131-047 From Great Exhibition to Great War

Formerly available as 131-242/342. Students who have completed 131-242 or 131-342 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

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

This subject examines British society from its optimistic mid-Victorian 'High Noon,' symbolised by the Great Exhibition of 1851, to the very different society which emerged from the trenches of Flanders with its confidence and beliefs shaken. Students should complete the subject with a knowledge of the major social, economic and political changes in this society; the move, in the early 20th century, to a political democracy and the beginnings of a welfare state; the role and status of women in Victorian Britain, and the development of the first feminist and suffragist movements; the development of the modern labour movement and Labour Party; the relationship between Britain and Ireland, and the major challenges to the political union of the two countries; Britain's role within the 'New Imperialism' from the 1880s; and the major changes to British society brought about by the impact of World War I.