Year 3 Special Subject (30 credits) HIST3166 – The Crisis of Austria-‐Hungary, Part 2 (Convener TBC) Baron Aehrenthal, Habsburg foreign minister, makes off with Bosnia and Herzegovina (here depicted as two prize stags) in October 1908. This caused an international crisis – almost a European war -‐ and especially aroused the anger of the Balkan states, Serbia and Montenegro, depicted here as two vicious wolves. (Hungarian cartoon of early 1909). Module overview Part 2 turns to look at the foreign policy of Austria-‐Hungary from c.1897 to 1914. Thus it considers more closely the Habsburg authorities’ anxiety about “irredentist” forces – those various national groups or individuals who had contact with hostile neighbouring states (Serbia, Romania, Italy or Russia). We pay particular attention to the Empire’s deteriorating relationship with Serbia, and how this then affected the governance of Croatia and determined the Empire’s ‘successful’ annexation of the Turkish province of Bosnia-‐Hercegovina in 1908. The ‘Bosnian crisis’ is studied in detail. The fact that Serbia ought to be, but was not, acting submissively as a loyal satellite was then fundamental to the Habsburg elite’s paranoia by 1914. We engage fully with the elite’s mentality in these years (1912-‐14) to show why the Empire was prepared to risk a European war after the Sarajevo murders. After this, we proceed to study the Empire during the First World War when civilian and military loyalties were tested to the utmost. On the one hand, the threads from Part 1 about Hungary, the Czech lands and the Southern Slav regions can be picked up. On the other, the fresh trials experienced by Habsburg subjects at the military front and in the hinterland are examined. In the end (1918) the combination of military defeat and social-‐economic insecurity delegitimized the 49
Habsburg Monarchy and produced its disintegration. We will study why this could occur and why the empire had so few friends inside or outside its borders by the end of the war. Sample seminar topics: • The Serbian threat • The Bosnian Crisis • Military loyalty at the front • Civilian life on the home front (Vienna and Budapest) • The imperial collapse of 1918 Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x 4,000-‐word source-‐based essay 50 1 x 3-‐hour exam 50 Sample source Already I am gaining the impression from all information that there is a political and military revolution taking place in the south, in the Balkans. On the one hand it is propagated by the Entente through treacherous politicians and individuals agitating in secret; on the other hand, it is most likely stirred from the Salonika army. The increasing number of bands [groups of men] in Montenegro and in the Herzegovinan border areas; the circumstance that there are Serbian officers among these groups; and the fact that some bands even have machine guns and hand grenades – all this suggests clearly that in batches Serbian elements are infiltrating our lines in Bulgaria and Albania, and that we should really reckon on a further increase of a revolutionary movement and its spread to Serbia… General Stjepan Sarkotić (Sarajevo) to Army High Command. 2 February 1918 This source shows well the dilemmas faced by the Habsburg authorities in the last year of the war before the collapse. The military governor of Bosnia, Sarkotić, was always trying to keep a lid on unrest in his province, but by 1918 political and social unrest was noticeably stirring (including a major naval revolt). Here he interprets in typical fashion, to the Army High Command, the unrest as mainly due to forces from outside the empire. This was true only to some extent: the western Allies were indeed about to begin a propaganda campaign against Austria-‐Hungary. But the reality was that the empire was also disintegrating from within, because civilians were starving and felt insecure: they had begun to blame the Habsburg authorities for their misery. Meanwhile, many soldiers on leave were refusing to return to their units and some were hiding as deserters in the countryside. These contributed to the “bands” which Sarkotić was identifying by early 1918. 50
Year 3 Special Subject (30 credits) HIST3178 – When the Lights Went Out: Britain in the 1970s, Part 1 (Dr Eve Colpus) Module Overview What was it like to live in Britain in the 1970s? When governments were nervous, rubbish went uncollected, the unity of the UK was questioned, but when Britons – in general – were better off than ever before? In this Special Subject you will consider this central question through examining key political, social, economic and cultural debates and developments of this decade. You will interrogate discussions about the erosion of post-‐war political consensus, evidence of popular protest and of shifting cultural norms. Contemporaries confronted the often conflicting pressures of the decade; historians are coming to understand the 1970s as a pivotal hinge in the history of post-‐1945 Britain. Through close readings of primary sources alongside historians’ writings, you will have the opportunity to contribute to a developing field of enquiry about this turbulent decade in recent British history. This Special Subject is structured chronologically over the two semesters: in HIST 3178 we consider the years between 1970 and 1974 and in HIST 3179 we study 1975-‐1979. In both parts of the Special Subject we will consider a range of issues and themes pertinent to the time-‐period, analysing political, social and cultural changes during these nine years and also continuities throughout the decade, and over the mid-‐to-‐late twentieth century. In HIST 3178 we will test the political mood and social, economic and cultural struggles and problems of the early seventies, considering the significance of these issues in the broader context of post-‐1945 British history. 51
Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Remembering the 1970s • The General Election 1970 • Inflation, economic policy and economic crisis, or, Keynes is dead? • The power of the unions? • The 1970s family • The real permissive society? • Glam Rock! • ‘Who Governs?’: General Elections in 1974 • Southampton in the 1970s: case-‐study Wessex News Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x essay (4,000 words) 50 50 1 x gobbet exercise Sample Source ‘Friday 21 December 1973 I have been forced today to revise my opinion of [Edward] Heath, whom I have hitherto greatly admired despite his obvious faults. I now think that he is behaving irresponsibly – the miners will get a settlement outside Phase 3 in the end and even if they don’t the damage done by the three-‐day week will outweigh the temporary victory over the militants. Heath thinks he is fighting for a great principle – but the fact is he can’t see the wood (i.e. the enormous national problem created by the oil crisis) for the trees (i.e. Mick McGahey and co. on the NUM).’ Ronald McIntosh, Challenge to Democracy: Politics, Trade Union Power and Economic Failure in the 1970s (2008), p. 34 The three-‐day week in Britain – when Britons’ electric usage was rationed against the background of an international oil crisis and domestic strike action by the National Union of Miners (NUM) – is remembered as a key symbol of the economic, political and social crisis that befell Britain in the 1970s. Ronald McIntosh, the director of the National Economic Development Council, kept a diary of the failed negotiations between Conservative government ministers, leaders of Trade Unions and industry and business, and civil servants at the time. Here he offers an interpretation of Prime Minister, Edward Heath’s flawed approach to the problems. Heath went on to lose the next general election. 52
Year 3 Special Subject (30 credits) HIST3179 – When the Lights Went Out: Britain in the 1970s, Part 2 (Dr Eve Colpus) Module Overview In HIST 3179 we will focus upon the ways in which society was being reconceptualised in the mid-‐to-‐late 1970s. We will consider debates about Britain’s role within Europe; her declining industrial strength; the gender order; changing interpretations of history and culture; perceptions of the monarchy and religion; and the political and cultural challenges articulated by punk. The module will conclude by examining the turbulent year from late-‐1978-‐1979, and consider to what extent this marked the beginning of a new term in Britain’s recent political and social history. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Britain in Europe: The 1975 Referendum • ‘Women’s Lib’, the men’s movement and post-‐1968 feminisms • • Deindustrialisation: the decline of traditional industry? Mapping culture and history: History Workshop, the Centre for Contemporary Cultural • Studies and community photography • • Punk! • A secular Society or laughing at religion? Revisiting Life of Brian • Monarchy and Society: The Silver Jubilee (1977) ‘The Winter of Discontent’ Election ’79: Into the 1980s? 53
Assessment % Contribution to Final Mark Assessment Method 50 50 1 x essay (4,000 words) 1 x 3-‐hour exam Sample Source Source: Covers of punk fanzine, Sniffin’ Glue Sniffin’ Glue was a punk fanzine stared by Mark Perry in July 1976 and distributed in the UK until August-‐September 1977. Cheaply photocopied on 8 sides of A4, the fanzine used a cut-‐and-‐paste aesthetic that historians have suggested represented the ‘DIY ethos’ promoted within the punk scene – the idea that anyone could start up a punk band, and punks didn’t have to be musicians. Fanzines can also be read as evidence of the fragmented claims that were made about punk in the late 1970s, and punk’s appropriation by various social and political groups. Sniffin’ Glue described ‘punk rock’ as ‘rock in its lowest form – on the level of the streets’, laying claim to a particular cultural identity (and musical genre), but other fanzines were produced by collectives to support social networks, or to spread political agendas through punk cultures, ranging from fascism, feminism to socialism. 54
Year 3 Special Subject (30 credits) HIST 3180 The Rise and Fall of the British Empire in Africa, Part 1 (Dr Chris Prior) Module Overview This special subject will examine a topic that remains contentious: imperialism in Africa. Taking the British colonies as case studies, this Special Subject will focus on two things. Firstly, it will examine the means by which the British gained and maintained control of such vast territories. How did the British establish coercive and collaborative mechanisms, and how enduring were these? Secondly, it will look at the impact of such imperial rule upon African societies: how it did (or did not) alter the way African communities ran politically, economically and socially. How did the British presence alter what it meant to be African? The Special Subject will take in a variety of case studies, from Nigeria and the Gold Coast in the west, to Sudan and Kenya in the east, and a broad cross-‐section of British and African life, from the elite officials in London and the governors in colonial capitals, to the administrators, missionaries and anthropologists on the ground, as well as African peoples from chiefs to anti-‐colonial nationalists. The course will include seminars on processes common across all of British Africa, such as the creation of networks of collaboration with chiefs, with the emphasis being on comparative study as a means of assessing how far local conditions on the ground affected the implementation of policies as devised by central authorities in London and colonial capitals. 55
Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Theories of colonial governance: From Lord Lugard to Lord Hailey • Colonial governance: Tribes, chiefs, coercion, and collaboration • Education and the rise of nationalism • Missionaries and religion • The First World War • Case study: Egypt, revolution and independence • Case study: Sudan and the White Flag League Mutiny of 1924 • Case study: The Gold Coast -‐ Guggisberg, Achimota and Takoradi • Case study: settler society in Kenya • The Depression Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x essay (4,000 words) 50 1 x gobbet exercise 50 Sample Source ‘Do not expect to get an elephant. You have to pay for a licence to shoot one, and it is only a waste of money to buy this permit. If you do see an elephant and do shoot one – well, it was in self-‐defence, and there is time to take out a licence thereafter.’ Alan Field, ‘Verb Sap.’: On going to West Africa, Northern Nigeria, Southern, and to the Coasts (London: Bale, Sons and Danielsson, Ltd.: 1913) This extract comes from an unofficial guide for colonial officials bound for West Africa. It highlights one of the things that attracted young men to Africa in the first place: the idea of Africa as a place unburdened by Western constraints and ripe for adventure. The guide’s roguish, ‘nudge-‐nudge’ attitude to shooting wildlife on the sly conforms to the tone of colonial governance at the time; in contrast to the upright, selfless men of duty that London wanted to staff its colonies, early imperial administrations were populated by a motley bunch of individuals with highly esoteric interests. 56
Year 3 Special Subject (30 credits) HIST 3181 -‐ The Rise and Fall of the British Empire in Africa, Part 2 (Dr Chris Prior) Module Overview This module furthers the analyses undertaken in HIST3180, considering the period from the outbreak of the Second World War through to the end of Britain’s colonies in Africa. What caused the collapse of British control? How did Britain respond to challenges to its imperial authority? Amongst other topics, this module considers the outbreak of violence in Kenya during the Mau Mau insurgency of the 1950s, British policy towards the first generation of postcolonial national leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah and Nnamdi Azikiwe, and the transition from empire to commonwealth. 57
Indicative List of Seminar Topics • The Second World War: Protest and governance • The Labour Party and development: The Groundnut Scheme • The Conservative Party and the 'Fourth British Empire'? • The Cold War and the timetable for decolonization • Mau Mau (1): The build-‐up -‐ Kikuyu and settlers • Mau Mau (2): Emergency and violence • The birth of political parties: Sudan in the 1940s and 1950s • 'Africanization' and 'staying on' • Nigeria in the 50s: Azikiwe and federalism • The Gold Coast/Ghana: Kwame Nkrumah Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x 4,000 word essay 50 1 x 3-‐hour exam 50 Sample Source ‘The ‘dilemma with which we are faced: Either to give independence too soon and risk disintegration and a breakdown of administration, or to hang on too long, risk ill-‐feeling and disturbances, and eventually to leave bitterness behind, with little hope thereafter of our being able to influence Nigerian thinking in world affairs on lines we would wish.’ Colonial Secretary Alan Lennox-‐Boyd, memorandum, 7 May 1957 This extract, produced towards the end of Britain’s formal imperial presence in Africa, illustrates one of the dilemmas with which British politicians felt themselves presented. The perception that any weakness in post-‐imperial states would make them ripe for communist infiltration led London to agonise over the timeline of the end of empire. Yet despite this, note the continued belief that Britain could still get something out of the situation, that despite the end of empire and the rise of mass nationalism, Britain could still continue to play a role in the African continent. The interactions between the imperial administrations and nationalist forces will form the centrepiece of this module. 58
Year 3 Special Subject (30 credits) HIST3195 – Islam, Conquest and Caliphates, Part 1 (Dr Helen Spurling) Module Overview Who was Muhammad and how did a new world religion spread from the Arabian Peninsula to Spain within 150 years? The seventh century CE is a crucial period of both religious and world history due to the rise of Islam. The Arabian Peninsula witnessed the leadership of Muhammad, the writing of the Qur’an, and the beginning of the Arab conquests westwards into the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa, and eastwards into the Sassanid Persian Empire. Part one of this module will examine the society of the Near East at the time of the rise of Islam, which provides the historical context for the appearance of the new world religion. Through consideration of a diverse range of primary sources, including chronicles, legal codes, religious documents and biographies of Muhammad, we will investigate the political turmoil in the Near East, which facilitated the success of the Arab conquests. We will examine society in pre-‐Islamic Arabia, Syria and Palestine, which formed the frontier between the dominant world powers of the seventh century, and in which context Muhammad first told of his revelations. Finally, we will explore the life of Muhammad from birth to death, and his establishment of a new community of believers, as highlighted in the Qur’an and subsequent writings such as hadith (traditions about Muhammad). In this way, the module will invite you to assess and debate the historical development of one the key religions that has shaped the modern world. 59
Indicative List of Topics • What is Byzantium? • Heraclius, 610-‐641 • The Byzantine-‐Persian Wars: conquest and re-‐conquest • Jews amongst the Byzantines and Persians • Hadith (traditions about Muhammad) and academic controversies • The Life of Muhammad in Mecca • The life of Muhammad in Medina and conquest of Mecca Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x 3,000-‐word historiographical essay 40 1 x 3,000-‐word source-‐based essay 40 1 x gobbet exercise 20 Sample Source ‘The apostle after arriving in Mecca when the populace had settled down went to the temple and encompassed it seven times on his camel touching the black stone with a stick which he had in his hand. This done he summoned ‘Uthman ibn Talha and took the key of the Ka’ba from him, and when the door was opened for him he went in. There he found a dove made of wood. He broke it in his hands and threw it away. Then he stood by the door of the Ka’ba while the men in the mosque gathered to him. […] When the apostle prayed the noon prayer on the day of the conquest he ordered that all the idols which were round the Ka’ba should be collected and burned with fire and broken up. […] Had you seen Muhammad and his troops the day the idols were smashed when he entered, you would have seen God’s light become manifest and darkness covering the face of idolatry’. Alfred Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad: a translation of Ishaq's Sirat rasul Allah Muhammad was the founder of Islam, but his teaching was not without opposition from his tribal associates. In 630 CE, Muhammad defeated his opponents in Mecca and conquered the city. The very first biography of Muhammad was produced by ibn Ishaq and provides a detailed narrative of the life of Muhammad that has been enormously influential for setting out the prophet’s example of how to live. This extract describes the first actions of Muhammad upon conquest of Mecca – he circles the Ka’ba, which is the holiest site in Islam today (and seen in the picture above), and purifies it by destroying any idols. This formative source highlights the major challenge to the first believers posed by polytheism and idolatry, which was a normal part of pre-‐Islamic Arabian society and historically a key issue of contention. It also describes traditions about the early development of Islamic practices, which are still a key feature of the religion today. 60
Year 3 Special Subject module (30 credits) HIST3196 -‐ Islam, Conquests and Caliphates, Part 2 (Dr Helen Spurling) Module Overview The seventh and eighth centuries CE witnessed the development of the first caliphates and the establishment of a new world religion. Part two of ‘The Rise of Islam’ will explore the development of Islam and the Arab empire from the death of Muhammad and the ‘Rashidun’ Caliphate (632-‐661) to the rule of the Umayyads (661-‐750). Through evaluation of early Islamic histories, legal documents and contemporary chronicles, we will address political developments within the caliphates, including the establishment of statehood, contested leadership of the developing empire and associated civil wars, and the Arab conquests of the Near East. We will also investigate religious developments as highlighted in the Qur’an and subsequent writings such as hadith (traditions about Muhammad) and tafsir (interpretation of the Qur’an). We will give particular attention to questions of the changing relationships between Jews, Christians and Muslims in the new world of Arab rule, giving you an opportunity to understand a formative period for relations between these different groups that has a significant legacy for today. 61
Indicative List of Topics • The succession upon Muhammad’s death • Early Islamic Rule: ‘Rashidun’ Caliphate, 632-‐661 • Early Islamic Rule: Umayyad Caliphate, 661-‐750 • Qur’an • Tafsir (interpretation of the Qur’an) • Civil Wars (the first, second and third fitna) and succession of leadership • Conquest: from the Arabian Peninsula to North Africa, Asia Minor and Persia • Development of religious ideologies • The Pact of Umar and Dhimmi (‘protected’) status for ‘the people of the book’ • Apocalyptic responses to the rise of Islam Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x 4,000-‐word essay 50 1 x 3-‐hour examination (open book) 50 Sample Source ‘Umar made peace with the people of Jerusalem in al-‐Jabiyah. He wrote for them the peace conditions. He wrote one letter to all the provinces except to the people of Jerusalem: In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. This is the assurance of safety which the servant of God, ‘Umar, the Commander of the Faithful, has granted to the people of Jerusalem. He has given them an assurance of safety for themselves, for their property, their churches, their crosses, the sick and the healthy of the city, and for all the rituals that belong to their religion.’ Al-‐Tabari, The History of al-‐Tabari, vol.12 (New York: SUNY Press, 1992), 191. The seventh century CE is a critical period of world history due to the rise of Islam and associated Arab conquests. In 638 CE, Jerusalem was conquered by the caliph ‘Umar ibn al-‐Khattab, who ruled from 634-‐644 CE. One of the most important histories on this period was written by al-‐Tabari, and he describes the peace accord that was drawn up between the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the Arab conquerors. This pact guaranteed the safety of the population, and permitted their religious practices, as long as they adhered to the stipulations of the treaty. It provides us with a vital insight into the relations between the new Islamic authorities and the ‘people of the book’, namely Jews and Christians, and life together in Jerusalem after the Arab conquests. 62
Year 3 Special Subject module (30 credits) HIST3197: America: From Revolution to Republic, Part 1 (Dr Rachel Herrmann) Module Overview: The early American republic was a dangerous, violent place to live. Backwoods inhabitants plucked eyeballs from sockets to improve their chances of winning fights; conflict erupted between Native Americans and American land-‐grabbers; slaves rose in rebellion; prostitutes were murdered. It was not the virtuous, elite-‐dominated society that its founders envisioned. This module has two goals: to trace how the United States changed from a small entity afraid of government interference to a fractious, divided society on the brink of Civil War, and to explore digital (as well as more traditional) sources on American history in preparation for the dissertation. The literature and sources on the early republic are vast, so to handle this broad stretch of time (from roughly 1783 to 1860; 1783 to 1815 in the first semester of the module), this two-‐semester class will take a microhistorical approach. Each week will focus on one person as a way of delving deeply into that week’s theme. 63
List of Indicative Topics: -‐ George Washington -‐ Thomas Jefferson -‐ Lewis and Clark -‐ Tecumseh Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x 3,000-‐word historiographical essay 40 1 x 3,000-‐word source-‐based essay 40 1 x gobbet exercise 20 Sample Source: The sample source is the picture above. Some of the people we study in this module are quite famous, whilst others, like Blue Jacket, a Shawnee leader, are less familiar. The above image is taken from an online database called The Papers of the War Department, which students use to learn about Blue Jacket, and about the Western Confederacy War between the new United States and a pan-‐Indian movement led by Delawares, Miamis, and Shawnees in the 1780s and 1790s. Each week, in addition to primary and secondary source readings, students are introduced to a new database that helps them do research on early American history. This image helps students learn to read eighteenth-‐century handwriting, which we practice in class, and the whole document lets students know about American strategies of scorched early campaigns against Native Americans after the American Revolution. 64
Year 3 Special Subject module (30 credits) HIST3198: America: From Revolution to Republic, Part 2 (Dr Rachel Herrmann) Module Overview: As Jeffersonian America evolved into Jacksonian America, tensions continued unabated. Fuelled by the desire for new territory, American inhabitants flooded the continent in search of land, gold, and cotton. The Age of Jackson witnessed brutal conflicts in Indian affairs as well as an outpouring of writing on the state of slavery in the United States. The second half of this module will continue to explore themes relative to the later decades of the early republic while also providing support to you as you embark on dissertation writing. The second part of this Special Subject covers the period from 1815 to 1860, stopping just before the start of the Civil War. Indicative Topic List: -‐ Frances Trollope -‐ David Crockett -‐ Fellow Travellers on the Oregon Trail -‐ Frederick Douglass 65
Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x 1,000-‐word reflective essay 40 1 x 4,000-‐word source-‐based essay 40 1 x 3-‐hour exam 20 Sample Source: ‘At the risk of producing a most dangerous process of reflection and calculation in their brains, I have persisted in paying what I considered wages to every slave that has been my servant; and these my laborers must, of course, be free to work or no, as they like, and if they work for me must be paid by me. The proposition met with unmingled approbation from my ‘gang:’ but I think it might be considered dangerously suggestive of the rightful relation between work and wages; in short, very involuntarily no doubt, but, nevertheless, very effectually I am disseminating ideas among Mr. [Butler]’s dependents, the like of which have certainly never before visited their wool-‐thatched brains.’ This excerpt comes from Frances Kemble’s Journal of A Residence on a Georgian Plantation, written between 1838 and 1839, and published in 1863. Kemble was a famous British actress who married an American slaveholder named Pierce Butler. During her unhappy residence on Butler’s Georgia plantation, Kemble recorded her fraught and sometimes conflicted interactions with the people whom Butler enslaved. She opposed slavery, but, like many women of her time, also held racist views about people of African descent. This passage does a good job demonstrating that ambivalence. 66
Year 3 Special Subject (30 credits) HIST3203 – American Empire: The Emergence of the Pax Americana Part 1 (Dr Chris Fuller) Module overview Arcana Imperii -‐ the real motives and techniques of the rule of the state, in contrast to those presented to the public. Part 1 of this Special Subject explores the ascent of the United States during, and in the years immediately following the end of World War II. Expanding its global responsibilities to fill the power vacuum left by the decline of the European powers, America emerged from this period as one of two global super powers, championing liberal democratic, free market capitalism in an ideological conflict with its rival, the communist Soviet Union. During this time, American policy makers sought to use the United States’ immense economic, political and military power to shape the post-‐war environment into a global system, which not only furthered US aims, but also provided benefits for its allies and fellow capitalist states. The module will begin by exploring the core concepts of what makes an empire, before examining the various policies introduced by America’s leadership during the 1940s, discussing the extent to which such policies collectively reveal a deliberate effort to transform the previously isolationist nation into an imperial power. The role of global institutions such as the Bretton Woods financial system and the UN, the importance of military power in the form of the atom bomb, as well as the creation of intelligence agencies such as the CIA and NSA will all be considered when seeking to answer the core question -‐ did the United States become an empire, and if so, did it do so out of desire, necessity, or manifest destiny? 67
Indicative list of seminar topics What is an empire? What are imperial frontiers? What is a Pax? Roosevelt’s vision for post-‐war America Political – Proposing the United Nations Political -‐ Formation of the United Nations Economic– Bretton Woods Frontiers – Kennan and Containment Frontiers – Truman Doctrine Military – Atomic diplomacy Military – National Security Act of 1947 Military – NATO and NSC-‐68 Intelligence – The CIA and covert operations Intelligence – The National Security Agency (NSA) Did the United States create an empire? Assessment Assessment Method % contribution to final mark 1 x 4,000-‐word essay (title chosen by student in consultation with 50 tutor) 1 x gobbet exercise 50 Sample source ‘The National Security Council [NSC], taking cognizance of the vicious covert activities of the USSR, its satellite countries and Communist groups to discredit and defeat the aims and activities of the United States and other Western powers, has determined that, in the interests of world peace and US national security, the overt foreign activities of the US Government must be supplemented by covert operations.’ NSC 10/2, NSC Directive on Office of Special Projects, Washington, DC, 18 June 1948. The Central Intelligence Agency, America’s first peace time spy agency formed as part of the National Security Act of 1947, is, despite its covert nature, perhaps the most evident symbol of American imperialism. In this memo from president Truman’s National Security Council dated a year after the agency’s creation, the United States committed the CIA to engaging in covert activities around the world – a profound and far-‐reaching statement about American sovereignty, power and national interests. With NSC 10/2, the United States’ government made clear it would act unilaterally to shape the international environment in ways which advanced its own political, economic and security interests – a truly imperial approach to foreign policy. 68
Year 3 Special Subject (30 credits) HIST3204 – American Empire: The Expansion of the Pax Americana Part 2 (Dr Chris Fuller) Module outline Vulpem pilum mutare, non mores – The wolf changes its fur, but not its nature. Part 2 of this Special Subject explores the way in which the United States has functioned as an imperial power in the post-‐Cold War years, from George H. W. Bush’s bold declaration of a New World Order, to the more restrained use of overt power, but extensive employment of covert power, which has characterised Barack Obama’s presidency. Immediately following the collapse of its only serious competitor, to the more recent rise of multiple regional and international rivals, the United States has consistently sought to make use of the evolving technologies of globalization and digitization as new tools to both promote democratic ideals, and preserve its imperial power and dominance. By exploring the ways in which the United States has sought to preserve its imperial influence – the Pax Americana – in the face of new challenges and rivals, this module will use a range of case studies to explore two competing theories: first, that the United States has evolved into a post-‐territorial 69
empire, or second, that its imperial power and influence in in terminal decline, and that the early twenty-‐first century is witnessing the end of the Pax Americana. Indicative list of seminar topics New World Order: Iraq and the preponderance of US power New World Order: Somalia and the limits of US power Empire Strikes Back: Neoconservatism and the Bush Doctrine “Don’t do stupid shit.”: Is this the Obama Doctrine? Digital frontiers: American cyber power “Noises off”: Dirty Wars on the frontiers It sends its bloodhounds everywhere: Drones and post-‐territorial empire Final frontier: US space policy Is America a post-‐territorial empire? The decline and fall of the Pax Americana? Assessment Assessment Method % contribution to final mark 1 x 4,000-‐word essay (title chosen by student in consultation with 50 tutor) 1 x 3-‐hour exam 50 Sample source ‘We are Americans, part of something larger than ourselves. For two centuries, we've done the hard work of freedom. And tonight, we lead the world in facing down a threat to decency and humanity. What is at stake is more than one small country; it is a big idea: a new world order, where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind -‐-‐ peace and security, freedom, and the rule of law. Such is a world worthy of our struggle and worthy of our children's future.’ President George H. W. Bush, Address Before a Joint Session of Congress on the State of the Union, 29 January, 1991 (“New World Order speech”) With the Soviet Union’s collapse, the United States emerged from 40 years of Cold War as the undisputed victor, and what some commentators dubbed the world’s first hyperpower. Determined not to dismantle the imperial system which had emerged over the past 40 years, American policy makers sought to capitalise upon this geopolitical change by redefining America’s role in the post-‐Cold War world. George H. W. Bush used his first State of the Union address to set out plans for a “new world order,” in which American power would serve as a guarantor for peace and security among the international community. To some, this vague phrase summed up the benefits American global leadership could offer, while to others, it symbolised a new phase of expanded American imperialism and domination. 70
Year 3 Special Subject (30 credits) HIS3212 – The Long Sexual Revolution: Family Life in Twentieth-‐Century Europe, Part 1 (Dr Niamh Cullen) Module Overview Twentieth-‐century Europe saw deep and far reaching transformations in the history of sexuality and love, gender relations and marriage. While this might seem on the surface to be a straightforward history of progress and increasing personal liberation, this module will show how such developments were equally beset by anxiety, uncertainty and reaction. Totalitarian regimes attempted to shape the bodies and emotions of their people as part of their projects to mould men and women to their political projects, while both religious authorities and democratic societies were often preoccupied with the sexual morality of their citizens, particularly in times of social change. Paradoxically while sexuality, love and relationships came to be seen increasingly as matters of private rather than family or community concern over the course of the century, they also became of greater public and state interest. This module will investigate the history of sexuality and its associated emotions in twentieth century western and southern Europe. It will examine how love and sexuality have intersected with European politics, society and culture over the course of the last century, as the human body and its emotions have both shaped and been shaped by much broader developments in history. In the first part of this two-‐part module, you will examine the history of love and sexuality in Europe from the turn of the century to the end of the Second World War. The primary focus will be on western and southern Europe and national case studies will usually foreground each theme. As such it will cover subjects such as the debates surrounding urbanisation, morality, prostitution and 71
disease from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, World War I and its impact on gender relations and sexuality, and early campaigners such as Magnus Hirschfield and Marie Stopes and their new approaches to family, sexuality and contraception. We will then move on to consider inter-‐war anxieties about declining birth rates in Western Europe particularly in relation to France, and how totalitarian regimes in Italy and Germany attempted to shape the sexual self. The final sessions will examine the impact of World War II, when families, relationships, gender relations and sexuality suffered enormous upheaval as the result of military conflict. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Approaches to the history of emotions and sexuality • Prostitution: Morality, disease and the double standard • World War I: Violence, masculinity and changing mores • The first sexual revolution? Campaigning for sexual reform in inter-‐war Europe • Marie Stopes: Birth control and the changing family • The ‘new woman’: Emancipation, anxiety and pro-‐natalism in inter-‐war France • Homosexuality in Western Europe: Spaces of pleasure in Weimar Berlin • Motherhood and militarism: Fascist sexualities • Purifying sexuality in Nazi Germany • Religion and modernization • War and sexual violence Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x 3,000-‐word historiographical essay 40 1 x 3,000-‐word source based essay 40 1 x gobbet exercise 20 Sample Source The sample source is the above photograph. It shows a young French woman in 1944 having her head shaved for her ‘collaboration’ with German forces after the liberation of France. In 1944 and 1945 women in newly liberated territories were punished for having relations – sexual and romantic, consensual and non-‐consensual – with the occupying German soldiers. These punishments most often took the form of rituals of public humiliation, usually shaving the woman’s head and forcing her to display or parade herself in crowded streets or city squares. In France these rituals were particularly widespread and became a way for people to act out the shame of defeat and occupation on women’s bodies. Sexuality was here used not just as an instrument of war, but was linked to feelings of military and national humiliation. 72
Year 3 Special Subject (30 credits) HIST3213 – The Long Sexual Revolution: Family Life in Twentieth-‐Century Europe, Part 2 (Dr Niamh Cullen) Module Overview Part two will examine the history of love and sexuality in western European society from the Second World War to the turn of the century. The main focus will be on Italy, West Germany, France, Spain and Britain. Beginning in the 1950s we will examine the rise of the companionate marriage, exploring how the new focus on marriage for love was shaped both by the war and by the rise of mass culture. We will also examine how the sexual and emotional self was shaped by politics and ideology, looking particularly at the strong communist subcultures in post-‐war France and Italy. In turning to the 1960s, we will examine how the Pill shaped gender and sexual relations, before turning to the fracturing of mass culture with the rise of protest cultures, counter cultures and the feminist and gay rights movements of the 1970s. In doing so we will discuss how the 1960s revolutionised sexual and gender relations, as well as exploring both the limits and darker aspects of these developments. The limits of the narrative of twentieth century sexual liberation will be explored and discussed in relation to gender and honour in Mediterranean society and sex and gender in migrant communities. The primary sources that will be used will be drawn in particular from the mass media (incl. visual, textual and audiovisual) as well as from personal testimony (incl. 73
the oral history database of the ‘Around 68’ project, and interviews about homosexuality in West Germany). Indicative List of Seminar Topics • The 1950s I: The end of war, romance and marriage in Britain and Germany • The 1950s II: Religion, reaction and ‘normality’ in post-‐war Italy • The politics of love: Communism and sexuality in France and Italy • Between reaction, religion and modernisation: Sexual politics in 50s and 60s Spain • Changing definitions of marriage and love • ‘Je suis libre’? Sexuality in the 1960s between myth and reality • The pill in Catholic Europe: From 1960 to Humanae Vitae • Honour, gender relations and sexuality in southern Europe: Spain and Italy • Second wave feminism: France and Italy • Social change and family law reform in Spain from dictatorship to democracy • From the ‘pink triangle’ to decriminalization: Gay liberation in West Germany • Gender, sexuality, religion and migration: Islamic communities in Northern Europe Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x 4,000-‐word essay 50 1 x 3 hour exam 50 Sample Source ‘Franca Viola chose to follow her feelings rather than the path indicated by convenience or the traditions of her town. We should all be convinced that a marriage in these circumstances is an offence to the notion of a marriage governed by feeling.’ State prosecution for the trial of Filippo Melodia: Sicily, 1966 The above quotation is taken from the closing remarks of the state prosecutor in the trial of Filippo Melodia for the abduction and rape of 17 year old Franca Viola in Sicily, 1966. Melodia had abducted Viola from her home with the aim of forcing her into marriage. It was Sicilian custom that once an unmarried woman had spent time alone with a man, her honour was destroyed and could only be repaired through marriage. This custom was also supported by Italian law, which absolved a man of the crime of rape if he married his victim. Viola was the first Sicilian woman to refuse the so-‐called reparatory marriage, thus ensuring that her attacker would go to prison. The trial received widespread national attention and Franca Viola became a symbol of Italian feminism. With her actions, the social changes of the 1960s began to filter through to rural Sicily and southern Europe. While family and honour had traditionally been very important in deciding marriage for young women, gradually the notions that ordinary people could marry for love, and that women should be free to make their own choices, were taking hold. 74
Year 3 Special Subject (30 credits) HIST3216 -‐ Racism in the United States, Part 1 (Dr David Cox) Module Overview Between the late eighteenth and early twentieth centuries a powerful new idea emerged in the West: race. According to this ideology, human beings could be divided into biological groups -‐ ‘races’ -‐ determining both moral character and intellectual ability. Ideas of race were particularly powerful in the United States: white Americans constantly proclaimed their own racial superiority in order to justify racial slavery, the removal of American Indians from their homelands, and the segregation and disenfranchisement of African Americans. Whites, however, did not have a monopoly on racial thought; African American intellectuals had their own ideas about race, celebrating African history and championing black culture. This module will trace the development of racial thought in the United States between the American Revolution and the American Civil War, examining the relationship between culture, politics, and society. Throughout the module we will also look at ideas of class and gender and consider their relationship to the concept of race. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • The “prehistory” of race: the Ancient World and the Spanish Reconquista • Slavery and the emergence of race in colonial America • The Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, and ideas of race • Race and the “Indian Question” • The emergence of scientific racism: proslavery and the “American School” of Ethnography • The abolitionists and “romantic racialism” • Blackface minstrelsy: race and class 75
Assessment % Contribution to Final Mark 10 40 Assessment Method 50 1 x formative research proposal for the 3,000-‐word source-‐based essay, with annotated bibliography 1 x 3,000-‐word essay 1 x 3 hour exam Sample Source Excerpt from Samuel George Morton, Crania Americana (Philadelphia, 1839) The physician Samuel Morton was the founder of the so-‐called “American School” of Ethnography. Having amassed a huge collection of human skulls, Morton claimed that his measurements of these skulls demonstrated the intellectual inferiority of people of African descent. Morton was also among the first to advance the theory of “polygenesis” – the erroneous idea that white people and black people were actually separate species. Although this idea had been scorned by Christians during the eighteenth century (who argued that all humans were descended from Adam and Eve), it grew in popularity during the nineteenth century as society became increasingly secular. 76
Year 3 Special Subject HIST3217 -‐ Racism in the United States, Part 2 (Dr David Cox) Module Overview Part 2 will pick up the story with the Civil War, the emancipation of the enslaved, and the subsequent reconstruction of the South. We will look at the ways in which race was used to justify the segregation, disenfranchisement, and lynching of African Americans. We will also examine: the work of African American intellectuals who expressed pride in black culture; the white fascination with “voodoo”; the use of race to advocate as well as condemn American imperialism; and the ways in which race figured in the early-‐twentieth-‐century eugenics movement. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Lynching: race and gender • The Carlyle School and the “civilizing” of American Indians • Representations of black folklore • Race and Empire: the United States, Cuba, Hawaii, and the Philippines • The Harlem Renaissance: African-‐American intellectuals and the idea of race • The eugenics movement in the United States 77
Assessment % Contribution to Final Mark 10 40 Assessment Method 1 x formative research proposal for the 3,000-‐word 50 source-‐based essay, with annotated bibliography 1 x 3,000-‐word essay (to be chosen from nine available questions, or students will have the opportunity to formulate their own question drawn from a lecture or seminar theme) 1 x 3 hour examination Sample Source “Voodoo’s Horrors Break Out Again: How the Cruel and Gruesome Murders of Africa’s Wicked Serpent Worship have been Revived in Louisiana by a Fanatic ‘Sect of Sacrifice,’” El Paso Herald (March 14, 1912). This newspaper article and accompanying illustration is representative of a slew of similar reports of Voodoo worship published between the 1890s and the early decades of the twentieth century. These accounts bore little resemblance to reality; however, at a time when some white Americans sought to justify racial segregation and disenfranchisement at home and imperialism abroad, Voodoo became a symbol of black inferiority and incapacity for self-‐government. In the United States, fabricated newspaper reports of serpent worship, child sacrifice, and cannibalism shaped the public image of Haiti (the home of Voodoo) and helped pave the way for the U.S. occupation of the island from 1915 to 1934. 78
Year 3 Special Subject (30 credits) HIST3218 – Nuclear War and Peace, Part 1 (Dr Jonathan Hunt) Module Overview This module will acquaint students with the facts, cases, theories and debates necessary to understand the history of nuclear weapons from their invention during the Second World War to the 1968 Treaty on the Non-‐Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 1968. Nuclear history is unique in at least three respects. First, the advent of atomic and thermonuclear weaponry has epitomized humanity’s ascent to becoming the primary geological actor on the planet – the arbiters of the Earth’s fate so to speak. Second, the strict secrecy that has surrounded military nuclear programs has been pierced by a flurry of recent revelations from worldwide archives, casting new light on the history of nuclear strategy, diplomacy and policy. Third, the merciful non-‐use of nuclear weapons since 1945 means that nuclear strategy relies heavily upon theory. Evidence for our claims about nuclear weapons, whether they make major wars more or less likely or whether proliferation is a good or a bad thing, to reference two examples, is scant because no nuclear weapon has been used in anger since the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. By the end of the semester, students will gain enough knowledge of the subject to support informed judgments about such key concepts as nuclear arms control, deterrence, non-‐proliferation, mutual assured destruction, and Global Zero. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • The Manhattan Project and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki • Nuclear weapons and the origins of the cold war • Nuclear deterrence and Eisenhower’s nuclear strategy • Strategic stability and the British nuclear program • Flexible response • Crisis management in Berlin and Cuba • The non-‐use of nuclear weapons • The antinuclear movement and a writing day for the historiographical essay • Nuclear proliferation in the 1960s and tutorials to discuss dissertations • Nuclear proliferation in the Middle East and South Asia 79
Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x 2,000-‐word historiography essay 30 1 x 3,000-‐word research paper 40 1 x gobbet exercise 30 Sample Source ‘Perhaps the most important item on the table of distinguishable states is not the numbers of dead or the number of years it takes for economic recuperation; rather, it is the question at the bottom: “Will the survivors envy the dead?” It is in some sense true that one may never recuperate from a thermonuclear. The world may be permanently (i.e., for perhaps 10,000 years) more hostile to human life as a result of such a war. Therefore, if the question, “Can we restore the prewar conditions of life?” is asked, the answer must be “No!” But there are other relevant questions to be asked. For example: “How much more hostile will the environment be? Will it be so hostile that we or our descendants would prefer being dead than alive? Perhaps even more pertinent is this questions, “How happy or normal a life can the survivors and their descendants hope to have?” Despite a widespread belief to the contrary, objective studies indicate that even though the amount of human tragedy would be greatly increased in the postwar world, the increase would not preclude normal and happy lives for the majority of survivors and their descendants.’ Herman Kahn, On Thermonuclear War (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1960), p. 21. Herman Kahn was a mathematician, economist and strategic thinker at RAND Corporation, a U.S. Air force think tank for the U.S. Air Force notorious for his coldblooded approach to nuclear strategy. This extract from his On Thermonuclear War is significant in at least three respects. First, Kahn participated in a debate at the end of the Eisenhower and beginning of the Kennedy administrations about whether the United States should rely on the threat of using nuclear weapons in a spasm of retalation to deter conflicts or plan to fight and win a nuclear war. Kahn’s argued that the country could prevail through a mix of neutralizing Soviet nuclaer forces and building fallout shelters to save as many civilians as possible. Second, Kahn invokes a discourse among strategists, scientists and statesmen as to whether nuclear weapons are just another weapon, or something altogether new because of their potentially cataclysmic effects. Kahn contended that you had to be willing to “think the unthinkable,” while one critic condemned his magnum opus as “a moral tract on mass murder.” Lastly, Stanley Kubrick drew upon Kahn’s outspoken personality for his titular scientist in Dr. Strangelove or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the Bomb. 80
Year 3 Special Subject (30 credits) HIST3219 -‐ Nuclear War and Peace, Part 2 (Dr Jonathan Hunt) Module Overview Part II of this module examines the post-‐1968 global nuclear order and its discontents, acquainting students with the facts, cases, theories and debates necessary to comprehend the history of nuclear weapons from the opening for signature of the Treaty on the Non-‐Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) to the present. A representative list of seminar themes would be the negotiation of the NPT and ensuing debates about fairness and legitimacy in global nuclear governance; U.S.-‐Soviet strategic arms talks; anti-‐ballistic missiles and the Strategic Defense Initiative; U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev; the Soviet arsenal’s scattering after 1991; Indian and Pakistani nuclear programs; nuclear proliferation in Africa, the Middle East and East Asia; intelligence failures before the 2003 Iraq War; international humanitarian law; the Iran nuclear talks; and North Korea’s nuclear tests. We will inquire into the features of what scholars call the “global nuclear order:” What is it? Who benefits? Is it just, effective or sustainable? Scholars have cited the tremendous harm that nuclear weapons can inflict to justify extraordinary measures ranging from export controls to financial sanctions and even preventive war. Students will accordingly work to resolve two paradoxes in nuclear logic. If nuclear weapons keep the peace, why has the international community struggled to stop more states from acquiring them? If their uses are so manifestly unethical, illegal, and risk-‐laden, why have serious efforts to abolish nuclear weapons failed? Indicative List of Seminar Topics • The liberal world order and the NPT • Non-‐proliferation in the 1970s and tutorials to discuss progress on dissertation • Nuclear arms control from Nixon to Bush • Explaining the “long peace” • Nuclear strategy beyond the Cold War • Proliferation I: The post-‐Soviet republics and South Asia • Proliferation II: Iran, Libya and North Korea • Nuclear abolition and tutorials to discuss feedback on dissertation draft • Nuclear brinksmanship in the 21st-‐century and war games 81
Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x 500-‐word writing exercise 10 1 x 4,000-‐word essay (title chosen by student in consultation 50 with tutor) 1 x 3-‐hour exam 40 Sample Source ‘The doom of the U.S. has been sealed. ... All the service personnel and people of the DPRK are ready to immediately and mercilessly punish without slightest leniency, tolerance and patience anyone provoking the dignified supreme headquarters even a bit, ... Our primary target is the Chongwadae [the residence and office of South Korea’s president], the centre for hatching plots for confrontation with the fellow countrymen in the north, and reactionary ruling machines. The U.S. imperialist aggressor forces’ bases for invading the DPRK in the Asia-‐Pacific region and the U.S. mainland are its second striking target. ... The U.S. is fated to be punished and perish in the flames due to the DPRK’s deadly strikes ...’ National Defense Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), 6 March 2016-‐03-‐13 This statement, published by the state-‐run Korean Central News Agency, warned that the totalitarian regime under the leadership of a young, unpredictable Kim Jong Un would unleash a “preemptive and offensive nuclear strike” in retaliation against the largest joint U.S.-‐South Korean military exercise in history. This follows North Korea’s fourth nuclear test, which Pyongyang claimed was of a thermonuclear character, and recent intermediate-‐range ballistic missile launch, which provoked the joint exercises. The statement is typical of North Korea’s over-‐the-‐top bellicosity; even so, the explicit nuclear threat elicited rebukes from Russia and China, who recently approved a new round of even stronger sanctions in the United Nations Security Council against the international pariah. The language reflects four realities. First, North Korea remains at war with South Korea and the United States, as a peace treaty was never signed to end the Korean War (1950-‐1953). Second, North Korea habitually makes threats to extract concessions from its negotiating partners. Third, Kim feels a need to project strength due to his young age and his country’s dire economic straits. Lastly, the international community has repeatedly failed to end North Korea’s nuclear-‐weapons program for geopolitical and circumstantial reasons, including the widespread lesson taken from the 2003 Iraq War that nuclear weapons are the only insurance against American intervention. 82
Year 3 Special Subject (30 credits) HIST3XXX -‐ Emperor Julian and the Last Pagans of Rome, Part 1 Julian: Hero and Apostate (Dr Alan Ross) Module overview Julian was sole emperor of Rome for scarcely twenty months, dying in 363CE at the head of his army during a spectacularly miscalculated invasion of modern-‐day Iraq. His short life and untimely death ensured that he has remained an enigmatic figure: a warrior who also loved classical literature and has left us with more writings than any other emperor; the last pagan emperor, who tried to reverse the spread of Christianity, yet was also the first emperor to be educated as a Christian; a legitimate member of the imperial house of Constantine, who nonetheless usurped the throne. In this module, we will use Julian’s life as a lens to explore various aspects of Late Roman elite society in the mid fourth century CE, ranging from education to politics, to religion, to urban life. Throughout we will consider the value of a biographical approach to history, and the relationship between personal details of Julian’s life and wider cultural and political trends at the end of the Roman Empire. This module will begin by surveying the role of the emperor in the late Roman world, particularly in the aftermath of the revolutionary reforms of Julian’s uncle Constantine the Great, and the religious upheavals of the early fourth century. We will then trace Julian’s career chronologically, through a detailed examination of the many texts that Julian has left us (speeches, letters, and laws), together with the works by his contemporaries and material evidence. We will follow him during key episodes in his life, from his exiled youth, via his university life in Athens, his appointment as junior emperor by his hated cousin Constantius II, his rebellion, to his brief sole reign, during which he tried to 83
marginalize and suppress Christianity. This chronological structure will be interspersed with thematic studies on education, politics, philosophy, and the military. Indicative list of seminar topics • The Roman Revolution of Constantine. • Pagans and Polytheists in the fourth century CE. • The Summer of Blood (337CE). • University life in Athens (350s CE). • Julian and the military: Gaul (355-‐360 CE). • Julian in Constantinople – a civilis princeps? • Opposition in Antioch – a Christian backlash. • Disaster in Persia (363 CE). • Creating the ‘Apostate’. Assessment Assessment method % contribution to final mark 1 x 4000-‐word essay 50 1 x gobbet exercise 50 Sample source ‘That on the father's side I am descended from the same stock as Constantius on his father's side is well known. Our fathers were brothers, sons of the same father. And close kinsmen as we were, how this most humane Emperor treated us! Six of my cousins and his, and my father who was his own uncle and also another uncle of both of us on the father's side, and my eldest brother, he put to death without a trial; and as for me and my other brother, he intended to put us to death but finally inflicted exile upon us.’ Julian, Letter to the Athenians 270c [361] This letter by Julian sets out his case for rebelling against his cousin, the Emperor Constantius II. Julian accuses Constantius of murdering all of their close male relatives fifteen years earlier, sparing only Julian himself and his half-‐brother Gallus. It’s tempting to look for psychological reasons for Julian’s hostility towards his cousin – the young boy scarred by the slaughter of his father and uncles – but perhaps this was also a useful propagandistic tool for a cunning and opportunistic rebel to seize the throne. 84
Year 3 Special Subject (30 credits) HIST3XXX -‐ Emperor Julian and the Last Pagans of Rome, Part 2: The Final Pagan Generation (Dr Alan Ross) Module overview What was life like for a generation left behind by the changing cultural tides during the last decades of the Roman empire? With the death of Julian in 363CE, paganism was never again endorsed by a Roman emperor; moreover, it was tainted by association with Julian’s military failure against the Persians. In the second part of this Special Subject, we will study the last generation of elite pagans (c.350-‐400CE), who had been contemporaries of Julian but lived well beyond his early death, and in a world that saw the steady establishment of Christianity and imposition of legal restrictions on paganism by the end of the fourth century. Four pagan figures have left us extensive collections of their texts: Themistius, a politician and philosopher who was responsible for expanding the new senate in the (largely Christian) eastern capital of Constantinople; Libanius, a professor in the Syrian city of Antioch, who found himself in close proximity to several of Julian’s successors; Symmachus, a prominent politician and aristocrat in Rome; and Ausonius, a poet from Gaul (modern France), who became tutor to the child emperor Gratian. Using these four individuals and their letters, speeches, and other writings, we will investigate the education, careers, lifestyle, social networks, and religious inclinations of the final pagan generation, in both the East and the West of the Roman Empire during its last century as a political unity. 85
We will engage with a number of modern debates, asking whether it is correct to talk of a ‘conflict’ between Paganism and Christianity in this period; how both pagans and Christians claimed the inheritance of the Classical past; and what the role of civic society and provincial cities was in the running of the empire. These questions will help us understand how this group of people (who did not adhere to the new religion that was sweeping across their world and was supported by the imperial regime) could adapt, and even thrive, in such rapidly changing social, political and religious climates. Indicative list of seminar topics • Imperial politics after Julian. • Social networks in the Ancient world. • The Inheritance of the Classics. • Ancient PPE: Themistius on Politics, Philosophy and Empire. • Libanius: City and School in Late Antique Antioch. • Rome and Constantinople: Pagan cities or Christian Capitals? • Symmachus: Western Aristocracies and Imperial Court. • The Battle of the Frigidus and the end of Paganism? • A Generation’s Legacy. Assessment Assessment method % contribution to final mark 1 x 4000-‐word essay 50 1 x 3-‐hour exam 50 Sample source ‘And so we ask for peace for the gods of our fathers, for the gods of our native land. It is reasonable that whatever each of us worships is really to be considered one and the same. We gaze up at the same stars, the sky covers us all, the same universe compasses us. What does it matter what practical system we adopt in our search for the truth? Not by one avenue only can we arrive at so tremendous a secret.’ Symmachus Relatio 3.10 [384CE] In this letter, the pagan aristocrat Symmachus makes a plea to the Christian emperor to leave the pagan priesthoods and altars in Rome untouched. His reasoning may sound very modern to us – we should tolerate different religious views because we all are fundamentally interested in the same questions of morality and knowing our place in the world. But Symmachus had other agendas in being seen to be the defender of the ‘old religion’ in Rome during the 380s, not least in securing the revenues from the pagan temples and maintaining his personal support in the Senate. 86
Year 3 Special Subject (30 credits) HIST3XXX – The Great Exhibition of 1851. Part 1: Art, Industry and the making of a Nation (Dr Eleanor Quince) Module Overview The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations was an international exhibition which took place in Hyde Park, London, from 1 May to 11 October 1851. It was arguably the greatest of a series of international ‘expositions’ run throughout the nineteenth century, celebrating scientific and technological innovation, design aesthetic and the might of manufacturing. On show were some 13,000 objects from Britain, the Colonies and forty-‐four other nations. The Exhibition and the Crystal Palace which housed it became a British icon, symbolising free trade and national success. During its six month opening period, over six million people visited the Exhibition, turning London, in the words of the Illustrated London News, from ‘the capital of a great nation, [into] the metropolis of the world’. The effects of the Exhibition were enormous and felt well into the twentieth century and beyond. But why was the Great Exhibition so important? How did it become a turning point for the nation? And what exactly has its legacy been? Indicative list of seminar topics • Exposition: the International Exhibition trend • Travelling to the Exhibition: Thomas Cook Tours and trains • Inside the Crystal Palace • Commodity Fetishism: establishing a world view of Victorian Britain? 87
Assessment Assessment method % contribution to final mark 1 x 4000-‐word essay 50 1 x gobbet exercise 50 Sample Source See the picture above illustration to 1851, or, The Adventures of Mr and Mrs Sandboys and family who came up to London to enjoy themselves and to see the Great Exhibition by Henry Mayhew and George Cruikshank, (London: George Newbold, 1851) ‘The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations’, a global trade fair, took place in London in 1851 and was the brainchild of Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria. It brought together the best of art, science, design and engineering, in a global nod to the prowess of the industrial age. The illustration above is from 1851, or, The Adventures of Mr and Mrs Sandboys … by Henry Mayhew. A comic novel, it charts the experience of the fictional Mr and Mrs Sandboys, a provincial couple who attempt to travel to London from their home in Cumberland to visit the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park. The Sandboys find that their way is constantly blocked and only reach the Exhibition as it closes. The image above was drawn by the famous cartoonist George Cruikshank, and is from the very beginning of the book. It represents the irony which runs throughout the text: English people failing to reach the Exhibition while the rest of the world succeeds. In the image, the Exhibition building, the Crystal Palace, is situated at the top of the globe. People of all nations, identifiable through stereotypical clothing and objects – Chinese in large hats, people from Turkey smoking hookahs, Africans emerging from crude huts, Indians on elephants – rush towards the building. On the edges of the globe we can see symbols of nations who exhibited in 1851, steamships from America, pyramids from Egypt; and English flags demonstrate the reach of the Empire. While there is an element of mocking in the cartoon, it is also an indicator of the way in which the Exhibition, hailed by Queen Victoria as ‘one of the wonders of the world’, was viewed: a world-‐beating venture which put the nation on the map (literally). 88
Year 3 Special Subject (30 credits) HIST3XXX – The Great Exhibition of 1851. Part 2: Legacy (Dr Eleanor Quince) Module Overview The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations was an international exhibition which took place in Hyde Park, London, from 1st May to 11th October 1851. It was arguably the greatest of a series of international ‘expositions’ run throughout the nineteenth century, celebrating scientific and technological innovation, design aesthetic and the might of manufacturing. On show were some 13,000 objects from Britain, the Colonies and forty-‐four other nations. The Exhibition and the Crystal Palace which housed it became a British icon, symbolising free trade and national success. During its six month opening period, over six million people visited the Exhibition, turning London, in the words of the Illustrated London News, from ‘the capital of a great nation, [into] the metropolis of the world’. The effects of the Exhibition were enormous and felt well into the twentieth century and beyond. But why was the Great Exhibition so important? How did it become a turning point for the nation? And what exactly has its legacy been? Indicative list of seminar topics • New acquisitions: purchasing for the nation at the Great Exhibition • Foundations: Government Schools of art, design, history and science • The making of the South Kensington Museum • Industry: working with the world in the wake of the Great Exhibition • Entertainment for the masses: photography, stereoscopy and film • The weird and the wonderful: the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, 1854 -‐ 1936 • The past in the present: forging Britain's heritage • Virtual impact: the Great Exhibition lives on 89
Assessment Assessment method % contribution to final mark 1 x 4000-‐word essay 50 1 x 3-‐hour exam 50 Sample Source : “They decided that the building …should rise again …that it should form a palace for the multitude, where …healthful exercise and wholesome recreation should be easily attainable. To raise the enjoyments and amusements of the English people …in wholesome country air, amidst the beauties of nature, the elevating treasures of art, and the instructive marvels of science, an accessible and inexpensive substitute for the injurious and debasing amusements of a crowded metropolis.” Phillips, Samuel, Guide to the Crystal Palace and Park, (London: Crystal Palace Library, Bradbury and Evans, 1856) p. 3 Between 1852 and 1854 the Crystal Palace, the main exhibition building for the 1851 Great Exhibition, was transplanted to Sydenham on the outskirts of London. Here, the structure was not only rebuilt but enlarged. Phillips’ Guide to the Crystal Palace and Park is a complete handbook to the re-‐erected palace. The quotation above tells us the aim of this undertaking, placing the welfare of the people of England at its heart. The Crystal Palace at Sydenham was the first large-‐scale amusement park for ‘the people’ and introduced the concept of ‘edutainment’ to the nation. Open to all, easily accessible via a newly extended Metropolitan Line and regular Omnibus service, the 300-‐acre park included an art gallery, a theatre, an opera house, dinosaur island, an archery ground, a printers, a perfume stand, extensive gardens, a viewing platform, and the famous ‘crystal towers’: two reservoirs supplying water to the fountains on the site. Until it was destroyed by fire in 1936, the Crystal Palace spent eighty years as one of the nation’s major venues and was a hugely popular tourist attraction. What we learn from the source as a whole is the sheer scale of the enterprise. The Crystal Palace Company had its own railway station, stables and steamboat; published a series of books on the history of the structure and the site via its own press; produced its own souvenirs; had a full complement of staff including tour guides, groomsmen, waiters, tutors and salespeople; offered assistance to those with disabilities, including the provision of ‘bath chairs’ (wheelchairs); had perambulators (prams) for hire by those with small children; and catered for ‘excursion parties’ of over 1000 people. The re-‐erection of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham was the first action of the Royal Commission set up at the close of the 1851 Great Exhibition, aiming to continue the promotion of science and the arts and to educate the masses. The Commission was to go on to establish a series of educational and heritage institutions which crisscrossed the globe, taking the legacy of the 1851 Great Exhibition far and wide. 90
Year 3 Alternative Histories (30 credits) HIST 3116 -‐ Between Private Memory and Public History Module overview Do you see your own possessions as historical objects? This module invites you to do just that as a way of illuminating the resonance and immediacy to our lives of concepts such as memory work, commemoration and heritage. We live in a world in which the meaning of the past is constantly being re-‐shaped by social forces and cultural phenomena outside academia -‐ in museums, anniversary parades, in the media. This module asks you to think about the relations between individual memories and the formation of such publicly shared stories about the past. The seminars illustrate these themes through a series of tangible case studies. The module assessment involves building a portfolio of original work around a personally chosen ‘memory object' as a way of demonstrating your understanding of this intersection between private memory and public history. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Introduction to memory objects • Heritage versus history • Memory work, history and place • The ethics of history • Memory and commemoration After these plenary seminars, the rest of the module takes the form of small-‐group workshops on the students’ chosen memory objects, as a way of preparing for the reflexive essay and feasibility study. Assessment 91
Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x portfolio of work including a 2,000-‐word reflexive essay which 50 tests how well students bring to bear theoretical insights on their own memory object and the research around it; and a 2,000-‐word feasibility study to test how well they are able to argue a case for the public exhibition of their chosen memory object 1 x 2-‐hour exam 50 Sample Source Knitted nativity scene created by one of our student’s great-‐grandmothers, 1989 ‘Having lived in about twenty houses by age twenty-‐two, I have discarded many of my belongings as just “stuff”, “junk” as Martin Rowson called it, or else they have been simply lost in transit. In addition, I have never been a hoarder, seeing emotional attachments to objects as “materialism” rather than the evocative “centrepieces of emotional life” which Sherry Turkle encourages us to see them as. ... As a nativity scene, a Christian symbol at “the heart of Christmas”, this was a learning tool for me, although not a strictly “historical” one verified by documents but as an oral testimony, passed down the generations.’ Emily Hooke, 2013 92
Year 3 Alternative Histories (30 credits) HIST3119 -‐ Music and History Module Overview This module introduces students to some of the ways in which historians might think about music as a historical source. Drawing on a broad range of musical examples it seeks to explore how musical styles and movements reflect wider political, civic and consumer cultures at given historical junctures. The first part of the module takes examples from the ‘classical canon', focussing on aspects of musical ‘high culture' in the C19th and C20th; the second explores examples of popular culture from before the Second World War such as music hall, folk and blues cultures; the final part examines aspects of post-‐war popular musical culture and seeks to contextualise them historically. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Why Might Music Matter? • Beethoven • Shostakovich • Weimar Culture • Victorian Music Hall • Folk Revivalism • The Blues • Rock and Roll • Punk • Conclusions 93
Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x 4,000-‐word essay 50 1 x 2-‐hour exam 50 Sample Source ‘We were told, when the idea came first into notice, that its encouragement would assuredly exercise a beneficial influence over the progress of music among the lower classes; that many people, who now spend the hours of the day in dissolute indulgence in the public-‐house, would, in time, be weaned from their evil doings, and that the souls of our less wealthy creatures would, in general terms, be enobled through the general agency of art! In fact we were told all sorts of things, which perhaps, we did not believe, and which have, at all events, been proved by time to be not less fallacious than the great majority of predictions.’ -‐ An Opinion of Music Halls’, The Tomohawk (1867) -‐The text is one of many pieces of Victorian middlebrow writing that engages with the question of Music Hall and its impact – beneficial or otherwise – on the working and-‐ lower-‐middle classes consumers that constituted the bulk of its audience. It resonates with moral anxieties about the lifestyles of the working classes – most notably over drink – and is striking above all for the middle class gaze that it embodies. Beyond its specific concern at the way in which the supposedly ‘dissolute’ lifestyle of the workers is being reinforced, rather than overcome, by the culture of the Music Hall, it carries deeper assumptions about what constitutes ‘good music’, and the idea that ‘high art’ has an ‘improving’ role to play in the life of society. What that ‘high art’ is is not defined, but it is assumed that the bourgeois ‘we’ embodied by the author and his assumed readership know what that is, and that it stands in fundamental contrast to the forms of culture on offer in the Music Hall. The source, in other words, tells us little about Music Hall, but much about middle classes neuroses in mid-‐Victorian Britain. 94
Year 3 Alternative Histories (30 credits) HIST 3132 – Conflict, Transformation and Resurgence in Asia Module Overview The unit focuses on key countries in South and East Asia, namely, India and China, from the period of nineteenth-‐century imperial domination until the contemporary era of globalization. It focuses on the themes of imperialism, nationalism, decolonization, war, revolution and migration. It addresses these subjects within a broad comparative analysis and also sets them in the context of historiographical debates. The course will study differing Asian approaches to western intrusion in the mid to late nineteenth century followed by an assessment of the construction of modern national, communal and ethnic sources of identity. The mid-‐twentieth-‐century era of war, revolution and independence in Asia will form the next section of the module. The final part of the unit examines the themes of nation building, revolution and economic resurgence from the 1950s until the close of the twentieth century. By the end of the unit, students should have a good awareness of the historical roots and routes of South and East Asia’s current economic resurgence, along with some of the dilemmas surrounding the economic and political sustainability of contemporary rapid rates of development. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • The impacts of political and economic imperialism in China and India from the nineteenth century to the earliest decades of the twentieth century • The importance of contact with the West • The importance of emerging concepts of nationalism and national identity • Revolutions in the mid twentieth century: political, economic and social 95
• The economic implications of globalization in the mid to late twentieth century, and how the impact of this has endured into the present day Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x 4,000-‐word essay 50 1 x 2-‐hour exam 50 Sample Source 'This struggle is one of conflicting ideologies, and it reflects the class struggle in society. For a party member, the result of this struggle should be that the proletarian ideology overcomes and ultimately eliminates all other ideologies, that the Communist world outlook and that ideas based on the general interests and aims of the Party, of the revolution, and of the emancipation of the proletariat and all mankind overcome and ultimately eliminate all individualism'. How to be a good communist by Liu Shao-‐chi, 1939 This extract, published in 1964, reveals much about the impact of communism in China. The interpretation of Marxism – which had of course originated in Western Europe – by a leading member of the Chinese Communist Party reveal much about the reception of these ideas within politics, and also described are the plans for Chinese society. Figures like Liu sought to take Marxism and apply it to the Chinese context, based on a desire to, as he wrote, eliminate individualism in the name of the Party and establish a society in which all would be equal. The calamitous impacts of such views – widespread social unrest, famine and genocide – will be a central focus of the elements of the module that deal with Chinese history. 96
Year 3 Alternative Histories (30 credits) HIST3150 – Travellers’ Tales Module Overview This module introduces students to some of the ways in which historians use travel literature as a source. It draws on a broad range of examples to explore representations by ‘foreigners’ of societies and cultures with which they are unfamiliar, and also considers what such observations reveal about the particular narrator. Issues of identity will be to the forefront, including national, ethnic, religious and gender. Reasons for travel will be examined, such as pleasure, education, exploration, work and politics. Indicative List of Seminar Aims • Introduce you both to ways in which travellers’ accounts can be studied as a historical source and to the historiographical debates surrounding their use • Encourage you to think about travellers’ accounts as means by which wider political, social and cultural histories can be explored • Provide you with opportunities to explore travellers’ tales through a variety of case studies and a range of historical periods Assessment 97
Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x 4,000-‐word essay 50 1 x 2-‐hour exam 50 Sample Source ‘All the shops here are well stocked with goods for sale such as porcelain, japanned wares, cloths & fans, articles of ivory, mother of pearl &c., &c., specimens of which are exposed in front. The various articles are well-‐suited to the taste of their customers, a travellers being easily induced to expend a considerable sum in purchasing their knick knacks.’ British Library, Add. MS 35174, f. 34v., William Alexander, ‘Journal of a Voyage to … China’ In 1792, William Alexander accompanied one of the first British trade missions to China. Here he remarked on the selection and variety of Chinese goods available to travellers. In describing his impressions of unfamiliar people and places, Alexander’s account gives us an insight into his motivations for embarking on the voyage, underlining the enduring power of travel to tell as much about ourselves as the places we visit. 98
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