History, Politics and International Relations

Core Modules

• History in the Making

  The course follows a grand narrative arc that explores the themes, sources and questions that have animated the work of historians from antiquity to the present day. How have historians discussed themes like Renaissance, Revolution or Gender? What kinds of sources have they used? How do such ideas influence our understanding of historical change? How has this shaped public debate/public history?

• Introduction to International Relations

  This module offers a broad introduction to theory and history in international relations since 1870. You will look at a variety of different theoretical lenses, ranging from orthodox to critical perspectives, in order to understand events from the collapse of the Bismarckian European order and the origins of World War 1 to the contemporary War on Terror. Along the way you will also explore the origins and the end of the Cold War, decolonisation and the End of Empire, the rise of international institutions, humanitarian intervention and new security issues.

• Introduction to Politics and Government

  This module will introduce you to the academic study of politics and to the ‘real world’ of contemporary politics. As a foundational course, it will give you all the essential tools to understand the nature of politics and analyse the way different political systems work. You will be introduced to key concepts such as politics, power, rights, ideologies, democracy and representation, and will learn about the different actors, institutions and processes that make up politics today.

• Independent Essay

  The subject of the essay must be outside the direct remit of the various Group 1 and Group 2 taught courses that the student is taking. The essay is intended to facilitate and develop the student's powers of independent thought and research, exercised in a field selected by the student for its particular attractions to him/her and where regular supervisory guidance is available.

• Dissertation
• Dissertation in Politics and/or IR

  The dissertation offers you the opportunity to pursue independent research in a topic of your own choosing with the support of an academic supervisor working one-to-one with you. You will develop your own research question and research strategy, explore the scholarly debates surrounding your topic, and advance your own thesis that interprets or challenges the way your topic has been understood. You are encouraged to use a variety of quantitative or qualitative methods and theoretical approaches as appropriate to the field you are exploring.

Optional Modules

There are a number of optional course modules available during your degree studies. The following is a selection of optional course modules that are likely to be available. Please note that although the College will keep changes to a minimum, new modules may be offered or existing modules may be withdrawn, for example, in response to a change in staff. Applicants will be informed if any significant changes need to be made.

• Gods, Men and Power: An Introduction to the Ancient World, from Homer to Mohammed

  This course looks at how power was exercised in the ancient Mediterranean world - in politics, in religion, and in culture. It covers a long and dramatically changing period, from early Greece (the time of the Homeric epics) to the rise of Christianity and then the rise of Islam. A variety of areas of life are investigated through both primary sources (in translation) and a selection of the latest secondary works.

• Republics, Kings and People: The Foundations of European Political Thought from Plato to Rousseau

  This course investigates the origins of our ideas about human rights and duties, revolution and democracy, consent and liberty, etc. A number of key writings are studied: ranging from Plato and Aristotle in the ancient world to Machiavelli, More, Hobbes, Locke and the Enlightenment in the transition from the early modern to the modern world. Analysis of the development of fundamental ideas about politics and society through these examples sharpens the mind and throws light upon the present in the perspective of the past.

• The Age of Discovery: Expansion, Invention and Globalisation in the Early Modern World

  The early modern period is an age of change. It has been seen by many as the beginning of modernity, for it witnesses the consolidation of both national monarchies and the central state, the split of Christianity with the emergence of the Reformation, the spread of Islam to the Balkans, European expansion into the ‘new world,’ the introduction of print, and significant changes in patterns of consumption. This course will assess the impact that these processes had on the lives of ordinary early modern Europeans and on their ways of making sense of the changes in the world around them. For example, we will examine how the process of state-building brought about a new culture of discipline and self-restraint in everyday life; how people’s attitudes to the sacred and standards of morality changed with the spread of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. We will ask whether the introduction of print revolutionized ordinary people’s access to information and knowledge, and whether the encounter with Native Americans stimulated the development of a separate European identity, perceived as superior. This course will also address continuities and changes in the domestic and private spheres of individuals’ lives -- gender relations, patterns of family life, ideas about childhood and intimacy, attitudes to health and hygiene, birth and death. Throughout the emphasis will be on the experience of ordinary people.

• Conflict and Identity in Modern Europe, c. 1770 to 2000

  This course highlights a range of major themes in (predominantly) European history from the French Revolution to the Fall of the Berlin Wall. In studying specific events and developments students will also be introduced to more general concepts like revolution, constitutionalism, liberalism, nationalism, industrialisation, socialism, communism, fascism, parliamentary democracy and welfare state. Exposure to different historical methods and conflicting interpretations will help students to hone their own analytical skills.

• Mao to Mandela: Twentieth-Century Leaders of the non-Western World

  The course establishes a framework for the discussion of the politics of extra-European societies as represented by their leaders in the twentieth century.  The leaders are studied both in terms of what their lives represent, and as individuals.  The leaders represent political ideas on leadership and varying notions of what constitutes authority, as well as examples of the phenomenon of charisma. One of our tasks is to understand how these societies are different.  The course then looks at a variety of case studies which might include (amongst others):  Nelson Mandela in South Africa; Gandhi and Indira Gandhi in India, Mao in China; Peron and Che Guevara in Latin America; the Zionist, Ben Gurion; Ayatollah Khomeini and militant Islamism in Iran.  It assesses their role in the development of nationalism, and of the wars and revolutions which arose from resistance to the West, especially imperialism. It discusses their ideological vision, interpreting its origins and aims. Finally, it looks at the seeming clash between Islam and the West, and relates it to resources, particularly oil. 

• Rome to Renaissance: An Introduction to the Middle Ages

  The terms 'Middle Ages' and 'Medieval' are often used to evoke a dark and bigoted world, wracked by war, pestilence and superstition and oppressed by tyrannical kings and prelates. The image is not entirely false as all those things can be found in medieval history but it is by no means the full picture. The period from c.400 to c.1500 saw Western Europe transform itself from the poorer part of the retreating Roman empire to a wealthy and dynamic society that was starting to explore the world far beyond its borders. This course explores some of the changes that took place along the way and answers some of the questions that you may always have wanted to ask: What was 'feudalism'? How were castles and Gothic cathedrals built? Why did the Pope become so powerful? What were the Crusades? And does any of this have any relevance whatsoever to the modern world?

• History of the British Empire, 1763 to 1900

  This module charts a period of dramatic change, during which the British Empire was transformed by the loss of the 13 American colonies; enormous territorial expansion in India and Africa; the abolition of slavery; and the growth of settler societies in Canada, southern Africa and Australasia. The course considers British imperialism from both a metropolitan and a colonial viewpoint.

• History of the British Empire, 1899 to 1963

  At the beginning of the twentieth century, the British Empire reached its greatest extent, and yet, by the 1960s, it had all but disappeared. This module covers the history of Britain's expansion and contraction in the first two-thirds of the twentieth century, from the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War to the achievement of African independence during the premiership of Harold Macmillan.

• The Rise and Fall of the Roman Republic

  This module covers the history of the Roman Republic from the foundation of Rome to the murder of Julius Caesar in 44 BC. We will trace the rise of Rome from city-state to world power and examine the pressures that drove Rome to conquer her Mediterranean empire and the consequences of that expansion for the Romans and for the peoples they conquered.

• Rome and its Empire from Augustus to Commodus

  This module traces the history of the Roman Empire from the achievement of sole power by the first emperor, Augustus (31 BC - AD 14), to the murder of Commodus in AD 192. We will assess the political, social and cultural developments under the emperors and explore fundamental themes including imperial frontier policy and administration, the process of Romanisation, and the nature of Roman religion.

• Globalising Capital: Britain and the World, 1846 to 1913
• The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1000-1250
• Religion, Culture and Society in Europe, 1000-1250

  The approach of this module is firmly comparative, and the geographical scope is wide: from the British Isles to the Crusader States. The period c.1000–1250 in Europe saw many key developments, including: the establishment of universities and of the Inquisition; the persecution of heretics, religious minorities and of perceived sexual deviants; and the growth of vernacular literature.

• Politics, Pestilence and War in Late Medieval Europe, 1300 to 1500

  This module examines a period of momentous change, which witnessed the Great Famine and Black Death kill perhaps half of Europe’s population, the consequences of endemic warfare rampaging across the continent, and outbreaks of popular revolt involving exceptional brutality. Lectures and seminars trace the major developments in the period.

• The Sacred and Profane: Cultural Life in Renaissance Europe

  Late medieval Christian Europe was a world of contrasts. Plague was endemic, but those lucky enough to survive enjoyed improving standards of living that rested in many parts of Europe on a flourishing economic life. This naturally affected life in cities, opening up opportunities for many.

• The European Crucible 1914-47: Politics, Culture and Society

  This module covers the repercussions of the First World War and the Bolshevik revolution, economic crisis, the collapse of parliamentary regimes in the inter-war period, Italian fascism, German Nazism, Stalinism in Russia, the civil war and the origins of the Franco regime in Spain, and the Holocaust.

• The Politics of Postwar Europe, 1945 to 2000

  This module focuses chronologically on the major political and institutional developments, from the end of World War II, the onset of the Cold War, and the communist take-over of Eastern Europe, to decolonisation, the collapse of the southern dictatorships, the fall of communism, and the Yugoslav wars.

• Twentieth-Century World History: the Asian resurgence

  This module looks at the major political developments that took place in different parts of Asia during the twentieth century.  Topics include:  the downfall of the Qing dynasty in China and the causes of the  political struggle there that resulted in the establishment of the Chinese Communist state in 1949; the modernisation of Japan under the Meiji state, the rise of Japanese imperialism and Japan’s post-Second World War recovery; the emergence of the nationalist movement in India and the processes that led to independence and partition in 1947, together with the post-1947 histories of different parts of South Asia.  

• New Worlds, Lost Worlds: The Tudor Monarchy, 1485 to 1603

  The reigns of the Tudor monarchs saw fundamental changes in the power and influence of the state, in religious beliefs and practices and in the economy and society. This module considers the importance of the sixteenth century in the changing nature of political power and explores how the exercise of monarchical authority was shaped by the politics of personal monarchy, royal personality, minority, female monarchy and religion.

• Killing the King: England in an Age of Revolutions 1603-1714

  This module explores the successive crises of popery and absolutism in the British civil wars and the execution of Charles I (1638-49), the Exclusion Crisis (1678-83) and the Glorious Revolution (1688). Attention will be paid to political and intellectual culture including, the role of print, the rise of party politics and propaganda, the growth of science, and the decline of magic.  

• The Georgians: Society, Culture and Crime, 1714-1830

  This module explores one of the most vibrant centuries in British history, an age frequently seen as one of liberty, luxury, elegance and excess. Beneath this commercially successful and fashionably polite society lay fears of riot and disorder, debt, poverty and rising crime rates.

• Nineteenth-Century Europe: Society and Culture, 1789 to 1905

  The period from the French Revolution to the end of the nineteenth century witnessed extraordinary transformations in just about every area of Europeans’ lives. Developments include industrialisation, new technology, emerging ideas and artistic movements - this module addresses these and others in order to ask both what drove the major changes of the nineteenth century and, just as importantly, how people responded to and made sense of them.

• The Birth of Europe, 400-800

  This module studies the birth of a new European order - it runs from the slow disintegration and eventual collapse of the Roman empire in the West to the beginnings of a new European empire under the Carolingians. We shall explore the nature of emerging states, their ruling elites, their religion and culture, and their relations (friendly and hostile) with the wider world of the old Byzantine empire and the new empire of the Islamic Caliphate.

• The Light of Burning Heretics: Popular Heresy in the Middle Ages

  The period 1000-1400 in western Europe witnessed the development of mass heresies, commanding wide and often international followings. This module will follow the responses to these from the preaching and launching of a crusade to the development of the Inquisition.

• Twentieth-Century World History: The Middle East, Africa and Latin America

  This module looks at the history of the non-western twentieth-century world from the vantage point of developments in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America: from empire-building to de-colonization and revolution in the Middle East, to intersections between politics and race in Southern Africa, to radical movements and US intervention in Latin America.

• Medicine from Antiquity to the Medieval Near East

  This module will provide an introduction to the main medical schools and writers from the Hippocratic Corpus to Galen, situating medical theory in the wider context of classical philosophy. It will also cover the reception of ancient medicine in Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Arabic world.

• The Western Powers and East Asia, 1839-1945
• The Ottoman Empire, 1453-1789

  This module introduces students to the Ottoman Empire during the early modern period, from the conquest of Constantinople to the accession of the modernizing Sultan Selim III. This period captures dramatic changes in both the internal dynamics of the empire and its position in the world: from a centralized conquest state under powerful Sultans to a decentralized network of regions, and from an aggressive militaristic empire with pretensions to universal sovereignty to a struggling polity increasingly dependent on diplomacy and alliances to fend off its enemies.

• ‘Peace that is No Peace’: The Global Cold War 1945-91

  This module will examine superpower relations during the Cold War, including the collapse of the USSR and the period of uncertainty which followed. The module will take a global comparative perspective in telling the history of international relations in the period 1945-91.

• Virtue and Power: Political Thought from Cicero to Machiavelli

  Traditionally, university courses on political ideas tend to leap from the Ancient Greeks to Machiavelli, largely ignoring the wealth of ideas and theories to be found in between. This module seeks to supplement, and even challenge, this standard canon by exploring a range of other thinkers, including (among others) Cicero, Al-Farabi and Christine de Pizan.

• Spanish and Portuguese Empires in the Americas, 1450-1650

  Beginning with a brief overview of Iberia, Africa and the Americas in the late fifteenth century, this module explores how subsequent encounters between societies on both sides of the Atlantic created the complex world of colonial Latin America. This module emphasizes the transatlantic connections between Spain, Portugal, West Africa and the Americas that resulted in the dynamic movement of people and ideas within and across the broader Iberian world.

• The Making of the Modern Middle East, 1789-1930

  This module explores the transformation from empire to nation state in the Near and Middle East. The key historical process in this period was the eclipse of old religious and imperial forms of identity by new national identities – how did Middle Easterners reconciled Islam with modernity, and the integration of the region into the increasingly globalized capitalist economy?

• Everyday Life in the Italian Renaissance

  The Italian Renaissance is conventionally portrayed as a period of cultural and artistic renewal, economic prosperity and advanced political forms (republican governments). This module will verify the validity of this picture by considering the everyday experience of the men and women who inhabited the cities of Northern and Central Italy between 1350 and 1650 - political participation, class conflict, education, ways of inhabiting, material culture, crime and violence, gender relationships and sexual deviancy, devotion and the use of magic.

• International Economic Relations 1917-1991

  This module covers the economic developments affecting the international economy thought the second half of the twentieth century to the end of the Great Recession (2007/8-2012). Topics include the Marshall and Dawes Plans, the ‘Golden Age’, the fall of the Keynesian consensus, stagflation and the rise of the New Right, and the rise of the less-developed economies.  

• The Victorians, 1837-1901

  Who were the Victorians? What did they believe in? What was the legacy of the Victorian years? And what do they continue to mean and signify to us today? This module offers a general overview of the dramatic political, cultural and social contours of life in Britain during the Victorian period, often seen as the zenith of British progress and self-confidence.

• Modern British History 1914-1973

  This module seeks to investigate politics, society and culture in modern Britain during the sixty-year period encompassed between the outbreak of World War One in 1914 and Britain’s entry into the European Economic Community in 1973. Topics include the impact of two world wars upon British cultural life and gender roles, the decline of Liberalism and rise of Labour, the growth of leisure and the mass media, post-war immigration, and the end of the British empire.

• History of the USA, 1787 to 1877

  This module surveys a formative period in which the United States experienced rapid and dramatic demographic, territorial and economic changes, developing from a young nation threatened by European and Native American enemies to a continental power. Meanwhile, a growing sectional crisis over slavery led to a bloody Civil War (1861-1865) that threatened to tear asunder the American republic.

• History of The USA Since 1877

  This module examines the social, cultural, economic and political contours of US history since 1877, incorporating topics such as westward expansion, industrialisation and urbanization, the progressive era, the First World War, the Great Depression and the New Deal, the Second World War, the Cold War, domestic developments in the 1960s and 1970s, and the rise of the New Right in the 1980s.

• Spain 1898-1939

  This module examines the difficult years of the early 20th century in Spain, including the civil war. It seeks to explain the causes of Spain's superstructural instability by looking not only 'top-down' at political tensions and economic contradictions, but also 'bottom-up' at the social and cultural fragmentation of Spain during this period.

• Spain from Dictatorship to Democracy 1939-1989

  This module adopts a thematic approach within a broadly chronological framework. It explores state and society under the rule of General Franco, and traces the processes of social, economic and cultural change which precipitated the crisis of the dictatorship and Spain's transition to democracy.

• Awakening China: From the Opium Wars to the Present Day

  This module explores how China made its transition from an isolated, self-contained 'Middle Kingdom' in the middle of the nineteenth century, to its present day status as an emerging global superpower. Overall we examine how a new nation was built, not just in political and social terms but also through the experiences of the people who lived through it.

• The Holy Man

  This module explores perceptions of the ‘holy man’ in different religions and traditions over the centuries in an attempt to understand a period, a society and a culture. Students familiarise themselves with important aspects of sanctity and spirituality, assessing the place and role of holy men and women in society, both in East and West (including Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam).

• Science in Greek and Roman Antiquity

  This module will introduce students to a concept of science that differs from our contemporary system. It will, for instance, examine the methods that ancient Greek and Roman scientists used to reach conclusions, either through a theoretical or experimental approach. 

• Mutiny to Modi: The Indian Subcontinent from the 19th century to the Present.

  This module sketches the emergence of modern India (and its neighbours Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal) from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. It includes such iconic historical events as the Great Mutiny of 1857, the Amritsar massacre, Gandhi’s Salt March, the Partition of India into Pakistan and India, the Maoist revolution in Nepal and the recent slide of the region into the grip of competing religious fundamentalisms.

• Byzantine Twilight, 1200-1460

  Beginning in the years shortly before the Fourth Crusade captured and sacked Constantinople in April 1204, this module traces the slow decline and fall of the Byzantine empire. It will examine how the Byzantines initially recovered from the disaster of 1204 but were then unable to defend their borders against waves of new enemies, east and west.

• The Greek World from the Fall of Byzantium to the Rise of Nationalism, 1453-1910
• Italy from the Unification to the Present

  This module will offer students a journey into Italian history. It scrutinises the main historical, political, social, economic, and anthropological features of this comparatively young nation state. Topics include unification in the 1800s, fascism, and the figure of Silvio Berlusconi who has dominated recent Italian politics.

• The History of Cyprus from the Ottoman Conquest to the Present Day
• From Venizelos to Varoufakis: The History of Greece from 1910 to the Present Day
• The Later Roman Empire

  This module opens with the transformation of the Roman Empire under Diocletian (284-305) and Constantine (306-337) and with the conversion of Constantine, the first Christian Roman Emperor, in AD 312. Students will explore the fundamental political, social and religious developments of the fourth century and then examine the contrasting fortunes of the western and eastern regions of the Empire in the fifth and sixth centuries.

• Byzantium and its Neighbours, 641-1081

  By the early years of the seventh century, the Eastern Roman Empire was at the point of collapse. This module traces the reasons why the empire survived and investigates the profound changes that took place in its military organisation, society, religious life, art and culture.

• London Urban Society, 1400-1600

  In this period London grew from a town of 50,000 inhabitants to a capital city of some 200,000. The Reformation not only swept away ‘superstitious’ beliefs, but destroyed much of the fabric and topography of the medieval City - this module will consider how Londoners coped with these changes. How were Londoners fed and watered? How were crafts organised? How was the City governed?

• Tudor Queenship: Mary I and Elizabeth I, 1553-1603

  Between 1553 and 1603 England found itself in the unprecedented situation of being ruled by two queens, Mary and her sister Elizabeth.  Focussing on issues such as politics, religion, personnel, ceremony and foreign relations, students will explore new ways of understanding both queens, focusing on continuities as well as change and challenging commonplace arguments as to their relative success or failure.

• The Crusades and the Eastern Mediterranean, 1095-1291

  The triumph of the First Crusade (1099) resulted in the establishment of a Latin Christian community in the Levant for almost two hundred years. This module is primarily concerned to examine how the settlers maintained their hold on a region which was spiritually, economically and politically important to the Byzantine empire and the Muslim world as well.

• Medicine and Society in Medieval Europe
• Martin Luther King Jr and the Civil Rights Movement, 1955-1968

  'Martin didn't make the movement, the movement made Martin' noted veteran civil rights activist Ella Baker. Baker's perceptive comments strike at the very heart of contemporary historiographical debates. On the one hand, scholars have increasingly viewed the mass black movement for civil rights in the United States as a grassroots phenomenon; on the other hand, scholars still emphasise the vital national leadership role played by Martin Luther King, Jr. This module looks at both sides of this question.

• Modern Girls: Women in Twentieth-Century Britain

  The slender flapper, cigarette holder in hand, off to cocktails or a night at the flicks epitomizes the surface glamour of modernity. With an office job, a swimsuit, sex appeal (known as 'SA' or 'It') and a voguish knowledge of Freud, she was ready for anything. But how real were her gains? This module explores the words and experiences of British women in a century of rapid social, economic and cultural transformation.

• The Russian Empire in the Age of Reform and Revolution

  This module will examine the intellectual and cultural history of Russia in the turbulent years from the Great Reforms of the 1850s and 1860s to the 1917 Revolution. During this period, Russian society experienced industrialisation, urbanisation, secularisation and the erosion of traditional values and social distinctions.

• Spain in Conflict 1930-1953

  This module covers the democratic Second Republic (1931-6) the Spanish Civil War (1936-9) and the first and most brutal phase (1939-53) of the Franco dictatorship. In Spain, as in Europe, the 1930s and 1940s saw the explosion of modern mass political mobilisation and antagonistic visions of national development vied for dominance.

• Nationalism, Democracy and Minorities in Central Europe, 1918 to 1939

  During the two decades after the First World War the newly established or reconstituted countries of Central Europe (Germany, Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary) were troubled by a multitude of problems. The aim of this module is to highlight the causes and consequences of the failure of parliamentary government and liberal institutions to take a firm hold.

• Modern Political Ideas

  The course examines the main currents of political thought in Modern European and World History from Rousseau to the present: eighteenth-century commercial society and its enemies (Hume, Smith, Rousseau), the French Revolution (Paine, Wollstonecraft), reactions to the revolution (Hegel), nineteenth-century early socialism (Owen, Fourier, Saint Simon), Tocqueville and the American model, Marx and communism, Mill and liberalism, Nietzsche and modernity, Bakunin and anarchism, twentieth-century anti-imperialist theorists (Fanon, Gandhi), Orwell and dystopia, and green political theory.

• The Devil's Decade: Britain, America and the Great Slump, 1929-41

  This course will review the modern literature on the causes and consequences of the Great Depression Slump for Britain and America during the 1920s and 1930s. Politicians, government advisors, and academics in the west were unable to explain why capitalist society was plunged so deeply in to depression, and they were also perplexed as to why the usual remedies failed to generate forces of recovery.

• The Islamic Revival: from C18 Reform to C20 Political Action

  Over the past two centuries Muslim societies have been experiencing a major process of religious revival and reform, of which a dominant feature has been an increased emphasis on action in this life to achieve salvation. In following this course students will engage with the main figures in the movement from Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab to Usama bin Laden, and some of the main organisations from the Deoband School to al-Qaeda.

• Genocide

  This course examines the occurrence of genocide from the colonial period to the present day: the colonization of Australia and North America, the Herero genocide, the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, Stalin's Great Terror, post-1945 genocides of indigenous peoples, Cambodia, Rwanda and Bosnia. It will explore the development of the concept of genocide and the debates over definition.

• A History of Terrorism: From French Revolutionary Terror to Al-Qaeda

  This course provides a comprehensive treatment of the history of terrorism, beginning with its origins and etymology, tracing its evolution and development, to its employment as a form of political violence in the contemporary period. Students will study a diverse range of geographical and historical contexts through key case studies with a particular focus on: actors involved, the socio-political milieu, rationale for employing terrorism, causes and consequences of terrorist acts, political outcomes, and counter-terrorism measures.

• Grand Designs: The Victorians and their Material Worlds

  The Victorians transformed the physical world around them, indeed, we might argue that they invented the modern British material world as we know it. This course explores the Victorians through the spaces, buildings and things that they created. Material expressions of identity, class, gender, religion, ethnicity and political affiliation, were a fundamental part of Victorian life. This course offers students the opportunity to explore Victorian society and culture from a fresh perspective, and to learn new strategies and methods for approaching historical sources, including object analysis.

• Histories of Humanitarianism, From the 1880s to the Present

  Histories of Humanitarianism investigates the deep shifts in humanitarian ideas, practices, and organisations over the past century and a half: from imperial ‘civilising missions’, through war and post-1918 efforts to ‘organise the peace’, followed by the reassertion of humanitarian values after 1945, through to humanitarianism in an age of decolonisation and cold war, and then the post-1990 challenges posed by so-called ‘complex emergencies’. Adopting a broad definition of humanitarianism, the course focuses on the politics, culture, and development of humanitarianism, and asks what (and who) drove these shifts in policy and practice.

• Justice, Power and Religion in the Muslim World: The History of Shariʿa Law

  Sharīʿa law (Islamic law) is an important but widely misunderstood phenomenon that is central to several contemporary political controversies, including democratization in the Muslim world, political Islam and radical Islamism, and the status of the Muslim diaspora in the west. This course will help students understand sharīʿa law as an evolving legal tradition, by introducing them to the fundamental intellectual structure of the law and then tracing how sharīʿa has been manifested in a variety of historical contexts including the Ottoman Empire, colonial India, the modern Middle East and modern Britain.

• Entangled Histories: The Interconnected Atlantic World, 1500-1800

  This seminar-based course will examine the interconnected world created by the dynamic movements of people, plants, animals, ideas and products across the Atlantic basin during the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries.

• 'Dragon Ladies'? Society, Politics and Gender in Modern China

  This course will look at Modern Chinese political and social history from the second half of the 19th century to the contemporary period, through the stories of three powerful and well-known public figures: the Empress Dowager Cixi; Soong Mei-ling (the wife of Chiang Kai-shek); and Jiang Qing (Madam Mao).

• Modernizing Despots and Angry Mullahs: Development and Popular Resistance in the Muslim World, 1930 to 1980

  This course contrasts and compares the experience of state formation in four distinct countries of the Muslim world: Turkey, Egypt, Iran and Pakistan. Although separated by language, history and very different experiences of Imperial domination over the nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth century, each one of these countries has struggled with similar problems after achieving some form of independence.

• The First World War in British Experience and Memory (short title-Waging Armageddon)

  The First World War was a transformative event in modern British history, which, on the eve of its centenary, continues to provoke intense popular and academic interest. More than 1,000,000 British subjects lost their lives as a result of military service during the conflict, and many more were physically or psychologically traumatised. This module will explore the British experience of the war and look at the ways in which the conflict has been interpreted and remembered in Britain in the century since it began.

• The Vietnam War and the Cold War in Southeast Asia (short title- The Vietnam War)

  This course examines the origins, development and decline of the Cold War and ‘hot wars’ in Southeast Asia between 1945 and c.1979. After the end of the Second World War, the nationalist struggles for independence in Vietnam, the Philippines, Burma, Indonesia, Malaya and Singapore resulted in the creation of new nation states. We will explore how the Cold War between the superpowers interacted with nationalism, decolonization and regionalism in Southeast Asia.

• Children of the Revolution? France from 1789 to the Great War

  This course explores how the French sought both to describe and transform their society in the turbulent century following 1789, through the lens of innovative works of literature, political thought, art and the social sciences. The spectacular upheavals of the revolutionary decades shattered traditional certainties about French society, but in their place offered violence, instability and new sources of social division.

• Women and the Politics of Gender in Modern Muslim Societies

  This module focuses on the connections between political, social and religious developments in Muslim societies from a gender perspective, investigating how far the role of women has been influenced and shaped by factors such as the decline of Muslim political power, the rise of the West, the challenges of secularism, modernisation and development, the arrival of feminism, the power of nationalism and the nation-state, and the impact of different processes of reform and revolution.

• Art, Architecture & Power in the Roman World

  Art and architecture were key weapons in the construction of power in the Roman world and the establishment of the Empire. Using both archaeological and literary evidence, this module looks at how those in power employ art and architecture to express their authority and values.

• From Constantinople to Alexandria: Eastern Mediterranean Cities, 1798-1956
• The Age of Thatcher

  Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first woman Prime Minister, won three successive general elections and occupied 10 Downing Street (between 1979 and 1990) for longer than any other politician in twentieth-century Britain. She divided popular opinion, domestically and internationally, and her historical significance is yet to be determined. What exactly was Thatcherism, and why is Margaret Thatcher's legacy still so controversial and contested? How far did Thatcherism succeed in its objectives, especially considering Margaret Thatcher’s pledge to ‘change Britain from a dependent to a self-reliant society’?

• Sex, Society and Identity in Britain, c. 1660-1815

  Beginning with the Restoration of Charles II and ending in the ‘Regency’ period during the reign of George IV, this module examines how men and women’s perceptions of themselves were moulded by their families and wider society, and the extent to which their experiences were determined by gendered perceptions of sexual, racial, and class differences.

• Explorers and Inventors in Classical and Late Antiquity

  This module introduces students to the ways in which the ancients expanded knowledge, both in terms of the geographical expansion of the known world and through technological advance.

• From Mussolini to Trump Nationalism, Far Right and Identity Politics

  The rise of a xenophobic, demagogic and nationalist political right is one of the most unexpected and controversial phenomena in contemporary times. This module will trace the history of fascism and nationalism from their early twentieth-century roots through the post-war period to their twenty-first century manifestations in Europe and the US. Through seminars and readings the historical arc of this socio-political phenomenon will be discovered, and its challenge to liberal values and democracy will be analysed.

• Understanding the European Union: Politics and Theory

  In this module you will analyse the contemporary politics of the European Union and its institutions, amid the challenges of the triple crisis of economics, migration and Brexit. You will learn about the political history of European integration after 1949 and the contemporary theory of European integration. The first term will begin with an introduction to the European Union as a political system followed by an overview of the European Union's historical development. The second term will focus on contestation of the European Union and the theories that underpin this, in order to explain how the EU developed and the challenges that it faces. Topics will include Euroscepticism, party politics, public opinion, Brexit and EU-UK relations, and European Parliament elections. The theory sessions comprise of federalism, neo-functionalism, liberal intergovernmentalism and the new institutionalisms.

• International Relations Theory

  Building on Introduction to International Relations, this module explores the key thinkers and debates in International Relations Theory. You will become familiar with a variety of ways of thinking about International Relations, engaging with questions about the nature of power, identity, and ethics in politics and how these interact in the international realm. The module is divided into two parts. In the first, you will examine the three foundational theoretical paradigms within International Relations – realism, liberalism, and Marxism. The second part explores newer critical approaches to International Relations theory, including constructivism, post-structuralism, feminism, and uneven ecological exchange.

• Democracy in Britain

  I in this module you will develop an understanding of contemporary British politics. You will look at the ways in which British government has evolved, how it continues to operate, and why it operates in the way it does. You will consider the causes and consequences of major political change in Britain and examine the underlying assumptions upon which theoretical disputes in political science are based.

• Contemporary Political Theory

  In this module you will develop an understanding of some of the key concepts in political theory today. You will look at political obligation, civil disobedience, democracy, citizenship, equality, global justice, human rights, and freedom and toleration. You will consider important theorists including Berlin Rawls, Nozick, Sandel, Okin and Pettit, examining the recent major theoretical perspectives in the context of contemporary politics.

• International Political Economy

  In this module you will develop an understanding of the relationship between states and markets, power and wealth. You will look at the key concepts and theoretical debates in International Political Economy, such as the globalisation of trade, finance, and production, the continued problems of development and democratic governance in the world economy, and emerging questions surrounding global flows, networks and spaces. You will consider the history of regimes, crises, and competing theories of political economy from the nineteenth century to the present day and examine how political institutions operate in international politics to regulate the creation of wealth, and who benefits from these arrangements.

• War and Security in World Politics

  In this module you will develop an understanding of security studies as a subfield of International Relations. You will look at the issue of war and it is/should be fought. You will consider the theories of security and how these have changed, especially in an age of terrorism, and examine a wide variety of security including nuclear weapons, drone warfare, genocide, and gun control.

• Modern Political Thought

  In this module you will develop an understanding of the themes, arguments, and interpretations of major political thinkers from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. You will look at the works of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant, Mill, Marx and Nietzsche and consider how the ideas articulated by these thinkers continue to underpin contemporary debates about the nature of freedom, human rights, value pluralism, popular sovereignty, state legitimacy, and the modern condition. You will also examine how study of these thinkers illuminates contemporary debates even where these debates no longer make reference to them.

• International Organisations

  In this module you will develop an understanding of the scope and limitations of global governance. You will look at the creation of international organisations and the role of states in this process, how different organisations are designed, and the effectiveness and functioning of different types of organisation. You will consider the role of international organisations in creating policy, pursuing organisational objectives, and altering the relations between actors at various levels. You will also examine the significance of major challenges for global governance, such as countering international terrorism, policing organised crime, and preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

• Introduction to Political Communication

  In this module you will develop an understanding of how citizens, politicians and the media interact across Western democracies during both electoral and governing periods. You will look at the production and consumption of political news, consider election campaigns and their effects, and examine contemporary debates in political communication, including ethical issues.

• Politics Outside the West

  In this module you will develop an understanding of the most important features of the history of the development of the non-West. You will look at the distinctive political dynamics characterising the contemporary non-West and consider the thoughts of prominent non-Western political thinkers.

• The Later Roman Empire

  This module opens with the transformation of the Roman Empire under Diocletian (284-305) and Constantine (306-337) and with the conversion of Constantine, the first Christian Roman Emperor, in AD 312. Students will explore the fundamental political, social and religious developments of the fourth century and then examine the contrasting fortunes of the western and eastern regions of the Empire in the fifth and sixth centuries.

• Byzantium and its Neighbours, 641-1081

  By the early years of the seventh century, the Eastern Roman Empire was at the point of collapse. This module traces the reasons why the empire survived and investigates the profound changes that took place in its military organisation, society, religious life, art and culture.

• London Urban Society, 1400-1600

  In this period London grew from a town of 50,000 inhabitants to a capital city of some 200,000. The Reformation not only swept away ‘superstitious’ beliefs, but destroyed much of the fabric and topography of the medieval City - this module will consider how Londoners coped with these changes. How were Londoners fed and watered? How were crafts organised? How was the City governed?

• Tudor Queenship: Mary I and Elizabeth I, 1553-1603

  Between 1553 and 1603 England found itself in the unprecedented situation of being ruled by two queens, Mary and her sister Elizabeth.  Focussing on issues such as politics, religion, personnel, ceremony and foreign relations, students will explore new ways of understanding both queens, focusing on continuities as well as change and challenging commonplace arguments as to their relative success or failure.

• The Crusades and the Eastern Mediterranean, 1095-1291

  The triumph of the First Crusade (1099) resulted in the establishment of a Latin Christian community in the Levant for almost two hundred years. This module is primarily concerned to examine how the settlers maintained their hold on a region which was spiritually, economically and politically important to the Byzantine empire and the Muslim world as well.

• Medicine and Society in Medieval Europe
• Martin Luther King Jr and the Civil Rights Movement, 1955-1968

  'Martin didn't make the movement, the movement made Martin' noted veteran civil rights activist Ella Baker. Baker's perceptive comments strike at the very heart of contemporary historiographical debates. On the one hand, scholars have increasingly viewed the mass black movement for civil rights in the United States as a grassroots phenomenon; on the other hand, scholars still emphasise the vital national leadership role played by Martin Luther King, Jr. This module looks at both sides of this question.

• Modern Girls: Women in Twentieth-Century Britain

  The slender flapper, cigarette holder in hand, off to cocktails or a night at the flicks epitomizes the surface glamour of modernity. With an office job, a swimsuit, sex appeal (known as 'SA' or 'It') and a voguish knowledge of Freud, she was ready for anything. But how real were her gains? This module explores the words and experiences of British women in a century of rapid social, economic and cultural transformation.

• The Russian Empire in the Age of Reform and Revolution

  This module will examine the intellectual and cultural history of Russia in the turbulent years from the Great Reforms of the 1850s and 1860s to the 1917 Revolution. During this period, Russian society experienced industrialisation, urbanisation, secularisation and the erosion of traditional values and social distinctions.

• Spain in Conflict 1930-1953

  This module covers the democratic Second Republic (1931-6) the Spanish Civil War (1936-9) and the first and most brutal phase (1939-53) of the Franco dictatorship. In Spain, as in Europe, the 1930s and 1940s saw the explosion of modern mass political mobilisation and antagonistic visions of national development vied for dominance.

• Nationalism, Democracy and Minorities in Central Europe, 1918 to 1939

  During the two decades after the First World War the newly established or reconstituted countries of Central Europe (Germany, Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary) were troubled by a multitude of problems. The aim of this module is to highlight the causes and consequences of the failure of parliamentary government and liberal institutions to take a firm hold.

• Modern Political Ideas

  The course examines the main currents of political thought in Modern European and World History from Rousseau to the present: eighteenth-century commercial society and its enemies (Hume, Smith, Rousseau), the French Revolution (Paine, Wollstonecraft), reactions to the revolution (Hegel), nineteenth-century early socialism (Owen, Fourier, Saint Simon), Tocqueville and the American model, Marx and communism, Mill and liberalism, Nietzsche and modernity, Bakunin and anarchism, twentieth-century anti-imperialist theorists (Fanon, Gandhi), Orwell and dystopia, and green political theory.

• The Devil's Decade: Britain, America and the Great Slump, 1929-41

  This course will review the modern literature on the causes and consequences of the Great Depression Slump for Britain and America during the 1920s and 1930s. Politicians, government advisors, and academics in the west were unable to explain why capitalist society was plunged so deeply in to depression, and they were also perplexed as to why the usual remedies failed to generate forces of recovery.

• The Islamic Revival: from C18 Reform to C20 Political Action

  Over the past two centuries Muslim societies have been experiencing a major process of religious revival and reform, of which a dominant feature has been an increased emphasis on action in this life to achieve salvation. In following this course students will engage with the main figures in the movement from Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab to Usama bin Laden, and some of the main organisations from the Deoband School to al-Qaeda.

• Genocide

  This course examines the occurrence of genocide from the colonial period to the present day: the colonization of Australia and North America, the Herero genocide, the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, Stalin's Great Terror, post-1945 genocides of indigenous peoples, Cambodia, Rwanda and Bosnia. It will explore the development of the concept of genocide and the debates over definition.

• A History of Terrorism: From French Revolutionary Terror to Al-Qaeda

  This course provides a comprehensive treatment of the history of terrorism, beginning with its origins and etymology, tracing its evolution and development, to its employment as a form of political violence in the contemporary period. Students will study a diverse range of geographical and historical contexts through key case studies with a particular focus on: actors involved, the socio-political milieu, rationale for employing terrorism, causes and consequences of terrorist acts, political outcomes, and counter-terrorism measures.

• Grand Designs: The Victorians and their Material Worlds

  The Victorians transformed the physical world around them, indeed, we might argue that they invented the modern British material world as we know it. This course explores the Victorians through the spaces, buildings and things that they created. Material expressions of identity, class, gender, religion, ethnicity and political affiliation, were a fundamental part of Victorian life. This course offers students the opportunity to explore Victorian society and culture from a fresh perspective, and to learn new strategies and methods for approaching historical sources, including object analysis.

• Histories of Humanitarianism, From the 1880s to the Present

  Histories of Humanitarianism investigates the deep shifts in humanitarian ideas, practices, and organisations over the past century and a half: from imperial ‘civilising missions’, through war and post-1918 efforts to ‘organise the peace’, followed by the reassertion of humanitarian values after 1945, through to humanitarianism in an age of decolonisation and cold war, and then the post-1990 challenges posed by so-called ‘complex emergencies’. Adopting a broad definition of humanitarianism, the course focuses on the politics, culture, and development of humanitarianism, and asks what (and who) drove these shifts in policy and practice.

• Justice, Power and Religion in the Muslim World: The History of Shariʿa Law

  Sharīʿa law (Islamic law) is an important but widely misunderstood phenomenon that is central to several contemporary political controversies, including democratization in the Muslim world, political Islam and radical Islamism, and the status of the Muslim diaspora in the west. This course will help students understand sharīʿa law as an evolving legal tradition, by introducing them to the fundamental intellectual structure of the law and then tracing how sharīʿa has been manifested in a variety of historical contexts including the Ottoman Empire, colonial India, the modern Middle East and modern Britain.

• Entangled Histories: The Interconnected Atlantic World, 1500-1800

  This seminar-based course will examine the interconnected world created by the dynamic movements of people, plants, animals, ideas and products across the Atlantic basin during the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries.

• 'Dragon Ladies'? Society, Politics and Gender in Modern China

  This course will look at Modern Chinese political and social history from the second half of the 19th century to the contemporary period, through the stories of three powerful and well-known public figures: the Empress Dowager Cixi; Soong Mei-ling (the wife of Chiang Kai-shek); and Jiang Qing (Madam Mao).

• Despots and Mullahs: The (Modern) Muslim World and Development, 1930-1980
• The First World War in British Experience and Memory (short title-Waging Armageddon)

  The First World War was a transformative event in modern British history, which, on the eve of its centenary, continues to provoke intense popular and academic interest. More than 1,000,000 British subjects lost their lives as a result of military service during the conflict, and many more were physically or psychologically traumatised. This module will explore the British experience of the war and look at the ways in which the conflict has been interpreted and remembered in Britain in the century since it began.

• The Vietnam War and the Cold War in Southeast Asia (short title- The Vietnam War)

  This course examines the origins, development and decline of the Cold War and ‘hot wars’ in Southeast Asia between 1945 and c.1979. After the end of the Second World War, the nationalist struggles for independence in Vietnam, the Philippines, Burma, Indonesia, Malaya and Singapore resulted in the creation of new nation states. We will explore how the Cold War between the superpowers interacted with nationalism, decolonization and regionalism in Southeast Asia.

• Children of the Revolution? France from 1789 to the Great War

  This course explores how the French sought both to describe and transform their society in the turbulent century following 1789, through the lens of innovative works of literature, political thought, art and the social sciences. The spectacular upheavals of the revolutionary decades shattered traditional certainties about French society, but in their place offered violence, instability and new sources of social division.

• Women and the Politics of Gender in Modern Muslim Societies

  This module focuses on the connections between political, social and religious developments in Muslim societies from a gender perspective, investigating how far the role of women has been influenced and shaped by factors such as the decline of Muslim political power, the rise of the West, the challenges of secularism, modernisation and development, the arrival of feminism, the power of nationalism and the nation-state, and the impact of different processes of reform and revolution.

• Art, Architecture & Power in the Roman World

  Art and architecture were key weapons in the construction of power in the Roman world and the establishment of the Empire. Using both archaeological and literary evidence, this module looks at how those in power employ art and architecture to express their authority and values.

• From Constantinople to Alexandria: Eastern Mediterranean Cities, 1798-1956
• The Age of Thatcher

  Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first woman Prime Minister, won three successive general elections and occupied 10 Downing Street (between 1979 and 1990) for longer than any other politician in twentieth-century Britain. She divided popular opinion, domestically and internationally, and her historical significance is yet to be determined. What exactly was Thatcherism, and why is Margaret Thatcher's legacy still so controversial and contested? How far did Thatcherism succeed in its objectives, especially considering Margaret Thatcher’s pledge to ‘change Britain from a dependent to a self-reliant society’?

• Sex, Society and Identity in Britain, c. 1660-1815

  Beginning with the Restoration of Charles II and ending in the ‘Regency’ period during the reign of George IV, this module examines how men and women’s perceptions of themselves were moulded by their families and wider society, and the extent to which their experiences were determined by gendered perceptions of sexual, racial, and class differences.

• Explorers and Inventors in Classical and Late Antiquity

  This module introduces students to the ways in which the ancients expanded knowledge, both in terms of the geographical expansion of the known world and through technological advance.

• From Mussolini to Trump Nationalism, Far Right and Identity Politics

  The rise of a xenophobic, demagogic and nationalist political right is one of the most unexpected and controversial phenomena in contemporary times. This module will trace the history of fascism and nationalism from their early twentieth-century roots through the post-war period to their twenty-first century manifestations in Europe and the US. Through seminars and readings the historical arc of this socio-political phenomenon will be discovered, and its challenge to liberal values and democracy will be analysed.

• The Kingdom of Darkness Destroyed: Reason and Religion, 1651 to 1718

  The last person to be executed for blasphemy in the UK was Scottish student Thomas Aikenhead, who perished at the hands of the public executioner in 1697 for maintaining the belief that Judaism, Christianity and Islam were human impostures, that all scripture was fable, and all priests devious manipulators. He was, in the language of the times, a freethinker. This course, by examining the History of Ideas, explores the conflict between reason and religion during the early English Enlightenment in the years following the English Civil War and on either side of the Glorious Revolution.

• Faith and Fire: Religious Culture in England, c.1375 to 1525

  This course scrutinises an area of English social history that was once universally disparaged. Recent work, however, suggests that the Church in England from c1375-c1525 displayed remarkable resource in adapting to and satisfying the needs of contemporaries. As well as surveying some of the more vibrant areas of the Church’s institutional life, the course will dwell on the laity’s response, particularly as expressed through the parish. This will provide the opportunity to delve into areas such as popular belief and practice, parish government, and more informal activity in the foundation and management of lay confraternities.

• The Origins and Impact of the Second Crusade

  The Second Crusade was the largest crusading expedition of the twelfth century, encompassing campaigns to Iberia, the Baltic and the Holy Land. It was also the first crusade to see the participation of kings and to have a fully organised preaching network, headed by the charismatic Bernard of Clairvaux. In spite of its unprecedented scale, this massive attempt to ‘extend the frontiers of Christendom’ as Pope Eugenius III described it, was in many respects a failure. This exciting and broad-ranging course illuminates an episode that affected all areas of Christian Europe as well as touching many regions of the world beyond.

• The Causes and Consequences of the Fall of Constantinople (1453)

  In the early fifteenth century with most of the Balkans under the domination of the Ottoman Turks, Constantinople, capital city of the shrunken Byzantine empire, held out behind its formidable defences. The siege of 1453 launched by Mehmed II (1451-1481), however, succeeded where so many previous attempts failed. This module considers the political, strategic and military factors that enabled him to succeed and break through Constantinople’s Land Walls.

• Heresy, Crusade and Inquisition in Southern France, c.1140 to c.1300

  Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) was obsessed with crusading and he dedicated his pontificate to defeating the enemies of the Church. A profound challenge to his authority came from the Cathars of southern France - men and women following an austere lifestyle and holding a dualist belief in a Good God and an Evil God. Using a series of vivid contemporary narratives, in conjunction with other documents (including inquisitorial records), this course examines the beliefs and organisation of the Cathars and the progress of the Crusade and the Inquisition against them.

• The Empire in Victorian Britain, c.1830 to 1870

  This course examines the changing place of the Empire in British politics and society in the mid-nineteenth century. Between 1830 and 1870 the political relationship between Britain and the colonies was recast, while understandings of 'race' also changed profoundly. Drawing on a wide range of textual and visual sources - including official papers, cartoons, explorers' diaries, newspapers, maps, parliamentary debates, novels and letters - students will examine British responses to imperial events such as the emancipation of slaves, indigenous rebellions in India and Jamaica; David Livingstone's exploration of Africa; and the settlement of New Zealand.

• Modernity and the Victorians: The Intellectual Response

  This course concerns the leading thinkers, and principal themes, of social and political thought in Victorian Britain, with an emphasis upon the development of liberalism and socialism and individualist and collectivist approaches to social and political problems. Examining in particular the question of extending the franchise, poor relief, and attitudes towards commerce and industry, culture and 'character', the course focuses on T R Malthus, John Stuart Mill, Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, Matthew Arnold, William Morris and John Hobson, with an excursion into Social Darwinism.

• Berlin: A European Metropolis in the Twentieth Century

  Berlin was one of the focal points in the history of the 20th century. The notions associated with the German capital appear far from unequivocal however. Across Europe and the world it served, and continues to serve, as a byword for both modernity and decadence; for civic pride and civil unrest, reactionary as well as progressive movements; for war and genocide; for tyranny, but also for freedom and, above all, for the unexpected turn of events. Based on a wide and diverse range of primary source material, the course extends, chronologically, from the making of metropolitan Berlin before 1914 to the ramifications of reunification after 1990.

• The History and Historiography of the Holocaust

  Term 1 builds a conventional chronological narrative of the Holocaust, with students learning about the major events, such as the rise of Nazism and anti-Semitism, ghettoisation and the development of the genocide process. Term 2, however, broadens the course by encouraging students to think of the fierce debates in Holocaust historiography as being as important for our understanding of the events as 'historical study', in order to help students understand the very real political stakes involved in writing about the Holocaust.

• The Clash of Powers and Cultures: Sino-American Relations during the Cold War

  This module examines the ups and downs in Sino-American relations during the Cold War. It looks at how and why Communist China and the United States were transformed from hostile enemies in the 1950s and early 1960s into tacit allies by the late 1970s. By placing Sino-American relations in the wider domestic and international contexts, this course will enhance our understanding of how the two great powers – and two different cultures – shaped, and were shaped by, the global Cold War.

• Stalinism

  Between the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and the outbreak of World War Two, the Soviet Union experienced a programme of forced modernisation, unprecedented levels of state repression, and the devastation of WWII. The course will examine how Stalinist policies amounted to an attempt to sculpt a new society through a combination of forging 'Soviet' citizens, and excising undesirable elements from the body social. It will also explore how different constituencies within Soviet society supported, sought accommodation with, or resisted the values and policies of the state.

• Christians and Pagans from Constantine to Augustine, AD 306 to 430

  This course covers the crucial transitional period in which Christianity came to dominate the Mediterranean world, from the accession of the first Christian Roman emperor Constantine in 306 to the death of Augustine of Hippo in 430. Students will explore the fundamental political, social and religious developments of these years through the close study of literary and material evidence.

• Representing Authority from Henry VII to Charles II

  Henry VIII and Elizabeth I might be considered masters of propaganda, but what of the boy king Edward VI or the first queen Mary I? Might a failure of royal image explain Charles I’s deposition and the subsequent Republican interlude? From Holbein to Van Dyck, students will explore representations of power in the midst of the great political and religious changes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Students will consider how successful the Tudor and Stuart monarchs were in controlling their image and how authority was negotiated between ruler and ruled as can be seen in collaborative enterprises such as civic shows, royal entries and parliaments. 

   

• Victorian Babylon: Life, Work and People in London, c.1840 to 1890

  Victorians were both fascinated and repelled by their capital city, often at the same time. For the American writer Henry James, London was not only "magnificent", but also a "brutal" city which had "gathered together so many of the darkest sides of life". This course strolls through the sights, smells, and senses of Victorian Babylon, the "dreadfully delightful city" with its extremes of imperial splendour and crushing poverty.

• Comparing Religious Fundamentalisms in the 19th and 20th Centuries

  Ever since the Islamic Revolution in Iran happened to coincide with the greater prominence of Christian nationalist rhetoric in Ronald Reagan's White House journalists, policy makers and academics have suggested that the end of the 'short' twentieth century brought about a global return of religious radicalism. This course will discuss the utility of 'fundamentalism' as an analytical category as it seeks to explain a wide range of radical political cultures around the globe under one master category: from the new wave of Islamic terrorism to settler intransigence in and religious Zionism in Israel, from communal violence in India committed under the banner of a muscular Hinduism to the neo-Imperialist agenda of the Christian Right in the US.

• Migration, Identity and Citizenship in Modern Britain

  This course aims to provide students with an understanding of the role that migration has played in British life since the nineteenth century, with particular focus on the evolution of identities and notions of citizenship. From immigration legislation, to race riots, from multiculturalism to Islamaphobia, this course engages with key aspects of modern British life and the various factors, historical as well as contemporary, that have shaped them. 

• The Age of Terror: Terrorism from 1945 - Present

  Terrorism has become one of the most pervasive and defining features of the second half of the 20th and now 21st Century. Indeed terrorism has transcended time and space and has been employed across a range of historic and geographic contexts by a range of actors, from lone-individuals to anti-colonial revolutionary organisations, and from fundamentalist religious groups to liberal democratic states. The course aims to examine the underlying reasons for the ascendancy of this form of political violence and the immense challenges it has posed to state and society throughout this period.

• Photography, Film and British Society, 1850-1965

  In the 1850s photography was established in Britain – and altered the way that Britons saw themselves forever. This course looks at the relationship between images, society and culture, from the coming of the camera to cinema and early television. We will consider the impact of photography on science and medicine, and how asylum doctors used it. Photography transformed understandings of place – and changed the way the British saw the Empire. 

• China and the World: Migration and Diaspora, 1800-1945

  This course aims to examine the history of Chinese migrations in both an internal and external context, engage with the issues of frontiers, and understand their long-term impact on China’s situation which is still very relevant today. The study of migrations will show how Chinese human mobility responded to and reflected changes in politics, economics, and culture during the period, and how the lives of Chinese migrants in foreign countries reflected China’s foreign relationships.

• Malcolm X and African American Islam

  This course will provide students with a detailed, intensive and thorough examination of the origins and development of African American Islam. The course examines the formative years of the Nation of Islam (NOI) in 1930s Detroit and the debates that surround the identity of the group’s founder, W.D Fard Muhammad.  This course focuses largely on Malcolm X and assesses his career in the NOI, commercialisation in the early 1990s and his contested legacy. The course will provide students with an intensive overview of the debates that relate to Malcolm’s autobiography and his split from the NOI in 1964.

• The Bomb: Atomic Weaponry and Society in the 20th Century

  This course will examine the development of atomic weaponry and its effects on Western society during the twentieth century. The A- and H-Bombs are arguably the most influential technological developments of the last century, affecting geopolitics, military strategy, and the shape of post-1945 society, and well as putting in the hand of a few the power to render the Earth uninhabitable. This had a profound effect on politics and society.

• Drawing the Line: Independence, Partition, and the Making of India and Pakistan 1900-1960
• Progress and Its Discontents: European Culture in the Fin de Siècle

  The course will adopt a thematic approach to explore a range of topics through which Europeans endeavoured to make sense of, and navigate a path through, this changing world. Visions of change were shot through with ambivalence. Optimism about the creative powers of the market and faith in technological, material and political progress were undercut with darker apprehensions of disorder, decline, and decay. Politicians, journalists, artists, scientists and writers fiercely debated ideas of race, class and gender and wove a richly varied imaginative tapestry that reflected on the unstable world around them.

• Villa, Domus and Palace: Domestic Space and Social Identity in the Roman World

  This module will examine the forms and concepts of Roman domestic space and the crucial role it played as a means of parading an individual’s political and social identity in ancient Rome. We will study closely the residence remains themselves (for example, the houses of Pompeii and Herculaneum), as well as how domestic space was employed in ancient literature as a means of exploring ideas of personal identity and belonging in the Roman Empire.

• Union and Emancipation: The American Civil War

  The American Civil War was the defining moment in the history of the United States. The American populace, north and south, white and black, found themselves grappling with two issues – what would be the nature of the political union that formed the backbone of the American nation state, and what would be the status of African-Americans within that nation.

• The Death of God: From the Enlightenment to Psychoanalysis

  This course offers students an opportunity to engage with both unfamiliar and well-known thinkers of the modern era – including Rousseau, Marx, Darwin, Nietzsche and Freud – as they confronted some of the fundamental questions of human existence. Does man need God? Is religion a revealed truth or a human invention? Did the history recounted in the Bible ever take place?

• Visions of Europe: Political and Intellectual Readings of European Integration from the Interwar years to the Present

  Europe, as an “ideal” and imagined landscape, is a very old concept. Its stories have crossed the long history of humanity, including emperors and ordinary people, revolutions and nation-building, powers and paintings, and legends and tales. This course focuses on the journey towards the unification of many European lands, exploring how this united Europe was built, and especially how it has been perceived by political movements, politicians, and scholars both in previous decades and in the present.

• The Monastic Revolution ca.1080-1150

  The century from about 1050 to 1150 was one of profound upheaval and dynamic change in Europe. At the centre of all these changes was the Church, both as an institution and as the director of Christian life, and at the heart of the Christian life lay monasticism. This course explores the context of reform in the monasteries, the nature and variety of reform, the debates over the extent of reform, and the implications of reform for the role of monasteries in society.

• The Making of the Modern Middle East, 1789-1930

  Genocide is far from being an exceptional or infrequent event: by some counts, there have been over 50 genocides since 1945. This module seeks to understand the common roots of this recurrent phenomenon by making connections between a range of very different case studies, from colonial genocides in North America and Australia through to more recent cases in Bosnia, Rwanda, and Darfur. We will examine the causes of these genocides – from international and domestic factors, through to the reasons individuals chose to kill – and debate the role that ideology, war, competition for resources, and the nation-state system played in each, as well as engaging with issues of victimhood, loss, and living together again in the aftermath.

• Holocaust Witnessing

  This interdisciplinary module explores advances a witness-centred history of the Holocaust as activism, emigration, powerlessness and the difficult rebuilding of life and communities in the postwar period. It takes students through the emergence of the witness as a self-designated, juridical and analytical category via a range of first person, collective and curated, testimonial, visual and oral documents.

• From Inverts to Perverts: British Queer History, 1885 to Present

  With the emergence of homosexuality as a defined modern identity in the late nineteenth century, this course will go on to explore how queer identities were constructed and contested, described and debated in both mainstream culture and in the queer subcultures that emerged and took shape, laying the foundations for LGBTQ  identities as we understand them today.

• Politics in Action: The Politics and International Relations Experience Placement

  In this module you will combine participation in a workplace environment for one day a week during term time (and three days a week for each term's reading week) with scholarly reflection on the nature of the organisational, professional, and policy contexts of the placement. Your placement will be in an organised setting such as Parliament, local government, the office of an MEP, NGO, campaigning or activist organisations, a political party, a media organisation, or the policy or communications division of a local company working in a relevant field.

• European Union Public Policy

  In this module you will develop an understanding of regulation in the European Union, including delivery of policy and administration. You will look at how the world's largest market operates, with a focus on EU public policy, including de-regulation, re-regulation, budgets and spending. You will examine the concept of the single market, the Euro and its crisis, justice, home affairs and counter-terrorism, the EU budget, agriculture, regional development, and social and environmental policies.

• Power and Money in the European Union
• Radical Political Theory
• The British in India: a Social and Political History
• Contemporary Middle East Politics
• US Foreign Policy
• Comparative Foreign Policy
• Young People's Politics
• Leadership, Power and the British Prime Minister
• Visual Politics
• Understanding China's Rise: Domestic Politics and Foreign Policy
• Global Energy Policy
• Refugees and Migration in World Politics
• American Political Development
• The Politics of Russia and Eastern Europe
• The Politics of International Development
• Issues in Democratic Theory
• Political Theories of Freedom
• Defence and Security Governance
• Military Change in the 21st Century
• Leaders and Political Communication
• Global Healthy Policy
• Political Protest