Encounter the Past from Ancient Egypt to the War on Terror University of Southampton History Department Year 2 Module Choices 2017-‐18 1
Contents How to Select Modules…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….………5 Staff Contact Details…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…….…….7 Semester 1 15 Credit Modules * HIST2069 -‐ Knights and Chivalry……………………………………………………………………………………………………….……9 HIST2071 -‐ Celebrity, Media and Mass Culture: Britain 1888-‐1952……………………………………………..………….11 HIST2082 -‐ Nelson Mandela: A South African Life………………………………………………………………………….……….13 HIST2094 -‐ Wellington and the War against Napoleon…………………………………………………………………….…….15 HIST2097 -‐ Napoleon and his Legend..........................................................................................................17 * HIST2103 -‐ Self-‐inflicted: Extreme Violence, Politics and Power.…………………..……………….……………………19 * HIST2055 -‐ Ancient Rome: The First Metropolis……………………………………………………………………………..……21 * HIST2215 -‐ The Age of Discovery? c.1350-‐c.1650…………………………………………….………………………..….…….23 HIST2219 -‐ Ritual Murder: The Antisemitic Blood Libel………………………………………………………………………....25 HIST2100 -‐ Retail Therapy: A Journey Through the Cultural History of Shopping……………………….…………..27 HIST2102 -‐ Discipline and Punish: Prisons and Prisoners in England 1775-‐1898………………………….………….29 HIST2218 -‐ Sex, Death and Money: the United Kingdom in the 1960s ……………………………….………………….31 HIST2073 -‐ Jews in Germany before the Holocaust…………………………………………………………………………….….33 HIST2110-‐ The Global Cold War…..………………………………………………………………………..……………………….………35 HIST2XXX~ -‐ Modern Germany 1870-‐1945………………………………………………………………….………..……………....37 ARCH2017 -‐ Maritime Archaeology…………………………………………………………………………………………………..…...39 HUMA2008 -‐ The Life and Afterlife of Vikings………………………………………………………………………………….…….41 GERM 2006 -‐ Vienna and Berlin: Society, History and Culture 1890-‐present……………………………………….…43 Semester 1 30 Credit Modules HIST2039 -‐ Imperialism and Nationalism in British India…………………………………………………………………….….45 HIST2051 -‐ The British Atlantic World……………………………………………………………………………………………….……47 HIST2064 -‐ The Space Age……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...49 HIST2106 -‐ In Hitler’s Shadow: Eastern Europe 1918-‐1939…………………………………………………………………….51 * HIST2085 -‐ Rebels with a Cause: The Historical Origins of Christianity ………………….……………………….……53 2
HIST2107 -‐ Terror and the Fall of Imperial Russia……………………………………………………………………………….….55 HIST2216 -‐ Oil Burns The Hands: Power, Politics and Petroleum in Iraq, 1900-‐1958…………..…………….….57 HIST2217 -‐ From the mafia to the ultras…………………………………………………………………………………….……….…59 * HIST2049 -‐ Sin and Society: 1100-‐1520…………………………………………………………………………………………….….61 * HIST2003 -‐ Power, Patronage and Politics in Early Modern England 1509-‐1660…………………………….……63 HIST2084 -‐ Accommodation, Violence and Networks in Colonial America……………………………………………..65 Semester 2 15 Credit Modules HIST2091 – Underworlds: A Cultural History of Urban Nightlife in the 19th and 20th Centuries…………….…67 HIST2108 -‐ The Making of Modern India………………………………………………………………………………….…………….69 * HIST2109 -‐ Ancient Greeks at War……………………………………………………………………………………..…..………..…71 * HIST2076 -‐ The First British Empire: The beginnings of English dominance, 1050-‐1300………………………73 ARCH2003 -‐ The Power of Rome: Europe’s First Empire………………………………………………………….……………..75 HIST2XXX~ -‐ Children in Europe 1933-‐1950: Holocaust, War, Death, Displacement and Survival…………...77 * HIST2XXX~ -‐ Witchcraft in England, 1542-‐1736…………………………………………………………………………….....…79 HIST2XXX~ -‐ Ragtime! The Making of Modern America………………………………………………………………….……...81 * HIST2XXX~ -‐ Myth and the Ancient World…………………………………………………………………………………………..83 ARCH2012 -‐ Archaeology and Society…………………………………………………………………………………………………….85 Semester 2 30 Credit Modules HIST2008 -‐ Group Project – **compulsory for all single honours history students…………………………………87 * HIST2045 -‐ Cleopatra’s Egypt……………………………………………………………………………………………………….……..89 HIST2031 -‐ Stalin and Stalinism……………………………………………………………………………………………………………...91 HIST2004 -‐ The Making of Englishness: Race, Ethnicity and Immigration in British Society, 1841 to the Present……………………………………………………………………………………………………….………………………………………….93 HIST2086 -‐ Building London 1666 – 2012……………………………………………………………………………………….………95 HIST2087 -‐ Islamism: From the 1980s to the Present………………………….…………………………………………….……97 3
HIST2090 -‐ Britain’s Global Empire, 1750-‐1870..…………………………………………….……………………………………...99 HIST2096 -‐ Evolution of US Counterterrorism………………………………………………………………………………………101 * HIST2036 -‐ The Hundred Years’ War: Britain and Europe, 1259-‐1453………………………………………………..103 * HIST2053 -‐ Habsburg Spain: 1471-‐1700: The Rise and Decline of the First European Superpower.......105 * Starred modules: you should select at least 15 credits of modules that are indicated with a star. ~ Module code not allocated at time of print ** Compulsory module for Single Honours students Index by Historical Period……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………107 4
Introduction Be bold! Here at Southampton you are part of an incredibly dynamic community of scholars, whose broad expertise and varied interests are reflected in the original and thought-‐provoking modules on offer. Take the time to explore what is on offer by reading the overviews, considering the lists of content and enjoying the sample sources and commentaries provided. Do not be put off by things which you may not yet have heard of, or have not studied before. Getting the most out of your time at university means seizing the opportunity to broaden your horizons and challenge yourself intellectually, and that is exactly what this varied curriculum offers you. Just as the staff in this department are pushing the boundaries of historical knowledge and understanding, so should you be on both an academic and a personal level. I wish you all the best for the upcoming year, and hope this booklet helps you make the most of the diverse options available to you. Dr Francois Soyer Associate Professor of late Medieval and Early Modern History How to Select Your Modules In order to qualify for your degree, you need to take 120 credits during the academic year, that is, 60 credits in each semester. Other arrangements apply for part-‐time students, and sometimes for students whose studies have been affected by other circumstances in some way. The credits attached to each module are stated in each description below. The second year is an opportunity to develop your own interests in history, and most of the year’s work will be given over to modules that you have selected. The options on offer to you are explained in the rest of the brochure, and come in two varieties: some are worth 15 credits and some are worth 30 credits. The standard required is identical, but there are special features for each one. The 15-‐credit modules cover more focussed themes; the 30-‐credit modules allow for a more sustained engagement with a theme/s. A 30-‐credit module involves three scheduled hours of contact time each week, together with office hours and consultations; two 15-‐credit modules (so equal to a 30-‐credit module) involves four scheduled hours of contact time each week, together with office hours and consultations. All the modules described in this brochure are historical in terms of content and method. Some of them have codes which are not history ones (e.g. HUMA2008) but this is not meaningful; some history modules were planned in association with other subjects, or involve staff from more than one department, and so are classified in a slightly different way. Differences in module codes do not indicate anything important about the module in question; if the modules are in this brochure, they are essentially historical in nature. If you require further information on any module you can email the module convenor or Julie Gammon as Director of Programmes ([email protected]). 5
For Single-‐Honours History Students You need to take 60 credits in each semester. You have freedom to choose how this will work for you. For instance, in semester 1 you could select 2 x 30-‐credit modules, or 1 x 30-‐credit module and 2 x 15-‐credit modules, or even 4 x 15-‐credit modules. There are only two constraints that affect your choice: • In semester 2, the group project (see pp. 87-‐88) is compulsory for all single-‐honours history students. You’ll be able to choose a project on a topic of interest to you, but the selection for that will be done nearer the time, during semester 1 next year. The group project is worth 30 credits, and so makes up half the credits for semester 2. In addition you select another 30 credits in that semester, either 1 X 30-‐credit module or 2 X 15-‐credit modules. • As part of your year 2 choices, we want to see you cover a range of chronological periods, therefore at least 15 credits of what you select should come from those modules indicated with a star. You therefore need to take 60 credits of options in semester 1 and 30 credits in semester 2. For Joint-‐Honours Students Your degree is designed so that half should be in history and half should be in your other subject. You need to select either one 30-‐credit option or two 15-‐credit options in history in each semester. For MHP students only: if you are considering doing a Politics Dissertation in year 3 you must take PAIR 2004 (Research Skills in Politics and International Relations) in year 2. Online Option Choice (OOC) You can select your modules through Online Option Choice (OOC). Instructions on where to find this will be sent to you separately from this brochure. In addition to the modules described here, you will also see some others selected for relevance to history students (language modules, some from other humanities disciplines, and some university-‐wide modules open to anyone) on the OOC form. OOC opens at 8am on Monday 24 April 2017 and remains open until 15 May 2017. You may go in and make changes to your selections at any point during this period. The OOC system operates on a first come first serve basis. Individual module size is capped to ensure the quality of students’ experience. This does mean some modules will fill quickly. In making your selections, we encourage you to think broadly across the range of modules offered. Disclaimer The information contained in this Module Options Handbook is correct at the time it was published. Typically, around a quarter of optional modules do not run due to low interest or unanticipated changes in staff availability. If we do have insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, this may not be offered. If an optional module will not be running, we will advise you as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative module. Please see the university’s official disclaimer http://www.calendar.soton.ac.uk/ 6
Staff Contact Details Lecturer Office Email Dr Remy Ambuhl 2074 [email protected] Prof. George Bernard 2049 [email protected] Dr Annelies Cazemier 2047 A [email protected] 2079 [email protected] Prof. Peter Clarke 1053 [email protected] Dr Eve Colpus 2073 [email protected] Dr Jon Conlin 2051 1053 D [email protected] Dr David Cox 65a/3023 N [email protected] Dr Niamh Cullen [email protected] Dr Dragana Mladenovic 3035 [email protected] Dr Hormoz Ebrahimnejad 1051 C [email protected] Dr Chris Fuller 2069 [email protected] Dr Julie Gammon 1051 [email protected] Dr George Gilbert 2051 [email protected] Dr Shirli Gilbert 65a/3029 [email protected] Dr Alison Gascoigne 2057 [email protected] Prof. Neil Gregor 2059 M [email protected] [email protected] Prof. Maria Hayward 2057 Dr Rachel Herrmann 2063 [email protected] Dr Jonathan Hunt 2065 [email protected] Dr Nicholas Karn 2063 [email protected] Nicholas Kingwell 2053 [email protected] C.Le-‐[email protected] Prof. Tony Kushner 2104 Dr Claire Le Foll 1001 [email protected] Dr Dan Levene [email protected] Dr Mark Levene 2043 [email protected] Dr John McAleer 2104 [email protected] Dr Pritipuspa Mishra 7
Prof. Kendrick Oliver 2061 [email protected] [email protected] Prof. Sarah Pearce TBC [email protected] Dr Christer Petley 2081 [email protected] E [email protected] Dr Chris Prior 1047 [email protected] L [email protected] Dr Eleanor Quince 65A/3017 [email protected] Archaeology building a [email protected] Prof. Andrea Reiter 3087 [email protected] [email protected] Dr Louise Revell 65A/3027 -‐ [email protected] Archaeology building [email protected] Dr Charlotte 1047 [email protected] Riley [email protected] Dr Alan Ross 2051 [email protected] [email protected] Prof. Joachim Schlör 1023 Dr François Soyer 2064 Dr Helen Spurling 2047 Prof. Patrick Stevenson 3079 Prof. Mark Stoyle 2077 Prof. Ian Talbot 2075 Dr Joan Tumblety 2067 Prof. Chris Woolgar 2055 8
Year 2 Semester 1 (15 credits) HIST2069 – Knights and Chivalry (Dr Rémy Ambühl) Module Overview Today, chivalry is commonly associated with gallantry; men holding doors open for women, for example. These good manners, however, have little to do with the medieval roots of chivalry. This module looks at chivalry during the highpoint of its cultural significance in the medieval period, with an emphasis on its latter part (13th to 15th centuries). During that time, knights and their martial ethos merged with the aristocracy and its value system, placing honour at the centre of western European cultures. How did the chivalric ideals relate with the reality of the knightly world? To what extent did the relentless pursuit of honour generate unleashed violence? What was the role of women in chivalry? Indisputably, chivalry was impacted by wide-‐ranging social, military, political and economic changes in our period, but is it accurate to speak of the decline of chivalry in this period at that time? What is the role of chivalry in the professionalization of the armies? 9
Indicative List of Seminar Topics • The origins of knighthood • The perfect knight or the ideals of Knighthood • Tourneys: Tournaments, Jousts and Pas d’Armes • Chivalry, mercy and ransoms • The changing face of war in the late middle ages • Chivalric discipline to military discipline • Brotherhood-‐in-‐arms and chivalric orders • Vows, crusades and crusading Ideals • Heralds and heraldry • Chivalric kings and national chivalry Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark Essay (2000 words) 50 Exam (2 hours) 50 Sample Source ‘…Therefore, all the people were divided by thousands. Out of each thousand there was chosen a man more notable than all the rest for his loyalty, his strength, his noble courage, his breeding and his manners. Afterwards they sought out the beast that was most suitable — strongest to sustain labour, heartiest, and best able to serve the man. It was found that the horse was the most fitting creature; because they chose the horse from among all the beasts and gave him to this same man who had been picked from among a thousand, and because the horse is called in French cheval, therefore the man who rides him is called a chevalier, which in English is a knight. Thus to the most noble man was given the most noble beast.’ This is an extract taken from the introduction of Ramon Lull’s Book of the Order of Knighthood (c. 1275) in which he explains the origins of the knight and chivalry. From an etymological point of view, he is completely right. Chivalry comes from the French 'chevalerie' which derives from 'cheval' (the French for horse). The knight (or 'chevalier' in French) has long been associated with, and is often depicted on, his mount. Lull's origins of knighthood are, however, pure fiction. The Catalan knight creates a myth which is meant to justify the superior position that the knights enjoyed in the medieval society. It is also a way for him to encourage the knights of his days to aspire to perfection. The book is written in the aftermath of the failure of the eighth crusade and results from it. For Lull, the old order of chivalry needs to be reformed. 10
Year 2 Semester 1 (15 credits) HIST2071 – Celebrity, Media and Mass Culture: Britain 1888-‐1952 (Dr Eve Colpus) Module Overview This module explores the development of celebrity in Britain 1888-‐1952, focusing particularly upon the influence of technologies and mass media. The years between the late 1880s and early 1950s saw a massive expansion in printed and visual media, and this module charts representations of celebrity from the pages of illustrated newspapers (from the late 1880s) to modern technicolour film (1952), via turn-‐of-‐the-‐century developments in silent film, the 1920s invention of radio and advances in photography. How should we understand the development of celebrity during this period? Did the media ‘create' celebrity? How far could a celebrity project personality in a public image? How did the public learn about celebrities, and how did they interact with them? Tracing these questions will lead us into broader examination of the cultural history of this period; was there a ‘celebrity culture' in these years, or a ‘celebrity industry'? Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Men and Women of the Day: celebrity biography in the 1880s 11 • Taken unawares: early press photography • Gossip columns and the private lives of celebrities • Silent stars: celebrity in early film • Stars of the air: radio celebrity • Posing for the camera: celebrity portraits • Celebrity sells: advertising, endorsement and fundraising • Scandal and sensation: notoriety as celebrity • Admirers and ‘fans’ • Modern technicolour: Hollywood c. 1952
Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 50 Individual project (1500 words) 50 Exam (2 hours) Sample Source Letter to Central News Agency, signed ‘Jack the Ripper’, 25 September 1888 This is the first of over 300 letters, many of which were signed ‘Jack the Ripper’, sent to the press, police and authorities in 1888, the year of the Whitechapel murders. It is very unlikely the Whitechapel murderer actually wrote any of the letters. Nonetheless, the letters reveal public knowledge and fascination with the murders that was most likely gained from extensive press coverage, and the developing reputation of ‘Jack the Ripper’. We study some of these documents in our examination of ‘criminal celebrity’, in which we compare the role played by the media in building ‘celebrity’ and ‘notoriety’ in the past. 12
Year 2 Semester 1 (15 credits) HIST2082 – Nelson Mandela: A South African Life (Dr Christopher Prior) Module Overview In 1948, Daniel Malan’s National Party took power in South Africa. Malan’s election victory over the Jan Smuts-‐led United Party and Labour Party alliance was only a slender one, and few of the National Party’s opponents could have envisaged that it would remain in power until 1994. Although racist laws had been introduced in South Africa before 1948, the period between 1948 and 1994 saw the extension and formalisation of the apartheid state of segregation and limited opportunity for black Africans. The fight against apartheid was conducted by forces that were limited in resources and often fragmented ideologically and tactically. Hampered as it was by state repression – including its being banned outright by the government in 1960 – the African National Congress (ANC) was at the heart of much of this struggle. However, the histories of the ANC, of the apartheid state and resistance to this more broadly, and of the dismantling of this state from 1994 onwards, are complex, particularly for those who have never studied Africa before. This module will examine the history of modern South Africa through the lens of one key individual at the centre of the anti-‐apartheid struggle and of post-‐apartheid political life: Nelson Mandela. The aim is not to provide a completist account of Mandela’s life, but the module will run in a broadly chronological fashion, examining some of Mandela’s key political experiences. The module will draw heavily on the vast array of primary evidence available to the modern historian, from Mandela’s own writings, to government reports, contemporary newspaper articles and books, and popular culture such as art and music. Besides providing an introduction to modern South African history, therefore, the module will give you the opportunity to examine at first hand the primary documents that helped shape this history, and will get you to think about the ways that political motives and other forms of bias shape contemporaneous documents and historical memory. The module will also get you to consider different historiographical approaches to this topic. 13
Indicative List of Seminar Topics • The legacy of imperial rule: Mandela and the Xhosa • The formation of the apartheid state: 1948 and the National Party • Non-‐violence and the Defiance Campaign • Anti-‐state sabotage: Mandela and Umkhonto we Sizwe • The Commonwealth: Britain and South Africa • Incarceration and the international dimension to the anti-‐apartheid struggle • Mandela and de Klerk: anatomy of a relationship • Post-‐1994 reconciliation and the Mandela Presidency • Long Walk to Freedom as a historical text Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark Essay (2000 words) 50 Exam (2 hours) 50 Sample Source ‘During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.’ Nelson Mandela, Pretoria Supreme Court, April 1964 The extract is from Nelson Mandela’s speech at the 1964 trial that would result in his being sentenced to life imprisonment. Prior to his arrest, Mandela had been a trained guerrilla warrior living underground, planting bombs and undertaking acts of sabotage to destabilise the apartheid regime in South Africa. Yet despite such acts of violence, his speech suggests a democratic moderate, fighting for neither black nor white domination. His tone is one of reconciliation and racial harmony. So much myth surrounds Mandela, but what was he? Radical or moderate? Ideological revolutionary or establishment pragmatist? This module attempts to find the answers. 14
Year 2 Semester 1 (15 credits) HIST2094 -‐ Wellington and the War against Napoleon (Professor Chris Woolgar) Module Overview From 1793, for more than 20 years, Britain and her allies were almost continually at war, first against the armies of revolutionary France, then against Napoleon and the combined forces of his empire. Initially this was an ideological struggle — the terror of revolution embedded itself deep in the psyche of the late eighteenth century; subsequently it was a conflict which, while more traditional in its nature, was without precedent in its scale and consequences. Britain’s forces were engaged across the oceans, from the Low Countries to South America, from Cape Town to Calcutta and Penang, as well as on the home front. This module looks at Britain’s engagement with the struggle against Napoleon through the career of one of her foremost generals, the Duke of Wellington. From the start of his career as a soldier, in Ireland, through service in India, the campaigns of the Peninsular War, to Waterloo and the occupation of France, his professional life was wholly focused on this struggle against France. The module will make special use of Wellington’s papers, in the University Library, to understand the practicalities of warfare, the way decisions were made, the political context and the ability of Wellington to work with Britain’s allies on the Continent, in Portugal, Spain and France in 1808-‐14, and then in the Waterloo campaign of 1815. Indicative List of Topics • The background to the conflicts 15 • Britain at war • The organisation of the British army • Putting the army in the field • Working with allies • On the battlefield • The campaigns of the Peninsular War • Waterloo; making and managing the peace • Making the hero
Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark Essay (2000 words) 50 Exam (2 hours) 50 Sample Source ‘… All the sovereigns of Europe, actuated by the same sentiments and guided by the same principles, declare that if, against all calculation, any real danger whatsoever should result from this occurrence, they would be ready to give the King of France and the French nation, and any other government that is attacked, as soon as a request is made, the assistance necessary for re-‐establishing public tranquillity and to make common cause against all those who should attempt to compromise it. The Powers declare that, as a result, Napoleon Bonaparte has placed himself beyond the pale of civil and social relations, and that, as an enemy and disturber of the peace of the world, he has rendered himself liable to public vengeance.’ The declaration of Napoleon’s outlawry, 13 March 1815, translated from The Dispatches of Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington …, ed. J.Gurwood (13 vols., 1837-‐9), xii, pp. 269-‐70. The escape of Napoleon from Elba at the end of February 1815 threatened to plunge Europe once again into war. Representatives of the European powers were at that time assembled at Vienna to settle territorial questions resulting from more than 20 years of war that had been brought to a close the previous April. That they were together was fortunate, as it allowed them to react swiftly to the threat. This document is the first of two steps that lay the legal basis for war against Napoleon – the allied powers signed the Treaty of Vienna two weeks later, pledging themselves to put in the field against Napoleon four armies of 150,000 men. Note that this declaration and the treaty are directed against Napoleon in person, not against France. This was to be of very great significance when it came to concluding the war and re-‐establishing peace: the King of France was an ally. 16
Year 2 Semester 1 (15 credits) HIST2097 – Napoleon and his Legend (Dr Joan Tumblety) Module Overview Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-‐1821) may have been a tyrant in life but he proved to be a surprisingly malleable figure after death. This module traces the emergence in France and Britain of Napoleon’s reputation, whether as tyrant, martial hero, saviour of the French nation or destroyer of French liberty. Napoleon was a superb publicist and we will see that during his life time – before and after the seizure of state power in 1799 and the coronation as emperor in 1804 – he carefully cultivated an image of himself as both authoritarian and a ‘man of the people’. In reading the memoirs of Napoleonic soldiers, and in considering British caricature and other sources published during the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, we will attempt to prise apart Napoleon’s self-‐presentation from the attitudes of others. Furthermore, through an encounter with Napoleon’s own correspondence and personal effects we will try to disentangle the private man from the public figure, and ask how defeat and exile at the hands of the British may have changed him. Most of all, we will examine how a cult of Napoleon was created and reshaped in subsequent contexts, focusing in particular on its instrumentalization in political and historical writings. Because Napoleon could represent the populism and liberty of the revolution without the anarchy of the Terror; reconciliation with the Catholic Church without clerical reaction; and order and hierarchy without a return to the despotism of the ‘old regime’ he was an appealing figure to a whole array of monarchists, liberals and republicans in France over the entire 19th century. That is why the liberal July Monarchy (1830-‐1848) did so much to make the Napoleonic cult official by completing the Arc de Triomphe in his honour (1836) and by re-‐interring his remains in the mausoleum at Les Invalides in 1840. In the process of tracing the Napoleonic cult through these years to the early 20th century, you will see how difficult it has been in France to disentangle the memory and status of the general from that of the revolution; and you will come to understand how Napoleon’s reputation as a ‘great man’ could survive the catastrophic defeats of 1814-‐15. In historicising the cult of Napoleon in this way, you will grasp the importance for historical practice of seeing the past and present in a continual dialogue where the former is mobilised in a struggle to master the latter. 17
Indicative List of Seminar Topics • What can we learn from studying ‘great men’? • The making of Napoleon Bonaparte: private man and public figure • Creating an imperial image: art, ceremony and military culture • Napoleon the General: the view from the troops and afar • The Fall of Napoleon: understanding defeat, capture and exile • Local and global Napoleons: from Hampshire to the Fondation Napoléon • Turning Napoleon into history: early accounts • Memorialising Napoleon: monuments, anniversaries and the problem of the Revolution • Napoleon and politics: the invention of ‘Bonapartism’ • Napoleon in popular culture: from silent film to Eurovision Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark Essay (2000 words) 50 Exam (2 hours) 50 Sample Source The death mask was purportedly made in May 1821 shortly after Napoleon died in exile but the undated postcard could have been produced a century later for the centenary of his death. The custom of making (alleged) death masks of notable figures – for example famous victims of the guillotine during the Revolution – was already well established. They were often sold to collectors as memorabilia. The circulation of this image speaks as much of commercial interests and popular appetites for spectacle as it does the carefully cultivated cult of Napoleon among political elites keen to tie themselves to his ‘greatness’. 18
Year 2 Semester 1 (15 credits) HIST2103 -‐ Self-‐inflicted: Extreme Violence, Politics and Power (Dr Dan Levene) 1965 cinematic depiction of the 5th century Simeon Stylites on top of his 18 meter pillar Module Overview As Rome became established as a Christian Empire its recent martyrs came to be revered and powerful symbols. Yet with the success of Christianity came the loss of opportunity to follow the example of Christ in offering oneself selflessly to violent death. Instead there emerged and developed in the 4th – 7th centuries a very successful and politically powerful trend whereby one could gain fame and influence through extreme self-‐inflicted violence in imitation of Christ. In this module we will consider the discourse on the subject of violence comparing the newer self-‐inflicted trend to that of its older form of martyrdom. We will consider the roots of this practice, work with the rich literary sources in which the lives of such people are recorded, and consider their interaction with and influence upon the wider political realities of the time through the study a number of individual case studies. 19
Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Introduction to the history of Christian Martyrdom in the early centuries • The making of martyrdom – the voyeuristic literature of holy violence • A couple of case studies – Perpetua and the Martyrs of Najaran • “There is no crime for those who have Christ” – Gaddis on violence • The cult of the Martyrs – Augustine and the need to imitate • Self-‐infliction – Theodoret’s and John of Ephesus’ holy men galore • Simeon Stylites – A case study of the master • Not only Men – “Holy Women of the Syrian Orient” • Holy self-‐harmers and politics Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark Essay (2000 words) 50 Exam (2 hours) 50 Sample Source ‘… he spent three years in that hut and then occupied that famous summit where he ordered a circular wall to be made and had a chain twenty cubits long made out of iron. He fastened one end of it to a huge rock and attached the other to his right foot, so that even if he wanted to he could not leave the confines. He remained inside, keeping heaven always before his eye and forcing himself to contemplate what lies beyond the heavens, for the iron fetter could not hinder the flight of the mind. But when the excellent Meletius, a sound man of brilliant intellect and endowed with astuteness and who was charged to make a visitation of the region of the city of Antioch, told him that the iron was superfluous since right reason sufficed to place rational fetters on the body, he yielded and accepted the counsel obediently, and bade a smith be called and ordered him to take off the fetter. Now when a piece of hide which had been applied to the leg so that the iron would not maim the body also had to be ripped apart as it had been sewn together, it is said that one could see more than twenty large bugs hiding in it. … I have mentioned it here to point out the great endurance of the man. For he could have easily squeezed the piece of hide with his hand and killed all of them, but he put up patiently with all their annoying bites and willingly used small struggles as training for greater ones.’ Extract from the 5th century historian Theodoret. This description is of part of the earlier life of Simeon who trained for many years to be able to endure the great feats of self-‐deprivation that he achieved. By the end of his life there was a great monastery built around his column to whom flowed many thousands of pilgrims, from near and far, both rich and poor, peasant and wealthy politician. 20
Year 2 Semester 1 (15 credits) HIST2055 – Ancient Rome: The First Metropolis (Dr Louise Revell) Module Overview This module focusses on the city of Rome and its development from its early foundation through to the third century AD. It explores the evidence for one of the most important cities of the ancient world, which at its height was home to approximately a million people. During this time, it developed from a small village to a metropolis, but at the same time, changing social and political structures also resulted in changes to the architecture of the city, at its most radical, changing it from the canvas for elite competition to the playground of the emperors. Roman was a place of large-‐scale events, whether political, religious, military, or entertainment, carried out in the public space of the city. Space and society were interlinked. You will examine the development of key areas in the city, such as the Forum Romanum, the imperial fora, the colosseum and temples. You will not only look at the architecture of these, but also the evidence for how they were used. At the same time, you will look at the social and political structures of the city, and how activities such as voting, religious festivals, military triumphs used the public spaces of the city. Indicative List of Seminar Topics: • The military city • Imperial fora and temples • Religion, rituals and priests • Entertaining the masses • Houses and housing • Supplying Rome 21
Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark Essay (2000 words) 50 Exam (2 hours) 50 Sample Source ‘Here we live in a city which, to a large extent, Is supported by rickety props; that’s how the landlord’s agent Stops it falling. He covers a gap in the chinky old building, Then “sleep easy!” he says when the ruin is poised to collapse. One ought to live where fires don’t happen, where alarms at night Are unknown. Ucalegon’s shouting “Fire!” and moving to safety His bits and pieces; your third floor is already smoking; You are oblivious. If the panic starts at the foot of the stairs, The last to burn is the man who is screened from the rain by nothing Except tiles, where eggs are laid by gentle doves.’ Part of Juvenal Satire 3 In this poem, the speaker, Umbricius, is lamenting the problems of living in the big city. At this time, Rome was a city of possibly over one million inhabitants, and in contrast to CGI depictions in Hollywood films, the majority of the population were living in borderline slum conditions. Umbricius is leaving Rome for the countryside, and the poem summarises his complaints about life in the city. In this extract, he lists some of the issues with his rented apartment in a tenement block. The building is in a bad state of repair, with holes in the walls patched up. There is a risk of fire, and if there is a fire, those higher up are not likely to be aware of it, and more likely to burn. This source reinforces the picture from other sources such as Martial about the problems with accommodation for the non-‐elite, and it confirms the archaeological evidence for apartment buildings, which might stand up to eight storeys high. 22
Year 2 Semester 1 (15 credits) HIST 2215 – The Age of Discovery? c.1350-‐c.1650 (Dr Craig Lambert) Module Overview The Age of Discovery explores the maritime expansion of Europe from c.1350-‐c.1650 through the experiences of four European states: Portugal; Spain; England and the Netherlands. It therefore covers the transition of these states from medieval polities to Renaissance powers. The history of the Age of Discovery is a story of two halves. The first part (c.1350-‐c.1580) is told through the endeavours of the Portuguese and the Spanish. Here we encounter famous names such as Henry the Navigator and Christopher Columbus. This first phase saw the rapid enrichment of Spain and the end of great civilisations such as the Aztecs and Incas. The second phase (c.1580-‐c.1650) witnessed the growth of England and the Netherlands as maritime powers. England focused on North America and the Indian Ocean; the former as an area of colonisation and the latter as a place to trade. The Dutch initially concentrated on the Indian Ocean and in doing so competed with the Portuguese and the English in this area. Indicative List of Seminar Topics 23 • The Medieval ‘Inheritance’ and the reasons for European Expansion • The Tools of Expansion: Ships, Navigation and Maps • The Spanish conquest and settlement of South America • The Impact of the Age of Discovery
Assessment: Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark Essay (2000 words) 50 Exam (2 hours) 50 Sample Source: In the year of Our Lord 1554 the 11th day of October, we departed the River Thames with three goodly ships, the one called the Trinity, the other called the Bartholomew, the third was the John Evangelist. On the fourth day of September, we arrived south of the Cape of de Tres Puntas. The crew told me they would to a place where the Primrose had received much gold in the first voyage. They brought from thence at the last voyage four hundred pound weight and odd of gold, two and twenty-‐three carats and one grain in fineness: also six and thirty butts of grains, and about two hundred and fifty elephants’ teeth of all quantities. Touching the manners and nature of the people, albeit they go in manner all naked, yet are many of them and especially their women, laden with collars, bracelets, hoops and chains, either of gold, copper or ivory. They are very wary people in their bargaining, and will not lose one spark of gold of any value and they use weights and measures. They that shall have to do with them, must use them gently: for they will not traffic or bring in any wares if there be evil used. There died of our men at this last voyage about twenty and four. They brought with them black slaves. The cold air doth somewhat offend them. Yet men that are born in hot regions may better abide cold then men that are born in cold regions may abide heat. An English Voyage to Guinea by John Lok, 1554: in R. Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations, Voyages and Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation (London, 1972), pp. 66-‐68. The extract above reveals the types of goods the English hoped to find in West Africa: gold, ivory and slaves. It also provides an insight into how the English viewed the native peoples of the area. It shows these voyages were lengthy, in this case over a year (from October 1554 to at least September 1555). There is respect for their methods of trade and their use of weights and measures shows a sophisticated commercial system. Finally, it shows the high mortality rates for the sailors and a hint of the terrible fate that awaited the indigenous peoples they brought back from Ghana. 24
Year 2 Semester 1 (15 credits) HIST 2219 – Ritual Murder: The Antisemitic Blood Libel from Twelfth-‐Century England to Twentieth-‐Century Russia (Dr Francois Soyer) Module Overview The notion that Jews kidnapped and ritually murdered Christian children (and sometimes adults too) in order to parody the Crucifixion and perform acts of black magic necessary to their “Talmudic” faith is considered to represent the apex of the demonization of the Jews in Antisemitic propaganda in the West. Since the twelfth century, this horrendous myth has reappeared in century after century and it continues to be held as true by some Neo-‐Nazis in the West as well as Islamic extremists in the Middle East. Starting with the appearance of the first known case in twelfth-‐century England, this module examines various (in)famous cases of the Blood Libel accusation in Italy (Saint Simon of Trent, 1275), Spain (the Holy Child of La Guardia, 1490), Syria (Damascus 1840) and Eastern Europe (notably the Austro-‐Hungarian Empire and Russia) as well as variations on the theme (the host desecration libel and the myth of medical murder by Jewish doctors). The module asks students to consider the origins of the myth, why it has been so seemingly popular, why it has endured and, finally, what it tells us about the uses of conspiracy theories by social and religious elites. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • From “witness people” to “talmudists”: the demonization of the Jews in the central Middle Ages. 25
• The alleged murders of Saint William of Norwich and Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln in medieval England. • The case of the Holy Child of La Guardia in inquisitorial Spain in 1489-‐1491. • Variations on the Blood Libel?: the host desecration and medical murder libels. • The dissemination of the legend in Early Modern Germany. • The infamous 1840 Damascus Libel. • The 1913 Beilis affair in tsarist Russia. • The Blood Libel after 1918: the myth that won’t die. Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark Essay (2000 words) 50 Exam (2 hours) 50 Sample Source “And most falsely do these Christians claim that the Jews have secretly and furtively carried away these children and killed them, and that the Jews offer sacrifice from the heart and blood of these children, since their law in this matter precisely and expressly forbids Jews to sacrifice, eat, or drink the blood, or to eat the flesh of animals having claws. This has been demonstrated many times at our court by Jews converted to the Christian faith: nevertheless very many Jews are often seized and detained unjustly because of this. We decree, therefore, that Christians need not be obeyed against Jews in a case or situation of this type, and we order that Jews seized under such a silly pretext be freed from imprisonment, and that they shall not be arrested henceforth on such a miserable pretext, unless-‐which we do not believe-‐they be caught in the commission of the crime. We decree that no Christian shall stir up anything new against them, but that they should be maintained in that status and position in which they were in the time of our predecessors, from antiquity till now.” Pope Gregory X (1271 -‐1276) on the Blood Libel. This source demonstrates the complex history of the Blood Libel. Dismissed and condemned by the medieval Papacy and many secular authorities, it nonetheless survived and prospered, spreading into Central and Eastern Europe in the modern period. It even became a theme in Nazi propaganda and was not explicitly condemned by the Papacy in the nineteenth century. Clearly, it would seem that specific circumstances played a major role in later incidences of the accusation and that we should be wary of treating its history as one of linear progression even though there is a clear narrative strand connecting the earliest cases in the medieval period to more modern ones. 26
Year 2 Semester 1 (15 credits) HIST2100 -‐ Retail Therapy: A Journey Through the Cultural History of Shopping (Dr Eleanor Quince) Module Overview We are all, in one way or another, participants in the consumer society. Whether we buy for necessity -‐ life essentials such as food -‐ or view it as an enjoyable leisure activity, our purchase of goods is part of a wider cultural movement pushing us to ‘shop’. But how did we get to this point? Historically, what is it that has made us want to buy? This module explores how shopping, as we understand it today, evolved. Considering shopping at different points in Britain's history -‐ the market places and specialist shops of the eighteenth century, the High Streets and warehouses of the nineteenth century, the department stores and malls of the twentieth century -‐ we will examine the birth of the modern consumer society and within it, the roles played by manufacturer, seller, advertiser and shopper. 27
Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Exotic imports: new goods and desirability in eighteenth century London • The birth of advertising: Josiah Wedgewood and the Portland Vase • Specialist sellers: the evolution of the High Street • Buy 'em low, sell 'em high: warehouse shopping in the nineteenth century • A different world: Charles Digby Harrod and the creation of the Department Store • Mass manufacture: Henry and his Model T-‐Ford • Chain Stores and the middle classes: Marks & Spencer, Debenhams and John Lewis • Out of town: moving to shopping centres and malls • Markedly different: Liberty, Habitat and brand creation • ‘I bought it on eBay’: the internet shopping revolution Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark Commentaries exercise (1500 words) 50 Essay (2500 words) 50 Sample Source See images above: Left, The Portland Vase, from Rome, Italy, cameo-‐glass vessel, c. AD 5 – 25, British Museum Right, The Portland Vase, Staffordshire, ‘first edition’ Jasperware, c. 1790, V&A Museum The original Portland Vase was bought from the Cardinal del Monte by the Barberini family with whom it remained for 150 years. In 1778, it was purchased by Sir William Hamilton, British Ambassador at the Court of Naples. He brought it to England and sold it to Margaret, dowager Duchess of Portland, in 1784. In 1786 her son, the third Duke of Portland, lent it to Josiah Wedgwood. Wedgewood was an entrepreneurial Staffordshire potter who spied a business opportunity: to create a perfect copy of the vase which could be mass-‐produced and sold with the venerable name of ‘Portland’ attached. Wedgewood’s copy of the Portland Vase was created in Jasperware, a technical innovation developed especially for the production. It is a fine-‐grained stoneware which could be stained a range of colours as a background for applied white reliefs. Wedgewood’s Portland Vase represents the birth of modern linked advertising: the enticement to own something also owned a famous individual. It blurs the lines between the ‘fake’ and the ‘real’, with first edition Jasperware vases being displayed ‘for viewing’ in 1790 as if they were the real thing. 28
Year 2 Semester 1 (15 credits) HIST2102 -‐ Discipline and Punish: Prisons and Prisoners in England 1775-‐1898 (Dr Julie Gammon) Module Overview ‘Prisons don’t work’ exclaimed author Will Self to the BBC in 2011 reflecting significant public concerns regarding issues such as cost, reoffending and overcrowding through to the perception of ‘gilded lifestyles’ led by inmates. In this module we will explore the period of English history in which the modern prison system emerged and consider the reasons behind this development. Set against a background of social tensions, rising crime rates and dissatisfaction with the alternative punishments such as execution and transportation we will begin our study in the late eighteenth century when the concept of the prison as a form of punishment was a new one in England. We will look at the work of contemporaries who identified the need to develop the role of the prison as a site of both discipline and reformation for criminals and how their influence led to the penitentiary emerging through the nineteenth century as the primary mode of punishment. We will question the motivations behind the emergence of the prison: was this driven by humanitarianism and an emphasis on the ability to reform or was the incarceration of criminals a form of social control? The spate of prison building and rebuilding across the nineteenth century saw the establishment of over 90 new establishments and we will be researching the planning and organisation of these structures with case studies such as Millbank and Pentonville (London), Bristol and Reading. From surveys of individual institutions we can uncover the regimes that were in place and how the makeup of prison populations related to social problems. We will explore the tensions that existed between prisoners, prison authorities and the government across the nineteenth century and how these ultimately led to the Prisons Act in 1898 taking all prisons out of private ownership and into central government’s control. You will have the opportunity to research one prison of your choice in detail as the basis for your essay and to consider how it evolved in light of the wider debates and reforms across our period. Alongside the wider context of prison reforms we will undertake a close examination of the treatment of particular groups of criminals and the experiences of individual criminals. In particular debates surrounding the establishment of specific institutions to house these ‘minority’ groups (e.g., Holloway, Parkhurst and Broadmoor) will be considered. We will then move to consider the experiences of the prisoners themselves through their surviving memoirs, letters and biographies and by the use of literature (e.g., Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (1860)). The module asks you to reflect critically on debates surrounding the intentions of modern forms of punishment by examining their historical roots. We will demonstrate how current debates surrounding the ‘effectiveness’ or ‘success’ of imprisonment are necessarily coloured by the motives of reformers across the long nineteenth century in England. 29
Indicative List of Seminar Topics • The cruel and corrupt early modern prison? • A need for reform: John Howard and the State of the Prisons (1775) • From Prisons to Penitentiaries • Labour and Surveillance: Bentham’s Panopticon • Experiments in Architecture and planning: Millbank and Pentonville • The ‘separate system’ of discipline • Illness and insanity in prisons • Punishing the ‘fairer sex’: Women prisoners and prisons • The problem of juvenile offenders: delinquency and the Parkhurst experiment • The experience of the prisoner: memoirs • Prisons in literature • The Victorian legacy and the modern institution Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark Case study of the reform of a prison using primary sources (2000 50 words) Exam (2 hours) 50 Sample Source J. Bentham, The Panopticon (1791) In the late eighteenth century, Jeremy Bentham, the utilitarian philosopher, devised a model for a radical new style penitentiary based upon the principle of surveillance. His prison design meant that inmates believed their behaviour was being observed at all times and that in turn, this fear of being watched would result in them conforming and being orderly. Although his model prison was never built, Bentham’s ideas were adapted by later architects as debates raged regarding the changing function of the prison from a place of confinement, to one of punishment and potentially of reform, to meet the needs of a newly industrialising British society. Bentham’s visual and written plans illuminate for us the changing attitudes towards punishment of criminals at this time but also highlight the diversity of opinions that existed. 30
Year 2 Semester 1 (15 credits) HIST 2218 – Sex, Death and Money: the United Kingdom in the 1960s (Dr Charlotte Riley) Module Overview The 1960s were a time of rapid social, political and cultural change in Britain. The decade saw Britain – and especially London – finally steal the crown of cool from the United States. British pop culture exploded and was exported around the world. With National Service abolished in 1960, the first teenagers free from conscription drove this rapid social change: whether by turning on, tuning in or dropping out. Social reforms led by the pioneering Home Secretary Roy Jenkins made British society more tolerant, diverse and modern. The 1950s, a drab and grey decade still struggling to rebuild after the Second World War, had been replaced by the brilliant technicolour of the “swinging sixties”. But the history of the 1960s in Britain isn’t all tie-‐dye, mini-‐skirts and mop-‐topped pop stars. Many people were deeply uncomfortable with the rapid social change that they felt was being imposed upon them. Although many individuals experienced the decade as one of comfortable prosperity, this masked a decline in the relative competitiveness of the British economy against its European rivals. Strikes were increasingly common as workers tried to fight for better conditions. The end of the British empire led to anxiety about Britain’s place in the world, and increasing levels of immigration led to a rise in racist politics and bitterly divided communities. Women enjoyed more freedoms than before, but still felt ignored and oppressed by male-‐dominated politics and society. In Northern Ireland, the divided sectarian politics erupted into the Troubles by the end of the decade. And British young people were anxious about the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and their future in a turbulent and uncertain world. This course explores some of the themes, tensions and contradictions in the history of Britain in the 1960s. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • The ‘Swinging sixties’: Representing a Decade 31 • Pop: the Beatles, the Stones, the mini-‐skirt and the Mini
• Politics: Labour and the Tories in the 1960s % Contribution to Final Mark • Sex: Social Reforms or Social Revolution? 50 • Race: Immigration, Multiculturalism and Racism 50 • War: British Foreign Policy in the 1960s • Troubles: Northern Ireland’s place in British history Assessment Assessment Method Essay (2000 words) Exam (2 hours) Sample Source This photograph shows a British man of African-‐Caribbean heritage walking past a piece of graffiti proclaiming ‘Powell for PM’. It was published in the Evening Standard newspaper on 1 May, 1968. Enoch Powell was a Conservative politician who represented a constituency in Wolverhampton. On 20 April 1968, Powell made the ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech, in which he criticised the Labour government’s Race Relations Bill, which was to have its second reading in the House of Commons the next week. Powell was opposed to immigration by people of colour from the Commonwealth; in the speech, which was heavy with racist imagery, he juxtaposed ‘decent, ordinary’ (white) English people with migrants from overseas and used language which depicted an unrestricted influx of migrants, despite the limitations imposed by the 1962 Immigration Act. Powell was sacked from his position as Shadow Defence Secretary and Edward Heath, the Conservative leader, described the speech as ‘inflammatory and liable to damage race relations’. Despite official condemnation of the speech, a Gallup poll found that 74 per cent of British people agreed with Powell; in the aftermath of the speech, there was a marked rise in racist attacks, dockers and meat porters went on strike, and Powell claimed to have received over 40,000 letters supporting his position. The image above shows how the end of the British empire opened up new questions around race, and forces us to think about divisions and fractures in British society in this period. 32
Year 2 Semester 1 (15 credits) HIST2073 – Jews in Germany before the Holocaust (Dr Shirli Gilbert) Module Overview This module explores the life and culture of Jews in Germany from the late C18th until the eve of the Nazi takeover in 1933. Using a core set of primary sources as our foundation, we will trace Jewish life from the struggle for emancipation through to the cultural, social, and political transformations of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The history of Jews in Germany is a crucial background to understanding the Holocaust, from the perspective of both its origins and the responses of its victims. 33 Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Did Jews consider themselves primarily Jewish or German? • How were Jews perceived by others? • What was their relationship with non-‐Jewish Germans, as individuals and communities?
Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark Commentaries exercise (1500 words) 50 Essay (2000 words) 50 Sample Source ‘What bound me to Jewry was (I am ashamed to admit) neither faith nor national pride, for I have always been an unbeliever and was brought up without any religion though not without a respect for what are called the “ethical” standards of human civilization. […] But plenty of other things remained to make the attraction of Jewry and Jews irresistible […]. There was a perception that it was to my Jewish nature alone that I owed two characteristics that had become indispensable to me in the difficult course of my life. Because I was a Jew I found myself free from many prejudices which restricted others in the use of their intellect; and as a Jew I was prepared to join the Opposition and to do without agreement with the “compact majority”.’ Sigmund Freud, Address to the Society of Bnai Brith, 6 May 1926 The legal emancipation of the Jews, which advanced unevenly across Europe during the nineteenth century, brought with it new challenges of self-‐identity. Was Jewishness a religious, social, or cultural identity? In this extract, Sigmund Freud – renowned German-‐Jewish intellectual and the founder of psychoanalysis – expresses a powerful and yet emphatically secular Jewish identity. His address reveals the complex and multi-‐layered nature of German-‐Jewish identity in the early twentieth century, and raises many questions about the position of German Jews on the eve of the Holocaust. 34
Year 2 Semester 1 (15 credits) HIST2110 – The Global Cold War (Dr Jonathan Hunt) Module overview This is a module on the relationship between the “West” and the “Rest” from the end of the Second World War to Soviet Union’s collapse. Rather than focus on the nuclear confrontation between the superpower blocs, this module will reconnoiter their rivalry in the “Third World.” We will examine a host of historical episodes and then delve into them using novels, films, data, primary sources and historical literature, illuminating along the way the American and European encounter with Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East since 1945. The course will engage debates over the natures of, and overlaps between, imperialism, decolonization, neo-‐colonialism and global governance. The overarching question is whether, from the Atlantic charter to the 1991 Gulf War, the world moved toward equity, justice and homogeneity, or if instead the fault lines dividing humanity merely shifted locations. Odd Arne Westad has argued that the cold war sowed the seeds for political instability and social inequality throughout the poorer regions of the Earth, the bitter fruits of which the international community continues to reap. Others note that the percentage of the world’s population living in poverty plummeted from 72 per cent in 1950 to 51 per cent in 1992, to just 10 per cent in 2015, with 680 million people escaping poverty since 1981 in China alone. Students will learn about the historical actors and tectonic forces that altered the shape of human events during the Cold War and develop in the process opinions about the origins of the contemporary world. Indicative list of seminar topics • Theories of imperialism and neo-‐colonialism 35 • Self-‐determination and national sovereignty • Global governance, human rights and humanitarianism • Decolonization and postcolonialism in Africa, the Middle East and Asia • Cold war proxy wars in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East • Modernization, social democracy and development
• Financial and economic globalization • The rise of China Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark Essay (4000 words) 50 Exam (2 hours) 50 Sample source ‘All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. ... All the peoples on the earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live and be happy and free. ... Today we are determined to oppose the wicked schemes of the French imperialists, and we call upon the victorious Allies to recognize our freedom and independence.’ Ho Chi Minh (1945), quoted in Fredrik Logevall, Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam Although Ho Chi Minh and his followers would wage an almost decade-‐long struggle against the United States, at first they turned to the United States as a model for how to liberate and build a nation-‐state. In this speech, Ho invokes Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence almost verbatim for two reasons. First, he seems to be more interested in liberal arguments against colonialism than in those of Marx; in fact, he had travelled to Paris in 1919 in hopes of meeting Woodrow Wilson, whose advocacy on behalf of popular sovereignty and self-‐determination helped redraw the world map after the First World War. These two events indicate that Ho was first and foremost a Vietnamese nationalist and only secondarily, perhaps pragmatically, a communist. Second, his speech in Hanoi had more than a domestic audience. Although he was speaking to fellow Vietnamese, who fought and expelled the Japanese after metropolitan France and its colonial government in Indochina capitulated, he and his lieutenant, Vo Nguyen Giap, appealed to the United States and China (not yet communist) to back them in their nationalist struggle against the French. Sadly, for both Vietnam and the United States, this opportunity was not seized. Ho’s speech illustrates nonetheless the widespread appeal of American anticolonialism and liberalism after the Second World War. 36
Year 2 Semester 1 (15 credits) HIST2XXX – Modern Germany 1870-‐1945 (Dr Falko Schnicke) © Bildarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz; Original: Friedrichsruh, Bismarck-‐Museum. Module Overview This module is about Germany’s path into modernity and surveys German history from the Kaiserreich to World War II. We will engage this critical phase of social, political and economic transformation with a variety of topics, including nationalism, industrialization, changing gender roles, cultural dimensions, bourgeois values, ideas of society, antisemitism, genocide and war. In this course, we will explore why and how political regimes changed and what this meant to the German people. Since the module seeks to cultivate historical thinking as well as conceptional understanding, special attention will be given to research concepts and problems. We will ask, e.g., why there are different interpretations of how the Great War started, why gender and body history is a useful category for historical research, or how revealing the currently discussed concept of the Volksgemeinschaft (national community) is. Moreover, primary sources will play a major role to familiarize students with the time we are studying. Next to textual sources such as private letters, newspaper articles or laws, we will inquire pictorial material such as oil paintings or political posters. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • The German Empire: Foundational Myths and Nationalism 37 • Militarism, Gender and Bourgeois Values • Industrialization: Leading Sectors and Regional Developments
• Sleepwalkers? Germany and the Great War in Europe • Defeat, Revolution and Versailles • Weimar Germany: Culture and Conflicts • Crisis! Why did Weimar Fail? • The NS-‐State and the Volksgemeinschaft • Antisemitism and Military Masculinities • Second World War and Holocaust Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark Essay (2000 words) 50 Exam (2 hours) 50 Sample Source: Anton von Werner: The Proclamation of the German Empire (1885), the image above. In 1871, the German Empire was founded. The founding ceremony took place in the Hall of Mirrors at the palace of Versailles. Anton von Werner has captured this scene in this version of his painting The Proclamation of the German Empire. Yet, like all works of art this picture is an interpretation of history and Werner took many liberties with regard to historical facts. The painting was commissioned by the Prussian royal family in February 1885 as a present for Bismarck’s upcoming 70th birthday. Bismarck is shown in his white Cuirassier uniform (which he did not actually wear during the short ceremony in 1871), in thigh-‐high Cuirassier boots and an authoritative stance. The Pour le mérite medal, which had only been awarded to Bismarck in 1884, appears on his uniform. Thus, its value as a “snapshot” of an event fourteen years earlier was necessarily diminished. It is important to remember, however, that this version of Werner’s Proclamation responded as much to the desires of individual patrons as to the notion of historical truth. Positioned in the centre stage and highlighted by his bright clothing, it is Reich Chancellor Bismarck not the Emperor who appears to be the main figure of the event. The picture therefore is an example of how history was staged with political aims. By 1885 the unostentatious and rather hurried proclamation should have been transformed into a much more vibrant and symbolically rich portrayal of the empire’s founding – and its “founder” Bismarck. [This text is an adapted version of the following interpretation: http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-‐dc.org/sub_image.cfm?image_id=1403]. 38
Year 2 Semester 1 (15credits) ARCH2017 -‐ Maritime Archaeology (Prof Jon Adams) ! Excavation of the Axe Boat, Axmouth, Devon Module overview Maritime archaeology represents one of the most dynamic and rapidly developing areas within the broader discipline. Humanity’s changing use and interaction with the world’s oceans and seas has fundamentally shaped the nature of society; from Pleistocene and Holocene colonization of the globe through to modern commercial activity and warfare. Understanding the place of maritime aspects of culture within different archaeological eras offers new insights into the past, as well as helping us to better appreciate the nature of our relationship with the sea today. In this module you will find out about the development of the discipline, current priorities and future directions for research. This will see us examine everything from the dramatic changes in the world’s oceans and seas through the deep time record that archaeology represents, to the development of seafaring technologies. All of this will be presented within the real world context within which research takes place, acknowledging not only the contribution of university based excavations but also the large amount of work undertaken as part of modern commercial activity. As such, this is not just an esoteric module working at the edge of archaeological practice but one which will help you better understand the central role maritime archaeology has in some of the largest engineering projects taking place on the planet today. Indicative list of lecture/seminar topics • What is Maritime Archaeology? 39 • Understanding the marine environment • Marine survey techniques (Geophysics and Geotechnical) • Technological developments • Submerged Prehistory • Waterfront Archaeology
Assessment Assessment method % Contribution to Final Mark 50 Essay (2000 words) 50 TBC Sample source Maritime archaeology is the ultimate multidiscipline, drawing heavily on history, archaeology as well as ocean and earth science. Here is a sample Historical source: The Mary Rose as depicted in the Anthony Roll (http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/henryviii/militmap/antroll/) 40
Year 2 Semester 1 (15 credits) HUMA2008 -‐ The Life and Afterlife of Vikings (Dr Alison Gascoigne) Module Overview Blood, violence, terror, raids, pirates, rape and pillage are just some of the words associated with the Vikings in both the medieval and modern imagination. Their fearsome reputation is underlined by nicknames such as ‘Blood Axe’ and ‘Skull-‐splitter’, but violence is only one part of Viking history. The Vikings also formed extensive trade networks across Europe and into Central Asia, founded new countries, developed new technologies, created beautiful and useful objects and left behind a literary tradition that influenced European culture for many centuries, and indeed continues to do so. In this module, by studying historical, archaeological and literary sources, you will examine both the reality of Viking society and how Viking identity was perceived over the course of the middle ages. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • The historicity of the saga tradition • The nature of Viking-‐era society • Viking warrior culture • Viking ships and seafaring • Viking migration and settlement, trade and exchange • Religious belief and Christianisation • The reception of the Vikings in medieval and modern times Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 3 x 700-‐word source commentaries 50 Exam (2 hours) 50 41
Sample Source This module is specifically interdisciplinary, so students will encounter diverse sources such as the following: Historical: ‘That folk [the Swedes] has a very famous temple called Uppsala, situated not far from the city of Sigtuna and Björkö. In this temple, entirely decked out in gold, the people worship the statues of three gods in such wise that the mightiest of them, Thor, occupies a throne in the middle of the chamber; Wotan and Frikko have places on either side. […] It is customary also to solemnize in Uppsala, at nine-‐year intervals, a general feast of all the provinces of Sweden. […] The sacrifice is of this nature: of every living thing that is male, they offer nine heads, with the blood of which it is customary to placate gods of this sort. The bodies they hang in the sacred grove that adjoins the temple.’ Abam of Bremen, History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-‐Bremen (A.A. Somerville and R.A. McDonald, The Viking Age: A Reader 2014, p. 65-‐66) Literary: ‘There he [Thorolf Mostrarskegg] had a temple built. It was a large structure with a door on one of the side walls close to the end of the building. Inside, in front of the door, stood the high-‐seat pillars, studded with nails called god’s nails. Beyond the pillars the whole interior was a sanctuary and at the inner end there was an area resembling what we call a choir in churches nowadays. In the middle of the floor stood an altar-‐like structure, and on it lay a ring weighing twenty ounces, which had been formed without a joint. All oaths were sworn on it, and the temple priest had to wear it on his arm at every public meeting. A bowl for sacrificial blood always stood on the altar, and in the bowl lay a twig for sprinkling hlaut, which is the blood of living creatures sacrificed to the gods. The gods were arranged around the altar in the innermost, or choir-‐like, part of the temple.’ Saga of the People of Eyri (Eyrbyggja saga) (A.A. Somerville and R.A. McDonald, The Viking Age: A Reader 2014, p. 67) Archaeological: Plan of an Iron-‐age to Viking-‐era temple at the site of Uppåkra, Sweden, at which ritual depositis of gold-‐foil figures, ‘sacrified’ weapons and bones and other distinctive objects were excavated (L.Larsson, ‘The Iron Age ritual building at Uppåkra, southern Sweden’, Antiquity 81, 11-‐25, fig. 3) Taken together, these extracts provide complementary evidence about the form of Viking-‐age ritual structures, and the nature of activities that took place there. Some activities (e.g. the sprinkling of blood as recounted in the saga text) leave no archaeological trace. Excavations do, however, bring to light important aspects of ritual not reported in texts, such as the ‘killing’ of weaponry, and the landscape setting of such structures. These diverse sources present different perspectives on Viking cult, including those of foreign observers, Scandinavians, and saga-‐tellers from later, Christian, times, integrating these accounts with modern data from techniques of historical and scientific archaeology. 42
Year 2 Semester 1 (15 credits) GERM2006 -‐ Vienna and Berlin: Society, Politics and Culture, 1890 to the Present (Prof. Andrea Reiter) Vienna Opera Module Overview The module will be divided into two parts -‐ “Cityscapes” and “The shadow of the past” -‐ which roughly correspond historically to the early years of the 20th century and the later post-‐war era. Under each of these sub-‐headings specific issues relating to society, politics and culture in Vienna and Berlin will be discussed in two to three sessions each. The first half of the module will draw your attention to the impact of the changing social and political situation on the cultural scene, while the second will focus on the effects Nazi Germany and the Holocaust had on society, politics and culture in Austria and Germany after 1945. Issues to be explored will include gender and ethnicity; assimilation and marginalisation of the Jews in the 20th century; memory and commemoration. The primary sources will include a variety of literary and historical texts as well as some films and architectural artefacts such as museums and monuments. All texts will be available in both English and German either electronically or as printed copies. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Vienna and Berlin at the turn of the century 43 • Jews in Vienna; Viennese Modernism • Sexuality and Inner Life • The Coffee House and the Feuilleton • Weimar Berlin
• Holocaust Memorialisation in Berlin and in Vienna % Contribution to Final Mark • Berlin as a Divided City • Social Memory and the ‘New’ Jews in Vienna. Assessment Assessment Method Critical Text Review (1000 words) 30 Group Presentation 20 Essay (2500 words) 50 Sample Source ‘The Café Central lies on the Viennese latitude at the meridian of loneliness. Its inhabitants are, for the most part, people whose hatred of their fellow human beings is as fierce as their longing for people, who want to be alone but need companionship for it. Their inner world requires a layer of the outer world as delimiting material; their quivering solo voices cannot do without the support of the chorus. They are unclear natures, rather lost without the certainties, which the feeling gives that they are a little part of a whole (to whose tone and colour they contribute). […] The Cafe Central thus represents something of an organization of the disorganized. In this hallowed space, each halfway indeterminate individual is credited with a personality. So long as he remains within the boundaries of the coffeehouse, he can cover all his moral expenses with this credit. And any one of them who shows disdain for others' money is granted the anti-‐bourgeois crown.’ “Theorie des 'Cafe Central’” (1926). Original text in Alfred Polgar, Kleine Schriften, 4:254-‐59. This extract offers a humorous if highly idiosyncratic view of one of the fin-‐de-‐siècle’s most iconic institutions, the Viennese coffee house. The coffee house not only supported the way of life of an emerging intellectual elite but it has also been hailed by Jürgen Habermas (1967) as the cradle of the public sphere. As such it contributed centrally to the shaping of urban life and its impact on the individual. The coffee house is also closely associated with the assimilation of Vienna’s and Berlin’s Jewish population as well as with the development of the printed press into a mass media. 44
Year 2 Semester 1 (30 credits) HIST2039 -‐ Imperialism and Nationalism in British India (Professor Ian Talbot) Module Overview How did less than two thousand British officials rule an Indian population of three hundred million? Why did the words gymkhana, bungalow and shampoo enter the English language? What was the significance of the British constructing clock towers in numerous Indian towns and cities? How did the diminutive and scantily clad figure of Gandhi emerge as an international symbol of resistance to the trappings and power of the British Raj? Why did the British divide the Subcontinent when they left in August 1947? This module aims to explore such questions as these in the last century or so of the British ruling presence in India. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • 1857 in Indian History • British Social Life in India • The Emergence of Indian nationalism • The 1919 Jallianwala Bagh Massacre • Stones of Empire: Architecture of the Raj • Gandhi and Indian nationalism • Overseas Indians and Nationalist Struggle • The Muslim League’s Rise to Power 45
• The British Departure from India Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark Essay (2000 words) 25 Essay (2000 words) 25 Exam (2 hours) 50 Sample Source ‘As long as we rule India, we are the greatest power in the world. If we lose it we shall drop straight away to a third rate power.’ Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India 1901 Curzon’s prophetic words were uttered when British power in India had entered its zenith. They reflect the wider significance of the Raj for British self-‐identity, economic and strategic interests. Even during Curzon’s Viceroyalty, there were signs that Indian opposition was taking on a new and more popular form. India’s post World War One diminishing economic value to Britain and the mass mobilizations aroused by Mahatama Gandhi paved the way for independence at an earlier date than any in Curzon’s generation could have contemplated 46
Year 2 Semester 1 (30 credits) HIST2051 – The British Atlantic World (Dr Christer Petley) Module Overview This module focuses on the period between about 1600 and 1800, allowing you to explore the development of the British Empire in the Americas from the founding of Jamestown in 1607 up until the American Revolution and its aftermath. The module takes a broad look at the British colonies in the Americas from Barbados in the south to Newfoundland in the north, examining the development of these colonies and the Atlantic system of which they were part. Indicative List of Seminar Topics § Inheritance, experience and the character of colonial British America § Atlantic connections § Native Americans and Europeans § Cultural continuity and change § Africans, Europeans and colonial slavery § The American Revolution Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark Essay (2000 words) 25 Essay (2000 words) 25 47
Exam (2 hours) 50 Sample Source Eighteenth-‐century American woodcut ‘Join or Die’! This is propaganda. The snake represents British-‐American colonies during the eighteenth century: (from left to right) South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and New England. The message is clear: if those places work together, they could be dangerous—with venomous bite; if they allow themselves to be divided, it is mutually assured death. The woodcut first appeared during the Seven Years War, while the colonies fought—as parts of the British Empire—against the French. But it was put to use again a few years later, when the American colonies rebelled against Britain in the American Revolution. Congress declared American Independence from Britain in 1776, and those responsible became—at least in British eyes—guilty of treason. Benjamin Franklin is reputed to have commented to his fellow Congressmen, ‘we must all hang together, or assuredly we shall each hang separately’, echoing the sentiment of ‘Join, or Die’. 48
Year 2 Semester 1 (30 credits) HIST2064 – The Space Age (Professor Kendrick Oliver) Module Overview In this module, we will be exploring the causes, course and meaning of ‘the space age’ – when voyages beyond the earth’s atmosphere and onwards to other worlds first became plausible and then an accomplished fact. We will consider the following questions: When, and in what circumstances, did space exploration develop as a goal? How did spaceflight come to be adopted as an instrument and expression of state policy in the Soviet Union and the United States? Why did the United States win the race to land a man on the moon, and why was there no subsequent landing mission to Mars? What have we learnt about the solar system and the wider cosmos as a result of ‘the space age’? How did ‘the space age’ affect the way life was lived back on earth? Do we still live in a ‘space age’, or have the grand ambitions of the first rocket pioneers for the conquest of space been surrendered to terrestrial priorities? Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Early rocket theory and experimentation from Tsiolkovsky to the V-‐2 49 • The evolution of post-‐war missile programmes in the US and USSR • Spaceflight in popular culture before and after Sputnik • Sputnik and its policy consequences • First ventures in manned spaceflight: Gagarin, Shepard and Glenn • John F. Kennedy and the race to the moon • The birth of satellite communications • Space and the promise of technocracy • Unmanned lunar and planetary exploration in the 1960s and 1970s • How America won the moon race • The militarization of space? • What next? The politics of spaceflight in the late 1960s and early 1970s • Spaceflight and ‘earth consciousness’ • Utopian and dystopian visions of spaceflight • Religion and the space age • Spaceflight since the 1970s • Space exploration and modern cosmology
Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 8 minute presentation 25 Essay (3000 words) 50 1000 word editorial-‐style article 25 Sample Source ‘To see the earth as it truly is, small and blue and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders on the earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the eternal cold—brothers who know now they are truly brothers.’ Archibald MacLeish, The New York Times, December 25, 1968. The space age seemed to promise a maturation of the technologies that would eventually allow mankind to voyage to and inhabit other worlds. But what then would be the status of the Earth? According to the optimistic ‘astrofuturist’ vision, Earth was just mankind’s cradle, destined to be left behind as the species developed the means to travel beyond. But the space age also offered an alternative perspective, in the form of the Archibald MacLeish’s prose poem marking the flight of Apollo 8 and the famous ‘Earthrise’ photograph taken during that mission: of other worlds as grey and barren, space as ‘eternal cold’ and of the ‘beautiful’ Earth itself as the only possible, proper home for mankind. 50
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