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| Unit name |
From Balloons to the Beagle: Exploration, Discovery and Invention in the Romantic Age c.1780 - c.1835 (Special Field) |
| Unit code |
HIST26025 |
| Credit points |
20 |
| Level of study |
I/5
|
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
|
| Unit director |
Emeritus Professor. Pemberton |
| 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
When a hot-air balloon rose into the skies above Paris on 21 November 1783, humanity's dream of flying was finally achieved. The most spectacular experiment yet witnessed by a society entranced by scientific spectacle, ballooning symbolized the flights of imagination which characterized the Romantic age and which make its poetry and paintings a surprisingly good source for historians of science. It was by no means alone, however, in offering new perspectives on the heavens or the earth and its inhabitants. By the time that Charles Darwin set sail in the Beagle in 1831, discoveries in astronomy, geology, chemistry, electricity and biology were prompting new questions about the age of the earth, the origins of life and the uniqueness of humanity that seemed increasingly at odds with biblical accounts. Using contemporary texts and images, we will explore these discoveries and debates (primarily in Britain) and analyse their cultural significance.
Aims:
- To place students in direct contact with the current research interests of the academic tutor
- To enable students to explore the issues surrounding the state of research in the history of invention
- To develop students ability to work with primary sources
- To develop students abilities to integrate primary source material into a wider historical analysis
- To develop students ability to learn independently within a small-group context
- To introduce students to current debates in the cultural history of science and technology in the period c.1780-c.1835
- To raise students awareness of methodological issues in the history of science and technology.
Intended Learning Outcomes
By the end of the unit students should have:
- become more experienced and competent in working with a widening range of primary sources
- become more adept at contributing to and learning from a small-group environment
- acquired a fuller and more sophisticated understanding of British culture and society in the period c.1780-1835
- developed an understanding of methodological issues in the history of science and technology.
Teaching Information
- Tutorial feedback on essay
- Access to tutorial consultation with unit tutor in office hours
Assessment Information
1 x 2 hour exam
Reading and References
- S. Bann (ed.), Frankenstein, Creation and Monstrosity (Reaktion Books, 1994)
- A. Cunningham and N. Jardine (eds.), Romanticism and the Sciences (Cambridge UP, 1990)
- P. Fara, Pandoras Breeches: women, science and power in the Enlightenment (Pimlico Press, 2004)
- R. Holmes, The Age of Wonder: how the Romantic generation discovered the beauty and terror of science (Harper Press, 2008)
- I. McCalman (ed.), An Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age: British culture, 1776-1832 (Oxford UP, 1999)
- R. Porter (ed.), The Cambridge History of Science, vol. 4: eighteenth-century science (Cambridge UP, 2003)
