131-028 Birth of Industrial Society in Britain

Note

Credit Points

HECS Band

Coordinator

Prerequisites

Usually 25 points of first year history, see Prerequisites, or first year European studies, see Prerequisites.

Semester

Subject Description

This subject studies British society during the critical period of the world's first Industrial Revolution. Students should become familiar with themes such as the major social changes brought by early industrialisation; the concepts of social class, class consciousness and class conflict in relation to the development of a middle class and working class; the nature of the British state and issues of reform and revolution; changes in the role and status of women and the family; and the development of the modern ideologies of classical economics, liberalism, socialism, paternalism, evangelicalism, Benthamite utilitarianism and their application to the social problems of the period. The subject also examines developments in Britain's dependency on Ireland in this period, including the crucial events of Catholic Emancipation and the Great Famine.