This course will be an examination of a
particular region, a sweeping history from the origins of settlement
up to the twenty-first century. In spite of repeated waves of
immigration, climate change, domination from afar, and other
upheavals, the basin of the Irish Sea has retained a kind of
commonality, a loose unity which stretches across both political
states and modern "nations." To put it plainly, the course will
encompass the history of the areas we now call Wales, Western
England, Western Scotland, the Western Islands, the Isle of Man, and
Ireland. From the neolithic to the twenty-first century, we will
have to take a macro-historical approach for the most part, and we
will be as interested in cultural and economic aspects of this
region's history as we will be interested in its politics.
Links of
Interest, Documentary Resources, and Some Other Generally Cool
Stuff
The famous
"Waltzing Matilda," written in the 19th century but inspired
by Scottish theme, "Craigielee," and devoted to a country made up
chiefly of the descendants of Celts. Played by the great
Australian singer John Williamson.
.
Elements of the Course
There will be one exam midterm regular exams (each accounting for 20
% of the course grade) and a final 30 %).
In this course, 80 to 82.5 is a B-, 82.5 to 87 is a B, 87 to 89.9 is
a B+ etc. Be sure to remember that if you are signed up to take the
class only remotely (Zoom etc.), then you may not attend in
person. Also, please remember that if you have any of the
symptoms listed by the College or otherwise feel sick, you
should not attend class. If you are able, in such a case, to
attend via Zoom, then you need to do that. As noted above, I
will hold office hours both in my office, and at separate times
via Zoom. We will hold strictly to the College's policies for
social distancing and face-coverings, of course. We will be
attentive to keeping well in addition to experiencing an intense
learning experience. Excessive absences, except for excused
absences related to the Covid virus, will result in the loss of
a letter grade in the course.
For those taking the course remotely, I would highly prefer that
you turn on the Video.
Academic Integrity, Attendance, and Late Project/Paper Penalties
This course will be run on the basis of the
Austin College Academic Integrity Policies. Group studying is
of course fine. But all students are required to do their own
work on tests and papers. By being enrolled in this course,
each student agrees to abide by the Academic Integrity principles
found in the most recent version of the Environment or in other
official college publications. All sources used in preparation
of the papers should be acknowledged appropriately. This
means that direct quotations, specific information, and specific
ideas should be attributed in the text or in a footnote to their
source. A sentence taken from someone else and slightly altered
still constitutes plagiarism, which the Environment specifically
names an honor offense. In terms of our journal assignments
for this course, the passing off of cut-and-paste material from
electronic sources is considered a major academic integrity
violation. I will respond to all violations with appropriate
penalties. In the case of cheating on a test, I will give the
student an F for the course. All violations of any kind will be
reported to the Vice-President for Academic Affairs.
Excessive absences will lead not only to
deterioration of the class participation grade, but also potentially
to faculty-initiated withdrawal from the class if the absences
amount to more than 5. After the open period for
student-initiated dropping without a grade, student-initiated
withdrawals are generally not approved. Papers
You will be writing three essays on aspects of interest to you. Of
course, they will pertain to the Irish Sea area. The papers should
be solid but fairly brief papers. They should be at least 1700 words of text,
exclusive of title page, footnotes, and bibliography. And they
must have each of those components. They must be based on a solid
bibliography of works and include at least two primary sources
among the ten sources overall. Sources may NOT be unsigned
internet sources (such as Wikipedia), general encyclopedias,
or blogs, or anything that is not verifiable in some way.
Suggestions include scholarly articles, specialized historical
encyclopedias, memoirs, scholarly books, and primary sources such
as song collections, document collections, etc.
Each essay must include the form:
Intro
Body
Conclusion
And you must be very careful to include a clear thesis statement
somewhere close to the front of the paper. Paragraphs should be
coherent and devoted to a single "topic" as exemplified in the
famous "topic sentence." Formal English is essential, and close
proofreading will be necessary.
In cases where you can make a good argument for it, I will allow
an oral presentation involving multi-media as a replacement for a
paper. This will mean that you have to make a class presentation
or publish a web product (like a temporary website or blog entry).
Please consult with me on this if you have ideas. Literature
presentations or explorations of music, sports, and culture might
be prime candidates for these. Talk to me.
Due dates are on the Schedule Page
Books to Acquire
Thomas Cahill. How the Irish Saved Civilization (Hinges of
History) [Paperback]
ISBN-10: 0385418493
ISBN-13: 978-0385418492
Arthur Herman, How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True
Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World
& Everything in It
ISBN-10: 0609809997
ISBN-13: 978-0609809990
