History

This module exposes you in your first year to areas of ancient, medieval/early modern, and modern history related to your potential bracketed award interests. The topics and subjects can vary from year to year.

This co-linked module provides you with a fundamental survey of world history. This module introduces you to the histories of relocation, encounter, empire, and migration that have shaped our world. The module uses a comparative and transnational approach, via case studies, introducing general themes in the history of migration and cultural exchange associated with mobility, imperial expansions and post-colonialism.

This module exposes you in your first year to areas of ancient, medieval/early modern, and modern history related to your potential bracketed award interests. The topics and subjects on offer can vary year to year.

This module engages you with 'Big Question' debates confronting human society, integrating key interdisciplinary concepts and debates essential to critically understanding and exploring our world. Along with this, you will apply disciplinary specific learning approaches to examine various aspects of past, present and future global societal developments. Topics and questions examined can vary year to year.

This module engages you with 'Big Question' debates confronting human society, integrating key interdisciplinary concepts and debates essential to critically understanding and exploring our world. Along with this, you will apply disciplinary specific learning approaches to examine various aspects of past, present and future global societal development. Topics and questions examined can vary year to year.

This module examines the rise of the modern metropolis, focusing on Manchester, the world’s first industrial city. For 250 years, Manchester has been a place of innovation and change, where decisive societal developments often happened first, affecting people in Britain and across the globe with breath-taking intensity and speed. The city of Manchester is therefore a useful magnifier to study social, economic and cultural transformations of modern British, European, and wider world societies from the 18th to 21st centuries. Whilst focused on Manchester, the module is comparative in its approach to other global regions over time and place.

This co-linked module provides you with a fundamental survey of world history. This module introduces you to the histories of relocation, encounter, empire, and migration that have shaped our world. The module uses a comparative and transnational approach, via case studies, introducing general themes in the history of migration and cultural exchange associated with mobility, imperial expansions and post-colonialism.

This module examines the rise of the modern metropolis, focusing on Manchester, the world’s first industrial city. For 250 years, Manchester has been a place of innovation and change, where decisive societal developments often happened first, affecting people in Britain and across the globe with breath-taking intensity and speed. The city of Manchester is therefore a useful magnifier to study social, economic and cultural transformations of modern British, European, and wider world societies from the 18th to 21st centuries. Whilst focused on Manchester, the module is comparative in its approach to other global regions over time and place.

This module exposes you to areas of history suited to your intended exit award pathway. You will be able to choose from a menu of subjects, including ancient, medieval/early modern and modern history. The topics and subjects on offer can vary year to year.

This module exposes you to areas of history suited to your intended bracketed award specialism. You will be able to choose from a menu of subjects in ancient, medieval/early modern and modern history. The topics and subjects on offer can vary year to year.

An innovative module that applies interdisciplinary methods, approaches and perspectives of humanities and social science disciplines to contemporary socio-economic challenges, complementing Engaging the Humanities 1. Each year the module will address a different contemporary issue or theme.

On this module, you will focus on the historian’s craft, namely the ability to gain key skills in research, analysis, evidence-based theory and the importance of historiography (understanding what others have written before about the past) within a comparative framework. At the end of the module, you will have a completed independent project proposal for your final year of study. Part 1 of this module provides you with a grounding in the essential, generic skills of how to conduct academic research.

On this module, you will focus on the historian’s craft, namely the ability to gain key skills in research, analysis, evidence-based theory and the importance of historiography (understanding what others have written before about the past) within a comparative framework. At the end of the module, you will have a completed independent project proposal for your final year of study. Part 2 allows you to focus on your specific research passion and plans for independent research.

Historians are interested in the stories that we tell about the past. We want to know what it was like to be there: how the past looked, and sounded, and smelled. And we make use of texts, and photos, and images to pick our way through the past. But what if documents aren’t the only way to try and ‘be there’?

This course will provide an object-based history of Britain (and occasionally the British Empire) to think about hidden histories and alternative narratives of the past. We will start way back with the first burial in Britain in the middle of the last Ice Age, 30,000 years ago. Moving forward, we will take in an exceptional series of objects that speak to the unique and enigmatic history of Britain – from golden hair ornaments from the Bronze Age landscape around Stonehenge, to the earliest personal letters from Britain (party invites to a fort at the edge of the Roman world on Hadrian’s Wall), and Saxon hoards that tell of the strife of the Migration Period. We will end up on the moors around Manchester in the aftermath of the First World War, where a veteran of the bloodiest encounters on the Western Front used his traumatic experiences to shape our understanding of the past forever.

This module will provide you with the long view of the development of Britain and British society. It uses a wide range of case study objects to provide not only temporal perspectives, but an introduction to the methods of material culture analysis that will be invaluable for history students used to more traditional document-based analysis. In examining objects we will focus on pluralist approaches to the past, and survey hidden histories. The module will provide you with new approaches to research methodologies, and with a wider perspective beyond traditional approaches to historical research. By situating these objects in their wider, global histories, as well as in the contexts of discovery, we will introduce ideas about the political context of the analysis of material culture, of knowledge production, and of historiographic research.

This module examines the origins and history of modern terrorism. The assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881 saw the emrgence of political terrorists onto the world stage. Over the next fifty years, these women and men committed acts of extreme violence in the name of ideologies from nihilism and anarchism to nationalism and fascism. This module examines terrorists’ motivations, tactics, counter-terrorism and how our own contemporary terrorism can be traced back to this first ‘war on terror’. Students on the module will take a global approach to terrorism, examining case studies from America, Asia, and Europe. The themes of race and gender feature throughout.

This module explores a women’s history of North America from colonial times to the Civil War. The intention is not to cover the entire period and all regions, but rather to focus upon the ways in which race, class and gender affected the social, economic, cultural and political experiences of American women. Taking as its focus diverse groups of women who have shaped the course of North American history, this course will examine women’s lives in the context of pre-contact, early settlement, slavery, revolution, through to the end of the American Civil War.

In June 1948 the Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury Docks carrying hundreds of people from the Caribbean. This scene has become a national symbol in Britain’s history, yet Windrush was neither the first nor the last ship to carry migrants to the British Isles. This module explores Windrush as part of a longer history of mobility in modern Britain, examines how race has intertwined with migration to order, reorder and contest the ways in which we live our lives. The module therefore offers an alternative lens through which to understand modern British history, interrogating many of the concepts we now treat as natural (race, borders, citizenship) and situating them within a longer history.

This module evaluates key social, political and economic developments in British history during the period of 1900 to 1939. It assesses the changing nature of society, before, during and after the First World War. The module examines Britain’s social structure and social relations, youth, the women’s movement, poverty, the rise of the Labour Party, the decline of Liberalism and conservative hegemony during the interwar period, and the foundation of Britain’s Welfare State.

This module explores the fascinating world of antiquity, focussing particularly on the distinctive society and culture of Classical Greece, as well as the causes, course and consequences of the Great Peloponnesian War, fought between Athens and Sparta.

Ancient Egypt was one of the first great civilisations of the world. This course explores its history from the formation of the state in the fourth millennium BC to the conquest of Alexander the Great in 332 BC. We will cover all the major periods and events of Egypt’s long history during these 3,000 years. From the lives of the pharaohs themselves – the pyramid builders and the famous Rameses The Great and Tutankhamun – to the lives of normal Egyptian villagers and foreigners living in (and sometimes ruling over) Egypt, we will look at all aspects of life down the Nile Valley. Throughout, we will study closely the primary sources left by the ancient Egyptians themselves, both written evidence and museum artefacts, including hieroglyphic temple inscriptions, papyrus letters, objects of daily life, statues, coffins, and human remains. Finally, we will look at the legacy of Egypt and the impact of this ancient culture on life in the 21st century.

The module combines a chronological approach to the war in the East, from the Japanese attack on Manchuria to the nuclear tests in the South Pacific, with thematic approaches highlighting topics such as food supplies, comfort women, Prisoners of War, animal and nuclear warfare, and troop entertainment.

Pilgrimage, whether to an international site like Jerusalem or Rome, or to a local chapel or holy well, was one of the most popular acts of devotion in the middle ages. People sought help from saints for medical reasons, to aid them in fighting their enemies, or even to raise the dead. As a result, the medieval Church developed and promoted saints, cults and pilgrimage, and pilgrimage sites competed for the attention of pilgrims.

This module explores the revolutionary transformations (political, economic, social, and cultural) that occurred in China during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This tumultuous period saw the decline and overthrow of China’s last imperial dynasty, the creation of two Chinese republics (the Republic of China [1912–49] and the People’s Republic of China [1949–]), and China’s emergence as an economic superpower during the post-Mao era. Moving beyond traditional approaches that reduce historical revolutions to the study of high politics, this module examines the many ways in which revolutionary transformations affected the lives of the Chinese people who experienced them.

Espousing ideologies of holy war, discrete Christian powers went on the offensive in the late eleventh century conquering Muslim peoples in Iberia, Sicily and the Holy Land. The resultant history of the interaction between the Crescent and the Cross is much richer than one might expect. As this module reveals, the greatest centres of political and military power in the medieval Mediterranean: Cordoba, Palermo and even the ‘crusader state’ of Jerusalem, produced great moments of cultural interchange and relative tolerance. Holy War was dispersed with long periods of peaceful coexistence. Muslims and Christians fought each other, but they also lived, worked, played and even prayed together in surprising and little known ways.

The Creation of Tudor England examines the establishment of the Tudor dynasty in England and Wales by Henry VII, Henry VIII and Edward VI in the period 1485-1553. Henry VII’s seizure of the throne in 1485 was a turning point in English history, ending the Wars of the Roses and creating a new dynasty – the Tudors. This module examines how Henry VII gained control of the kingdom and how Henry VIII and Edward VI established Tudor rule throughout England and Wales. Using primary sources, it examines the social, political and artistic world of the Tudor Court and Tudor England.

The module focuses on the government and society of female rulers in early modern Europe. It analyses the development of the relationships between gender and social, political, and cultural aspects of history. It examines in detail women who filled the highest roles in governance and society in early modern Europe, starting with queenship and political power, but moving towards alternative means of expressing 'power' that were increasingly available to elite women in the spheres of family, society, economics and learning. Particular emphasis is placed on the relationship between gender and power in early modern Europe, and on contemporary conceptualisations of political culture and patronage.

A negotiated assessment, which takes one of several forms: for example a 10-12,000 word dissertation, a historical project in partnership with an outside organisation, or a product resulting from a work placement scheme (e.g. a museum).

This module examines the development of apocalyptic worldviews in Britain and the United States from the 1640s to the present, and their impact on politics, warfare, religion and popular culture.

The module will consist of chronologically-ordered case studies, with a broad scope addressing different geographical areas, and events related to the phenomena of civil war and revolution through 20th Century history. The syllabus will be flexible to allow for the future incorporation of new advancements in the area, but indicative content might include the Mexican and Cuban revolutions, Ireland 1916, the Russian, Spanish and Greek civil wars, the cultural revolution in China, the Prague Spring, Berlin 1989, revolutionary Iran. With a particular focus on the connections between civil war and revolution, the course will provide students with the opportunity to explore the possibilities of comparative history for a better and more nuanced understanding of the past. The module will allow for the identification of similarities, differences and transnational connections among different events and nations. 

This module gives you the opportunity to examine games and gaming as important ways of making sense of a range of contemporary cultural and social issues. Over the course of the module, you will use a range of interdisciplinary frameworks infused with historical, political, and philosophical concepts and perspectives to confront and tackle key questions and subjects about games and gaming.

The city of Rome has been an important political, religious and cultural centre for Europe and the Mediterranean across more than two millennia. This module will enhance students’ knowledge of Rome’s history and develop their practical skills through a heritage workplace task. The first half of the module will introduce key sources for Rome’s history and heritage, ranging from ancient archaeology through pilgrim travel guides to Grand Tour accounts. The second part will explore the ways the city’s heritage has been interpreted for visitors. The module will conclude with a practical project in which students will develop a heritage project about an aspect of the Roman past.

This module explores criminality and the criminal justice system in the London metropolis from the late seventeenth to the early twentieth century. This was a period during which the population of London underwent substantial growth, and one that witnessed the development and reform of many of its criminal justice institutions. The module not only considers continuity and change but also enables you to engage at a more micro-level with the lives of the offenders who moved through the criminal justice system.

The module accesses a lively and engaging field in the history of crime and policing, which in recent years has embraced the digitisation of many of its key primary sources. The Old Bailey Online is a fully searchable edition of the proceedings of the Old Bailey. It contains 197,745 criminal trials from 1674 to 1913 (changing to the Central Criminal Court from 1834). It also contains the Ordinary of Newgate’s Accounts between 1676 and 1772. There are also two associated resources: Digital Panopticon allows you to follow through transported Old Bailey convicts to NSW and Van Diemen’s Land; London Lives is an associated project that provides a wide range of primary sources about eighteenth-century London. Students will also draw on the British Library Newspaper Collection and the digitised Newgate Calendar, which contains popular accounts of condemned criminals from the period circa 1600 to 1850.

This course explores a modern history of women in North America from 1865 to present day. The focus will be on how race, class and gender affected the social, economic and political experiences of American women from the end of the American Civil War up to the present day.

This module examines a turbulent period in the history of France and its Empire. The French struggled to come to terms with the losses of the First World War and confront the political and social challenges of the interwar years. As democratic governments came and went, fascists and communists fought for control of the street. In the imperial territories, violent repression attempted to snuff out nationalist challenges. Many French diagnosed a deep rot in society, evident in seemingly irreversible cultural and social decline, racial tension and anti-Semitism, a crisis in gender roles, and challenges to the imperial status quo. The defeat to Nazi Germany opened the darkest chapter in the history of France, the Occupation. The collaborationist Vichy regime persecuted opposition and helped to deport thousands of Jews to their deaths while resistance groups fought to liberate the country and Empire. The module thus covers a period popularly known as the ‘French Civil War’.

History concerns both the study of the past, and critical consideration of how we think about the past. This has been shaped by a series of great archaeological discoveries, which have changed how we think about the past. These discoveries include the:

• recognition of the ‘Deep Time’ age of the Earth and the fabulous Palaeolithic cave art of sites such as Altamira;
• first contact between Indigenous people and European people as a result of colonialism in north America and Australia;
• recognition of the sophisticated societies that were capable of producing artefacts such as the Rosetta Stones, and monuments such as the Sphinx and Great Zimbabwe.

While the history of discovery of important objects and sites has affected how we think about humanity more broadly, these discoveries have been manipulated for political purposes. We can see this in the ways regimes such as the Nazis in 1930s Germany adopted explicit ideological interpretations of the past for political purposes, and the ways in which Victorian ethnographic museums naturalised social Darwinism as an excuse for racist colonialist policies.

This module will provide you with the long view of how we think about the past through key discoveries - from Napolean in north Africa, to the colonial exploits of Captain Cook, the quest for Camelot and King Arthur, to Gertrude Bell’s work in Iraq - the context of archaeological discovery and interpretation has often been highly politicised. This module will use a wide range of case sites and discoveries to explore not only the rich, international human cultural inheritance in archaeological sites, but also a critical appraisal of how we think about the past more broadly.

The module will provide you with new approaches to research methodologies, and with a wider perspective beyond traditional approaches to historical research. By situating these sites in their wider, global histories, as well as in the contexts of discovery, we will introduce ideas about the political context of the analysis of material culture, knowledge production, and historiographic research as ways to approach the study of the past.

This module will examine the domestic experience of the Second World War in Britain, questioning whether it was a ‘people’s war’. Taking a thematic approach, it will cover the major social and cultural effects of war on the home front.

This module looks into how the experiences, interpretations and self-understandings of gays and lesbians have changed since 1900.

By placing queer sexualities in their relevant social and political context, this module offers an excellent example of how historical change operates in both a 'top-down' and 'bottom-up' manner. You will learn that queer history, and more widely, histories of sexuality and gender, is no niche matter, but a field that can open windows onto central issues of twentieth century history. For example, we will consider: the consequences of urbanisation and rising affluence; the role of World War on community formation; the appeal of nationalism; the changing roles of science and medicine; how sexual 'deviance' came to be associated with both communism and fascism; the relationship between commerce and politics; the rise of human rights, and the impact of globalisation. 

This module surveys the main points of contact, conflict, difference and similarity between the East Roman – or Byzantine – Empire and the Latin West, including the so-called ‘Crusader States’. Adopting a chronological framework, the module addresses the period from Charlemagne, the first emperor of a revived western Roman Empire, through to the age of the crusades in the Middle East and the sacking of the greatest city in Christendom, Constantinople. Examinations of the most significant and sometimes extraordinary theological, political, societal, and military challenges, which the Latin West compelled Byzantium to confront during this period, form the heart of the module.

This module focusses on the development of the Enlightenment in Great Britian and France, and the long-term drive towards revolutionary change in both nations. Several strands of historical enquiry are pursued, including the creation and consumption of wealth and ‘globalisation’, the influence of increased literacy on society, and the impacts on both countries of the revolution in America. As a comparative module, weekly topics will focus on political and intellectual leaders on both sides of the Channel: Montesquieu and Voltaire; Adams and Hume; Pitt and Fox; and Robespierre and Napoleon.

This module will explore the complex world of Rome and its 'barbarian' neighbours, from the early days of the Republic to the rise of the Empire. Using classical sources and physical evidence (including the Vindolanda tablets, coins, inscriptions and archaeological remains), you will gain an in-depth understanding of the interactions between the expanding Roman state and the Celtic peoples of Iron Age Europe that they came to dominate. It will question how 'barbarian' these societies actually were.

This module traces the history of the Wars of the Roses, the conflict between the houses of York and Lancaster over the English throne which dominated the politics of late medieval England. It looks at the key individuals involved, their motives and actions, and considers the causes and consequences of the wars. It also thinks about how the idea of the Wars of the Roses came about, how accurate it is, and when it came to an end.

For thirty years conflict racked Northern Ireland in what became known as the ‘Troubles’. After communal rioting broke out in the late 1960s, groups such as the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) pursued violent campaigns that spilled over into bombings in England and the Republic of Ireland.  The British army carried out controversial killings of civilians, fuelling this rise in paramilitarism. This module charts the evolution of the conflict and the shifting strategies of its protagonists. It considers motivations behind political violence, the role of ideology and attempts by the British and Irish governments to bring an end to the conflict.

This module explores the everyday lives and concerns of 'the other 99%' of the populations of the Ancient world. Antiquity, more than most other periods of history, has predominantly been studied from the 'top down', with a focus on great battles, great cities, and great men. In this module we will approach the ancient world from the 'bottom up', examining daily, economic, and religious life from the perspectives of those voices silenced by the elite, male sources from Antiquity. We will focus on the lives and concerns of the diverse populations of the ancient Mediterranean world: women; the oppressed; the poor; the enslaved; children; the aged; religious minorities; non-citizens; foreigners; migrants; and refugees. We will consider historical approaches to a range of themes and topics, including popular culture and entertainment, sex and sexuality, gender, the body, poverty, enslavement, and oppression.