HIST 339
SCOTLAND AND IRELAND IN THE MODERN AGE

1. Catalog Entry

HIST 339. Scotland and Ireland (B)
Three hours lecture (3).

Prerequisite: Three hours of HIST at 100 level.

A general survey of Scottish and Irish history in modern times. Topics will range from William Wallace through the Reformation to Bonnie Prince Charlie and from Drougheda through the Great Famine to the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Themes will include state building, identity formation, and relations between Highlanders and Lowlanders, Celts and Saxons, and Protestants and Catholics.

2. Detailed Description of Content of Course

This course will provide students a chance to become acquainted with the history of Scotland and Ireland, helping them to acquire knowledge and understanding of regions and countries to which many students trace their heritage and from which the United States has derived many important characteristics. The course will attempt to create awareness of how Scotland and Ireland came to be the ways that they are and how Scottish and Irish experiences have been important. Major topics include:

(1) Scottish Wars of Independence
(2) Scotland as an Independent Kingdom
(3) Scottish Reformation
(4) Scotland’s British Kings
(5) Anglo-Scottish Union
(6) Scottish Enlightenment
(7) Ireland Conquered and Unified
(8) Ireland under English Rule
(9) Anglo-Irish Union
(10) Independence and Partition
(11) The Troubles

3. Detailed Description of Conduct of Course

This course will combine lectures, class discussions based on assigned readings, media presentations, diverse writing assignments, and in-class exercises. In all cases, the course will be learner-centered. The course will also offer research opportunities, as students will be able to explore in greater depth topics of special interest through secondary and primary source readings. The course will provide the academic support services that students need in order to succeed.

4. Goals and Objectives of the Course

Having successfully completed the course, the student will:

• Be better able to understand history and historical methodologies, and the student will have a more fully developed historiographical personality, and this outcome is critical to the achievement of all the other course goals.
• Have a better understanding of the cultural heritage of Appalachia and the United States and in some cases also a better understanding of his or her own heritage.
• Better see historical connectivity and thus will be better able to apply historical knowledge to a variety of contemporary issues.
• Have navigated individualized analysis and assessment programs and thus be better able to direct autonomous learning experiences.
• Be more competent in reading, writing, and oral communication.
• Have participated in active-learning exercises and thus be better prepared for authentic experiences.
• Have been exposed to questions of self and national identity and thus better understand identity and the contentious issues that arise from it in our world today.

5. Assessment Measures

The course will employ a variety of assessment measures. These instruments may include identification exercises that test overall command of course material; in-class essays that assess memory and critical thinking skills; out-of-class writing assignments that judge analysis, research, and writing; document-analysis assignments that test historiographical ability; and in-class discussions that assess oral communication skills.

6. Other Course Information

  None.

7.  Review and Approval

Date Action Reviewed by
November 2005 Approved by Charles McClellan