Past Futures: Reimagining the Twentieth Century

Code

HIST4058

School

History

Level

4

Credits

40

Semesters

Autumn UK

Summary

This core module is replacing two existing offerings: ‘Past Futures: Britain and the West after 1945’ and ‘Topics on Global History’. It module will explore the social, cultural and political history of the twentieth century. Rather than re-telling familiar narratives that take high politics as their starting-point, it will bring these narratives under scrutiny by drawing upon the themes of temporality and memory. As well as exploring the different conception of temporality that informed social and political thought, it will also engage with the ideas of progress and decline that were advanced to conceptualise certain events and phenomena.

Four inter-related themes will be explored:
i) Temporality and change
ii) Social change and memory
iii) The Politics of Reproduction
iv) Consumption, Mobility and Time

Each theme will encompass a two-week ‘block’ of seminars that are organised thematically rather than chronologically. Contributing staff will make reference to a wide range of geographical contexts. Typically, students will engage with case studies that relate to the following:
- Britain
- France
- United States
- Africa
- Eastern Europe
- Asia

Target Students

Available to MA History and Politics & Contemporary History

Classes

• Two 2-hour seminars each week for 10 weeks

Assessment

• 75% Coursework 1: One 6000 word thematic essay
• 25% Coursework 2: One 2000 word historiographical review/source analysis

Assessed by end of autumn semester

Educational Aims

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and understanding:

Students should gain a knowledge and understanding of:

• key problems and issues in the study of modern Britain

• the methodology used by historians in the interrogation of primary sources

• the relationship between the economic, social and political changes that took place in the post-war period. 
 

Intellectual skills:

Students should be able to:

• identify and evaluate critically key problems in the study social, cultural and political change;

• locate, select and interpret critically a variety of primary sources;

• use the information gained in the module to reflect critically upon relevant historiographical debates.

Professional and Practical skills:

Students should be able to:

• articulate both knowledge and critical awareness of issues relating to the study of the post-war period;

• develop independent insights.

Transferable skills:

Students should be able to:

• demonstrate initiative and show evidence of original thinking in their written work;

• take responsibility for their own learning in the preparation for seminars and coursework;

• communicate their findings clearly and coherently.

Conveners

• Dr Dean Blackburn
• Dr Joerg Arnold