Age of Revolution makes new classroom Top Trumps free to all UK schools

An innovative history education partnership has created an official Top Trumps set covering the ‘Age of Revolution’ (1775-1848) – featuring key figures ranging from military leader Napoleon to black political activist William Cuffay and philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft.

The 30-card sets will be made available for free by Waterloo200 to all interested schools, alongside a range of educational advice on how to weave use of the popular card game into classroom activities.

Aimed at students aged 9-16, the game features a diverse set of revolutionary men and women from a range of backgrounds and countries of origin, helping to make the subject matter relevant to a wide audience.

The deck was assembled by historian Dr Ben Marsh following an international poll and consultation process involving more than 4,000 votes from teachers and students. The figures include many household names from the great revolutions of the age – including the American, French, Haitian, and 1848 uprisings. But in step with recent research, which has pointed to the wide range of peoples and places impacted by the period’s upheavals, there are also men and women who are less familiar but who offer exciting prospects for engagement in the classroom because of the richness of their lives, histories, and geographies.

The initiative is the result of a partnership between educationalists at the Age of Revolution project and the University of Kent, with original artwork by ‘Polyp’ and design by the official Top Trumps franchise, Winning Moves. Put together, the cards convey a sense of the drama, diversity, and the stakes at large in the social and political contests that gripped large parts of the globe in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Its aim is to bring attention to a cast of characters whose lives and legacies reflect the upheavals of the Age of Revolution between 1775 and 1848, and to introduce students to this fascinating period in a way which is familiar and fun. The characters come from Britain, Europe, North and South America, the Caribbean, and Africa, and include philosophers, poets, writers, politicians, and campaigners who helped to shape the revolutionary conflicts, reforms, ideas and discoveries of the era.

Each card in Top Trumps: Great Figures of the Age of Revolution includes a short biography and a series of numerical scores for characteristics that include political prowess, radicalism, legacy, and social status at birth. To win a round, the students seek to capture other cards by out-scoring them in particular categories. Integrating play and pedagogy, the game invites participants to develop subject knowledge and to explore the bigger questions and connections implicit in the selection and the rankings.

The game will lend itself to single classes and standalone activities or can easily be integrated into larger schemes of work and enquiry questions at more advanced levels, as students are encouraged to think about connections within history and links beyond it to questions of citizenship, globalisation, representation, and social justice. Suggested activities are also available on the website.

Dr Ben Marsh, University of Kent says: “What’s exciting is the way this brings students into fresh contact with many different faces and ideas from the period. The game is fun and fast on the surface – helped by the vivid cartoon portraits. But the work behind it aims to stimulate deeper thinking about the range of communities and places involved in revolutionary upheavals, and how we measure people’s historical significance.”

Victoria Nielson, CEO for Waterloo200 says: “This project is a culmination of many years of building a range of diverse resources for teachers and pupils to learn about this important period of history that, in many ways, laid the foundations for the make-up of the modern world – be it power, people or politics.”

Schools can find out more and order their sets of cards at The Age of Revolution website.