Revolution in Print. (Essay assignment, His 5250, Fall 2001)

Research paper will analyze the revolutionary moment of a particular year in the British Civil Wars and Interregnum, 1637-1653 in a historiographical and comparative perspective, using contemporary pamphlets, broadsides, plays, newspapers, etc., from Early English Books Online.

29 Aug. Print revolution assignment one due. [Print pamphlet title-page and full-text citation for work printed between 1637 and 1653.]

5 Sept.   Print revolution assignment two due. [Print out full-text citation to twenty works that you think might be useful to help answer the essay question, from one year between 1637 and 1653.]

12 Sept. Print revolution assignment three due. [Print out full-text citation to twenty works that you think might be useful to help answer the essay question, from another year between 1637 and 1653. Write a paragraph as to which year’s titles/works seem more revolutionary.]

29 Sept. Print revolution assignment four due. [Print out full-text citation (and photocopy printouts of two relevant pages from one work–enough for everyone in the course) to twenty works on one subject that you think might be useful to help answer the essay question, from one year between 1637 and 1653. Write a paragraph as to how this subject and these works might reveal a revolutionary moment.]

26 Sept. Print revolution assignment five due. [Print out and photocopy–enough for everyone in the seminar–two pages each from five pamphlets, and write a paragraph suggesting the revolutionariness (and limits thereof) of these pamphlets).]

3 Oct.    Print revolution assignment six due. [Write two, double-spaced, pages on how your pamphlets suggest a revolutionary moment in your year. Attach a bibliography of primary sources.]

7 Nov. Research introductory paragraph, bibliography, and outline due.

28 Nov. Critique of colleague's introduction, outline, and bibliography due.

5 Dec. TWELVE-MINUTE REPORTS (with five-minute critique from seminar); Research paper due.

When was the English/British Revolution? Research paper (original source research paper, 50% of total grade, typed, double-spaced) will analyze the revolutionary moment in one year. Pick one year between 1637-1653 and argue the nature of the revolutionary moment in that year. Was it a peasant revolt? An urban revolt? Part of a general crisis of the mid-seventeenth century? Religious? Social? Nationalist? How does it compare with other revolutionary moments. Was are the “radical men”? In other words, use theories from at least three general works on revolution and compare your “moment” with at least one continental revolt to test its revolutionariness. Focus on one aspect/event of that year by using at least twelve books, pamphlets, broadsides, newspapers printed in that year (at least fifty relevant pages) as well as relevant secondary sources and reference works.

This assignment requires you to use Early English Books Online (EEBO), which provides full-text (images), searching, and citations for over 125,000 titles: from the first book printed in English by William Caxton, through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare and the tumult of the English Civil War, to about 1700. Eastern Illinois University has a trial version access to this. But the trial period ends 30 September, so you should have your research well under hand by then.

Logon Procedures: http://wwwlib.umi.com/eebo Passwords are case sensitive.

EEBO Through end of August:

            Account Name: beaumont

            Password: welcome

EEBO Through end of September:

           Account Name: fletcher

           Password: welcome

Go the the website http://wwwlib.umi.com/eebo and scroll to the bottom of the page and click on "Enter." That will bring up two boxes in which you type the account name and password above. Enter and you can now search all books printed in English before about 1700. That is you can bring up on your screen, print, and save to your hard drive virtually any early printed book in English. Files are saved as .pdf files which means you need to have the Adobe Acrobat reader, downloadable (free) from http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/main.html