Dear students, 

I will not be back next year to teach you American History, and I'm awfully sorry about that. I truly wish you an excellent summer break and a lot of success in your studies in the coming years. I'd be happy to stay in touch with you. I trust you all have my e-mail adress. 

If you are interested in British politics I would like to reccommend the blog created by a friend and collegue from the University of Paris III : 

British politics P3

Of course you are all more than welcome on my blog on American history and politics; please come and visit and feel free to leave a comment.  

American Studies Year 2

All the best to all of you, 

Aude de Mézerac

Enjoy the atmosphere of the House of Commons

To have a good laugh watch this : Harriet Harman is the deputy leader of the Labour Party and replaced the PM who was away two weeks ago.
She is facing William Hague.
To give you the necessary background : Harriet Harman was seen a couple days earlier visiting her constituency and wearing a stab vest. People mocked her and wondered what it meant about Britain if politicians had to wear such gear to meet with their constituents. 

Enjoy : 

Questions on the movie THE QUEEN

Remember to watch the movie The Queen and answer the following questions for our last class together (seminar 11, on April 16): 

1. How is the royal family depicted in this film? Give examples to make your point. 

2. Analyze the relationship between the Queen and the Prime Minister and its evolution.  

3. What does the film reveal about the contemporary evolutions of Britain? How (by what means) does it do show these changes? 

4. How would you explain the choice of the title for the film? 

SEMINAR 9

Don't forget to bring along Seminar 8 next week: we will be finishing it off before discussing Gordon Brown's first months in office. 

Seminar 9 is a newspaper article but to help you do some research on Gordon Brown here are a few links to interesting articles : 

The Observer offers an article similar to that of The Telegraph that you are studying : insisting on Brown's strategies to get people back to work with the help of the private and voluntary sectors.

 The Spectator, a generally conservative newspaper, offers a longer analysis of the choices faced by Brown : how to deal with Blair as a former PM and with his over-reaching legacy. 

After quite a bit of dithering, Gordon Brown decided to nationalise Northern Rock, the failed bank that almost went under last summer. What does such a decision mean ? Does this mark in any way a return to nationalisation policies? 

A presentation  by the Economist of the next budget : Alistair Darling is possibly over-estimating the future growth of the British economy on which his budget partly rests. 

Gordon Brown suffers from taking the stage after a brilliant actor. 

The Economist on recent electoral polls. 

Tony Blair

You may want to watch Tony Blair's speech to get a sense of the way he speaks :

part 1




part 2



This is an extract from the speech and a short analysis by BBC -News.

Here is a short video summarizing the PM's last speech to the Labour Conference in 2006.

SEMINAR 7 has changed since last year

Please beware : seminar 7 is not the same seminar as last year. So make sure you get it off the Cergy website or off the google group. We will be working on a 1980 speech by Margaret Thatcher. 

Questions for seminar 6 : the wind of change

1. Describe the international, British and South African context in which this speech was given. 
   
2. Who is MacMillan? Is his message consistent with his party's position on the issue? 
3. Whom is Harold MacMillan adressing in this speech and what is he saying to each audience? 
   
4. How is decolonisation described in the speech? Look at the specific words chosen by MacMillan. Explain the rationale for such rhetoric. 
5. What is the Commonwealth? How is it presented in the speech? 
6. Analyse MacMillan's message to South Africa. 

1. 
   

my mistake

Actually the document I suggest you read is on the Cergy website, under the heading Seminar 6. 

I will put it up on the google group ASAP. 

Enjoy the end of your break, 

AM

Comedian Jon Stewart interviewed Hillary Clinton on monday and last night he used one of the words from urban-dictionnary :

update

Dear all, 

I'm pretty angry at Cergy for not putting up the photocopies I had made of the relevant pages of Poverty and Welfare in Britain. What a complete waste of my time. 

However the photocopies are also available in the library of Les Chênes : just ask for the book at the front desk. 

A quick read through the British papers ought to have interested you : Prince Harry was serving in Afghanistan for the last couple weeks. The British media had agreed to keep it quiet until he came home in order not to endanger him and his fellow soldiers. 

In the Guardian the journalist drew  a parallel with Prince Edward of Wales ( later Edward VIII) who had not been allowed to serve on the frontlines during World War I. Now the media and the public opinion are split on how to interpret "Harry's War" : 

- was it a media/PR (=public relations) stunt (=une cascade ; un coup médiatique)?

- was he genuinely sent there to serve as a 'normal military personnel)? 

useful reading

Dear students,

You will find two fine chapters that explain the context in which the Parliament Bill of 1911 was passed in the following book :

Twentieth Century Britain : A political History .
WIllaim. D. Rubinstein. 2003

The book is in the library, please use it in the library to let everyone have a chance at looking at it.
The photocopies of the relevant chapter in Poverty and Welfare is available at the the library in Les Chènes.

See you wednesday;

AM

Any one know what is hitting the headlines today in Britain?

what's hitting the headlines in the UK this week

The Archbishop of Canterbury has recently given a legal paper and an interview on the subject of the relationship between sharia and English law. He has said that sharia law will inevitably have to accomodate sharia law which is used by the British Muslims, especially in areas such as marriage legislation. If you want to read or listen to the full interview with Archbishop Rowan Williams visit the BBC page. You will also find the video of his address on their website.

Read The Guardian article.
For a very different perspective you can refer to the articles published by The Telegraph by clicking here.

As you can see the archbishop has tried to clarify his thoughts in response to the barrage of criticism he has faced in the press this week.

Did you read any noteworthy news in the British papers this week? Let me know and I can arrange for you to post it on the blog.

reading suggestions

Here are a few books available at Cergy's Library and I suppose that they can be useful.

Nineteenth century Britain. Jeremy Black

The Pelican history of England : 1815-1914 , David Thomson . 8 . England in the nineteenth century (use the index to find references to the trade-unions)

Histoire du syndicalisme dans le monde : des origines à nos jours , sous la dir. de Jean Sagnes

L'invention des syndicalismes : le syndicalisme en Europe occidentale à la fin du XIXe siècle , sous la dir. de Jean-Louis Robert, Friedhelm Boll, Antoine Prost ; postf. de Jacques Delors

You may also want to use a book on British history or on the history of the 19th century or on Victorian Britain.

Websites you may want to check out :
union history website.

wikipedia and encarta also provide for encyclopedia entries for trade-unions. Use these sources carefully and remember to think for yourselves as you construct your answer to the essay question. 

best wishes for 2008

Dear Students,

I hope that 2008 will be a year of personal and academic fulfillment for all of you.

The Queen addressed her country on Christmas Day. I have found that this video tells you a lot about Britain and is quite touching albeit a bit quaint.