• 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: % Contribution to Final Mark Assessment Method 50 50 1 x essay 1 x take home source assignment 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. 51
Semester 2, 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 52
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. 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 50 1 x essay 50 1 x exam 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. 53
Semester 2, 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 • Britain at war • The organisation of the British army • Putting the army in the field • Working with allies 54
• 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 50 1 x essay 50 1 x exam 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. 55
Semester 2, 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 56
Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 50 1 x essay 50 1 x exam 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. 57
Semester 2, 15 credits HIST2222 –Ragtime! The Making of Modern America (Dr David Cox) Module overview For the United States, the turn of the twentieth century was a turbulent, transformative time: an age of embattled political parties and insurgent Populists, mass immigration and overseas war, millionaire capitalists and impoverished farmers, all set to the ragged rhythms of African-American popular music (otherwise known as Ragtime). If this sounds familiar, it is because it is: the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries set the template for American life as we know it. The turn of the century witnessed the rebirth of a nation devastated by bloody civil war. In this module, we will look at some of the most important issues of the day, including the wars waged against guerrilla fighters in the Philippines and American Indians in the West, the fight for women’s rights and the campaign for prohibition, the rise of populist politics, the growth of mass consumerism, the segregation and disenfranchisement of African Americans in the South, and the emergence of black ghettoes in the North. Proceeding thematically, rather than chronologically, the module looks at the period 1877 to 1920 from a number of different angles, considering the ways in which ideas of class, gender, and race helped to shape the rebuilding of the United States. Throughout, we will examine the impact of this process of national reconstruction upon American life and thought. Americans were troubled and excited in equal measure as small towns, Victorian values, and comforting familiarity gave way to big cities, political radicalism, and the fevered squall of the jazz trumpet. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • The original Populist movement and the challenge to traditional authority • The first US ‘empire’: the Cuban-American and Philippine-American wars and the question of territorial expansion 58
• Women’s rights: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and the fight for suffrage • The Indian Wars and life on the Reservations • Black life in the United States: Jim Crow and the origins of the Great Migration Assessment Method % contribution to final mark Assessment Method 50 50 1 x essay 1 x exam Sample source This is an antifeminist broadside produced by the Southern Women’s League for the Rejection of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. Susan B. Anthony was a leading figure within the women’s rights movement. The message here is that votes for women will lead to the destruction of the American household. During the nineteenth century, most Americans would have subscribed to the ideology of ‘separate spheres’ for men and women, with the former taking part in public life and the latter confined to the home. Here, the bedraggled-looking (literally ‘henpecked’) cockerel has been left to care for the family, a victim of ‘Organised Female Nagging.’ In 1920, despite such arguments, women were given the vote in the United States. 59
Semester 2, 15 credits HIST2227 – Science on the Street: Science, Technology, Medicine, and the Urban Environment in Modern European Cities (Dr Katalin Straner) Module Overview The focus of this module is on urban and scientific development in modern European cities from the end of the 18th century to World War I. Focusing on cities such as London, Paris, Berlin, Barcelona, Vienna and Moscow, we will explore how modern science, technology and medicine have been used to shape and understand of the city. We will look at the role of sites such as the natural history museum, the zoological and botanical garden, the university, the hospital, the scientific laboratory and observatory, in the development of urban space, and the role they played in the emergence of metropolitan society. How did science, technology, and medicine shape urban life and the urban environment? What was the role of city spaces and institutions in spreading scientific knowledge and medical expertise? How did the public learn about scientific development, medical discoveries, and technological advances? What was the role of the urban press in spreading information and creating controversies around evolutionary theory, race and eugenics, new means of transportation, hygiene, or public health? Engaging with these questions will lead us into a broader examination of the history of urban and scientific culture of the long 19th century and the conditions associated with modernity and urban life. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Science and the city: an introduction • Scientific institutions: putting science in its place 60
• Collecting and exhibiting science: the natural history museum • Science and zoos in the 19th century • Electricity and explosions: science as urban spectacle and controversy • Science, scandal and satire: science in the urban press and popular culture • Engineering the city: useful and applied science • Walking in the city? Public transportation and urban life • Urban hygiene and public health • Green cities: urban environments and commons Assessment % Contribution to Final Mark 50 Assessment Method 50 1 x essay 1 x project (Travel Guide) Sample Source Obaysch, London Zoo's first hippopotamus, 1852. Photograph by Juan, Count of Montizón This is a photograph of a human crowd observing Obaysch, the London Zoo’s first hippopotamus in 1852. The 19th century saw the advent of the modern zoological garden, where people could come and visit exotic animals “next door”; consequently, many of these animals became “celebrities” who were featured in the urban press and had a devoted following. Zoos, however, were not only a site of entertainment, but also a site of scientific investigation and a place where the public could be educated through access to exotic (and not so exotic) animals. Through the study and analysis of such images we study the interaction of the scientific community and the urban public: Why and where were the first zoos established? Who visited and why? What did they observe and what were their motivations? What were the limitations of doing research on animals in public spaces such as the zoo? How did public and scientific attitudes of zoological (or botanical) gardens evolve and change? We can also use this image to discuss how zoological gardens contributed to how people thought about the relationship of cities and nature in the modern period. 61
Semester 2, 15 credits ENGL2091 From Black and White to Colour: A Screen History of Race, Gender and Sexuality in Post-war Britain (Dr James Jordan) Module Overview This module presents a history of post-war Britain through the lens of British film and television, considering how our attitudes to 'race', sexuality and British identity more generally have been defined, challenged and changed by the moving image. This will foreground the programmes and films themselves as primary sources, but require you to go beyond the image itself and to engage with the political and social developments of the period, making use of the changing cultural context, newspapers, political developments and archives. Indicative List of Seminar Topics ▪ Working with Film and Television ▪ The Politics of Representation ▪ ‘Race’ and identity in Post-war Britain ▪ Jews and Jewishness ▪ Sexuality ▪ Television Genre and Case Studies ▪ The Single Drama - A Man from the Sun (1956) and Bar Mitzvah Boy (1976) ▪ Drama Series and Serials - Boys from the Blackstuff (1982) ▪ Documentaries - The Colony (1964) and Who are the Cockneys, now? (1968) ▪ Situation Comedy - Till Death Us Do Part (1965-1975) and Friday Night Dinner (2011- 2016) ▪ Social Realism and the Docudrama - Cathy Come Home (1966) ▪ Current Affairs - Man Alive: Consenting Adults (1967) Assessment 62
Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x critical commentary 35 1 x essay 65 Sample Source http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/gay_rights/12006.shtml Britain is a country with a long history of immigration and reputation for tolerance, and yet it is also a country where one encounters intolerance and prejudice, racism and homophobia, class distinction and discrimination according to gender. To better understand how these issues are part of popular culture, this module uses post-war television programmes (and in many cases the notion of a ‘British’ Broadcasting Corporation) to explore how class, ‘race’, gender and sexuality have been represented over the past seventy years, considering how the programmes and their representations have changed, and asking you to examine how this reflects a changing society. In short this module asks you to look at how British national identity is seen and understood through film and particularly television, the medium that helped define the twentieth century. The above is a still from the first part of a special Man Alive report from 1967 in which broadcaster Jeremy James ‘interviews homosexuals about their feelings and the opinions of society towards them.’ As the BBC’s website explains, ‘the language used in the programme is often blunt and reflects the attitudes of the time’, but how are we to understand this programme in the present and amid what context? Click on the above link to view the programme and think about how it represents and understands homosexuality, in the process revealing, confirming and challenging contemporary attitudes. 63
Semester 2, 15 credits ARCH 2003 - The Power of Rome: Europe’s First Empire* (Dr Anna Collar) Modern view of Roman might (Total War: Rome II computer game, courtesy of Sega) Module Overview The Roman empire has held the imagination of successive generations. Conquest by Rome brought social, cultural and economic change to large swathes of what is now Europe, the Middle East and north Africa. Never before or after will these parts of the world enjoy centuries of stability and peace as they did under the Romans. It was a unique political institution that encompassed a mosaic of peoples, languages and cultures that was unprecedented in its richness, leaving a legacy that has profoundly shaped the course of Western civilization. Its success and longevity has fascinated many, and long after its demise it remained a model for the European and American imperialism in the nineteenth, twentieth and even twenty-first centuries. The great wealth of the archaeological evidence has produced a long tradition of scholarship, but in the last twenty years, new approaches have reawakened these debates, making the study of the Roman world one of the most dynamic fields within archaeology, with major implications for other areas of the Humanities. Post-colonial discourse, theorists of Globalization and North African dictators trying to raise their agricultural output, to name just few, have all looked back to the Roman Empire for clues. So what was the secret of the Roman empire’s success? How did it come to be and how was it maintained? (Spoiler alert: its military might was not crucial!) In this module, you will look at the causes, consequences and the changing nature of Roman imperialism and its political, social, cultural and economic foundations. You will touch upon key issues and debates in Roman archaeology and learn about major sites and artefact types from all parts of the Roman world. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Army and frontiers • Provincialization and administration of the Empire • Elite and ideology • Religion • Art and Imperial representation • Technological advances • Economic integration 64
• Cultural change and citizenship % Contribution to Final Mark • The Fall and legacy 50 50 Assessment Assessment Method 1 x essay 1 x exam Sample Sources Historical: ‘For, to accustom to rest and repose through the charms of luxury a population scattered and barbarous and therefore inclined to war, Agricola gave private encouragement and public aid to the building of temples, courts of justice and dwelling-houses, praising the energetic, and reproving the indolent. Thus an honourable rivalry took the place of compulsion.....Hence, too, a liking sprang up for our style of dress, and the \"toga\" became fashionable. Step by step they fell into the seductive vices of arcades, baths, and elegant banquets. All this in their ignorance, they called civilization [humanitas], when it was but a part of their enslavement.’ Tacitus, Agricola, 1.21 Taken together, these extracts provide complementary evidence about one of Rome’s furthest provinces, Britain. These diverse sources present different perspectives on the conquest and the Roman rule, introducing some of the key agents involved - the emperor, provincial administrator, member of the indigenous elite and the army. By integrating traditional source material with modern data from techniques of historical and scientific archaeology we can explore the perspectives of both those with means and agendas to commemorate, and those that through past centuries have remained silent. 65
Semester 2, 15 credits HUMA2018 – Landscapes of Conflict* (Timothy Sly, Dominic Barker) Scan of the wreck of HMS Black Prince from the Battle of Jutland (1916). Module Overview This module examines the history of conflict in the UK and overseas, with specific focus on battles and battlefields. In particular, it compares traditional historical narratives of individual battles on land and at sea with non-textual sources, including the physical landscapes of battlefields and the material remains that have been recovered on them. This module will be taught by means of sessions examining the primary methodological challenges connected to interdisciplinary battlefield studies. These issues are examined by means of a series of case studies analysing individual battles, including conflicts located both in the UK and abroad; this will include a small number of site visits to engage with specific ‘landscapes of conflict’. Lectures will introduce the methodological challenges and approaches, principal sources of data and the individual case studies. Seminars will allow you to engage with the challenges of understanding specific conflict events by means of guided discussion. Site visits will facilitate your experience of one or more specific battlefields, to encourage engagement with both textual and spatial aspects of the evidence available to you for past events. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • How accurately can we plot the location of battlefields? • How has the landscape of a battlefield changed from the date of the conflict to the modern day and how might this affect our understanding of the event? • How have modern survey techniques and the recovery of materials related to conflict, from the tools of warfare to casualties of the event, impacted upon our understanding of a particular battle? • How have battles affected non-combatants and how have non-combatants affected the geography of a battlefield after the event? 66
• How do we deal with differences between more traditional sources of evidence, such as historical narratives and the evidence gathered from newer, field-based sources, that may suggest a different narrative ? Assessment % contribution to final mark 35% Assessment method 65% Desk-based assessment (1250 words) Case Study Analysis (2500 words) Sample Source This module deals with data from many different sources when looking at a site or landscape: historical, literary, artistic, cartographic, digital data (from metal detecting and other sources) etc. Each of these sources of evidence poses very different problems of interpretation. Battle of Towton (1461): published artefact distribution views against historic terrain. 67
Semester 2, 30 credits HIST2008 - The Group Project (Dr David Cox, Dr Julie Gammon, Dr Jon Hunt, Dr Helen Spurling) (NOTE - Compulsory for all single honours history students) Module Overview The Group Project provides an opportunity for you to carry out a piece of historical research as part of a group, reflecting on the issues involved in completing the task and presenting the research to a broader audience. The academic core of the project asks you to engage in a topic from conception to completion under the supervision of your group Academic Supervisor who will assist you in the location and exploitation of relevant local and national source materials. This opportunity to develop your research skills will provide a good grounding for the longer and more advanced piece of individual research required by the Year 3 dissertation. The Group Project will also enable you to develop various key skills relevant to the type of employment that you may encounter after graduation - management, media, teaching, etc - and to demonstrate such skills - team-working, interpersonal skills, self-confidence, presentation, problem- solving, etc - in a tangible way. Finally, you will be encouraged to interact with a broader public through the process of communicating your research topic in a 'public outcome' and thereby to consider the nature and meaning of such a thing as 'public history'. 68
Assessment • Project Proposal (10%) • Group Poster (20%) • Historical Essay (30%) • Public Outcome (20%) • Individual Essay on Sources and Methods (20%) Examples of Past Public Outcomes Henry VIII Exhibition at Staines Local History library Witchcraft presentation at Godolfin School 69
Semester 2 (30 credits) HIST2039 - Imperialism and Nationalism in British India (Dr Pritipuspa Mishra) 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 70
• Overseas Indians and Nationalist Struggle • The Muslim League’s Rise to Power • The British Departure from India Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 50 1 x essay 50 1 x essay 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 71
Semester 2, 30 credits HIST2229 – Aristocracy to Democracy? Political change in 19th century Britain (tbc) DOWN WITH DEMOCRACY (1867) ‘Democracy means that the country will be ruled by this rough, hard-drinking belligerent thug instead of polite cultivated people like you and me’ The Tomahawk, 7 December 1867 Module overview Conventionally, the political history of modern Britain has been framed in terms of a narrative of ‘the rise of democracy’ (a theme which has provided titles for more than one textbook on the subject). This is valid in the sense that the period witnessed the broadening of the electoral franchise in Britain; it is problematic, however, in presenting a whiggish narrative of seamless progress towards modern government. This module will look at the changing face of British politics during the ‘long nineteenth century’ in order to examine the interaction between the world’s first industrial society 72
and what was in essence, at least at the outset, a largely aristocratic political structure. Studying the period between the end of the Napoleonic wars, the immediate aftermath of which witnessed a dramatic upsurge in popular radical protest, to the end of the First World War, when something approaching universal suffrage was achieved, this module will examine the response of the British state to the challenges of effectively representing a dramatically changing society and population, with rapidly shifting hopes and expectations. Indicative list of seminar topics Protest and demands for change The nature, impact and limits of political reforms The role of the state and its critics Political languages and communication Defining the nation: who was excluded and who was included Different means of political action, influence and impact: formal and informal Ideas of democracy and representation Sample source [see the cartoon image from The Tomahawk, 7 December 1867, above] While the idea of democratic progress is a familiar one, and ‘free and fair elections’ are usually taken as a measure of democracy, 19th century Britain, which saw itself as a modern and progressive place, saw a protracted struggle for political ‘improvement’. Usually the ‘rise of democracy’ is taken to be a good thing, and opponents of democratic government appear deeply reactionary. But were there, as this cartoon published in the midst of moves to increase the electorate in the later 1860s might imply, reasons to think democracy might have negative aspects too? There are important questions raised here about who should decide what is ‘best’ for ‘the people’, but was it right to argue, as the late 18th century political economist Dugald Stewart had taught, for example, that the ‘happiness of mankind depends, not on the share which the people possess, directly or indirectly, in the enactment of laws, but on the equity and expedience of the laws that are enacted’? This points to questions that continue to be relevant today: What is democracy? How should we measure political progress? Is aristocratic government an obstacle to political progress? How do the holders of power best represent the people? And how do people effectively exercise political influence? 73
Semester 2, 30 credits HIST2049 – Sin and Society, 1100-1520* (Prof. Peter Clarke) Module overview In present-day Europe most of us consider religion a matter of personal choice and private conscience to the point that many are hardly religious at all and our society is increasingly secular. This module will explore how the opposite was largely true in the medieval West: orthodox religion was compulsory and affected all aspects of public and private life. The module will focus on sin, wrongdoing that violated religious norms, and how it was defined and disciplined. The module is wide-ranging and will cover such topics as sexual behaviour, violence (including warfare and murder) 74
and heresy (religious dissent), and explore both the Church’s teachings on such issues and how these shaped social attitudes and behaviour. The module will draw on a rich variety of sources, including Dante’s Inferno and religious art. Indicative list of seminar topics • Sin and Society, c. 1100 • Communication and Enforcement of Church teaching on sin • Sexual Morality • War and Violence • Heresy I: Cathars, Waldensians and Franciscan Spirituals • Heresy II: The Trial of the Templars and Lollardy • Anti-Semitism and Usury • Medieval Art and Literature • Pilgrimage, Indulgences and Luther Assessment Assessment method % contribution to final mark 25 1 x essay 25 1 x essay 50 1 x exam Sample source ‘If anyone by the persuasion of the Devil should incur the charge of this sacrilegious vice that they laid violent hands on a cleric or monk, let them be bound by anathema [i.e. excommunication] and let no bishop presume to absolve them, unless they are on the point of death, until they appear in the pope’s presence and receive his mandate.’ This ruling was issued by Pope Innocent II in 1139 and rapidly became part of the Church’s law (or canon law) enforced across Western Europe. It was meant to provide clergy with protection from violence by threatening anyone who assaulted a cleric or monk with automatic excommunication. In theory this cut off these assailants from the Christian Church and society endangering their salvation so that if they died under excommunication, their soul was damned to hell. Bishops could release or ‘absolve’ them from excommunication usually, but this ruling required that anyone excommunicated for assaulting clergy had to go to Rome to ask the pope in person to absolve them, unless they were too close to death to make the journey. The ruling was designed to set the clergy apart from the rest of society as a privileged elite deserving special respect, and reinforce the papacy’s central authority over the Western Church, especially as defender of the clergy’s privileged status. 75
Semester 2, 30 credits HIST2085 – Rebels with a Cause: The Historical Origins of Christianity* (Dr Helen Spurling) Module overview The Roman world in the first century CE saw the rise of a new world religion that was to have an ever changing and at times turbulent history up to today. ‘Rebels with a Cause' invites you to assess and debate the historical origins of one of the key religions that has shaped the modern world. Where did Christianity come from, how did it develop, and in what ways did broader society respond to this new movement? This module explores the historical origins of Christianity and the contexts from which it emerged, including Jewish society in the Roman world and the Palestinian scene under Roman rule. We investigate how pagan Romans reacted to early Christians, including how its members were viewed as a rebellious minority, and perceptions of their ideas as ‘excessive superstition' and a ‘contagion' (Pliny the Younger, Letters 10.96-97). We also look at the search for identity amongst the earliest Christians, particularly in relation to the Jewish people, as they began to establish, develop and expand their new religion. Indicative List of Seminar Topics 76
Reference will be made throughout to the historical and social context of Roman Palestine. Topics covered will include: • Roman Palestine in the first century • Second Temple Judaism • Early Christian writings and groups • Roman responses to early Christianity • The development of Christian identities • The ‘parting of the ways’ between Judaism and Christianity Assessment % Contribution to Final Mark Assessment Method 20 40 1 x commentaries exercise 40 1 essay 1 x 2-hour open book exam Sample source ‘But neither human help, nor imperial munificence, nor all the modes of placating Heaven, could stifle scandal or dispel the belief that the fire had taken place by order. Therefore, to scotch the rumour, Nero substituted as culprits, and punished with the utmost refinements of cruelty, a class of men, loathed for their vices, whom the crowd styled Christians. Christus, the founder of the name, had undergone the death penalty in the reign of Tiberius, by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilatus, and the pernicious superstition was checked for a moment, only to break out once more, not merely in Judaea, the home of the disease, but in the capital itself, where all things horrible or shameful in the world collect and find a vogue.’ Tacitus, Annals, XV.44 This is part of a history of Emperor Nero written by the politician and historian Tacitus in the early second century CE. Tacitus was not a fan of the imperial office, and especially Nero, as can be seen in the suggestion that Nero was to blame for the fire of Rome in 64 CE. Tacitus reports that in an attempt to avert suspicion Nero blamed Christians for the disaster, and famously had them tortured and thrown to the lions. This passage from Tacitus shows that Roman historians were aware of the new movement of Christians and he provides some basic details about the origins of the new religion. Although Tacitus sees the Christians as Nero’s scapegoats, he is nevertheless rather uncomplimentary about them and describes them as a ‘superstition’ that was spreading even to Rome itself. Christianity was not officially tolerated by the Roman authorities until the Edict of Milan under Constantine in 313 CE, and Tacitus’ work provides an early insight into the status of Christians in the Roman Empire and Roman attitudes towards this new and rebellious socio-religious group. 77
Semester 2, 30 credits HIST2059 Plague, Fire and Popish Plots: The Worlds of Charles II* (Prof Maria Hayward) Module overview During his lifetime Charles II was described as charming, indolent and a womaniser, while his court was seen as far more informal than that of his father, Charles I. This module will seek to assess the validity of this view and it will consider the challenges Charles II faced a monarch. While the primary focus is upon Charles II, we will place him in a wider context by considering the relationship of the king and his capital, the changing role of the city of London and draw comparisons with Paris and Versailles. We will also look at how Charles II responded to practical challenges such as plague and fire in London, as well as political and religious threats such as the Popish plot, the place of women in society and the role of coffee houses as a site of political discourse. Indicative list of seminar topics • Execution, exile and restoration - the changing nature of kingship and monarchy in England in the second half of the seventeenth century • Creating the king's image: portraiture, clothing and reputation • Wives and mistresses: the place of women at the Caroline court • Documenting the period: The writings of Pepys, Evelyn and Defoe • 1665: Plague in London • 1666: The immediate effect of the Great fire of London and its long term impact on the architecture and layout of the city • Comparisons with and influences from the court of Louis XIV at Versailles • Court and urban culture • Religious tensions and the impact of the 'Popish' plot 1685-89: Monarchy in crisis? The succession crisis and the Glorious Revolution 78
Assessment % contribution to final mark Assessment method 50 50 1 x essay 1 x 2-hour examination Sample source: The poor whores petition, 25 March 1668 To the most splendid, illustrious, serene and eminent lady of pleasure, the countess of Castlemaine etc The humble petition of the undone company of poore distressed whores, bawds, pimps and panders Humbly showeth That your petitioners having been for a long time connived at, and counternanced in the practice of our venereal pleasures (a trade wherein your ladyship hath great experience and for your diligence therein, have arrived to high and eminent advancement for these late years). But now, we, through the rage and malice of a company of London apprentices and other malicious and very bad persons, being mechanic, rude ill-bred boys, have sustained the loss of our habitations, trades and employments….Wherefore in our devotion (your honour being eminently concerned with us) we humbly judge it meet, that you procure the French, Irish and English Hectors, being our approved friends to be our guard, aid and protectors, and to free us from ill home bred slaves, that threaten your destruction as well as ours…Will your eminency therefore be pleased to consider how highly it concerns you to restore us to our former practice with honour, freedom and safety. For which we shall oblige our selves by as many oaths as you please, to contribute to your ladyship, (as our sisters do at Rome and Venice to his holiness the Pope) that we may have your protection in the exercise of our Venereal pleasures. This mock petition demonstrates how leading figures at Charles II’s court – in this case, Barbara Villiers, countess of Castlemaine, the king’s most influential mistress at the time – were ridiculed in print. It highlights how volatile popular politics in London was in 1668 by the reference to the ‘bawdy house’ riots caused by dissenting apprentices rioting about a royal petition seeking to restrict conventicles (unofficial religious meetings held by the laity) while turning a blind-eye to prostitution and brothels. While there was no formal place for women in politics many contemporary commentators were concerned about the level of informal influence that Barbara with the king and they used printed material like this to discredit her. They did so by attacking her morals, as a married woman, and by reminding the reader of the petition that Barbara had converted to Catholicism in 1663 making her one of a cluster of high profile Catholics around the king in a time of increasing religious tension. As such this source encapsulates many of the key themes in Plague, Fire and Popish Plots including religious tension and the role of religious minorities, the rise of popular politics and the development of political parties, the dissolute reputation of the court of the ‘Merry’ monarch and the growing visibility of women in Restoration London. 79
Semester 2, 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 80
1 x essay 50 1 x 2-hour exam 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’. 81
Semester 2, 30 credits HIST 2107 – The Fall of Imperial Russia (Dr George Gilbert) Module Overview At the outset of the nineteenth century the Russian Empire appeared to be at the zenith of its power. 100 years later, the autocracy had collapsed, overthrown by the Bolsheviks in the 1917 revolutions. The emergence of new ideas and movements in Russia during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, from both the left and the right, posed new challenges to the tsarist state. This module will trace the internal extremism that led to the collapse of the tsarist autocracy, and why the tsarist state proved unable to respond effectively to the pace of change occurring within Russia. The module will consider the development of the state and how it responded to challenges of consolidating power during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Among the new forces emerging in this period were anarchism, Marxism, socialism and terrorism. The module will consider the rise of radicalism from the right and the problems that this too posed for the longevity of tsarism. Considering a variety of different sources, including novels and memoirs as well as police reports and other official documents, the module will make a thorough assessment of the problem of violence in tsarist society. By the end of this module you should have a firm understanding of the processes that shaped the development of the Russian state in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and, particularly, the events that would lead to the fall of the autocracy in 1917. Indicative List of Seminar Topics 82
• The development of the tsarist governance from 1812-1917: how Russia was ruled • Nation building and nationalism in nineteenth-century Russia • The impact of left-wing and right-wing radical movements on Russian society • The public role of violence in the late imperial period, including assassinations of leading figures of the old regime • The development of the public sphere and how this facilitated the spread of both pro- and anti-state ideas • Major social, political and economic problems for the tsarist state on the eve of the First World War • The role the First World War played in the fall of tsarism to 1917 Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x research proposal 10 1 x essay 50 1 x exam 40 Sample Source 'After the January disaster events followed with ominous rapidity, and, by September, 1905, when I returned from my peace mission in America, the revolution was in full swing. A great deal of harm was done by the press…Although not with the same ultimate ends in view, all preached revolution in one way or another and adopted the same slogans: \"Down with this base, inefficient government\". \"Down with the bureaucracy!\" \"Down with the present regime!\" The St. Petersburg papers, which had set the pace for the whole Russian papers and still do…emancipated themselves completely from the censorship and went so far as to form an alliance based upon a tacit agreement to disregard the tsar's orders'. Sergei Witte, Russia's first Prime Minister, writes about the first days of the 1905 revolution in his memoirs (1921) This source, from one of the most significant figures from the period, raises many questions about the 1905 revolution and its impact on society. The scale of disaffection with the government is most apparent – Witte mentions the level of disillusionment with the tsar amongst the press, both conservative and liberal. The level of public disaffection with the autocracy was bound to generate much consternation amongst Russia's rulers; this source can prompt us to consider the vast scale of the revolution, and why so many different sectors of Russian society were disenchanted with the government. We might also ask questions about the type of opposition to Nicholas II and his regime, the reasons behind the revolution of 1905, and why Russia was plunged into such a period of crisis during 1905. 83
Semester 2, 30 credits HIST2087 – Islamism: From the 1980s to the Present (Dr Hormoz Ebrahimnejad) Module Overview As a political ideology, Islamism is a phenomenon of the twentieth century with different strands and rooted in different countries and representing different social strata. This module examines Islamism in the first place as an intellectual movement, a reaction to modernity and modernisation projects that gained currency from the beginning of the twentieth century in the Near and Middle Eastern countries. Islamism extends from pure intellectual and cultural movements of the emerging middle class to terrorist organisations such as al Qaeda and ISIS with nihilist inclination that constitutes the core of their ideology. The module also examines the Western impact on the development of Islamism. Paradoxically, the rise of Islamism that is best known for its anti- (or at least non-) Western characteristics has been either tolerated or supported by the Western World and the United States in particular both as a discourse borne of Orientalism and as a political convenience during the last stages of the Cold War. In fact, Islamist states in the region, such as in Afghanistan, Iran and later on in Turkey were considered by the West to constitute a new “security” belt that was to protect the Western interests against the Soviet Union and its successor, the Russian Federation. Unpredictable developments in Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq, however, caused costly wars but in exchange provided more opportunities for the USA to consolidate its military presence in the Middle East and Central Asia. 84
Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Religion and politics in Islam • From Pan-Islamism to Islamism • Islam and Modernity • Political Islam and its different persuasions in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and North Africa • Islamist guerrillas and proxy war (Al-Qaeda, Salafite and Taliban, as political and military arms of the regional powers) Assessment % Contribution to Final Mark Assessment Method 35 65 1 x essay proposal 1 x essay Sample Source ‘Islam is a religion of those who struggle for truth and justice, of those who clamor for liberty and independence. It is the school of those who fight against colonialism. Our one and only remedy is to bring down these corrupt and corrupting systems of government, and to overthrow the traitorous, repressive, and despotic gangs in charge. This is the duty of Muslims in all Islamic countries; this is the way to victory for all Islamic revolutions. Muslims have no alternative, if they wish to correct the political balance of society, and force those in power to conform to the laws and principles of Islam, to an armed Jihad against profane governments.’ Ayatollah Khomeini, Little Green Book: Selected Fatwahs and Sayings of Ayatollah Khomeini, Translated into English by Harold Salemson — with a special introduction by Clive Irving Bantam Books, 1985 / ISBN: 0553140329 PDF Edition by Kultural Freedom, 2011, p. 1. Ayatollah Khomeini (1902-1989) was a political cleric who revolutionised the relationship between religion and politics in Iran. In the above source, he justifies political Islam by the duty of the clerics to fight against colonialism and imperialism. However, after gaining power in Iran he went further and claimed that the society should be governed according to the principles of shari’a (Islamic law). 85
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