The overall aim of the series of workshops is to arrive at a genuine collaboration between established scholars and postgraduates/early postdoctoral researchers in late seventeenth and early eighteenth century English/British and British American history. The workshops will explore how Early Modern English, British and British American history can be reunited. Our working assumption is that closer links between the two areas of historical research would have a beneficial effect on how we understand English, British and English American history in the late seventeenth century and will help reunite seventeenth and eighteenth century historiographies. The workshops will pay particular attention to the crucial period between 1650 and 1750 when the politics, societies and cultures of both England/Britain and British America were transformed, leading to a century of growth, prosperity and possibly stability, in both regions of the British Empire. The fundamental assumption under-girding these workshops is that one cannot understand the development of either Early Modern Britain or colonial British America without a deep understanding of the numerous connections which linked them together.

The programme of activities consisted of:

• A one-day workshop on The Glorious Revolution as a Transatlantic Problem Reconsidered at the Newberry Library on 5 November 2010
• A one-day workshop on The Birth of British America 1660-1750 at Warwick on 25 March 2011
• A two-week residential Newberry Library Summer Workshop: Reintegrating British and American History in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, 1660-1750 for competitively selected participants, held at the Newberry Library between 10 and 23 July 2011

 

 

Fellowship report Stephanie Koscak

Fellowship report Elizabeth Bouldin