HIST 319 - Modern British and Britain Empire (D) (W)

3 Credit(s)

This course examines the intertwined histories of modern Britain and its empire. Beginning focus in the late eighteenth century, the course explores how Britain became a world power with an empire on which “the sun never set.” The course investigates the economic, political, and social forces that motivated British imperial expansion, the ideologies and contradictions of empire, and its ultimate decline. In this class, students pay particular attention to notions of what it meant to “be British.” The readings and discussions therefore highlight the formation of class, gender, racial, and national identities. Additionally, students consider how historical actors in the colonies and the metropole actively perpetuated, contested, and resisted the British imperial project.