This course approaches the nineteenth century in the widest possible way, ranging from population trends and social structure to cultural history and from revolutions to imperialism.  It centres on Europe (including the British Isles) although particularly when it deals with imperialism and responses to it there is an opening into non-European history.

Undergraduates are expected to attend all 24 lectures designed for the course, in order to gain a sense of the broad themes and how they interlock, although for their weekly essays they must clearly specialize in the subjects of their choice.  There is no rubric in the examination requiring answers from given subdivisions of the paper.

The course begins with the population explosion of the nineteenth century, the agricultural and industrial revolutions which helped to sustain it, the dramatic growth of towns and the various waves of emigration to the New World.  A second set of topics examines the European élites, noble and non-noble, the middle classes who finally came into their own and the doctrine of liberalism which they predominantly embraced.  This is balanced by a study of peasants, industrial workers, and some of the social and political movements which played such a prominent role in the shaping of the nineteenth century (including the revolutions of 1830, 1848, 1871 and 1905). 

The next large area of investigation is the state and state-building.  This includes the development of bureaucracy, the practice of diplomacy and statecraft, as well as the formation of transnational movements (in areas such as religion or welfare reform) that, in terms of their origins and impact, went beyond the confines of a particular nation-state.  The next three lectures look at central aspects of cultural history: changing gender roles and ideologies, the question of whether the century was one of secularization or religious revival, and the representation of modern life in the arts.

The nineteenth century is often hailed as the century of nationalism.  The construction of national identities and the pursuit of the nation-state are studied, as are the scientific ideas - such as Social Darwinism - underpinning them.  It is not forgotten, however, that many peoples continued to live in multinational empires and that empires were built by the European powers encompassing non-European peoples.  The factors behind the growth of empire and the positive and negative responses of non-European peoples – from Africa to India and from China to Japan – form the last part of the course.