Alternatives to War: Articulating Peace since 1815
| Code | School | Level | Credits | Semesters |
| HIST3068 | History | 3 | 40 | Full Year UK |
- Code
- HIST3068
- School
- History
- Level
- 3
- Credits
- 40
- Semesters
- Full Year UK
Summary
International history is dominated by wars; historians and international relations scholars focus with an almost obsessive zeal on the causes and consequences of conflict. The intermittent periods of peace are rarely scrutinised, other than to assess the imperfections of peace treaties and thus extrapolate the seeds of future wars. This module offers a corrective to this tendency, taking as its focus the multifarious efforts that have been made since 1815 to substitute peace for war. These include diplomatic efforts (e.g. post-war conferences, legalistic mechanisms such as the UN, arms control protocols, etc.), and those advanced by non-state actors (e.g. national and transnational peace movements, anti-war protests, etc.). Taking a broad definition of the term peace, and focusing predominantly (though not exclusively) on Britain, this module revisits some of the pivotal episodes of the 19th and 20th centuries, exposing and interrogating the often complex relationship between war and peace that emerged, and thus arriving at an alternative history of the period.
Target Students
Available to level 3 single or joint honours History students and Liberal Arts students.
Classes
- One 2-hour seminar each week for 20 weeks
- One 1-hour lecture each week for 20 weeks
Assessment
- 30% Coursework 1: 3,000 word coursework essay
- 30% Coursework 2: 3,000 word source-based assessment
- 40% Coursework 3: 3,500 word synoptic essay
Assessed in both autumn & spring semest
Educational Aims
The broad aim of the module is to highlight the importance of narratives of peace in arriving at a more comprehensive and inclusive understanding of 19th and 20th century international history. Students will be encouraged to interrogate the complex relationship between peace and war by engaging with primary source materials (governmental records, political papers, organisational records, newspapers, memoirs, autobiographies, etc.), and grappling with complex theoretical and historiographical debates.Learning Outcomes
Knowledge and understanding.
By the end of the module students should be able to:
• Explain and interpret the emergence of ideas of ‘peace’, and their impact on 19th/20th-century British (and global) history;
• Demonstrate a sophisticated appreciation of the multiplicity of approaches to peace that were articulated;
• Engage critically with scholarship in the field of ‘transnational’ history.
Intellectual skills.
By the end of the module students should be able to:
• Think critically and imaginatively about the subject matter;
• Identify and address key problems relevant to it;
• Interpret both primary and secondary sources critically;
• Be aware of differing historical intepretations of the subject matter;
• Construct and articulate coherent and independent historical arguments in both written and oral form.
Professional/practical skills.
The module will develop the ability of students to:
• Select, sift and synthesise information from a range of both secondary and primary sources;
• Identify and compare key arguments in those materials;
• Plan, research, and deliver sustained and rigorous pieces of historical research, presented using applicable scholarly conventions (footnotes, bibliographies, etc.);
• Use IT skills to access historical information and sources.
Transferable skills.
The module will also develop the ability of students to:
Undertake research projects;
• Demonstrate agility when marshalling a large and disparate body of information;
• Articulate ideas clearly, both orally and in written work;
• Work and learn actively with others;
• Manage and take responsibility for their own learning;
• Respect the reasoned views of others.