College of
Arts and Humanities
BA History
Module
Information
Department of History and Classics
Module Information
In this handbook you’ll find information about the modules on offer in the Department
of History during the academic year. The Department is a large and thriving unit. We
pride ourselves on our high-quality teaching and employ a wide variety of methods
that extend far beyond the conventional lecture and seminar; likewise our assessment
methods are not confined to essays and exams. This handbook explains the structure
of the degree scheme for Single Honours students in History, and for Joint Honours
students, too.
In the first year (Year One) students study broad periods of history, covering themes
and topics in relation to many countries around the world. The module, Europe of
Extremes, for example, concerns European history since 1789 and includes topics such
as the French Revolution, Industrialisation, the Cold War and Terrorism. In addition,
all students take Making History, a module that is designed to help you to settle into
studying history at university level through a combination of skills sessions and indepth investigation of a topic.
In the second year (Year Two), there is a broad choice of modules on offer. The focus of
each module is narrower than those at Level One, giving you the opportunity to pursue
your interests to a greater depth. The compulsory course at Level Two is the Practice of
History. During this course you will use primary sources to develop the research skills
and professional practices that historians use every day.
By the third year (Year Three), you will have developed the necessary skills for sustained
historical research. The modules on offer allow you to focus your interests and hone
your skills as a historian through close investigation of a well-defined subject, whether a
particular period or theme in history.
The degree programme is therefore structured like a pyramid, beginning with the study
of broad swathes of human history and culminating in intensive and focused research
into the history that interests you the most.
Dr Chris Millington
Admissions Tutor
Department of History and Classics
2
The structure of the degree
Year One
Students must acquire 120 credits at each Level. At Year One, each module is
worth 20 credits, meaning that students take 6 modules, 3 in each Teaching Block.
A Single Honours student in History takes the 5 modules offered in the
department, plus one other from a list of Optional Modules advertised at the
beginning of the Level.
A Joint Honours student takes 3 modules (totalling 60 credits) in History, including
the compulsory Making History in Teaching Block 1. The 3 remaining modules
(totalling 60 credits) are selected from their other subject.
Year Two
Students must acquire 120 credits. At Year Two, each module is worth 20 credits,
meaning that students take 6 modules, 3 in each Teaching Block.
A Single Honours student in History takes 6 modules from those on offer, including
the compulsory Practice of History in Teaching Block 1.
A Joint Honours student takes 3 modules (totalling 60 credits) in History, including
the compulsory Practice of History in Teaching Block 1. The 3 remaining modules
(totalling 60 credits) are selected from their other subject.
Year Three
Students must acquire 120 credits. A Single Honours student in History takes a
Special Subject, which spans both Teaching Blocks and is worth 40 credits. Single
Honours students also take the History Dissertation module, which is worth 40
credits. The 2 remaining modules (each worth 20 credits) are selected from those
on offer.
A Joint Honours student takes 60 credits in History, and may take either a Special
Subject or the History Dissertation module.
Department of History and Classics
3
BA History Modules
Year1
YEAR ONE
Teaching Block 1
Teaching Block 2
HIH.122 Making History (compulsory)
HIH.117: Medieval Europe
HIH.121: Europe of Extremes
HIH.118: World History
Optional module from another department
HIH.124: Modern British History
Department of History and Classics
4
BA History Modules
Year 2
YEAR TWO
Teaching Block 1
Teaching Block 2
MODULES
HIH.237 Practice of History [compulsory]
HIH.222 Revolutionary and Napoleonic Europe
1945-1956
HIH.235 The Golden Age of Iberia, 1450-1700
HIH.226 Post-War Reconstruction: Europe 19451956
HIH.266 Researching and Re-telling the Past
HIH.253 The Welsh Century: Politics, Nationality
and Religion, 1847-1947
HIH.272 The Cold War
HIH.267 The History of the Mass Media in the United
Kingdom
HIH.272W Credoau’r Cymry: Astudio Athroniaeth HIH.274 Conflict and Memory: Europe in the
ac Athrawiaeth Gymreig o Safbwynt Rhyngwladol Twentieth Century
HIH.278 Revolutionary America, 1760 – 1791
HIH275 Making Modern Medicine: Doctors,
Patients and Society, 1800-2000
HIH.2011 The Heirs of Rome: The Making of HIH.277 Whose Past is it Anyway? Exploring the
Christendom, Byzantium and Islam in the Early Heritage Industry
Modern Ages, 400-800
HIH.227 Medieval Britain 1250-1461
HIH.2001 Ancient and Historic Places (Study-Trip/
Field project: History)
HIH.246 Europe 1650-1800: From Reason to HIH.240 Europe 1500-1650: Renaissance,
Romanticism
Reformation and Religious War
HIH.273 Deformity, Deviance and Difference: HIH.252 War and Society in the Anglo-Norman
Exploring Disability History
World
AM.217 The Making of Transatlantic America
HIH.266B Researching and Re-telling the Past
AM.251 America in Crisis: Political Culture and HIH.276 Anglo-Saxon and Viking-Age England
Society form the Tet Offensive to the Tea Party
MLF.240W Rhyfel Algeria 1954-1962
CLH.2001 Ancient and Historic Places (Study-Trip/
Field project: Ancient History)
HUA.208 The First World War: Politics, Society and PO.281 British Politics and Public Policy
Culture in Europe 1870-1933
HUA.206 Contemporary Wars and Conflicts
Department of History and Classics
5
BA History Modules
Year 3
YEAR THREE
Teaching Block 1
Teaching Block 2
MODULES
HIH.3300 History Dissertation [compulsory]
HIH.3332 Mapping Medieval Landscapes
HIH.3311 Law and Justice in Medieval England
HIH.3333 Mapping Medieval Land: Domesday Book &
Beyond
HIH.3312 Law and Justice in the Middle Ages
HIH.3227 Merchants & Marvels. Long-Distance Trade in HIH.3228 Merchants & Marvels. Long-Distance Trade
the Early Modern World, 1500-1800 (I)
in the Early Modern World, 1500-1800 (II)
HIH.3336 The Borgias and Beyond: Politics and Culture
in the Age of the Italian Wars (1494-1559) – Part I
HIH.3337 The Borgias and Beyond: Politics and Culture
in the Age of the Italian Wars (1494-1559) – Part II
HIH.3347 Henry VIII: Government, Society and Religion,
1509-1547
HIH.3304 The Great War for Empire, 1754-1764: The
Americas and India
HIH.3339 Internationalism, War and Peace: Europe
1900-1933, Part I
HIH.3315 France in Crisis, 1934-1944, Part One
HIH.3239 Sport and British Society - I
HIH.3219 Britain at War, 1939-45: The Home Front I
HIH.3343 War and Photography: Britain 1914-89 (Part
One)
HIH.3328 Britain and the United States in the Nuclear
Age – I
HIH.3253 Fear, Conformity and Oppression in Fascist
Italy – I
HIH.3344 The Hungry World
HIH.3231 Science and Nature in Early Modern Europe
–I
HIH.3348 Henry VIII: Government, Society and
Religion, 1509-1547
HIH.3306 The Great War for Empire II, 1754-1764:
Europe
HIH.3340 Internationalism, War and Peace: Europe,
1900-1933, Part II
HIH.3316 France in Crisis, 1934-1944, Part Two
HIH.3240 Sport and British Society - II
HIH.3220 Britain at War, 1939-45: The Home Front II
HIH.3345 War and Photography: Britain 1914-89 (Part
Two)
HIH.3329 Britain and the United States in the Nuclear
Age – II
HIH.3254 Fear, Conformity and Oppression in Fascist
Italy – II
HIH.3346 The Hungry world
HIH.3232 Science and Nature in Early Modern Europe
– II
Please note that the modules above, called Special Subjects, are studied as pairs
Department of History and Classics
6
AND
Choose exactly 40 credits from the following modules – selecting one from Teaching Block One and
one from Teaching Block Two.
Teaching Block 1
HIH.300W
Concro’r Byd: Twf a Chwymp Ymerodraethau Prydain a Ffrainc
HIH.303W
Y Rhyfel Mawr trwy lygaid y Cymry
HIH.3181
The Cathars and the Albigensian Crusades
HIH.3215
Media and Society in the 1930s
HIH.3216
Prisoners of War in Twentieth-Century Conflicts
HIH.3319
A History of Violence
HUA.301
Gunfighter Nation: the West in History, Mythology and fiction
HUA.306
The Aftermaths of War
HUA.309
The Russian Civil War
Teaching Block 2
HIH.3326
Britain since 1945
HIH.3335
Infections in Global History, 1500-2000
HIH.3349
The British Atlantic World c.1550-1760
HIH.396
From Machiavelli to Mussolini: Government and Society in Western Political Thought
HUA.305
The Spanish Civil War – Its Origins, Course and Legacy
MLF.325
France and the Second World War: Legacies of the Dark Years.
Department of History and Classics
7
Year 1
HIH122 – Making History (compulsory)
History is an imprecise art and what historians say and write about the past is not the same as what actually happened
in the past. Most people's knowledge about the past doesn't come from professional historians at all but rather
from 'public history'. Public history is the collective understandings of the past that exist outside academic discipline
of history. It is derived from a diverse range of sources including oral traditions, legends, literature, art, films and
television. This module will introduce you to the study and presentation of the past. It will consider how the content,
aims and methods of academic and public history compare and contrast and you will engage in your own small
research project to investigate this. The module will also teach you about the fundamentals of studying and writing
history at university. You will learn about essay writing, group work and critical analysis and employ these skills to
understand and assess history today, both as an academic activity and as public knowledge.
HIH121 – Europe of Extremes
The nineteenth century saw the rise of a western European civilization, characterized, as Eric Hobsbawm has noted, by
capitalist economics, liberal politics, and the dominance of a middle class that celebrated morality and science. In the
twentieth century this civilization faced unprecedented challenges from new political ideologies, and from a working
class demanding the right to govern in its own name. The result was an eruption of violence not seen on the continent
for centuries; in its wake, the Cold War divided the Europe with an Iron Curtain, and saw the continent become the
client of two world superpowers – the USA and the Soviet Union. This team-taught module relies on the specialist
knowledge of its tutors to examine economic, political and social themes in the history of nineteenth and twentiethcentury Europe.
HIH117 – Medieval Europe: an introduction
The module is a basic introduction to the history of Europe c600-c1450, a period usually described as 'Medieval'. It
outlines the political and economic structures of the period, and examines the medieval 'world view' by discussing
attitudes to life, death and the afterlife. Its first theme, expansion, charts the growth of Europe as a major world
power and includes topics such as the crusades against the Muslims and pagans, political and economic growth, and
intellectual development in the foundation of the universities. Its second theme, crisis, focuses on the devastating
impact of plague, famine and warfare, and the increasing persecution of heretics, lepers, homosexuals, and Jews.
HIH118 - Early Modern World, 1500-1800
In 1500, European exploration and colonisation of the rest of the world was only in its infancy. America, two continents
North and South, had been unknown to Europeans until just eight years previously. Most of it was still unmapped
by Europeans, as were large parts of the rest of the world. By 1800, on the other hand, it was possible to construct
a recognisable modern version of a world map. Europeans had explored, colonised, and resettled huge swathes
of America in the first instances. They had killed or displaced millions of Native Americans in the process, wiping
out whole civilisations, and they had enslaved 12 million or more Africans in that same process, inflicting immense
damage on African societies. Europeans were in the early stages of colonising large parts of Africa and Asia too by
1800. And yet, advances in science had transformed human understanding of the universe, of the world, and indeed
of ourselves. This was connected through the Renaissance in art, culture, and politics as well as science, to enormous
changes in the structure of polities and societies. The early modern era perhaps saw the invention not only of modern
empires, but of large, centralised modern states. Also, the Renaissance and then Enlightenment changed the way
people and states interacted. Arguably, the early modern period represents the transition period between an era
of medieval hierarchy and the origins of modern social and political democracy. Essentially, the aim of the module,
through your lectures, seminars, and independent reading and thinking, is to give you a sense of the connections
between these places and their histories, highlighting that the increasing inter-connection between them is itself a
feature of the early modern period. You’ll also get a broad sense of how the world as a whole changed between 1500
and 1800.
Department of History and Classics
8
Year 1
HIH124 – Modern British History
This module explores the broad sweep of the history of the United Kingdom since its modern creation in 1801. It
brings together different approaches from political, economic, social and cultural history to consider the different
ways the history of a nation can be studied. At the module's heart are questions of what constitutes a nation and
the extent to which British society can be considered to be unified.
Department of History and Classics
9
YEAR 2
HIH237 – Practice of History (compulsory)
The purpose of the module is to encourage you to think more deeply about how historians work and, in
particular, about how we as historians can locate and use primary historical sources effectively as a means
of interpreting and understanding the past. During the module we will learn about the survival of historical
evidence, how it is organised and made accessible to historians to undertake their research, and how to
effectively locate and interpret it in your studies. We will consider how the process of doing historical research
changes over time, in particular with the impact of recent developments like digitization. At the core of the
module will be the work you undertake with others in your seminar group using a range of primary sources which
your seminar tutor will introduce to you. As part of the module assessment you will also undertake your own
primary source based research project using items from these collections. The module is designed strengthen
your analytical skills and to help prepare you for the more extensive uses of primary evidence which you will
encounter in final year special subjects and dissertation.
HIH235 – The Golden Age of Iberia 1450-1700
This course will provide an introduction to the history of Spain, Portugal and their empires in the early modern
period. Students will come away with a broad knowledge of the political, cultural, religious and social history of
Iberia during its period of greatest influence. We will begin by surveying the political history of Castile, Aragon
and Portugal, seeking to understand the complex series of inheritances and political manoeuvres that created
Spain. After looking at Early Modern Iberian imperial government, we will turn to the area’s social and intellectual
history. Here we will discuss Portuguese and Spanish culture, literature and art, as well as the intense religious
fervour that launched both a global missionary effort and the Inquisition. The final weeks of the course will be
devoted to studying the Spanish and Portuguese empires, both in Europe and elsewhere in the world. Here, our
perspective will be decidedly metropolitan as we seek to understand how Iberian social and political institutions
were exported overseas. We will also discuss the problems encountered by the Iberian monarchy as it attempted
to manage the world’s first truly global empire and faced the problem of dynastic decline.
HIH266 - Researching and Re-telling the Past: The Swansea University Centenary (TB1)
Research project focusing on a specific historical topic. Refer to departmental literature for details. This module
allows students to work with original historical sources to produce text and images on an historical topic which
communicate its meaning to a wider audience.
HIH272 – The Cold War
The Cold War dominated much of the second half of the twentieth century. While tensions between the two
superpowers over the status of Berlin or during the Cuban missile crisis bore the potential of escalating into a
nuclear war, the Cold War did not turn hot with the exception of proxy wars in Korea, Vietnam or Afghanistan.
Instead, it remained by and large an ‘imaginary war’ (Mary Kaldor). This second year option examines this crucial
period in twentieth-century history within a global perspective, shedding light on different arenas in which the
Cold War was fought, including its origins, its impact on the ‘Third World’, science and technology, sports, popular
culture, gender, consumerism and lifestyle as well as its manifold legacies that can be felt to the present day (e.g.
political and environmental). The course introduces students to chief debates and key secondary literature as
well as a wide range of primary sources, including government documents, newspapers and magazines as well as
popular culture and visual arts.
Department of History and Classics
10
YEAR 2
HIH272W - Credoau'r Cymry: Astudio Athroniaeth ac Athrawiaeth Gymreig o Safbwynt Rhyngwladol
Cyflwyniad i syniadau rhai o ffigyrau mwyaf adnabyddus yn hanes Cymru yw hanfod y modiwl hwn. Fe
fydd myfyrwyr yn cael y cyfle i astudio unigolion megis Glyndwr, Robert Owen, Aneurin Bevan a Gwynfor
Evans. Mae’n cynnig i fyfyrwyr dealltwriaeth o rai o’u hegwyddorion a chysyniadau craidd. Dadansoddir yr
athroniaethau mewn cyd-destun rhyngwladol, gan ystyried eu cysylltiadau gyda digwyddiadau a syniadau
ehangach yr oes. Trwy fabwysiadu’r safbwynt yma, ceir cyfle nid yn unig i ymgyfarwyddo â syniadau cynhenid
Cymreig, ond hefyd dod i ddeall hanfodion ysgolion o feddwl ehangach megis sosialaeth, cenedlaetholdeb a
heddychiaeth.
HIH278 - Revolutionary America, 1760 – 1791
This module explores the American Revolution, the formation of the United States, and imperial and colonial
politics and society between 1760 and 1791. The first section of the module explores events from the end of the
French and Indian War in 1760, taxes and other measures leading to Independence in 1776, the war of 1775-83,
through to the founding of the Constitution and Bill of Rights in 1787-91. The second section examines imperial
politics and colonial societies in greater depth, exploring the evolution of Anglo-American constitutionalism
and political thought throughout the period, and examining social structure in America, slavery, Native
Americans, women, and whether 1760-1791 saw a 'social revolution'. The third part of the module will explore
particular people, places, events, and themes in greater detail still (e.g. the Founding Fathers, urban artisans,
the rural South, the Boston Tea Party, revolutionary concepts and ideas, etc.). Students may request topics for
lectures for the third section of the module. Seminars will analyse various primary documents including the
Declaration of Independence (1776) and Constitution (1787) and Bill of Rights (1791), but students may request
that other documents also be included in tutorial readings.
HIH2011 - The Heirs of Rome: The Making of Christendom, Byzantium, and Islam in the Early Middle Ages, 400800. The period between AD 400 and 800 saw the unmaking of the world of antiquity and the forging of the
new civilizations of medieval Christendom, Byzantium, and Islam. It is, in short, an era with reverberations that
are keenly felt in the present. This module will trace the main outlines of this seminal period, showing how the
heritage of the Roman world was transformed in diverse ways during the early medieval centuries. Particular
attention will be paid to the emergence of new forms of polity, religion, and socio-economic structures. On
completion of the module, students will have a keen appreciation of how and why the different regions of
eastern and western Europe and the Middle East, once untied under Roman rule, had come to follow widely
diverging destinies.
HIH227 - Medieval Britain 1250-1461
This module on British history in the later medieval period investigates the relationship between England,
Scotland, Ireland, Wales and France, raising questions about conquest, nationalism, patriotism and race. It will
also look at the social, economic and cultural history of Britain (eg the rise of English as a literary language) as
well as the internal problems each country faced as it battled against plague, revolts and civil war.
Department of History and Classics
11
YEAR 2
HIH246 - The Enlightenment and the Eighteenth-Century World
'The Enlightenment' is a broad term denoting the development of new ideas in the late 17th to late 18th
centuries on what it means to be human, on society, human progress, social and economic change, and the
natural world. Enlightened belief in the power of reason was the starting point for a new form of 'rational'
and 'scientific' inquiry into all aspects of human activity and the natural environment. Enlightenment meant
finding out how societies needed to change to move forward and achieve the greatest possible happiness
and prosperity for the greatest number of the population. Reforms and innovative ideas were presented to
the public by writers, philosophers, government officials and lawyers, artists and architects. In the early stages,
most 'enlightened' people were male, white, and European. However, in the second half of the 18th C, women,
European colonists, and native colonial populations increasingly played a part by appropriating and radicalizing
key concepts such as liberty, justice, and natural rights. This module will look at what the Enlightenment was,
what it meant in practice for European and colonial societies, and where it fell victim to its own limitations.
Subjects typically covered include: war and society, culture, arts, travel, communication and sociability, legal
reform, social philosophy, ideas on race, the emergence of modern natural sciences and medicine, economic
thought, the situation of minorities
HIH273 - Deformity, Deviance and Difference: Exploring Disability History
There are over 11 million people with a long-term illness, impairment of disability living in the UK today, but the
experiences of disabled people in the past often remain hidden from view. This module provides an introduction
to the historical experiences of people with physical, sensory and intellectual impairments from medieval Europe
to contemporary society. It explores the changing perception of people with disabilities over time and examines
what it has meant to be 'different' in past societies. There have been people with disabilities throughout
history, but what it means to be 'disabled' has changed over time. Indeed, the modern category of 'disability'
as conferring a 'special needs status' on an individual is a modern invention that has developed since the late
eighteenth century. This module will examine the ways in which people with disabilities have been treated in the
past, and explores cultural meanings of human difference and their construction in various historical settings.
It will show how attitudes towards disability have been varied and that while people with impairments have
been stigmatized as 'freaks', or symbols of divine punishment, societies have also found ways of valuing human
difference. Beginning with a survey of attitudes towards disability in medieval times, the module examines the
development of state welfare responses to sickness and disability, changing medical approaches to impairment
and debates about whether people with disabilities should be cared for in the community or inside institutions.
The growth of educational provision for children with disabilities since the late eighteenth century will also be
surveyed. Furthermore, the module will examine the impact of warfare and industrialization on approaches to
disability and show how movements for Disability Rights emerged in the modern era. Throughout, students will
be given access to the voices and experiences of people with disabilities themselves through a variety of primary
source material.
AM217 - The Making of Transatlantic America
This multidisciplinary module seeks to offer a re-appraisal of early American history from the period c. 1607
through c. 1783 as well as understand other elements – geography, economics, philosophy, literature, and
politics – that helped determine the shape of early American society. Students will examine some of the most
dynamic topics of current early American scholarship and issues as they developed in an emerging world: the
roles of race and gender; the changing nature of the colonial family; the sexual practices of early colonists;
emigration and the ‘peopling’ of empire; the role of the ‘frontier;’ backcountry violence; crime; the formation of
provincial elites; and uneasy international rivalries.
Department of History and Classics
12
YEAR 2
AM251 – America in Crisis: Political Culture and Society from the Tet Offensive to the Tea Party
1968 is often characterised as the annus horribilis of modern American history. Jules Witcover referred to
1968 as ‘The Year the Dream Died’ and soon critics of the 1970s were writing in terms of America undergoing
‘Anxious Years’ (McQuaid), as having ‘Uncertain Greatness’ (Morris), and talking in terms of a ‘Retreat from
Empire’ (Osgood). This module will critically examine the reasons behind, and impact of, America’s crisis of
confidence. Such an analysis will consider the importance of issues such as the end of the Vietnam War, the
Black Power movement, the Watergate Crisis, the pardon of Richard Nixon, the reopening of the Kennedy
assassination, the so called ‘political malaise’ and the Iranian Hostage crisis. The course then examines the
legacy of events that lead to a surge in support for the Moral Majority and the New Right in America. As such,
the course will look at the resurgence of religion as a powerful force in American domestic and foreign policy,
a force that retains considerable sway in current American elections. The course will look at how Ronald
Reagan focussed on bringing back pride, power and prestige to the presidency through a focus on new
economics, tax cuts and heavy military spending. Despite this, the connection of the New Right to Reagan
is a complex one. The legacy of this period will also be assessed in terms of the polarisation of American
politics during the 1990s and beyond, the formation of the Tea Party, and the continuing decline in the trust
in American government and political representatives.
MLF240W - Rhyfel Algeria 1954-1962
Bydd y modiwl hwn yn dyfnhau dealldwriaeth hanes modern Ffrainc ac i ddeall perthnasedd digwyddiadau
hanesyddol penoldol i gymdeithas Ffrengig. Fe fydd myfyrwyr yn asesu dogfenau hanesyddol gwahanol
a'u defnyddio mewn moddgwrthrychol a beirniadol er mwyn asesu ffactorau pwusicaf rhyfel Algeria yn
ddadansoddol.
Bydd y modiwl hwn yn galluogi i fyfyrwr ddatblygu ac ymestyn ei sgilliau dadansoddol a beirniadol thrwy
ddefnyddio cyfryngau diwilliannol gwahanol: ffilm, rhagleni ffeithiol, hunangyfiannau a delweddau gwledol.
Fe fydd fyfyrwyr yn datblygu eu gallu i gasglu gwybodaeth a ffynonellau amrywiol, ac i leloi ac ystyried y
wybodaeth hynny o fewn cyd-destyn gwleidyddol, hanesyddol a chymdeithasol.
HUA208 - The First World War: Politics, Society and culture in Europe 1870 – 1933
To what extent (if at all) did the First World War transform modern societies? This module engages with this
key question by examining the totality of the First World War – a conflict viewed by many as the first ‘total
war’ - and its impact on the modern world. The causes, course and consequences of the conflict are explored
though a range of approaches: military, political, economic, social, cultural, technological, moral and legal.
HIH222 - Revolutionary and Napoleonic Europe, 1789-1815
Between 1792 and 1815 Europe was in a state of almost constant warfare. The French Revolutionary wars,
the rise of Napoleon and the creation of a French Empire had a profound impact on the other European
powers, great and small. This module explores the consequences of over two decades of warfare and French
imperialism on Europe. It investigates the nature of the French Revolution and its impact upon European
politics and society, the subsequent wars and the rise , character and fall of the Napoleonic Empire. In
addition it will examine the reaction of the European states and peoples to French military success and
dominance. Finally, it discusses the long-term legacies left by Napoleon and the wars.
Department of History and Classics
13
YEAR 2
HIH226 - Post-War Reconstruction: Europe 1945 – 1956
The module begins by examining the conditions on the continent at the end of the war in 1945 and then
concentrates on the social and political reconstruction of both East and West Europe. A number of countries will
be used as case studies, including Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, the two Germanies and Austria. The course will
end with the burning rubble in Budapest in 1956.
HIH253 - The Welsh Century: Politics, Nationality and Religion, 1847-1947
This survey of modern Welsh history from the 1847 report on the state of education in Wales, to the social
reforms of the Attlee government at the end of the Second World War, traces the emergence of Welsh identity
through key developments such as temperance and the Sunday Closing Act, religion and the disestablishment
of the church and the emergence of Welsh national institutions. It considers how Welshness adapted to and
intersected with other loyalties, defined by race, gender, class and empire, and it deals with the changing social
and cultural scene which saw anglicizing influences alter demographic and linguistic patterns in Wales.
HIH267 - The History of the Mass Media in the United Kingdom
This module examines the historical development of the mass media in the United Kingdom,focusing on the
emergence of the 'old' media of print, broadcasting and cinema. It examines the institutional histories of these
media, the changing relationship with their audiences and the development of their content. Debates about
the social impact of these media will be examined as well as the different interpretations of their representation
of society and the past. The factors that have shaped their ability to represent society such as censorship,
commerce, ownership, propaganda and news management will be addressed.
HIH274 - Conflict & Memory: Europe in the Twentieth Century
Collective memories of conflict and death were powerful historical forces in twentieth-century Europe. This
module considers how popular and scholarly understandings of the past shaped debate, attitudes and decisions
from the start of the First World War to the end of the Cold War. It addresses the pronouncements of politicians
and the output of artists, as well as public debate about the work of historians. Co-taught by lecturers with
expertise in comparative history, the module covers a range of countries and conflicts spanning Europe’s
turbulent twentieth century. Case studies to be examined in detail include the commemoration of conflict after
1918, the role of historical narratives in the articulation of ideologies of the interwar period, the development
of a collective memory of the Holocaust, and the salience of memory and commemoration during the Cold
War. Students will develop an appreciation of the different concepts; approaches and sources historians use
to explore collective memories. The module will also explore cultural and political aspects of the current
“commemorative fever” which has gripped Europe in the twenty-first century
HIH275 - Making Modern Medicine: Doctors, Patients, and Society, 1800-2000
This module surveys the making of modern Western medicine from the French Revolution to the Therapeutic
Revolution. It traces the creation in nineteenth century Europe and Britain of hospitals, laboratories, and public
health systems, of new medical professionals working in them, of new understandings of health and disease, and
of the role of medicine in building modern states and empires. Turning to the twentieth century, it examines the
growing connections between medicine and war, between national health care systems and the pharmaceutical
industry, and between crises of the welfare state and the rise of the patient-activist. With this survey, students
will acquire critical historical tools for understanding and studying how medicine became crucial to the modern
world.
Department of History and Classics
14
Year 2
HIH277 - Whose Past Is It Anyway? Exploring the Heritage Industry
This module will give students an introduction to the heritage industry. It’s suited both to those considering
a career in this sector and to students who’d like to think in more general terms about the way our society
consumes the past. The module will combine critical analysis of a range of heritage sites with lectures and
seminar discussion of the lively debates around the role of history and heritage in society. We’ll explore the
challenges of difficult histories – such as the legacies of slavery and colonialism. We’ll consider both tangible
heritage, like physical buildings and landscapes, and intangible heritage, like language and culture. The
module will be assessed by a coursework portfolio of site reviews and an extended essay.
HIH2001 - Ancient and Historic Places (Study-Trip/Field project: History)
Medieval Poland, Prussia and the Crusading Order of the Teutonic Knights. Students will visit a variety of
medieval and more recent sites of historical significance over the course of a roughly week-long journey
around northern Poland. Sites will include the medieval city of Toruń, the home of Nicolaus Copernicus, and
Malbork Castle, seat of the Grandmaster of the Teutonic order. A series of lectures will precede the trip itself,
during the Easter break. During the trip, students will be expected to undertake collaborative interpretive
work on site. Refer to departmental literature for details. This module allows students to visit a particular
place or region and to investigate historical problems in their original topographical context.
HIH240 - Europe 1500-1650: Renaissance, Reformation and Religious War
This course examines the turbulent period in the history of Europe (including Britain), which encompassed
the spread of Renaissance artistic and literary values beyond the Italian peninsula, the Reformation and
Counter-Reformation, and conflicts such as the French Wars of Religion, the Dutch Revolt, and the Thirty Years’
War. The module will explore not only the political significance of these events, and their effects on the ruling
classes, but also their implications for wider European society and culture. Particular attention will be paid to
using the knowledge acquired to understand written and visual sources produced in the period.
HIH252 - War and Society in the Anglo-Norman World
This module will examine Anglo-Norman warfare in the two centuries between the Norman Conquest of
England in 1066 and the civil war between Henry III and rebel English barons in 1264-65. It will look at the
methods of warfare as well as to their impact upon Anglo-Norman society. Themes include comparisons with
Anglo-Saxon and ‘Celtic’ warfare, rebellion, chivalry and tournaments, the place of the Church and women in
Anglo-Norman warfare, and representations of conflict in manuscripts and the Bayeux Tapestry.
HIH266B - Researching and Re-telling the past: Medieval Women (TB2)
Research project focusing on a specific historical topic. Refer to departmental literature for details. This
module allows students to work with original historical sources to produce text and images on an historical
topic which communicate its meaning to a wider audience.
Department of History and Classics
15
Year 2
HIH276 - Anglo-Saxon and Viking-Age England
Between the eighth and the eleventh centuries England was subjected to an almost relentless onslaught
of Viking raids and invasions. This titanic clash between the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and the Danish armies
who sought to commandeer their lands was to have a profound effect on the social, political, economic
and cultural developments of the period. This module will provide an overview of the key historical and
archaeological debates concerning the impact of Viking activity in England. From the earliest chance raids
of the eighth century, through the collapse of the European Age of Emporia in the ninth, to the founding
of the Danish kingdom of the Danelaw and the ascendency of the Danish kings to the English throne in
the eleventh century, the module will evaluate how the Viking incursions had both a catastrophic effect
on society in some areas of England but also served as a stimulus to economic developments in others.
The legacy of these centuries was the birth of a state infrastructure, a system of effective governance and a
developing economy that was the envy of the wider European.
CLH2001 - Ancient and Historic Places (Study-Trip/Field project; Ancient History)
This module is designed to enable students to examine the (primarily ancient) history of a region through a
combination of study on site and in the classroom. The specific focus of the 2013-14 version of the module
is on Campania in southern Italy, and the cultural impact of Greek colonisation and Roman control on that
region c. 700 BC to AD 79, with case studies of sites such as Velia, Cumae, Poseidonia/Paestum, Pompeii,
Herculaneum and Puteoli. The approach taken is an interdisciplinary one, using both written material (ancient
texts and inscriptions) and visual/material evidence.
PO-281 - British Politics and Public Policy
This module examines British political debates on public policy as they have developed from the New Liberals
to the Labour Government of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. It looks at five key periods and controversies.
Firstly the purpose and achievements of the so-called ‘New Liberalism’ of the turn of the century and beyond.
Secondly public policy during the crises of the inter-war years. Thirdly, we will examine the question of
the post-war ‘consensus’ over public policy. The fourth topic is the origins and nature of Thatcherism while
the fifth is the origins and development of the Labour Government since 1997. Students following this
module will thus develop a sound knowledge and appreciation of the on-going debates about the nature
and purpose of public policy as well as arguments over the means of implementation. They will also find
themselves able to place contemporary debate into its vital historical perspective.
HUA206 - Contemporary Wars and Conflicts
This module introduces and critically explores contemporary warfare and conflict, from post WWII up to the
present War on Terror. It considers the de-colonization/independence wars; the Cold War proxy conflicts;
post-1990 New Wars and the War on Terror.
Department of History and Classics
16
Year 3
HIH3300 - History Dissertation (compulsory)
The History dissertation is a free-standing, 40-credit module that runs across both semesters of Level Three.
Candidates conduct research upon a subject of their choice, devised in consultation with a member of staff
teaching for the degrees in History, and concerning a topic that falls within staff research and teaching
interests.
HIH3332 - Mapping Medieval Landscapes (1)
Part 1Techniques and Traditions
In the understanding of medieval societies there is an increasing emphasis on the study of their social and
economic landscapes. From the development of towns and patterns of land-use, to the locations of battles
and other major historical events recorded in annals or charters, analysing data in a spatial context – the act
of ‘mapping’ – and relating it to other environmental and cultural information has the capacity to yield new
understandings about the periods and places we study. From simple location and distribution maps, to more
complex renderings of temporality and space, this module will provide students with a firm grounding in the
techniques of digital mapping, cartography and spatial analysis and will allow for the exploration of a particular
landscape during a period of your choice in a level of unprecedented depth and detail. The module will invite
you to critique the process of mapping and to think about the validity of mapped data whilst at the same
time giving you an invaluable insight into how a rich variety of contextual data can be integrated with historic
evidence and presented in mapped form.
HIH3311 - Law and Justice in Medieval England, Part 1
In the later thirteenth century Edward I began a process of unprecedented reform of the administration of
law, both civil and criminal, in English realm. Edwardian reforms ranged from basic and high profile legal
changes, such as making the crime of rape a felony, to more subtle developments, such as promoting a new
and more professionalized class of royal justices and administrators. Under Edward I, and his successors, the
crown challenged the right of local lords to administer their own law and justice, promoting the application
of English common law principals in local jurisdictions, and ultimately encouraging what has been called the
‘triumph of the common law’. Subsequently, during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the machinery of
English criminal and civil law took on a life of its own, as a ponderous bureaucracy, which in turn shaped the
common law it was established to administer into the skeleton of the English legal system until modern times.
This module tracks the transformation of the theory and practice of later medieval English common law from
trial by battle and ordeal, to a battle of wits between trained attorneys. This module is the first part of a twopart Special Subject concerning the development and spread of English Common Law in the thirteenth to
fifteenth centuries, and introduces students to the main historical debates and primary sources for the study of
medieval common law. It places great emphasis on the use of records of legal cases as ‘real-world’ examples,
and medieval literary criticisms of the law.
HIH3227 - Merchants & Marvels. Long-Distance Trade in the Early Modern World, 1500-1800 (I)
'Globalisation' is a phenomenon that has caused a good deal of recent debate, though the movement of goods,
people, bullion and services from one corner of the planet to another is nothing new. In this course, students
shall investigate in some depth the role of long-distance commerce in 'disenclaving' (to use a French term)
the world in the early modern period, the forms this trade took and some of its effects. The elaborate paths
luxury goods wove across the planet seem remarkably unimpeded by either the speed of communications (it
could take 16-23 months to send a consignment of silk from Nagasaki in Japan to Amsterdam), the high risks
of banditry on the caravan routes or shipwreck at sea, and the transmission often via unreliable and hostile
intermediaries. At the same time, the instruments of commerce - insurance, credit, speculation and derivative
trading that went on in the European trading exchanges like London and Amsterdam - suggest a remarkably
modern global system was already on its feet. This module forms the first of a two-part Special Subject (with
HIH3228) and will introduce students to the main historical problems and debates concerning this subject.
Department of History and Classics
17
Year 3
HIH3336 - The Borgias and Beyond: Politics and Culture in the Age of the Italian Wars (1494-1559) - Part I
This module will explore politics and culture in the period of the Italian Wars, 1494-1559. Although the
focus will be on the Italian states, this was a period that saw diplomats and soldiers from across Europe (and
beyond) on the Italian peninsula, and there will be ample opportunity to consider wider themes. Drawing
on a rich range of primary sources, students will investigate the breakdown of peace in Italy, developments
in political thought, art and literature, the practice of diplomacy and warfare. Sources to be studied include
Machiavelli’s The Prince, artworks by Michelangelo and Raphael, satirical poetry, an eyewitness account of
the 1527 Sack of Rome and the diary of a long-suffering Roman master-of-ceremonies.
HIH3347 - Henry VIII: Government, Society, and Religion, 1509-1547 (Part 1)
This module is the first part of a two-part special subject (with HIH3348) The module will engage in depth
with Henry VIII’s reign as a formative period in the early history of the English nation state. Significant
changes were introduced in the government and administration of the country, and in the composition
and operation of the court. These changes had implications for relations with the nobility and with those
regions of the Monarchy where conflicting interests and identities prevailed. One of the unexpected and
essentially unwanted outcomes of asserting the Monarchy’s sovereignty in a national and internal context
was its break with the Church of Rome. The 'Anglican' Church that originated from this conflict became a
pillar of English monarchical power, and contributed to setting the country in many respects on a separate
path from the continent. The module will discuss key events and processes from this period, notably the
early Reformation, but will go beyond this by looking at a variety of subjects, including society, warfare,
culture, the economy, and ideas on government and law. The full range of challenges confronting the
young Tudor monarchy at home and abroad will be discussed, including relations with Scotland, Wales,
Ireland, and continental Europe.
HIH3304 - The Great War for Empire, 1754-1764: The Americas and India
The Seven Years War was the single most important conflict in the eighteenth century, before the struggle
against Republican France. It was truly a global conflict as rival armies and navies confronted each other
in Europe, the Americas and India. Not only did the conflict mark the apogee of the first British Empire and
confirm the rise of Prussia to Great Power status; it was also a major contributory factor in the American and
French Revolutions. The belligerent states were forced to mobilize themselves to an unprecedented extent
and attempted to promote a sense of national identity and patriotism in their subjects through the media.
HIH3339 - Internationalism, War and Peace: Europe 1900-1933, Part I
The twin issues of war and peace dominated Europe from the turn of the twentieth century. The threat
of war has traditionally been presented as the result of rising national rivalries. However, this period was
also one in which the world became increasingly inter-connected and modern internationalism was born,
which was, in turn, seen as a guarantor of peace. This module examines how internationalist ideas evolved
in the early 1900s, how they were undermined in 1914 with the outbreak of the First World War, how they
were reborn again in the 1920s through the work of the League of Nations, before failing once more in the
mid-to-late 1930s. The module encourages students to think critically about terms such as nationalism and
internationalism and the relationship between them, as well as how war and peace have been understood
and justified at different points in history.
Department of History and Classics
18
Year 3
HIH3315 - France in Crisis 1934-1944 Part One
Nineteen-thirty-four saw the beginning of what some historians have termed a French civil war. Beset by political,
economic and social crises, France was increasingly divided against itself as parliamentary government broke
down and uniformed fascists and their left-wing adversaries fought to control the streets. The defeat of France
to Germany in 1940 saw the opening of what are termed the ‘Dark Years’, and not without good reason. During
these years, 650, 000 civilian workers were forced to work in Germany; 75 000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz;
30, 000 French civilians were shot as hostages or members of the Resistance, while another 60,000 were sent
to concentration camps. The war years left an indelible mark on French politics, society and historiography.
The module (along with HIH3316) comprises classes broadly based around five themes: 1) The 1930s 2) Defeat
and Occupation 3) Collaboration 4) Resistance 5) Memory. Students will develop an understanding of the
historiographical issues involved in the study of the subject, as well as knowledge of the broader context of 20th
century French history and the role of the Vichy years in this trajectory. Students will use a variety of political, social
and cultural sources including film, literature and texts. No knowledge of French is required.
HIH3239 - Sport and British Society (i)
This module examines the history of modern sport from its development in the late nineteenth century to the
advent of the television era in the 1950s. It sets sport firmly in its wider social, economic and political context and
examines sport’s different meanings to communities and individuals across Britain. Students will thus learn about
the diversity of sporting traditions across British history and examine how they were shaped by wider forces such as
work, class and gender. Local studies will be compared to assess the place of sport in British society and to question
the idea of a national culture. The source material of sports history lies at the heart of the module and students will
analyse its uses, problems and limitations. This module forms the first of a two-part Special Subject (with HIH 3240)
and will concern the main historical problems and debates concerning the history of sport. It will also introduce
students to the primary sources for this period.
HIH3219 - Britain at War, 1939-45: The Home Front (I)
This module examines the impact of the Second World War on British politics, culture and society. It encourages
students to consider, through drawing on a vast and readily accessible body of printed sources as well as a wealth
of primary material, whether the experiences of Total War made the years 1939-1945 stand out as a watershed, as
some historians and others have argued, in terms of social change. It asks whether the war years really did draw
a line between the social divisions and conflicts of the 1930s and the years of post-war consensus: was it truly a
‘People’s War’ or is this a myth? This module forms the first of a two part Special Subject (with HIH3220) and will
concern the main historical problems and debates concerning the British Home Front, exploring themes such as
class, gender, national identity and citizenship. It will also introduce students to primary sources related to this
aspect of British history.
HIH3343 - War & Photography: Britain, 1914-89 (Part 1)
Since the announcement of its invention in 1839, the medium of photography has influenced human activity in
fields as diverse as science and leisure, politics and personal relationships. Nowhere has its impact been more
dramatic, however, than in the representation of the devastating wars of the twentieth century. Addressing the
photography of armed conflict in Britain from the start of the First World War to the end of the Cold War, this
module takes a critical approach to a range of photographic imagery made and circulated in times of conflict
including reconnaissance, press, amateur and even fine art photography. It examines the changing significance of
photographic technology in the prosecution of war, as well as the increasing importance of news images in shaping
public attitudes to conflict. Photographs are partial and unreliable documents, but in this they are no different
from ego-documents, journalistic reports, political treaties or any other source which historians examine. Historical
research with photographs involves refining existing skills of working with primary sources, as well as developing
a sophisticated understanding of what sort of source a photograph can be and a new set of interpretive skills.
Through its clear focus on ‘war photography’ in twentieth-century Britain, this module combines an insight into
the history of photography with a broader exploration of the value and importance of photographs to historical
research.
Department of History and Classics
19
Year 3
HIH3328 - Britain and the United States in the Nuclear Age I
No other event in mid-20th-century history influenced all areas of human life as profoundly as the coming
of the atomic age in 1945. Ever after the atomic attacks on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
nuclear arms and energy have affected our patterns of thought and our ways of living. Starting as a scientific
endeavour, the creation of atomic weapons and power have had a strong impact on various realms of the
human experience, ranging from politics, military strategy and national security to the anti-nuclear movement
to the arts to popular culture to gender and sexuality. This two-semester-long special subject will trace the
history of the nuclear age in Britain and the United States from some of the earliest nuclear discoveries in the
late nineteenth century through the Second World War and the Cold War to the twenty-first century. Students
will study both the historiography of the nuclear age and a variety of key primary source material, including
government and scientific documents, newspapers and popular media sources, film and music as well as
photographs.
HIH3253 - Fear, Conformity and Oppression in Fascist Italy (1)
The study of fascist Italy has over recent decades been characterized by debate and controversy over how
repressive Mussolini's dictatorship was. This module forms the first of a two-part Special Subject (the other
being HIH3254). It introduces students to the main historical debates surrounding repression in fascist Italy,
comparing the institutional structures and levels of coercion and violence underpinning the fascist police state
with those of Nazi Germany and Franco’s Spain. The module also introduces the main primary sources used for
analyzing repression in fascist Italy in the second module.
HIH3344 - The Hungry World
Hunger has fundamentally shaped human history. But only in the twentieth century did it emerge as a
medical, scientific, and public health problem to be studied and controlled in every corner of the globe. This
two-semester module explores how hunger became a galvanising and polarising force in the contemporary
world. We will address this question in seminars that focus on key themes and debates in the historiography
– particularly with how hunger has been tied to matters of health, development, colonialism, geopolitics,
war, socio-economic and gender inequality, human rights, security, and the global food system. Seminars
will be based on analysing a range of primary sources, including those produced by governments, medical
and scientific authorities, the popular press and mass media, philanthropies and international agencies. We
will use these documents to elucidate the many experts, organisations, and governments who converged on
hunger, the changing methods and means they used to define and combat it, and those who embodied and
experienced it. The first semester traces the framing of hunger as a world problem from the late nineteenth
century to the Second World War. The second semester examines its rise to prominence with the creation of the
United Nations, battles over solutions in the contexts of decolonization and the Cold War, and its emergence as
a global humanitarian crisis.
HIH3231 - Science, Magic, and Medicine in Early Modern Europe (i)
Historians of science and medicine have long used the term the ‘Scientific Revolution’ to express the idea
that knowledge of the natural world and the human body changed in important ways during the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries. This module forms the first part of a two-part Special Subject examining the
transformation of scientific, magical, and medical ideas and practices in this period, and assessing whether the
concept of the ‘Scientific Revolution’ is helpful in understanding them.
Department of History and Classics
20
Year 3
HIH3333 - Mapping Medieval Land: Domesday Book and Beyond (2)
The second part of the module will focus on a series of detailed case-studies mapping information from the
Domesday survey of A.D. 1086. Describing settlements of all sizes, listing mills, churches, ploughlands, meadows
and woodlands along with their owners and occupants, the Domesday Book provides us with an unprecedented
level of information concerning settlement and society at a crucial point in Britain’s history. Mapping this
information against other contextual geographical and historical information can help us to further understand
the objectives of the Domesday surveyors as well as the organisation of the medieval landscape. Students will
choose a study area of their choice and will explore ways in which different types of Domesday data can be
mapped whilst at the same time being given a wider introduction to Domesday studies.
HIH3312 - Law and Justice in Medieval England - Part 2
In the later thirteenth century Edward I began a process of unprecedented reform of the administration of law,
both civil and criminal, in English realm. Edwardian reforms ranged from basic and high profile legal changes,
such as making the crime of rape a felony, to more subtle developments, such as promoting a new and more
professionalized class of royal justices and administrators. Under Edward I, and his successors, the crown
challenged the right of local lords to administer their own law and justice, promoting the application of English
common law principals in local jurisdictions, and ultimately encouraging what has been called the ‘triumph of
the common law’. Subsequently, during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the machinery of English criminal
and civil law took on a life of its own, as a ponderous bureaucracy, which in turn shaped the common law it was
established to administer into the skeleton of the English legal system until modern times. This module tracks
the transformation of the theory and practice of later medieval English common law from trial by battle and
ordeal, to a battle of wits between trained attorneys. This module is the second part of a two-part Special Subject
concerning the development and spread of English Common Law in the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, and
introduces students to the main historical debates and primary sources for the study of medieval common law. It
places great emphasis on the use of records of legal cases as ‘real-world’ examples, and medieval literary criticisms
of the law.
HIH3228 - Merchants & Marvels. Long-Distance Trade in the Early Modern World, 1500-1800 (II)
'Globalisation' is a phenomenon that has caused a good deal of recent debate, though the movement of goods,
people, bullion and services from one corner of the planet to another is nothing new. In this course, students shall
investigate in some depth the role of long-distance commerce in 'disenclaving' (to use a French term) the world in
the early modern period, the forms this trade took and some of its effects. The elaborate paths luxury goods wove
across the planet seem remarkably unimpeded by either the speed of communications (it could take 16-23 months
to send a consignment of silk from Nagasaki in Japan to Amsterdam), the high risks of banditry on the caravan
routes or shipwreck at sea, and the transmission often via unreliable and hostile intermediaries. At the same time,
the instruments of commerce - insurance, credit, speculation and derivative trading that went on in the European
trading exchanges like London and Amsterdam - suggest a remarkably modern global system was already on its
feet. This module forms the second of a two-part Special Subject (with HIH3227) and will the historical sources
concerning this subject.
HIH3337 - The Borgias and Beyond: Politics and Culture in the Age of the Italian Wars (1494-1559) - Part II
This module will explore politics and culture in the period of the Italian Wars, 1494-1559. Although the focus will
be on the Italian states, this was a period that saw diplomats and soldiers from across Europe (and beyond) on
the Italian peninsula, and there will be ample opportunity to consider wider themes. Drawing on a rich range of
primary sources, students will investigate the breakdown of peace in Italy, developments in political thought, art
and literature, the practice of diplomacy and warfare. Sources to be studied include Castiglione’s influential Book of
the Courtier, letters and account books, images of the coronation of the Emperor Charles V, I Modi (the first work of
printed pornography), and Palazzo Te in Mantua.
Department of History and Classics
21
Year 3
HIH3348 - Henry VIII: Government, Society, and Religion, 1509-1547 (Part 2)
This module is the second part of a two-part special subject (with HIH3347). The module will engage in depth
with Henry VIII’s reign as a formative period in the early history of the English nation state. Significant changes
were introduced in the government and administration of the country, and in the composition and operation
of the court. These changes had implications for relations with the nobility and with those regions of the
Monarchy where conflicting interests and identities prevailed. One of the unexpected and essentially unwanted
outcomes of asserting the Monarchy’s sovereignty in a national and internal context was its break with the
Church of Rome. The 'Anglican' Church that originated from this conflict became a pillar of English monarchical
power, and contributed to setting the country in many respects on a separate path from the continent. The
module will discuss key events and processes from this period, notably the early Reformation, but will go
beyond this by looking at a variety of subjects, including society, warfare, culture, the economy, and ideas on
government and law. The full range of challenges confronting the young Tudor monarchy at home and abroad
will be discussed, including relations with Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and continental Europe
HIH3306 - The Great War for Empire II, 1754-1764: Europe
The Seven Years War was the single most important conflict in the eighteenth century, before the struggle
against Republican France. It was truly a global conflict as rival armies and navies confronted each other
in Europe, the Americas and India. Not only did the conflict mark the apogee of the first British Empire and
confirm the rise of Prussia to Great Power status; it was also a major contributory factor in the American and
French Revolutions. The belligerent states were forced to mobilize themselves to an unprecedented extent and
attempted to promote a sense of national identity and patriotism in their subjects through the media.
HIH3340 - Internationalism, War and Peace: Europe, 1900-1933, Part II
The twin issues of war and peace dominated Europe from the turn of the twentieth century. The threat of war
has traditionally been presented as the result of rising national rivalries. However, this period was also one in
which the world became increasingly inter-connected and modern internationalism was born, which was, in
turn, seen as a guarantor of peace. This module examines how internationalist ideas evolved in the early 1900s,
how they were undermined in 1914 with the outbreak of the First World War, how they were reborn again in
the 1920s through the work of the League of Nations, before failing once more in the mid-to-late 1930s. The
module encourages students to think critically about terms such as nationalism and internationalism and the
relationship between them, as well as how war and peace have been understood and justified at different
points in history.
HIH3316 - France in Crisis, 1934-1944 Part Two
Nineteen-thirty-four saw the beginning of what some historians have termed a French civil war. Beset by
political, economic and social crises, France was increasingly divided against itself as parliamentary government
broke down and uniformed fascists and their left-wing adversaries fought to control the streets. The defeat of
France to Germany in 1940 saw the opening of what are termed the ‘Dark Years’, and not without good reason.
During these years, 650, 000 civilian workers were forced to work in Germany; 75 000 Jews were deported
to Auschwitz; 30, 000 French civilians were shot as hostages or members of the Resistance, while another
60,000 were sent to concentration camps. The war years left an indelible mark on French politics, society
and historiography. The module (along with HIH3316) comprises classes broadly based around five themes:
1) The 1930s 2) Defeat and Occupation 3) Collaboration 4) Resistance 5) Memory. Students will develop an
understanding of the historiographical issues involved in the study of the subject, as well as knowledge of the
broader context of 20th century French history and the role of the Vichy years in this trajectory. Students will
use a variety of political, social and cultural sources including film, literature and texts. No knowledge of French
is required.
Department of History and Classics
22
Year 3
HIH3240 - Sport and British Society (II)
This module examines the history of modern sport from its development in the late nineteenth century to the
advent of the television era in the 1950s. It sets sport firmly in its wider social, economic and political context
and examines sport’s different meanings to communities and individuals across Britain. Students will thus learn
about the diversity of sporting traditions across British history and examine how they were shaped by wider
forces such as work, class and gender. The source material of sports history lies at the heart of the module and
students will analyse its uses, problems and limitations. This module forms the second part of a two-part Special
Subject (with HIH3239). It will be studied through the subject’s primary sources.
HIH3220 - Britain at War, 1939-45: The Home Front (II)
This module examines the impact of the Second World War on British politics, culture and society. It encourages
students to consider, through drawing on a vast and readily accessible body of printed sources as well as a
wealth of primary material, whether the experiences of Total War made the years 1939-1945 stand out as a
watershed, as some historians and others have argued, in terms of social change. It asks whether the war
years really did draw a line between the social divisions and conflicts of the 1930s and the years of post-war
consensus: was it truly a ‘People’s War’ or is this a myth? This module forms the second part of a two part Special
Subject (with HIH3219) and will allow students to deepen their understanding of the main historical problems
and debates concerning the British Home Front. Students taking this module will focus in particular on the
primary sources relating to this area of study.
HIH3345 - War & Photography: Britain, 1914-89 (Part 2)
Since the announcement of its invention in 1839, the medium of photography has influenced human activity in
fields as diverse as science and leisure, politics and personal relationships. Nowhere has its impact been more
dramatic, however, than in the representation of the devastating wars of the twentieth century. Addressing the
photography of armed conflict in Britain from the start of the First World War to the end of the Cold War, this
module takes a critical approach to a range of photographic imagery made and circulated in times of conflict
including reconnaissance, press, amateur and even fine art photography. It examines the changing significance
of photographic technology in the prosecution of war, as well as the increasing importance of news images
in shaping public attitudes to conflict. Photographs are partial and unreliable documents, but in this they are
no different from ego-documents, journalistic reports, political treaties or any other source which historians
examine. Historical research with photographs involves refining existing skills of working with primary sources,
as well as developing a sophisticated understanding of what sort of source a photograph can be and a new
set of interpretive skills. Through its clear focus on ‘war photography’ in twentieth-century Britain, this module
combines an insight into the history of photography with a broader exploration of the value and importance of
photographs to historical research.
HIH3329 - Britain and the United States in the Nuclear Age II
No other event in mid-20th-century history influenced all areas of human life as profoundly as the coming
of the atomic age in 1945. Ever after the atomic attacks on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
nuclear arms and energy have affected our patterns of thought and our ways of living. Starting as a scientific
endeavour, the creation of atomic weapons and power have had a strong impact on various realms of the
human experience, ranging from politics, military strategy and national security to the anti-nuclear movement
to the arts to popular culture to gender and sexuality. This two-semester-long special subject will trace the
history of the nuclear age in Britain and the United States from some of the earliest nuclear discoveries in the
late nineteenth century through the Second World War and the Cold War to the twenty-first century. Students
will study both the historiography of the nuclear age and a variety of key primary source material, including
government and scientific documents, newspapers and popular media sources, film and music as well as
photographs.
Department of History and Classics
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Year 3
HIH3254 - Fear, Conformity and Oppression in Fascist Italy (II)
The study of fascist Italy has over recent decades been characterized by debate and controversy over how
repressive Mussolini's dictatorship was. This module forms the second of a two-part Special Subject (the other
being HIH3253). Based on the study of original archive documents, this module analyses the police state at the
service of Mussolini’s dictatorship. With a particular focus on the impact of fascism on communities, it questions
the regime’s success in controlling and preventing political dissidence, and in conditioning more generally the
behaviour of citizens.
HIH3346 - The Hungry World
Hunger has fundamentally shaped human history. But only in the twentieth century did it emerge as a medical,
scientific, and public health problem to be studied and controlled in every corner of the globe. This two-semester
module explores how hunger became a galvanising and polarising force in the contemporary world. We will
address this question in seminars that focus on key themes and debates in the historiography – particularly with
how hunger has been tied to matters of health, development, colonialism, geopolitics, war, socio-economic
and gender inequality, human rights, security, and the global food system. Seminars will be based on analysing
a range of primary sources, including those produced by governments, medical and scientific authorities, the
popular press and mass media, philanthropies and international agencies. We will use these documents to
elucidate the many experts, organisations, and governments who converged on hunger, the changing methods
and means they used to define and combat it, and those who embodied and experienced it. The first semester
traces the framing of hunger as a world problem from the late nineteenth century to the Second World War. The
second semester examines its rise to prominence with the creation of the United Nations, battles over solutions
in the contexts of decolonization and the Cold War, and its emergence as a global humanitarian crisis.
HIH3232 - Science , Magic and Medicine in Early Modern Europe (ii)
Historians of science and medicine have long used the term the ‘Scientific Revolution’ to express the idea
that knowledge of the natural world and the human body changed in important ways during the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries. This module forms the second part of a two-part Special Subject examining the
transformation of scientific, magical, and medical ideas and practices in this period, and assessing whether the
concept of the ‘Scientific Revolution’ is helpful in understanding them.
Department of History and Classics
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Year 3
Please note that the modules above, called Special Subjects, are studied as pairs
And
Choose exactly 40 credits from the following modules – selecting one from Teaching Block 1 and one from
Teaching Block 2.
Teaching Block 1
HIH300W – Concro’r Byd: Twf a Chwymp Ymerodraethau Prydain a Frainc
HIH303W – Y Rhyfel Mawr trwy lygaid y Cymry
HIH3181 – The Cathars and the Albigensian Crusades
HIH3215 – Media and Society in the 1930’s
HIH3216 – Prisoners of War in Twentieth-Century Conflicts
HIH3319 – A History of Violence
HUA301 – Gunfighter Nation: The West in History, Mythology and Fiction
HUA306 – The Aftermaths of War
HUA309 – The Russian Civil War
Teaching Block 2
HIH3326 – Britain since 1945
HIH3335 – Infections in Global History, 1500-2000
HIH3349 – The British Atlantic World c.1550-1760
HIH396 – From Machiavelli to Mussolini: Government and Society in Western Political Thought
HUA305 – The Spanish Civil War – It’s Origins, Course and Legacy
MLF325 – France and the Second World War: Legacies of the Dark Years
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Disclaimer
The following message contains some very important information. Please read it before
you use this module handbook.
This module handbook was printed in the spring of 2016. It contains information on the
undergraduate programmes that Swansea University intends to run for students who are
planning to start university in the autumn of 2017. We have made every reasonable effort to
ensure that the information provided is both helpful and accurate as at the date of publication.
However, some changes, for example to programmes, study location, facilities or fees may
become necessary due to legitimate staffing, financial, regulatory and academic reasons.
We will endeavour at all times to keep any changes to a minimum and to keep prospective
students informed appropriately. Any changes to the information contained in this handbook
will be updated quarterly at www.swansea.ac.uk/undergraduate/programmedisclaimer/
and on the online course pages at: www.swansea.ac.uk/undergraduate/courses/.
Department of History and Classics
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