HIS2363 – From Cotton Mill to Megastore: Working in the West since 1845
Course description
Schedule, syllabus and examination date
Course content
Published in 1845, Friedrich Engels’s book Die Lage der arbeitenden Klasse in England (The Condition of the Working Class in England) describes how industrialisation affected the lives of working people, based in part on his encounters with them at a Manchester cotton mill. Regarding industrial labour as both a consequence of an ongoing class struggle and the sparkplug for the revolution that would end it one day, Engels told a story of industrial work as a catalyst for political change that was going to happen the world over, one nation at a time. Fast forward a good hundred and fifty years, we see the perspective on work and labour shifted. Industrial wage labour has moved in large parts to the Global South and is less clearly distinguishable from unfree labour. Unemployment has arisen as a major issue in wealthy countries. New forms of work have attracted scholarly attention, from domestic, reproductive and service labour (partly unpaid and often done by women) to creative work, where self-realisation is considered as much a reward as financial compensation. Fairness of pay and conditions is still an important concern, but it has become more difficult to mobilise for it, as dwindling union membership and the decline of Labour parties indicate.
Learning outcome
When you have completed this course you will be able to
● overlook major trends and issues in the history of work and labour in the West since the mid-nineteenth century
● understand historiographical arguments and discuss them critically
● develop, implement and finish a small historiographical research project
Admission to the course
Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in Studentweb.
If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures.
Overlapping courses
- 10 credits overlap with HIS4363 – From Cotton Mill to Megastore: Working in the West since 1845.
Teaching
The course offers short presentations that provide necessary historical background and introduce twelve discussion-led meetings à two teaching hours. In these seminars, students engage with selected literature and interpret primary sources. Participants are asked to prepare the texts from the syllabus for discussion. To complete the course successfully, they need to write a course paper of ten standard pages on a relevant topic of their own choice.
Compulsory assignment:
To qualify for the exam, students are expected to submit an exposé for their course paper project that specifies the research question, positions it in a research context, defines the case study to be undertaken to answer the question, and lists the research literature to be read for the project. Guidance on how to write such an exposé will be given in the course. The exposé is assessed as either pass or fail. Students will receive comments to their proposed course paper project.
Access to teachingA student who has completed compulsory instruction and coursework and has had these approved, is not entitled to repeat that instruction and coursework. A student who has been admitted to a course, but who has not completed compulsory instruction and coursework or had these approved, is entitled to repeat that instruction and coursework, depending on available capacity.
Examination
The course paper entails independent development of a research question, bibliographic research and independent reading. Guidance on how to approach this task will be given in class.
- The length of your paper should be maximum 5000 words, footnotes included. The bibliography is not included in the word count.
- Do not write your name in your exam (term paper). Use your candidate number. It is a four digit number which you will find next to your exam registration in StudentWeb. You are given a unique candidate number for each exam.
- Please include the candidate number and the course code in the header.
- Please remember to insert page numbers.
- You are required to follow the rules that apply to the use of sources and citations. This means you have to cite your sources according to the citation style of your choice and provide a full list of the sources you have used in the bibliography at the end of your paper. If you violate the rules, you may be suspected of cheating/attempted cheating.
Language of examination
The examination text is given in English, and you submit your response in English.
Grading scale
Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.
Resit an examination
More about examinations at UiO
- Use of sources and citations
- Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
- Withdrawal from an exam
- Illness at exams / postponed exams
- Explanation of grades and appeals
- Resitting an exam
- Cheating/attempted cheating
You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.