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Overview

'People, Power, and Political Action' examines incidences of protest across the period 1817-1989, using case studies drawing on staff research expertise. It considers how numerous groups and communities, driven by various ideologies and agendas, used various strategies to challenge the policies and processes of the modern state and/or economy.

The period between the March of the Blanketeers, designed as a way of drawing attention to the problems of the Lancashire cotton workers, and the Alexanderplatz protests, which culminated in the fall of the Berlin Wall, was characterised by public expressions of objection, disapproval, and dissent towards various political developments, ideas, and actions. The rural protests of the Swing riots; the machine-breaking disturbances that rocked the wool and cotton industries known as the ‘Luddite riots’; the Paris Commune; or the 1981 England riots caused by racial discrimination; the international movement opposing the South African apartheid system; or demonstrations in Central and Eastern Europe, where Soviet-aligned communist parties attempted to control protest, all challenged the prevailing political and social order in different ways.

The module sheds light on different movements and asks in particular how these movements were influenced by impulses from outside Europe, by questions of identity and gender, and by an increasing belief in progress, or indeed scepticism towards the latter. In doing so, it introduces different theoretical perspectives on protest (e.g., social movement studies, feminism, Marxism).

Case studies drawing on staff expertise will vary between the rural and the urban, between peaceful methods and violent confrontations, and range across movements that addressed a mixture of local, national, and global issues, for example, mass protest at ‘Peterloo’; the influence of the Paris Commune and its outcome on the political thought of Karl Marx; the women’s movement; boycotts as a form of consumer activism; violent confrontations between protesters and police or military forces; solidarity with anti-colonial liberation movements; direct action of the Welsh Language Society campaigning for the right of Welsh people to use the Welsh language in every aspect of their lives; protests against the Vietnam War; the so-called 1968 movements; anti-war protests against the NATO Double-Track Decision; the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp, which was initiated by a Welsh group; or the institutionalization of environmentalism in the years following the rapid rise of ecological movements in the 1970s and 1980s.

Students will be considering some of the following questions, which correspond not only to different historiographical approaches to the field, but also to different perspectives of historical inquiry more generally: 1. What were the social backgrounds of protests? 2. Which role did gender play in the dynamics of protest? 3. How did economic conditions influence protest? 4. Which resources did protesters mobilise? 5. How did artists and intellectuals contribute to protest? 6. How did violence enter into protest scenarios? 7. How did protest relate to decolonisation? 8. What were protesters’ visions of the future?

Assessment Strategy

Excellent students (A range) will produce a correctly presented analytical study that draws on an imaginative use of sources with critical comment of a very high standard. The structure and content of their essay will be fully effective showing great insight or significance as well as originality. Their work will show solid achievement across the criteria combined with particularly impressive depth of knowledge and/or subtlety of analysis.

Good students (B range) will write an analytical study meeting the criteria above, but also containing some nuanced or sophisticated interpretation, which would suggest effective and imaginative use of sources. Their work should also show critical acumen. Their essay will be adequately structured and should include perceptive understandings of the state of the chosen field, an imaginative use of the secondary literature, or a good understanding of the possible problems (as well as strengths) of the chosen methodology. They will show a solid to good level of achievement in all the criteria.

Threshold students (C range) will apply relevant secondary sources to their chosen primary source and present their analytical study in a reasonably correct form with some evidence of critical thinking. Their essay will demonstrate an appropriate range or depth of knowledge of at least parts of the relevant field, and will make at least partly successful attempts to frame arguments which engage with historical controversies and examine key concepts.

Learning Outcomes

• Design an original piece of historical investigation and analysis based on self-direction and creativity in pursuing ideas during the process of planning and writing .

• Evaluate and apply historiographies of protest that transgress the boundaries between political, economic, social and cultural history.

• Interpret different types of relevant primary sources and appraise their significance.

• Reconstruct and analyse changing ideas about protest, appreciate current debates and controversies, link historical evidence to the former, and make critical judgments on the merits of different interpretations and research methods.