about mixing the classes, like horse races and gambling spots in London, and exciting place to watch and be watched by others. Moll can meet someone of higher status at the Bath: is it a matter of hiding one's previous status?; or is it that one just doesn't care in Bath (Las Vegas)? Sir Walter separates himself in the highest hill, then spends his time on the street in town watching others of all sorts of ranks.

In retrospect we should have spent a bit more time in Bath after the tour (although many of us set off on explorations in Cardiff and discovered a bit there too the next day). Some tasted the waters, some (me at least) explored the Abbey, did anyone see where Beau Nash lived like I did? The Abbey was chock-full of monuments to departed surgeons, farriers, apothecaries, and military men (as that to the left). Adm. Croft and Capt. Wentworth were fictional characters in Austen's Bath only in name it appears.

Dickens and Orwell: two centuries or two classes?

2006-06-29T06:55:00.000-05:00

[assignment week 4, due Mon.] Simple final blog assignment. Find your favorite telling quote from Hard Times and your favorite from Down and Out in Paris and London, quote them, and compare them stating what you think they say about class. You don't need to write or comment on but you might think about the extent to which Dickens and Orwell were writing about two different periods or about two different strata of society.

Composed a few miles above Oxford City, On Revisiting the Past Couple of Weeks During a Tour, June 22, 2006

2006-06-22T13:38:00.000-05:00

Or should it just state, 'Palladianized'? We visited Houghton and Holkham Halls constructed in the main in the first half of the 18th century last week. Ashley, Ray, Krystal, Megan, Cassie, Amanda, Carrie, Ben, and Kristi can just about be delineated in this picture. I've taught Sir Robert Walpole and I have read quite a bit about Sir Robert, but visiting this pile again (hot and ice water in the dining room?) gives me added insight into the originator of No. 10 Downing Street.

That weekend, many of us travelled across the British Isles. For me, it was down to London, where I greeted my daugther at Heathrow and then met EIU MA in History alumni: Bill (of Houston), Evi (of Innsbruck), and Michael (of Vienna, both of Michael has his arm around Daniella). We are on Portobello Road at the time of this picture, but all the people in this picture have lived in Charleston, Illinois at one time.

Finally, I just thought I'd leave an image for Amanda. Amanda, despite going to university in central Illinois, finds that animals on an estate, particularly domesticated deer, should not relieve themselves wherever they please. I noted the following sign on pavement in London and, perhaps, she might ask them to place same throughout the estates of the aristocracy in future?
By the way, we need to focus on Hard Times and Cannadine's 19th-century chapter for Monday, and I should have your journals (at least 3 entries per week, and we are now on week 4) by Sunday. I am currently viewing future possible study abroad sites, but will be back Saturday. You may leave same with Dr. Bredesen at dinner Friday night. Got used to having you all around these past two trips and missing you all in Oxford (can that be?).

The Bath of Defoe, and Bath of Austen

2006-06-19T06:36:00.000-05:00

[assignment week 3, due Wed.] Compare and contrast the Bath of Moll and Bath of Anne Elliott. Is the city about class separation or class mixing? Why do they go to (the) Bath? Is the difference one or character or one of period (early 18th, early 19th)? (In your comparison answer two of these three questions.)

Also, prepare one paragraph on your assigned Bath or Cardiff historical personage below in order to be able to tell the rest of the group by Tuesday (in other words, due it today; you should probably do the first blog assignment today as well): John Wood, senior (or the elder, Carrie); Thomas Rowlandson (Cassandra); Beau Nash (Krystal); Ralph Allen (Kristi); John Palmer (Ashley); Dr. William Oliver (Ben); William Wilberforce (Ray); William Gilpin (esp. his Observations on the River Wye and several parts of South Wales, Megan); First and Third Marquess of Bute (focusing on Cardiff Castle, Amanda).

Defoe and the Patricians and the Plebeians

2006-06-12T08:24:00.000-05:00

[assignment week 2. due Wednesday.] How does E.P. Thompson's article "Patricians and Plebs" (versions of which pub. 1974, 1978, combined 1978, penguin ed., pp. 16-49) help us to understand Defoe's Moll Flanders? How does Moll not fit Thompson's model? (Indeed, what is his model?; why does he use it--the latter question we can discuss in class.)

A Busman's Holiday?

2006-06-12T08:12:00.000-05:00

What do professors do on their weekend off? Go to libraries of course. Well, Profs. Newton and Dagni went to London (showing a few of the students how to get signed into the British Library, the Institute of Historical Research, and leaving them with the compatriots at the British Museum). Back to the BL on Saturday, but some time for climbing the Monument commemorating the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire of 1666 (above) and a visit to Southwark (the Cathedral above right) for markets and relaxation (as one might have done in Shakespeare's time). Group will be returning to the Thames on our last week as well.

Looking for Class in Cambridge

2006-06-12T07:58:00.000-05:00

Harlaxtoners Megan and Caroline take pictures of the grass at King's College on which they are not allowed to walk. The first of many steamy, warm days, and our first outing (though the second tour if one includes the tour through Harlaxton by the guides). If class in a 19th-century manor like Harlaxton is denoted by upstairs/downstairs (or, really, the front stairs for the owners and guests, the back stairs for the servants), class in Cambridge was linked to a hierarchical division between scholars, fellows, and masters. Of course, as the quadrangle organization of the colleges (hall, chapel, library, and rooms or dormitory) suggests, the colleges are a guild-like or ordered society like a monastery. "Class" there is more like the estates or orders of the Middle Ages.

Here we have Harlaxtoner Kristi in front of King's College Chapel. Its perpendicular fan vaulting emphasizes the religiosity of its founder Henry VI and Henry VII. Its large reliefs adorning the inside and outside of the Heraldic signs of the Tudors, Beauforts, etc., emphasize the secular power ideals of its completor, Henry VIII.

I should note that at least one of our classy class, Ashley, has her own blog which not only has a different take on all that we see (and some that only her group sees), but also has some great photos uploaded.

2006-06-06T07:58:00.000-05:00

Greetings from Harlaxton.

Incidental housekeeping notes: two rooms blew a fuse, but same reported to maintenance, and now repaired. Students have been to Grantham and back on assignment. I am representing Eastern Illinois at a partners' conference on teaching at harlaxton during the academic year!

We are arranging extra rooms for the students to lessen the numbers per room. I'll email students soon to let you know if that rearrangement is successful. (Ashley met the Principal Gordon Kingsley as we walked the hall looking for the available rooms. Sorry for barging in. He did knock!

notes for packing and a comment by Linda Colley

2006-06-01T15:38:00.000-05:00

Greetings. Virtually everyone has now posted once (thanks!; I was beginning to think I was in the class alone) although someone posted anonymously, so I don't know who that is.

As we get ready to depart I have had queries about what to bring: sheets, towels, alarm clocks, etc. They have sheets and towels, but, as Dr. Bredesen noted an old towel stuffed into a corner of your bag comes in handy (and you can always throw away at the end). As for electronics and material comforts in your room, you might contact your room-mate, and the pairings I have are: Ben Gaylord and Raymond Szarsinksi, Caroline Deters and Kristan Cagle, Krystal Rose and Megan Tellerina, Amanda Terrell and Ashley Moreland, Cassandra Murray with her friend in the English group. In other words, don't bring two of something that you only need one in a room. But I can't tell you what you need for day-to-day living because (1) I don't know you that well; and (2) I've only spent one night in Harlaxton and it wasn't in the student area. I will ask an informant (a student last year), and try to make one more posting about such things. But if you bring clothes, Cannadine, and a willingness to try and learn new things you won't go too wrong.

Still coolish in UK. Up to 71 F (they use Celsius, so weather reports will seem strange) in London when we arrive, but as low as 49 F at night in Grantham. I have made contact with a colleague at Emmanuel College, who has agreed to give us a brief tour around that college as well, so now we have two residential colleges to tour as well as the university (and we'll see many of the colleges as we walk around).

Finally, note the following from the Guardian Weekly, "The feeling is always mutual," by Linda Colley, professor of history at Princeton University, on how American and European prejudices contain awkward truths about the way both sides view each other

"Like the proverbial elephant in the room, American anti-Europeanism has loomed large for so long that few trouble to notice it. After all, Americans visit and live in Europe in large numbers and they are generally civilised, smart and generous.
"American prejudices about Europe rarely surface in headlines, but they are real, pervasive and ingrained. Much of how Americans have always understood their history, culture and identity depends on positioning Europe as the "other", as that "old world" against which they define themselves. During the 17th and 18th centuries, American schoolchildren learn, European refugees crossed the Atlantic to seek sanctuary in a new, better, more abundant land. In 1776 Americans declared themselves independent not just of the oppressions of George III and the British but also of the taste for monarchy, aristocracy, war and colonialism exhibited by Europeans more generally. Americans were fortunate, George Washington declared in 1796, in being so "detached and distant" from "the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humour or caprice".
"Some 40 million Europeans chose to migrate to the US in the 19th century. The greater prosperity and political rights enjoyed then by most ordinary Americans, provided they were white, entrenched the view that one side of the Atlantic was intrinsically better and more blessed than the other. "While we shall see multiplied instances of Europeans going to live in America," wrote Thomas Jefferson, "I will venture to say no man now living will ever see an instance of an American removing to settle in Europe." Henry James chose to settle in England, but his novels still endorsed the view that Europe was both corrupt and corrupting. Those of his American characters who cross the Atlantic tend to be inveigled and damaged by the old world, like Isabel Archer in Portrait of a Lady, or are morally contaminated by it, like the expatriate American anti-heroine of The Europeans.
"Seeing Europe as potentially malignant was in part a tacit American acknowledgment of its superior cultural sophistication and armed force, but as the US became more powerful, so the nature of its anti-Europeanism changed. Europe ceased to seem the place where the future was under construction. Instead, US intervention in two world wars encouraged the American view that Europe's inhabitants were so terminally violent and pathetically incompetent as to need to be rescued from themselves, and that only the US could achieve this.
"Of course, not all Americans think in these ways or ever have; and historically the US has borrowed ideas and institutions from Europe as much as it has disapproved of and distrusted it. None the less, American preconceptions about Europe require taking seriously.
"To begin with, they reveal what Americans fear and dislike about themselves. It is now almost de rigueur, for instance, for American universities and radical scholars to teach and write on the iniquities of past European colonialism and imperialism. Fair enough, one might think. But the silence about the history of America's own overland and overseas empire is almost deafening. There is a sense, clearly, in which American anxieties about home-grown aggression and imperialism are being transferred on to Europe. In much the same way, most Americans far prefer books and movies about Europe's undeniable class divisions than to think hard about their own economic inequalities or the very considerable degree of hereditary status and influence in their own land.
"There is a more specific sense in which American anti-Europeanism functions as a kind of self-commentary. In the past America's white elite cherished Europe as well as suspecting it. They adopted European fashions, built universities like Oxford and Cambridge, went on grand tours of European cities; and many of these American patricians were Wasps, white Anglo-Saxon Protestants. As the US population has become more diverse, however, so the authority of this old elite has diminished."

Defoe, Moll Flanders

2006-05-26T11:57:00.000-05:00

[pre-departure week 3.] OK. I have bought a new suitcase and new shoes. I have ordered some inexpensive travel guides (just for some additional bits of information), spent time looking at maps, read Hard Times (what a hoot; why did I never read this fully before?--perfect for our class), and checked with this person and that about things Harlaxton and UK (the mother of the boyfriend of my daughter [who will join us from the 16th to the 30th--my daughter, not everyone else] who attended an English dept. Harlaxton trip recently, loved it there, but noted that some of the meals (esp. vegetables) are very institutional (well, I am paraphrasing here; I believe her phrase was not as diplomatic). The good news is: (1) there are great shops food and otherwise at Grantham which are walkable (there is also a shuttle); (2) there is a tv in the basement (don't know what that is apropos of; just thought I'd mention it). She recommends bringing snacks, but I always found food shopping for this and that to be one of the inexpensive pleasures of being in a foreign country. On the note of shopping, I have noted with some trepidation, the falling dollar in the last couple of months. When I began planning this trip, the pound was about 1.75 dollars; now it is 1.87. For your own travelling, etc., whatever you planned to bring, see if you can scrounge up a bit more.

On to Defoe's Moll Flanders (link is to entire text online; not that I would want to read it online) and my last pre-departure question. Those who have responded (5 for the first question, and 2 for the second [Megan put the answer for question one under week 2]) have done a great job. As I have mentioned before the only rule is that you try to answer each question before we depart on the 4th. (Forget the must-be-longer-than-the-last-entry requirement.) Moll begins life in Newgate Prison, is taken by gypsies to Colchester, Essex, adn then the countryside near Colchester, where much of the beginning of the book takes place (indeed, these chapters are the most traditional of an early tragic novel). Eventually, she is in London, travels to Oxford, land in the Mint (part of London where insolvent debtors hide), tries her luck among the ship captains at Redriff (Rotherhithe) near London, then goes to Virginia (York River), before returning to Milford Haven, London again, Bristol, Bath (we will return to this on our Bath week), Gloucester, Reading, Hammersmith, London (Bloomsbury, the Bank), Lancashire (Warrington to Liverpool), Chester (Black Rock), Dunstable (within 30 miles of London), London (St. Jone's near Clerkenwell), etc. So I really should ask a geography question. But, no, let's look at the people with whom she interacts: the Mayoress, the two Brothers (gentry?), the gentleman-tradesman, the sea captain and Virginia planter, her Bath friend, the north-country gentlewoman, Jemmy, Mother Midnight, the gentleman at the Bank. In fact, let's look just at when Moll "at last I found this amphibious creature, this land-water thing called a gentleman-tradesman; and as a just plague upon my folly, I was catched in the very snare which, as I might say, I laid for myself" (p. 41, Bantam ed.). What is a "gentleman-tradesman," and what is the problem with the same? Is it just Moll's problem or is it a larger problem?

Additional Information about London leg of program

2006-05-16T17:55:00.000-05:00

The following are planned tours/lecturers in London. It is a lot of touring and we want to leave some free time for you in London, so will probably ask you to sign up for 3 of the 5 planned outings.

Tues 4 July

Tour of West End and the Courts (from Leicester “House,” to the old Royal Stables, to Pall Mall, to St. James Palace, to Buckingham Palace to St. James Gardens, to Whitehall)
Tour of Westminster government area (Parliament, Whitehall, Downing Street, guest lecturer: Dr. Peter Catterall, Queen Mary College, University of London)

Wed 5 July

Tour of South Kensington/Exhibition Road area (especially V & A British Galleries, with guest lecturer)
Tour of City of London (especially Museum of London, guest lecturer for both: Dr. Angela McShane Jones, Oxford Brookes University)

Thurs 6 July

Tour of River Thames, Greenwich, and East End (boat trip down Thames from Embankment to Greenwich, Greenwich Observatory, then back via light railway, and London Transport through East End, walk through Smithfield, etc.) [This is a fullish day.]

Cannadine, "The Eighteenth Century: Class Without Class Struggle"

2006-05-14T13:18:00.000-05:00

[pre-departure week 2.] I wonder. Cannadine's title is an inversion of E. P. Thompson's view of the 18th-century (in a long view, that century dates from the Glorious Revolution, 1688-89 to the Great Reform Act of 1832; in Cannadine's version, it dates to 1776). But in this chapter (as in most of his chapters) he notes that there are 3 models at play of what English and British society looked like (both then and by historians now): a two-class, polarized model ("us" versus "them," "rich" vs. "poor," "patricians" vs. "plebeians"); a three-layer model (elite-middle-lower; "landowning sort," "middling sort," "labouring sort"); and a hiearchical, layered, continuous chain model (from a Great Chain of Being in which people are ranked between and even within a myriad of stations). Your job is to come up with an understanding of which model William Hogarth used and which group or rank or class he valued most.

I ask you to look at Hogarth (a) because his paintings and engravings are easily available on the web; and (b) because Cannadine does not give you too many examples of what happened within the 18th century (and I certainly don't expect that you all have had a class on 18th-Century Britain). Cannadine is correct to note that England was one of the most urbanized countries in 18th-century Europe: London housed perhaps 10% of the English. But, compared to 19th and 20th century Britain, this was a rural, agricultural country. And landed values remained dominant. "A nobleman, a gentleman, a yeoman; the distinctio of these, that is a good interst of the nation, and a great one!": thus said, Oliver Cromwell in a speech in 1654. His 18th-century descendants would understand the values embraced in that. One distinction that Cannadine does not make much of is the contemporary distinction between the landed interest (the gentry, the "acre-ostracracy"--to use the title of a 19th-century book) and the new, monied interest (the latter centered mainly in "the City"--London).

Again, the assignment for this chapter is to read it, decipher what the three models of class are, then examine several paintings or engravings by Hogarth, and tell what model you think he is using in two of them, why you think this is the model, and which group he tends to support. Hogarth prints are available at:

Cannadine, "Beyond Class--Forward to Class?'

2006-05-09T17:40:00.000-05:00

[pre-departure week 1.] Our first pre-departure week's question is about Marx's concepts of class "in itself" and "for itself" (summarized nicely, in Rise and Fall of Class in Britain, 1999, pp. 2-4). What does he mean? Give four examples [no, that is too many: two examples, either "in itself" and "for itself" from either history or private life; or either "in itself" or "for itself" from both history and private life, or....] of what he means: one from history that shows class "in itself" at work or as a factor, one from history that shows class "for itself," one from your own life or that of your family that shows class "in itself," on from your own life/family that shows class "for itself." Those drawn from British history would be nice, but not necessary. Finally, why do you think historians have become less interested in class explanations since 1980?

This is the first one so I'll start. In history, I might give the example of the sans culottes in the French Revolution. The sans culottes were a group of artisans and small shopkeepers who became briefly influential in the revolution in Paris, during the radical phase, 1792-94. They demanded fixed prices which helped them compete and able to earn a living. Because many of them were of this one social level (lower bourgeoisie?), they (or many of them) were objetively a class "in itself." But they also defined themselves as the sans culottes (or, "without breaches") which means that they saw themselves as without breaches and fine stockings which were the clothes of the nobility. This class consciousness meant they were to some extent a class "for itself." In my own life, my father was a junior officer when I was young, so we lived in fairly small houses. But not only did he save his money a rise through the ranks, he inherited a small ranch and stocks. So, even though I did not attend private prep schools, it was unsuprising that I attended and succeeded at a fairly elite college. Shorthand, I was from upper, or lower upper, middle class "in itself," and so my college career reflected that. As far as class "for itself," while in London in the mid-70s living with my parents, I adopted the phrase "ta" (meaning, "thank you, very much"). A British friend of my father's told him that I probably shouldn't use that slang as it was very lower class ("'kyou," pronounced "kew," was probably a bit more elevated). My father's friend, then, seems to have been aware of his class "for itself."

OK, you aren't going to want to go on at that length (and I haven't answered the question of whyI think there is a decline in interest in class), but that is the sort of thing I am looking for. The rules are you should each do one posting for each question. There is no length specified, but this is a blog, so don't go on for pages. There is no time specified for posting, but the rule is your comment/posting must be at least one line longer than the previous one (an incentive for posting early) [ok, too long; at least as long as previous]. We are on the internet, so preferably no names, dates, places for examples from your own life/family, please.