Encounter the Past from Ancient Egypt to the War on TerrorUniversity of Southampton History Department Year 2 Module Choices 2016-17
This booklet has been designed with the help of colleagues from across the department to provideyou with the essential information to help inform your choices for the year ahead. I encourage youread through it and to carefully consider which topics you believe will best stimulate, entertain, andchallenge you in the coming academic year.Be bold in your choices. Here at Southampton you are part of an incredibly dynamic community ofscholars, 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 notbe put off by things which you may not yet have heard of, or have not studied before. Getting themost out of your time at university means seizing the opportunity to broaden your horizons andchallenge yourself intellectually, and that is exactly what this varied curriculum offers you. Just asthe 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 themany opportunities on offer to you. Dr Christopher J. Fuller Lecturer in Modern History
ContentsHow to Select Modules………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………3Staff Contact Details………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….5Semester 1 15 Credit Modules (All will run at 30 students except HIST2096 and HIST2031 which willrun at 60 students)HIST2069 - Knights and Chivalry…………………………………………………………………………………………………………7HIST2071 - Celebrity, Media and Mass Culture: Britain 1888-1952…………………………………………………….9HIST2072 - Treason and Plot: A History of Modern Treason in Europe……………………………………….……11HIST2082 - Nelson Mandela: A South African Life…………………………………………………………………………….13HIST2094 - Wellington and the War against Napoleon…………………………………………………………………….15HIST2097 - Napoleon and his Legend...................................................................................................17HIST2103 - Self-inflicted Extreme Violence………………………………………………………………………………………19HIST2111 - Roman Emperors and Imperial Lives……………………………………………………..……………….………21ARCH2003 – The Power of Rome: Europe’s First Empire………………………………………………………………….23Semester 1 30 Credit ModulesHIST2006 - Looking Beyond the Holocaust: Impact of Genocide on Contemporary History……………..25HIST2031 - Stalin and Stalinism………………………………………………………………………………………………………..27HIST2035 - The Struggle of the Czechs: From Serfdom to Stalinism………………………………………………….29HIST2039 - Imperialism and Nationalism in British India………………………………………………………………….31HIST2045 - Cleopatra’s Egypt……………………………………………………………………………………………………………33HIST2051 - The British Atlantic World………………………………………………………………………………………………35HIST2059 - Plague, Fire and Popish Plots: The Worlds of Charles II………………………………………………….37HIST2064 - The Space Age…………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………..39HIST2086 - Building London 1666 – 2012…………………………………………………………………………………………41HIST2087 – Islamism: From the 1980s to the Present………………………………………………………………………43HIST2090 - The Second British Empire……………………………………………………………………………………………..45HIST2096 - Evolution of US Counterterrorism………………………………………………………………………………….47 1
Semester 2 15 Credit Modules (All will run at 30 students)HIST2055 - The Eternal City: The City of Rome…………………………………………………………………………………49HIST2073 - Jews in Germany before the Holocaust………………………………………………………………………….51HIST2074 - Visual Culture and Politics: Art in German Society, 1850-1957……………………………………….53HIST2091 – Underworlds: A Cultural History of Urban Nightlife in the 19th and 20th Centuries…………55HIST2093 - Strategy and War……………………………………………………………………………………………………………57HIST2100 - Retail Therapy: A Journey Through the Cultural History of Shopping……………………………..59HIST2102 - Discipline and Punish: Prisons and Prisoners in England 1775-1898……………………………….61HIST2108 - The Making of Modern India………………………………………………………………………………………….63HIST2109 - Ancient Greeks at War……………………………………………………………………………………....…..…..…65HIST2110 - The Global Cold War…..………………………………………………………………………………….………………67HUMA2008 – The Life and Afterlife of Vikings………………………………………………………………………………….69HUMA2XXX* - Arabian Nights and Days: The World of the 1001 Nights…………………………………….…….71Semester 2 30 Credit Modules (All will run at 30 students)HIST2003 - Power, Patronage and Politics in Early Modern England 1509-1660………………………………73HIST2004 - The Making of Englishness: Race, Ethnicity and Immigration in British Society, 1841 to thePresent…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….75HIST2008 Group Project – *compulsory for all single honours history students……………………………….77HIST2036 - The Hundred Years’ War: Britain and Europe, 1259-1453………………………………………………79HIST2049 - Sin and Society: 1100-1520…………………………………………………………………………………………….81HIST2053 - Habsburg Spain: 1471-1700: The Rise and Decline of the First European Superpower.....83HIST2084 - Accommodation, Violence and Networks in Colonial America……………………………………….85HIST2107 - Terror and the Fall of Imperial Russia…………………………………………………………………………….87Index by Historical Period……………………………………………………………………………………………………….……..89 2
How to Select Your ModulesIn order to qualify for your degree, you need to take 120 credits during the academic year, that is, 60credits in each semester. Other arrangements apply for part-time students, and sometimes forstudents whose studies have been affected by other circumstances in some way. The requirement totake 120 credits is very important and you should make sure that you choose 120 credits; the creditsattached 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’swork will be given over to modules that you have chosen. You can choose a narrow curriculum oryou can choose a broad one. The options on offer to you are explained in the rest of the brochure,and come in two varieties, for some are worth 15 credits and some are worth 30 credits. Thestandard required is identical, but there are special features for each one. The 15-credit modulescover more focussed themes and have a special focus on source analysis as a preparation for year 3;the 30-credit modules allow a more sustained engagement with a theme. A 30-credit moduleinvolves three scheduled hours of contact time each week, together with office hours andconsultations; two 15-credit modules (so equal to a 30-credit module) involves four scheduled hoursof 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 ofthem have codes which are not history ones (e.g. HUMA2008) but this is not meaningful; somehistory modules were planned in association with other subjects, or involve staff from more thanone department, and so are classified in a slightly different way. Differences in module codes do notindicate anything important about the module in question; if the modules are in this brochure, theyare essentially historical in nature. For Single-Honours History StudentsIn semester 1, you need to choose 60 credits, and in semester 2 you need to choose 60 credits. Youhave freedom to choose how this will work for you. For instance, in semester 1 you could choose 2 x30-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. 000) 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. This means that you choose 30 credits of options in semester 2, instead of 60 credits in semester 1. At some point during year 2 you need to choose one pre-1750 module. It should be clear from the descriptions below which is pre-1750 and which is not; where modules involve material from both sides, the module counts towards the side where there is more material. Thus, for example, HIST2086 – Building London 1666 – 2012 is classified as post-1750 because that is where most of the content lies.You therefore need to take 60 credits of options in semester 1 and 30 credits in semester 2. 3
For Joint-Honours Student Studying Degrees Involving HistoryYour degree is designed so that half should be in history and half should be in your other subject.Thus, of the 120 credits you need to take in your second year, 30 credits in each semester should bein history. You need to choose either one 30-credit option or two 15-credit options in each semester.You are not required to take the group project, and nor need you take pre-1750 modules unless youwish to do so. Your other 30 credits in each semester should follow the requirements of your othersubject. The Online Module BallotYou can select your modules through the online ballot. Instructions on where to find this will be sentto you separately from this brochure. You will be offered all the modules described here, and someothers selected for relevance to history students (language modules, some from other humanitiesdisciplines, and some university-wide modules open to anyone); thus your list of options will be verylarge.The size of seminar groups is one of the most important matters that affects your experience ofindividual modules. To ensure the quality of your experience, seminars for all year 2 modules arecapped at 15 students. For most modules, there will only be a couple of seminar groups offered.Thus, some very popular modules might fill quickly, and therefore will not be available later in theballot process. These restrictions, though, are meant to help you. They mean that classes will neverbe too large; that library resources will not be overwhelmed by very large numbers on somemodules; and that staff members will be able to return feedback and marks more quickly becausethe amount of marking they have is not excessive. Some students may be disappointed thatparticular modules fill before they choose, but these restrictions are meant to ensure that allstudents receive a good standard of teaching and support. 4
Staff Contact DetailsLecturer Modules Office Office Hours EmailDr Remy AmbuhlProf. George Bernard HIST2069 - Now on leave – back in [email protected] Annelies Cazemier HIST2036 2049 September [email protected]. Steve Chisnall HIST2003 Tuesday 12-2Prof. Peter ClarkeDr Eve Colpus HIST2045 2047 Tuesday 10.30-12.30 [email protected] HIST2109 37/4057 Tuesday 10-12 [email protected]. Mark Cornwall HIST2093 2079 [email protected] David Cox HIST2049Dr Niamh CullenDr Hormoz HIST3178/79 1053 Tuesday 3-4; Thursdays [email protected] HIST2071 12-1Dr Chris FullerDr Julie Gammon HIST3121 2071 Tuesday 10-11; [email protected] George Gilbert HIST2035 Thursday 11-12 [email protected] HIST2072Dr Shirli Gilbert Friday 11-1 HIST3XXX/XX 2051Dr Alison Gascoigne HIST3XXX/XX 1053 Monday 11-12; [email protected]. Neil Gregor Wednesday 11-12 [email protected] HIST3XXX/XX 3035 Friday 12-2Prof. Maria Hayward HIST3150 1051 [email protected] Rachel Herrmann HIST2087 Thursday 10-12Dr Jonathan Hunt HIST2096Dr Nicholas KarnDr Matthew Kelly HIST3075/76 2069 Tuesday 12-2 [email protected] HIST2102 1051 [email protected] Kingwell Friday [email protected] HIST3207/08 2051 9-11 [email protected] HIST3132 HIST2107 Now on HIST3060/61 leave – HIST2073 back in September Thursday 2-3 HUMA2008 65a/3029 HUMA2XXX Now on leave – back in [email protected] ARCH3034 2057 September ARCH3XXX 2059 Late 2057 Now on leave – back in [email protected] ARCH3011 September [email protected] HIST3054/55 Monday 12-1; Tuesday [email protected] HIST3119 1-2 HIST2074 Fridays 1-3 HIST3126/27 HIST2059 HIST2084 HIST3XXX/XX 2063 Monday 1-3 [email protected] HIST2110 2065 HUMA2008 HIST3110/11H 1049 Wednesday 12-1 [email protected] IST3119 2063 [email protected] HIST2077 HIST3173/74 5
Prof. Tony Kushner HIST3104/05 2053 Monday 3-4; Tuesday [email protected] HIST3148 2104 2-3 [email protected] Claire Le Foll HIST2004 HIST3072/73 Monday 2-2.45;Dr Dan Levene HIST2031 Thursday 2-3Dr Mark Levene HIST3157/58 1001 Wednesday 3-5 [email protected] John McAleerDr Pritipuspa Mishra HIST3150 Now on leave – back in [email protected]. Kendrick Oliver September [email protected] HIST2103 Thursday 10-12Dr Christer Petley HIST2006Dr Chris Prior HIST3176/77 2043 Tuesday 1-3 [email protected] Eleanor Quince HIST2090 2104 HIST2108Dr Louise Revell HIST3069/70 2061 Tuesday 12-1; Friday [email protected] Charlotte HIST3148 11-12Riley HIST2064Dr Alan RossProf. Joachim Schlör HIST3148 2081 Tuesday 12-2 [email protected] HIST2051 1047 [email protected] François Soyer HIST3180/81 Monday 1-2; TuesdayDr Helen Spurling HIST2082 1-2Prof. Mark StoyleProf. Ian Talbot HIST3XXX 65A/3017 - Wednesday 9-11 [email protected] Joan Tumblety HIST2086 Archaeology Friday 1-2 [email protected] HIST2100 building [email protected]. Chris Woolgar 65A/3027 - [email protected] HIST3199/20 Archaeology HIST3XXX building HIST2055 1047 HIST3205/06 2051 Monday 2-4 HIST3186 HIST2111 HIST3113/14 1023 Monday 12-2 [email protected] HIST3148 2063 [email protected] HIST2091 HIST2053 HIST3195/96H 2047 Now on leave – back in [email protected] IST3187 September HIST2003 2077 Tuesday 9-10 [email protected] HIST2039 2075 Wednesday 1-2 [email protected] HIST3036/38 2067 Monday 3-4; Thursday [email protected] HIST2097 4-5 HIST3184/85 2055 Now on leave – back in [email protected] HIST3118 September HIST2094 6
Year 2 Semester 1 (15 credits) HIST2069 – Knights and Chivalry (Dr Rémy Ambühl)Module OverviewToday, chivalry is commonly associated with gallantry; men holding doors open for women, forexample. These good manners, however, have little to do with the medieval roots of chivalry. Thismodule looks at chivalry during the highpoint of its cultural significance in the medieval period, withan emphasis on its latter part (13th to 15th centuries). During that time, knights and their martialethos merged with the aristocracy and its value system, placing honour at the centre of westernEuropean cultures. How did the chivalric ideals relate with the reality of the knightly world? To whatextent did the relentless pursuit of honour generate unleashed violence? What was the role ofwomen in chivalry? Indisputably, chivalry was impacted by wide-ranging social, military, political andeconomic changes in our period, but is it accurate to speak of the decline of chivalry in this period atthat time? What is the role of chivalry in the professionalization of the armies? 7
Indicative List of Seminar Topics % Contribution to Final Mark 0 The origins of knighthood 50 The perfect knight or the ideals of Knighthood 50 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 chivalryAssessment Assessment Method Prepare and delivery a presentation – formative Essay (2,000 words) summative Exam (2 hours) summativeSample Source‘…Therefore, all the people were divided by thousands. Out of each thousand there was chosen aman more notable than all the rest for his loyalty, his strength, his noble courage, his breeding andhis manners. Afterwards they sought out the beast that was most suitable — strongest to sustainlabour, heartiest, and best able to serve the man. It was found that the horse was the most fittingcreature; because they chose the horse from among all the beasts and gave him to this same manwho 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 mostnoble 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' (theFrench for horse). The knight (or 'chevalier' in French) has long been associated with, and is oftendepicted on, his mount. Lull's origins of knighthood are, however, pure fiction. The Catalan knightcreates a myth which is meant to justify the superior position that the knights enjoyed in themedieval 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. 8
Year 2 Semester 1 (15 credits) HIST2071 – Celebrity, Media and Mass Culture: Britain 1888-1952 (Dr. Eve Colpus)Module OverviewThis module explores the development of celebrity in Britain 1888-1952, focusing particularly uponthe influence of technologies and mass media. The years between the late 1880s and early 1950ssaw a massive expansion in printed and visual media, and this module charts representations ofcelebrity 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 andadvances in photography. How should we understand the development of celebrity during thisperiod? Did the media ‘create' celebrity? How far could a celebrity project personality in a publicimage? How did the public learn about celebrities, and how did they interact with them? Tracingthese questions will lead us into broader examination of the cultural history of this period; was therea ‘celebrity culture' in these years, or a ‘celebrity industry'?Selected List of Seminar Topics Men and Women of the Day: celebrity biography in the 1880s 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 9
Assessment % Contribution to Final Mark Assessment Method 50 50 Individual project (1,500 words) Closed book exam (2 hours)Sample Source Letter to Central News Agency, signed ‘Jack the Ripper’, 25 September 1888The first of over 300 letters, many of which were signed ‘Jack the Ripper’, sent to the press, policeand authorities in 1888, the year of the Whitechapel murders. It is very unlikely the Whitechapelmurderer actually wrote any of the letters. Nonetheless, the letters reveal public knowledge andfascination with the murders that was most likely gained from extensive press coverage, and thedeveloping 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. 10
Year 2 Semester 1 (15 credits) HIST2072 – Treason and Plot: A History of Modern Treason in Europe (Prof. Mark Cornwall)Module OverviewThis module is a comparative and conceptual study of “treason” as interpreted under a range ofEuropean regimes during the period c.1789-1960. If treason in essence has often tended to mean aviolation of the allegiance owed by a subject to his/her ruler or monarch, it came in certainEuropean countries by the 19th century to be firmly associated with secret attacks on the state itself.This could often be in the context of a traitor conspiring with a hostile power abroad, but could alsobe interpreted more subtly in a domestic context as a means of excluding and destroying ideologicalor political opponents. The course examines a range of these interpretations, grounding the analysisin what treason meant in law, but then showing how that law might be flexibly interpreted by thestate. Due attention is also paid to how the ‘perpetrators’ themselves might interpret the states,rulers or ideologies under which they lived as ‘treacherous’ to certain utopian ideals and thereforenot worthy of their allegiance.While maintaining this conceptual thread throughout, the course follows a range of case studies,beginning with the English Gunpowder plot (1605) but then moving into nineteenth and twentiethcentury Europe to show how treason was codified and interpreted in the modern state system.Although these are often notable stories of personal treachery – the cases for example of RogerCasement, Alfred Redl, Nikolai Bukharin, William Joyce, Guy Burgess, László Rajk - they are usedespecially to illuminate the ideological framework within which modern concepts of treason couldflourish (whether in revolutionary France, peacetime Austria-Hungary, wartime Britain or StalinistRussia). Each case study is studied through primary sources, including trial material or ‘incriminating’evidence, so that students can focus carefully on how notions of treason were manipulated to suitthose who were defining the treachery committed. The result is a course both accessible in terms ofdramatic content and personal histories, while also challenging in terms of conceptual andtheoretical engagement. You finally are encouraged to create your own theories of treason on thebasis of the material you have personally researched. 11
Select List of Seminar TopicsMost of the following areas will typically be covered: Legal definitions of treason and its pre-modern conception. The Gunpowder plot as a case study New ideologies: treachery against the French revolution Staatsfeindliche national elements in the Habsburg Monarchy A Jewish national outsider: Alfred Dreyfus Treachery and sexuality: Alfred Redl Treasury and sexuality: Roger Casement Treason and the Stalinist purges: the Bukharin trial Treason and the Stalinist purges: the Rajk trial Britain betrayed: the Nazi William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) Britain as betrayer: the view of Burgess and MacLean Conclusion: The Meaning of TreasonAssessment Assessment Method % contribution to final mark2,000-word essay based on primary sources 12 hour exam - 1 question being a gobbet style question and the 1other, an essay, also based on the sourcesSample Source“For Treason is like a tree whose root is full of poison, and lieth secret and hid within the earth,resembling the imagination of the heart of man, which is so secret as God only knoweth it. Now thewisdom of the Law provideth for the blasting and nipping.” Sir Edward Coke, January 1606This is an extract from the speech of the Attorney General who prosecuted the Gunpowder plottersat their trial in 1606. It shows well how “treason” throughout the centuries has been described asthe worst crime imaginable: something always sinister and hidden from public view. Coke alsonaturally stressed the power of English law in being able to deal effectively with treason. This wasthe Treason law of 1351 which was aimed at traitors against the king -it is still valid in the UK today ifthe state wants to deal with traitors! 12
Year 2 Semester 1 (15 credits) HIST2082 – Nelson Mandela: A South African Life (Dr. Christopher Prior)Module OverviewIn 1948, Daniel Malan’s National Party took power in South Africa. Malan’s election victory over theJan Smuts-led United Party and Labour Party alliance was only a slender one, and few of the NationalParty’s opponents could have envisaged that it would remain in power until 1994. Although racistlaws had been introduced in South Africa before 1948, the period between 1948 and 1994 saw theextension and formalisation of the apartheid state of segregation and limited opportunity for blackAfricans. The fight against apartheid was conducted by forces that were limited in resources andoften fragmented ideologically and tactically. Hampered as it was by state repression – including itsbeing banned outright by the government in 1960 – the African National Congress (ANC) was at theheart of much of this struggle.However, the histories of the ANC, of the apartheid state and resistance to this more broadly, and ofthe dismantling of this state from 1994 onwards, are complex, particularly for those who have neverstudied Africa before. This module will examine the history of modern South Africa through the lensof 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 modulewill 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 modernhistorian, from Mandela’s own writings, to government reports, contemporary newspaper articlesand books, and popular culture such as art and music. Besides providing an introduction to modernSouth African history, therefore, the module will give you the opportunity to examine at first handthe primary documents that helped shape this history, and will get you to think about the ways thatpolitical motives and other forms of bias shape contemporaneous documents and historicalmemory. The module will also get you to consider different historiographical approaches to thistopic. 13
Selected 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 textAssessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 502,000-word essay based on primary sources 502 hour exam - 1 question being a gobbet style question and theother, an essay, also based on the sourcesSample Source‘During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have foughtagainst white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of ademocratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equalopportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal forwhich I am prepared to die.’ Nelson Mandela, Pretoria Supreme Court, April 1964The extract is from Nelson Mandela’s speech at the 1964 trial that would result in his beingsentenced to life imprisonment. Prior to his arrest, Mandela had been a trained guerrilla warriorliving underground, planting bombs and undertaking acts of sabotage to destabilise the apartheidregime in South Africa. Yet despite such acts of violence, his speech suggests a democraticmoderate, fighting for neither black nor white domination. His tone is one of reconciliation andracial 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 OverviewFrom 1793, for more than 20 years, Britain and her allies were almost continually at war, first againstthe 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 thepsyche of the late eighteenth century; subsequently it was a conflict which, while more traditional inits nature, was without precedent in its scale and consequences. Britain’s forces were engagedacross the oceans, from the Low Countries to South America, from Cape Town to Calcutta andPenang, as well as on the home front.This module looks at Britain’s engagement with the struggle against Napoleon through the career ofone of her foremost generals, the Duke of Wellington. From the start of his career as a soldier, inIreland, through service in India, the campaigns of the Peninsular War, to Waterloo and theoccupation of France, his professional life was wholly focused on this struggle against France. Themodule will make special use of Wellington’s papers, in the University Library, to understand thepracticalities of warfare, the way decisions were made, the political context and the ability ofWellington 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 On the battlefield The campaigns of the Peninsular War Waterloo; making and managing the peace Making the hero 15
Assessment % Contribution to Final Mark Assessment Method 50 50 1 x 2,000-word primary source-based essay 2 hour examination (one commentary and one essay)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 thisoccurrence, they would be ready to give the King of France and the French nation, and any othergovernment 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 tocompromise it. The Powers declare that, as a result, Napoleon Bonaparte has placed himself beyond thepale of civil and social relations, and that, as an enemy and disturber of the peace of the world, hehas 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 onceagain into war. Representatives of the European powers were at that time assembled at Vienna tosettle territorial questions resulting from more than 20 years of war that had been brought to aclose the previous April. That they were together was fortunate, as it allowed them to react swiftlyto the threat. This document is the first of two steps that lay the legal basis for war againstNapoleon – the allied powers signed the Treaty of Vienna two weeks later, pledging themselves toput in the field against Napoleon four armies of 150,000 men. Note that this declaration and thetreaty are directed against Napoleon in person, not against France. This was to be of very greatsignificance when it came to concluding the war and re-establishing peace: the King of France was anally.16
Year 2 Semester 1 (15 credits) HIST2097 – Napoleon and his Legend (Dr Joan Tumblety)Module OverviewNapoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) may have been a tyrant in life but he proved to be a surprisinglymalleable figure after death. This module traces the emergence in France and Britain of Napoleon’sreputation, whether as tyrant, martial hero, saviour of the French nation or destroyer of Frenchliberty. Napoleon was a superb publicist and we will see that during his life time – before and afterthe seizure of state power in 1799 and the coronation as emperor in 1804 – he carefully cultivatedan 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 othersources published during the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, we will attempt to prise apartNapoleon’s self-presentation from the attitudes of others. Furthermore, through an encounter withNapoleon’s own correspondence and personal effects we will try to disentangle the private manfrom the public figure, and ask how defeat and exile at the hands of the British may have changedhim.Most of all, we will examine how a cult of Napoleon was created and reshaped in subsequentcontexts, focusing in particular on its instrumentalization in political and historical writings. BecauseNapoleon could represent the populism and liberty of the revolution without the anarchy of theTerror; reconciliation with the Catholic Church without clerical reaction; and order and hierarchywithout a return to the despotism of the ‘old regime’ he was an appealing figure to a whole array ofmonarchists, liberals and republicans in France over the entire 19th century. That is why the liberalJuly Monarchy (1830-1848) did so much to make the Napoleonic cult official by completing the Arcde Triomphe in his honour (1836) and by re-interring his remains in the mausoleum at Les Invalidesin 1840.In the process of tracing the Napoleonic cult through these years to the early 20th century, you willsee how difficult it has been in France to disentangle the memory and status of the general fromthat 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 continualdialogue 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 EurovisionAssessment % Contribution to Final Mark 50 Assessment Method 50 2,000-word essay based on primary sources 2 hour exam - 1 question being a gobbet style question and the other, an essay, also based on the sourcesSample 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 theguillotine 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 popularappetites 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 pillarModule OverviewAs Rome became established as a Christian Empire its recent martyrs came to be revered and powerfulsymbols. Yet with the success of Christianity came the loss of opportunity to follow the example ofChrist 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 andinfluence 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, workwith the rich literary sources in which the lives of such people are recorded, and consider theirinteraction with and influence upon the wider political realities of the time through the study anumber of individual case studies. 19
Indicative List of 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 politicsAssessment % Contribution to Final Mark Assessment Method 50 50 1 x 2,000-word primary source-based essay 2 hour examination (two commentaries and one essay)Sample Source‘… he spent three years in that hut and then occupied that famous summit where he ordered acircular wall to be made and had a chain twenty cubits long made out of iron. He fastened one endof it to a huge rock and attached the other to his right foot, so that even if he wanted to he could notleave the confines. He remained inside, keeping heaven always before his eye and forcing himself tocontemplate what lies beyond the heavens, for the iron fetter could not hinder the flight of themind. But when the excellent Meletius, a sound man of brilliant intellect and endowed withastuteness and who was charged to make a visitation of the region of the city of Antioch, told himthat the iron was superfluous since right reason sufficed to place rational fetters on the body, heyielded and accepted the counsel obediently, and bade a smith be called and ordered him to take offthe fetter. Now when a piece of hide which had been applied to the leg so that the iron would notmaim the body also had to be ripped apart as it had been sewn together, it is said that one could seemore than twenty large bugs hiding in it. … I have mentioned it here to point out the greatendurance of the man. For he could have easily squeezed the piece of hide with his hand and killedall of them, but he put up patiently with all their annoying bites and willingly used small struggles astraining 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 toendure the great feats of self-deprivation that he achieved. By the end of his life there was a greatmonastery 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 (30 credits) HIST2111 – Roman Emperors and Imperial Lives: Between Biography and History, Praise and Blame (Dr Alan Ross)Module OverviewFor most people even today Nero was one of the ‘bad’ emperors (he killed his mother), and Caligulawas mad and depraved (he wanted to appoint his favourite horse as consul, and committed incestwith his sisters); but the categorisation of emperors along moral lines is not a modern phenomenon.The emperor was without doubt the most important individual in the Roman world, theembodiment of the imperial project. His character, appearance, and actions were of fascination tocontemporaries during and after his life. In this module we will survey Roman cultural responses tothe office of emperor, and specifically the role played by prominent authors in creating a discourseon the individuals that occupied the imperial throne from its inception to Late Antiquity.Several genres of ‘political’ literature flourished under the empire, which took the emperor as theirprimary subject - biography, historiography, and speeches of praise and blame. Their rise may partlyhave been a response to the concentration of power in a single individual, but they also constantlyengaged in evaluating emperors in traditional terms of virtue and vice, turning emperors intoexamples of good or bad rule for later holders of the office. Such texts, then, played an active role inthe creation of an image of an emperor both during and after his reign. In this module we will surveykey texts chronologically from the first to fourth centuries, and consider how and why each authorinterpreted individual emperors; how the ideal of the emperor developed during that time; whenand in what way it was acceptable to criticise an emperor, or how risky this could be; to what extentan emperor could influence the creation of his positive image via contemporary orators. We willexamine some case studies of the ‘best’ and ‘worst’ of emperors such as Claudius, Caligula,Constantine and Julian, and in the process you will gain a chronological overview of the Romanimperial period. Finally, we’ll reflect on how modern depictions of emperors, in formal biographiesand TV/film depictions, compare to the concerns articulated in ancient texts. 21
Indicative List of Seminar Topics Suetonius and the imperial ideal Plutarch: a Greek view of Roman emperors Biography and history: Otho in Tacitus, Suetonius, and Plutarch Blaming the dead: damnatio memoriae and creating negative exemplars Blaming the living: imperial invective in the fourth century Epideictic and history: Ammianus and Orosius Modern depictions of ancient emperors.Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final MarkEssay 1, 2,000-words (from a choice of six available questions) 30Essay 2, 2000 words (from a choice of eight available 30questions, or students formulate their own question)2 hour examination (two essays from nine questions) 40Sample Source‘It was during the eighteenth year of his reign that God struck the Emperor Galerius with anincurable malady. A malign ulcer appeared on the lower part of his genitals and spread more widely.Doctors cut and then treated it; a scar formed but then the wound split open… They had recourse toidols; they offered prayers to Apollo and Asclepius, begging for a remedy. Apollo prescribed hisremedy – and the malady became much worse. As the marrow was assailed, the infection wasforced inwards, and got a hold on his internal organs; worms were born inside him and his bodydissolved and rotted amid insupportable pain. At the same time he raised dreadful shouts to heavenlike the bellowing of a wounded bull when he flees from the altar. In the intervals of pain as itpressed on him afresh, he cried out that he would restore the temple of God and make satisfactionfor his crime.’ Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 33 [c.AD 313]This passage illustrates the fact that the safest time to pen a negative depiction of a Roman Emperor(the most powerful figure in society) was after he was dead. It also illustrates some of the reasonsand methods for doing so: the Christian Lactantius wants to ascribe divine motivation to the paganGalerius’ decision to make Christianity a ‘legal’ religion in the early fourth century. He also wantsGalerius to act as an example to future emperors that they cannot escape the displeasure of theChristian God and they must then pay heed to the teachings of the Church. We must also recognisethat Lactantius’ focus on the excruciating detail of Galerius’ physical demise is a potent way to‘deconstruct’ the image of the emperor, which, in a world without mass media, the majority of hissubjects would otherwise encounter only in stylised and idealised forms such as statues and oncoins. 22
Year 2 Semester 1 (15 credits) ARCH 2003 - The Power of Rome: Europe’s First Empire (Dr Dragana Mladenović) Modern view of Roman might (Total War: Rome II computer game, courtesy of Sega)Module OverviewThe Roman empire has held the imagination of successive generations. Conquest by Rome broughtsocial, cultural and economic change to large swathes of what is now Europe, the Middle East andnorth Africa. Never before or after will these parts of the world enjoy centuries of stability and peaceas they did under the Romans. It was a unique political institution that encompassed a mosaic ofpeoples, languages and cultures that was unprecedented in its richness, leaving a legacy that hasprofoundly 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 thenineteenth, twentieth and even twenty-first centuries. The great wealth of the archaeologicalevidence has produced a long tradition of scholarship, but in the last twenty years, new approacheshave reawakened these debates, making the study of the Roman world one of the most dynamicfields within archaeology, with major implications for other areas of the Humanities. Post-colonialdiscourse, theorists of Globalization and North African dictators trying to raise their agriculturaloutput, 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 itmaintained? (Spoiler alert: its military might was not crucial!) In this module, you will look at thecauses, consequences and the changing nature of Roman imperialism and its political, social, culturaland economic foundations. You will touch upon key issues and debates in Roman archaeology andlearn 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 Cultural change and citizenship The Fall and legacy 23
Assessment % Contribution to Final Mark Assessment Method 0 (formative assessment only) Individual presentations (formative) 50 Research essay (2,000 words) 50 Examination (2 hours)Sample SourcesThis module is specifically interdisciplinary, so students will encounter diverse sources such as:Historical: ‘For, to accustom to rest and repose through the charms of luxury a population scattered andbarbarous and therefore inclined to war, Agricola gave private encouragement and public aid to the building oftemples, courts of justice and dwelling-houses, praising the energetic, and reproving the indolent. Thus anhonourable 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 elegantbanquets. All this in their ignorance, they called civilization [humanitas], when it was but a part of theirenslavement.’ Tacitus, Agricola, 1.21Iconographic: Epigraphic:Archaeological: Claudius and Britannia, a relief from the Sebasteion temple in Aphrodisias (Asia Minor) (courtesy of www.nyu.edu) Dedicatory inscription from Chichester (RIB 91) that is traditionally translated: To Neptune and Minerva, for the welfare of the Divine House by the authority of Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus, great king of Britain, the guild of smiths and those therein gave this temple from their own resources, Pudens, son of Pudentinus, presenting the site. Cogidubnus is believed to be a client king who resided at the Fishbourne Villa.Roman fort of Housesteads and a section of Hadrian’s Wall (courtesy of perlineamvalli.wordpress.com)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, introducingsome of the key agents involved - the emperor, provincial administrator, member of the indigenous elite andthe army. By integrating traditional source material with modern data from techniques of historical andscientific archaeology we can explore the perspectives of both those with means and agendas tocommemorate, and those that though past centuries have remained silent. 24
Year 2 Semester 1 (30 credits) HIST2006 - Looking Beyond the Holocaust: The Impact of Genocide on Contemporary History (Dr Mark Levene)Module OverviewThis module will operate along three main axes. The first is a theoretical one, examining the verydifferent arguments of comparativist scholars as to what is the 'Holocaust' and what is 'genocide'and how they should be understood. The second is a contextual one, considering a handful oftwentieth-century genocide case-studies which have sometimes been compared with the Holocaust,notably Armenia in 1915-16 and Rwanda in 1994. The third is a consideration of the use and abuseof Holocaust and genocide as a facet of our contemporary political and societal culture.Indicative List of Seminar Topics An overview of the incidence of twentieth-century mass murder Consideration of Raphael Lemkin and his creation of the specific term 'genocide' The emergence of international law on genocide, particularly the UN Convention of 1948 The conditions under which genocide can arise, including the role of 'international' society in the commission of genocide Debates about Holocaust 'uniqueness' and whether legitimate comparisons can be made Case-studies involving the role of 'ordinary' Germans and comparison with other non- Holocaust ordinary persons Issues of gender in Holocaust and genocide The 'banality of evil' in a broader historical frame The role of 'denial' in genocides other than the Holocaust The commemoration and memorialisation of Holocaust and other genocides in contemporary society 25
Assessment % Contribution to Final Mark Assessment Method 50 50 1 x essay (4,000 words) 1 x exam (2 hours)Sample Source‘You must understand that we are now fighting for our lives at the Dardanelles and that we aresacrificing thousands of men. While we are engaged in such a struggle as this, we cannot permitpeople in our own country to attack us in the back. We have got to prevent this no matter whatmeans we have to resort to.’ Enver Pasha, utterance, as reported by US ambassador, Henry Morgenthau, 1915‘The extermination of the Armenians and confiscation of their property and land flowed fromdecisions made by the Central Committee of Union and Progress. Bahaeddin Shakir organisedbattalions of butchers in the area under the jurisdiction of the Third Army and coordinated all thecrimes committed in this region. The state was complicit in these crimes. No government official, nojudge, no gendarme ever stepped in to protect the populations subject to these atrocities.’ Prosecutor's statement before the State Commission to Investigate Criminal Acts, drawing on deposition of General Vehib Pasha, January 1920One might say compare and contrast. Looking at the Armenian and Rwandan genocides, will be partof this course which will seek to introduce the bigger picture of 20th century genocide - always withappropriate reference to the Holocaust - what are its historical roots, how do we explain it, what hasit got to do with us. No prior knowledge is required, just inquiring minds! 26
Year 2 Semester 1 (30 credits) HIST2031 – Stalin and Stalinism (Dr. Claire Le Foll)Module OverviewThis course is a survey history of Stalin and Stalinism in the USSR, starting with the aftermath of theRevolutions of 1917 and going up to the present day. Major issues include the legacy of Lenin, theensuing power struggle and the rise of Stalin, the social impacts of Stalinism during the 1930s andthe Great Patriotic War. The course then continues through the rest of Soviet history to considerhow Stalin's successors dealt with Stalin's legacy, and where Stalinism stands in the present day. 27
Indicative List of Seminar Topics % Contribution to Final Mark 25 Lenin’s Legacy 25 The Struggle for Succession 50 Stalin’s ‘revolution from above’ Civil War against the Peasantry The Great Terror The ‘Old’ Bolsheviks: Stalin and Bukharin The Great Patriotic War Stalin’s Final Years Stalin’s Legacy Khrushchev and De-Stalinisation From Brezhnev to Andropov Gorbachev and Stalin’s Legacy Perestroika and GlasnostAssessment Assessment Method First essay (2,000 words), Second essay (2,000 words), Examination (2 hours, 2 questions)Sample SourceIn Stalinist Moscow a man is running along the street shouting: “The whole world is sufferingbecause of one man! One man!”He is seized by the NKVD. “What were you shouting in the streets?” asks the interrogator.“I was shouting that the whole world suffers because of one man”.“And who do you have in mind?” The interrogator’s eyes narrow.“What do you mean, who?” The man is astonished. “Hitler, naturally”.“Ah-h-h…” smiles the interrogator. “In that case you are free to leave”.The man walks the length of the room, reaches the door, opens it and suddenly stops and turnsaround to face the interrogator.“Excuse me, but who did you have in mind?”Political humour has been a unique feature of Russian history and culture, from the imperial periodto today. It existed even under Stalin and during the Great Terror, when telling a joke could send youto a Gulag camp. The distinctive, black and absurd humour created in the Soviet Union, was theresult of the particular political conditions. Jokes have a great historical value, providing a glimpse ofeveryday laughter, but also documenting the way ordinary people coped with the extraordinaryideological and political pressure. 28
Year 2 Semester 1 (30 credits) HIST2035 - The Struggle of the Czechs: From Serfdom to Stalinism (Professor Mark Cornwall)Module OverviewThis module studies the Czechs, one of the key peoples of East-Central Europe, as a way of exploringcritically the concept of national identity in modern Europe. It was Otto von Bismarck who onceobserved that whoever controlled Bohemia would control Europe. His comment reflected anawareness of the pivotal geographical situation of the region currently occupied by the CzechRepublic. In the late eighteenth century the Czech language had survived only among peasants in thecountryside; by the twentieth century Czech national identity was a vibrant phenomenon, whichfrom 1918 found its expression politically and culturally in the new state of Czechoslovakia.Indicative List of Seminar Topics Introduction to Czech Identity The Czech National Renaissance The 1848 Revolution in the Bohemian Lands Czech-German Classification and ‘Warfare’ Solutions to the ‘Czech Question’ at the Turn of the Century War: Sacrifice and Rebirth 1914-1919 How democratic was Czechoslovakia? The Sudeten German Problem: the Munich Crisis War: The Radical Solutions 1938-1946 Czech Stalinism and the Show Trials Czechoslovak Communism in Crisis 1968-89 29
Assessment % Contribution to Final Mark Assessment Method 25 each 50 2 x Essay (2,000 words) 1 x Exam (2 hours unseen)Sample SourceProsecutor: Lady accused, I ask you once again, whether your programme envisaged returning theindustrialists to those businesses which had been nationalized?!Milada Horáková: The return of ownership to those factories.Prosecutor: Then a programme for millionaires – not for the people.Horáková: It was a programme for the bourgeois classes.Prosecutor: Then this road had to lead to the renewal of capitalism. How do you think the workers ofnationalized factories would have received their former bosses? – realizing that they would again bethe subjects of exploitation?Horáková: I have a different view of this.Prosecutor: If you believed that the workers were not ready to surrender their factories to thecapitalists, under what circumstances did you envisage that it could occur.Horáková: Under the circumstance of a reversion, of a change in regime.Prosecutor: And how could that happen?Horáková: The circumstance under which it could occur we saw concretely in three possibilities: inthe possibility of war, in the possibility of diplomatic treaties, which would be extracted througheconomic pressure..Prosecutor: Let’s focus on the first possibility, the possibility of war. What war, with whom, againstwhom?Horáková: A war of the western powers against the East, in other words against the Peoples’Democracies and the USSR.Prosecutor: And on whose side would be the former SS of Western Germany and on whose sidewould be yourself and your associates?Horáková: ….I cannot answer that…Prosecutor: You can’t? Thank you. Show trial on 31 May 1950 of Milada Horáková (Czech National Socialist leader, executed 27 June 1950).This is a transcript of the show trial of the Czech politician, Milada Horáková, the only femalepolitician executed in the Stalinist show trials in Czechoslovakia. The source tells us much about theparanoid mindset of the prosecution (determined to find her guilty), while her answers show thedilemma of the Czech political opposition which did hope for a reversal of the communist revolution.The trial was publicized widely in the country and a campaign was orchestrated to make sure thatmembers of the public called for her to be found guilty and executed. 30
Year 2 Semester 1 (30 credits) HIST2039 - Imperialism and Nationalism in British India (Professor Ian Talbot)Module OverviewHow 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 thesignificance of the British constructing clock towers in numerous Indian towns and cities? How didthe diminutive and scantily clad figure of Gandhi emerge as an international symbol of resistance tothe trappings and power of the British Raj? Why did the British divide the Subcontinent when theyleft in August 1947? This module aims to explore such questions as these in the last century or so ofthe 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 The British Departure from India 31
Assessment % Contribution to Final Mark 25 each Assessment Method 50 2 x essays (2,000 words) 1 x examination (2 hour)Sample Source‘As long as we rule India, we are the greatest power in the world. If we lose it we shall drop straightaway to a third rate power.’ Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India 1901Curzon’s prophetic words were uttered when British power in India had entered its zenith. Theyreflect 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 andmore popular form. India’s post World War One diminishing economic value to Britain and the massmobilizations aroused by Mahatama Gandhi paved the way for independence at an earlier date thanany in Curzon’s generation could have contemplated 32
Year 2 Semester 1 (30 credits) HIST2045 - Cleopatra’s Egypt (Dr Annelies Cazemier)Module Overview‘It is well done, and fitting for a princess descended of so many royal kings'. Shakespeare's words onthe suicide of Cleopatra VII echo rare ancient Roman admiration for the last queen of Egypt.Defeated by Rome, Cleopatra's choice of death might show a glimpse of her noble origins. But whatof her life and the world that made her? Roman propaganda made a monster of Cleopatra: power-mad; sexually depraved; fanatical, animal-worshipping Egyptian; a stain on the glorious reputation ofAlexander the Great who brought her ancestors to Egypt. That legacy proved powerful and enduring.Can we get behind the propaganda to the real Cleopatra and her context? We explore the world ofCleopatra's Egypt; its multicultural society and relationship with Roman power; and the fragmentaryremains of Cleopatra's life and rule. And we reflect, finally, on Cleopatra's post-mortem power onthe western imagination, from Shakespeare to Hollywood and beyond. 33
Indicative List of Seminar Topics Ancient and modern constructions of Ptolemaic Egypt The Ptolemies’ creation of a new style of monarchy, combining Greek ideals of kingship with the ancient tradition of the Pharaohs Domestic and foreign policy Law and administration Life in the countryside Ptolemaic Alexandria: culture and commerce Memphis and the Egyptian temples ‘Isis is a Greek word’: Greek religion and Pharaonic tradition The Jews of Egypt Egyptian resistance to Greek rule The coming of Rome The rule of CleopatraAssessment % Contribution to Final Mark Assessment Method 50 50 1 4,000-word essay 2-hour examSample Source‘On behalf of Queen Cleopatra goddess Philopator, the (holy) place of the association of (Isis)Snonaitiake, of whom the president is the chief priest Onnophris. Year 1, Epeiph 1.’ Fayum Inscription III 205; Arsinoite nome, 2 July 51 B.C. (Votive relief, Louvre Museum, Paris.Dedicated in the very first year of Cleopatra’s reign, this limestone relief shows the queen as a malepharaoh making an offering to the goddess Isis. The relief was probably intended as a dedication toCleopatra’s father, who died in 51 B.C. The queen is alone; perhaps a sign of her early break-up withher brother-husband which would lead to civil war. The Greek inscription is crammed into a spacetoo small to hold it; recycling work, first-century style! The juxtaposition of Greek words withEgyptian iconography embodies the multicultural world of Cleopatra’s Egypt: Greek-speaking villagepriests, based in an Egyptian temple, serving a female pharaoh of Macedonian descent whoworships an Egyptian goddess. 34
Year 2 Semester 1 (30 credits) HIST2051 – The British Atlantic World (Dr Christer Petley)Module OverviewThis module focuses on the period between about 1600 and 1800, allowing you to explore thedevelopment of the British Empire in the Americas from the founding of Jamestown in 1607 up untilthe American Revolution and its aftermath. The module takes a broad look at the British colonies inthe Americas from Barbados in the south to Newfoundland in the north, examining the developmentof 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 RevolutionAssessmentAssessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark2 x 2,000-word essay 502 hour examination 50 35
Sample Source Eighteenth-century American woodcut‘Join or Die’! This is propaganda. The snake represents British-American colonies during theeighteenth 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 worktogether, they could be a dangerous—with venomous bite; if they allow themselves to be divided, itis mutually assured death. The woodcut first appeared during the Seven Years War, while thecolonies fought—as parts of the British Empire—against the French. But it was put to use again a fewyears later, when the American colonies rebelled against Britain in the American Revolution.Congress declared American Independence from Britain in 1776, and those responsible became—atleast in British eyes—guilty of treason. Benjamin Franklin is reputed to have commented to hisfellow Congressmen, ‘we must all hang together, or assuredly we shall each hang separately’,echoing the sentiment of ‘Join, or Die’. 36
Year 2 Semester 1 (30 credits) HIST2059 – Plague, Fire and Popish Plots: The Worlds of Charles II (Professor Maria Hayward)Module OverviewDuring his lifetime Charles II was described as charming, indolent and a womaniser, while his courtwas seen as far more informal and accessible than that of his father, Charles I. This module will seekto assess the validity of this view and will examine how successful Charles II was as a monarch. Whilethe primary focus is upon Charles II in this module, we will place him in a wider context byconsidering the relationship of the king and his capital, the changing role of the city of London anddraw comparisons with Paris and Versailles. We will also look at how Charles II responded topractical challenges such as plague and fire in London, as well as political and religious threats suchas the Popish plot. 37
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, dress 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 RevolutionAssessment % Contribution to Final Mark Assessment Method 25 each 50 2 X Essay (2,000 words) Exam (2 hours) 38
Year 2 Semester 1 (30 credits) HIST2064 – The Space Age (Professor Kendrick Oliver)Module OverviewIn this module, we will be exploring the causes, course and meaning of ‘the space age’ – whenvoyages beyond the earth’s atmosphere and onwards to other worlds first became plausible andthen an accomplished fact. We will consider the following questions: When, and in whatcircumstances, did space exploration develop as a goal? How did spaceflight come to be adopted asan instrument and expression of state policy in the Soviet Union and the United States? Why did theUnited States win the race to land a man on the moon, and why was there no subsequent landingmission 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 livein a ‘space age’, or have the grand ambitions of the first rocket pioneers for the conquest of spacebeen surrendered to terrestrial priorities?Indicative List of Seminar Topics Early rocket theory and experimentation from Tsiolkovsky to the V-2 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 39
Assessment % Contribution to Final Mark Assessment Method 25 25 2,000-word essay - summative Ten-minute presentation with PowerPoint slides 50 (tutor mark: 20%; peer-assessment: 5%) - summative Two-hour exam - summativeSample Source‘To see the earth as it truly is, small and blue and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats, isto see ourselves as riders on the earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the eternalcold—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 allowmankind 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 leftbehind as the species developed the means to travel beyond. But the space age also offered analternative perspective, in the form of the Archibald MacLeish’s prose poem marking the flight ofApollo 8 and the famous ‘Earthrise’ photograph taken during that mission: of other worlds as greyand barren, space as ‘eternal cold’ and of the ‘beautiful’ Earth itself as the only possible, properhome for mankind.40
Year 2 Semester 1 (30 credits) HIST2086 – Building London 1666 - 2012 (Dr Eleanor Quince)Module OverviewLondon is one of the most well-known cities in the world. It has a fascinating history, growing from arelatively small development along the river Thames into the sprawling metropolis we know today.In this module we will explore the history of the city through an examination of some of its mosticonic buildings. We will start in 1666, after the Great Fire of London, and journey through thedeveloping city to the present day, ending with the opening of the Olympic Park in 2012. Each weekwe will focus on a particular building or geographic site, considering its physical location within thecapital, the context of its design and construction – why it was built, how it was built, who and/orwhat it was built for – and then use the building to explore culture and society of the time of itsdevelopment. We will use maps of London to enable us to situate the buildings, both geographicallyand historically; examine contemporary reactions to the buildings to gauge the meanings invested inthem by specific individuals and groups; and consider visual materials, including prints, paintings,plans and photographs, as a means of interrogating the changing cityscape and the attitudes ofcontemporaries towards it.Indicative List of Seminar Topics The rebuilding of London after the Great Fire: St Paul’s Cathedral (1666-1720) The country in the town: parks, Garden Squares and villas (1740 – 1825) Monumental spaces: Regent’s Street, Hyde Park Corner and Trafalgar Square (1800-1840) The past in the present: the British Museum (1823 – 1847) Seat of power: the problem of re-building the Houses of Parliament (1836 - 1867) The aftermath of the Great Exhibition: Albertropolis (1851-1900) Going underground: the Tube (1863 – 1922) Culture returns to the South Bank: the legacy of The Festival of Britain (1951-1990): Achieving new heights: from highrise to skyscraper (1948 – 1998) London revived? the Tate Modern, the Millennium Dome, Stratford and the Olympic Park (1999 – 2012) 41
Assessment % Contribution to Final Mark Assessment Method 0 25 Give a seminar presentation on a key text - formative 25 2,000-word essay - summative 50 2,000-word essay - summative Examination - 2 hours - summativeSample Source Sir Christopher Wren’s Plan for Rebuilding the City of London after the dreadfull Conflagration in 1666 [sic], ‘Sunray Plan’, submitted 10th September 1666On the 2nd September 1666 a fire broke out in the King’s baker’s house in Pudding Lane and spreadrapidly across the walled City of London. The fire devastated 80% of the City, destroying some13,200 timber-framed homes. A young architect, Christopher Wren, who had been working on earlyplans for the restoration of the City’s Old St Paul’s Cathedral – a building in need of much repair evenbefore it was ravaged by fire – saw the devastation as an opportunity. On the morning of 10thSeptember 1666, just eight days after the fire and while the ground was still smouldering, hesubmitted his plan for a grand new City to the King. Now known as the ‘Sunray Plan’ (above), Wren’sNew City of London featured a formal grid formation punctuated with ‘sunspots’ – key buildingslocated at the centre of broad intersecting roadways. It was the first real plan for London, a Citywhich had grown organically with tiny houses erected haphazardly across a maze of narrow streetsand alleyways. There was no money to pay for Wren’s grand scheme, and while the King andParliament struggled to decide how the New City of London should look, homeowners beganrebuilding their houses on the original sites. Wren’s opportunity – the chance to create amagnificent formal city – passed by, setting the tone for four centuries of piecemeal urban planningwithin our capital. 42
Year 2 Semester 1 (30 credits) HIST2087 – Islamism: From the 1980s to the Present (Dr Hormoz Ebrahimnejad)Module OverviewAs a political ideology, Islamism is a phenomenon of the twentieth century with different strandsand rooted in different countries and representing different social strata. This module, examinesIslamism in the first place as an intellectual movement, a reaction to modernity and modernisationprojects that gained currency from the beginning of the twentieth century in the Near and MiddleEastern countries. Islamism extends from pure intellectual and cultural movements of the emergingmiddle class to terrorist organisations such as al Qaeda and ISIS with nihilist inclination thatconstitutes the core of their ideology.The module also examines the Western impact on the development of Islamism. Paradoxically, therise of Islamism that is best known for its anti (or at least non)-Western characteristics, has beeneither tolerated or supported by the Western World and the United States in particular both as adiscourse 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 wereconsidered by the West to constitute a new “security” belt that was to protect the Western interestsagainst the Soviet Union and its successor, the Russian Federation. Unpredictable developments inAfghanistan, Iran and Iraq, however, caused costly wars but in exchange provided moreopportunities for the USA to consolidate its military presence in the Middle East and Central Asia. 43
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 25 each 50 2 x essays (2,000 words) 1 x exam (2 hour)Sample Source‘Islam is a religion of those who struggle for truth and justice, of those who clamor for liberty andindependence. It is the school of those who fight against colonialism. Our one and only remedy is tobring 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 isthe way to victory for all Islamic revolutions.Muslims have no alternative, if they wish to correct the political balance of society, and force thosein power to conform to the laws and principles of Islam, to an armed Jihad against profanegovernments.’ 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 was a political cleric (1902-1989), who revolutionised the relationship betweenreligion and politics in Iran. In the above source, he justifies political Islam by the duty of the clericsto fight against colonialism and imperialism. However, after gaining power in Iran he went furtherand claimed that the society should be governed according to the principles of shari’a (Islamic law). 44
Year 2 Semester 1 (30 credits) HIST2090 - The Second British Empire (Dr John McAleer) Francis Hayman, Robert Clive and Mir Jafar after the Battle of Plassey, 1757 c. 1760, National Portrait Gallery)Module OverviewBy the middle of the eighteenth century, in the words of one contemporary, Britain had acquired a‘vast empire on which the sun never sets, and whose bounds nature has not yet ascertained’. Thecentury or so that followed played a key role in shaping today’s transnational and globalised world.It also represents a crucial phase in British history, as the country emerged as a major power on theworld stage. In this module, we will explore the origins, expansion and consolidation of the BritishEmpire in this period across continents and oceans. By the end of the module, we will have studiedkey events in the foundation of Britain’s empire from a variety of perspectives, ranging across theglobe, and using an array of sources. Our close scrutiny of written primary sources – such as letters,journals and travelogues – as well as images and objects will help us to understand how thishistorical period changed the world and Britain’s place in it. 45
Indicative List of Seminar Topics The Atlantic: North America and the Caribbean Enlightenment, exploration and emigration: the Pacific and Australia Trade and empire in Asia: The East India Company New horizons: Africa Art in the service of empire Collections, museums and empireAssessment % Contribution to Final Mark Assessment Method 50 50 1 x essay (4,000 word) 1 x exam (2 hour)Sample Source‘In this vast empire, on which the sun never sets, and whose bounds nature has not ascertained, onegreat superintending and controlling dominion must exist somewhere; and where can that dominionreside with so much dignity, propriety, and safety, as in the British legislature?’ Sir George Macartney, 1773Macartney was writing in the immediate after of the Seven Years War, a watershed in thedevelopment of the British Empire. His remarks point to the changing nature of the empire at thistime, and the increasingly important role that it would play in British politics, society and culture. Inthe space of barely a century, events such as the acquisition of Canada, the loss of thirteen Americancolonies, the rise of the East India Company in Asia, the exploration of the Pacific, and an emerginginterest in Africa irrevocably changed the nature of Britain’s relationship with the rest of the world. 46
Year 2 Semester 1 (30 credits) HIST2096 - Evolution of US Counterterrorism (Dr Chris Fuller)Module OverviewThrough examination of the aims and methods of a range of anti-American terrorist groups, such asthe Libyan-sponsored campaigns of the 1980s, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, Palestinian liberationmovements, non-state Islamic terrorism, insurgent guerrilla forces such as the Taliban and morerecently the Islamic State and the rising phenomenon of “lone wolf” terrorism, this module engageswith the scholarly debates relating to what motivates such terrorist groups, and the best methods tocounter the threat they pose. By developing a solid understanding of what motivates terroristgroups, you will be well placed to engage in a critical analysis of the evolving methods ofcounterterrorism adopted by the United States, from the formation of Delta Force under the Carteradministration, to the Reagan administration’s use of the CIA to ‘neutralize’ anti-American terroristgroups, through Clinton’s use of rendition, to the more controversial practices of the “War onTerror” years, including mass surveillance, “Enhanced Interrogation”, and targeted killings.Indicative List of Seminar Topics The conceptual debates surrounding terrorism The founding of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center and the Eagle Programme State sponsorship of terrorism US counterterrorism tools from 1979 to the present day Terrorism and the media The future of terrorism and counterterrorism 47
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