History

History has always been a popular choice with English students, though many have found the workload more substantial than they initially expected. The modules offered are designed to introduce students to a wide range of British, European, and world history, history from medieval times to the present (and will thus complement your first year English courses well).

The School of Historical Studies website

These core modules explore the wide range of methods and approaches which historians have used to study the major problems of the past. They are as follows:

Course content

Semester one

• From Renaissance to Enlightenment: Early Modern Europe, c.1450-1715 (20 credits). This module examines the history of Europe during this formative era, tracing the transition from the high Renaissance world of Michelangelo and Machiavelli through Reformation and Scientific Revolution to the early Enlightenment. The course will focus on key developments and events, including the Reformation, the invention of the printing press, and the discovery of the New World, as well as encouraging students to explore their impact on individuals and communities throughout Europe.

OR

• Europe Reshaped (20 credits). This module aims to provide an overview of the development of nineteenth-century Europe. We will take you through the complex boundary changes that defined, redefined and eliminated states in the 'long nineteenth-century', highlighting the complex relations between space, identity and power. Thereafter the module aims to give you a broad overview of the political, physical, social, economic, cultural and intellectual complexion of Europe in the 'happening' long nineteenth-century.

Semester two

• The Making of the Modern World (20 credits). This module examines the economic and social forces that created the modern world, surveying the two great eras of 'globalisation' we have experienced since the sixteenth century. The first part focuses on globalisation before 1914. Key issues include industrialisation, population growth and migration, imperialism, international trade and the diffusion of technology. The course then explores the changing nature of the world order after 1914 together with the forces that produced a new one in the second half of the twentieth century.

OR

• Monarchy and Society: AD 800-1300 (20 credits). Studying the image and practice of monarchy is one of the best ways to come to grips with the essential components of medieval life. Most of Europe was ruled by kings in this period, and the nature of their government mirrored closely the societies over which they held sway. As the economy expanded and cultural life became more sophisticated, so did the courts and administrative apparatus of Europe's kings. The module will engage with such themes through a comparative study of England and France. Tutorial work will focus on some of the texts and visual evidence which survive from this period, inclulding the Anglo-Saxon Chronical, the Bayeux Tapestry and Magna Carta.

Students who have chosen to take History as a Option subject take 40 credits of courses (i.e. 20 credits in Semester 1; 20 credits in Semester 2).

Teaching

The course is taught through lectures (two per week) and regular tutorial sessions.

Assessment

Assessment is via written assignments in the first semester, and a combination of two written assignments and a two-hour written examination in the second semester.