Unit information: Bristol to Brunel (Level I Lecture Response Unit) in 2011/12

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Unit name Bristol to Brunel (Level I Lecture Response Unit)
Unit code HIST25023
Credit points 20
Level of study I/5
Teaching block(s) Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director Dr. Jones
Open unit status Not open
Pre-requisites

None
Co-requisites

None
School/department Department of History (Historical Studies)
Faculty Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This Lecture Response Unit explores the development of Bristol from its origins as a bridge-head trading settlement in c.1000 AD to the industrial and commercial city it had become by the mid-nineteenth century. In the process the unit takes in the precocious rise of the medieval town, its maritime enterprises, the rise and fall of the slave trade and the engineering achievements of Brunel’s era. Above all, the unit seeks to address the issues of: why the city succeeded / failed; what made it distinctive; and how it has been represented / sought to represent itself. The unit will provide opportunities for students to engage directly with many of the places being studied (e.g. through fieldtrips) and hopes, in particular, to provide a foundation for those who might wish to undertake Group Projects related to the history of the city in TB2.

Intended Learning Outcomes

  • To provide a broad grounding of the history of Bristol from its foundation to the mid-nineteenth century
  • To provide a particular perspective from the tutor to which students can react critically and build their own individual views and interpretations.
  • To learn how to engage with the history of a community of which they are a part, discovering, in particular, about the sources available for the study of Bristol – thereby providing a firm basis for those who wish to undertake a Group Project in TB2 on some aspect of the city’s history.

Teaching Information

Weekly 2-hour interactive lecture sessions Tutorial feedback on essay Access to tutorial consultation with unit tutor in consultation hours

Assessment Information

A 3000 word essay (50%) and 2-hour unseen written examination (50%) will assess the student’s understanding of the ways in which historians have interpreted developments in the field; test the student’s ability to think critically and develop their own views and interpretations; and test the extent to which they have understood how and why Bristol developed from c.1000-1850.

Reading and References

M.D. Lobel and E.M. Carus-Wilson, 'Bristol' in M.D. Lobel (ed.) The Atlas of Historic Towns, Vol 2 (London, 1975) D.H. Sacks, The Widening Gate: Bristol and the Atlantic Economy 1450-1700 (California, 1991) J.H. Bettey, Bristol Observed: Visitors' Impressions of the City from Domesday to the Blitz (Bristol, 1986) K. Morgan, Bristol and the Atlantic Trade in the Eighteenth Century (CUP, 1993) M. Dresser, Slavery Obscured: The Social History of the Slave Trade in an English Provincial Port (London, 2001) R.A. Buchanan and Michael Williams, Brunel’s Bristol (Bristol, 2005)

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