Encounter the Past: From Ancient Egypt to the War on Terror University of Southampton History Department Year 1 Module Choices 2019-20
Contents 1 6-7 Introduction / How to Select Modules 8-11 Full Module List 12-47 Semester 1 Compulsory Modules 48-53 Semester 1 Optional Modules 54-87 Semester 2 Compulsory Modules 88-90 Semester 2 Optional Modules Index by Historical Period
Introduction Be bold! In coming to History at Southampton, you are joining an incredibly dynamic community of scholars, whose broad expertise and varied interests are reflected in the original and thought-provoking modules available. Take the time to explore what is on offer by reading the overviews, considering the lists of topics each module includes, and enjoying the sample sources and commentaries provided in this handbook. Do not be put off by things of which you may not yet have heard or studied previously. Getting the most out of your time at university means seizing the opportunity to broaden your horizons and challenge yourself intellectually, and that is exactly what this varied curriculum offers you. Just as the staff in this department are pushing the boundaries of historical knowledge and understanding, so should you be on both an academic and a personal level. We wish you all the best for the upcoming year, and hope this booklet helps you make the most of the diverse options available to you. Dr Christopher Prior, Director of Programmes How to Select Your Modules This handbook includes details on the modules you can take within history, including the compulsory modules that you take in year one as well as optional modules for you to choose. The history compulsory modules are HIST1151 World Histories in semester one and HIST1150 World Ideologies in semester two. These modules will introduce you to new areas of history, covering a broad chronological and geographical scope (HIST1151) and exploring varied concepts and big ideas that have shaped the past and the way historians interpret the past (HIST1150). The compulsory modules are intended to give you the big picture of key moments and ideas from the ancient to the modern world that will provide a foundation for the rest of your degree. These modules are also designed to help with the transition from sixth form and college to university so you are developing and building the essential historical skills that you need throughout the rest of your degree. The compulsory modules are also structured to introduce you to different lecturers and give you a taste of the types of subjects and approaches to history you could study during your degree. World Histories (30 credits) and World Ideologies (30 credits) go alongside your optional modules (15 credits each) in each semester. If you are studying for a combined honours degree or are taking one of the ancient history degree programmes, other compulsory modules will be relevant to you as explained in the appropriate sections below. In order to qualify for your degree, you need to take 120 credits during the academic year, that is 60 credits in each semester. Other arrangements apply for part-time students, and sometimes for students whose studies have been affected by other circumstances in some way. The credits attached to each module are stated in each description below. While the compulsory modules offer you a foundation and a ‘big picture’ perspective, the optional modules are designed to offer a more in-depth study of a particular time period, event, personality or historical question. This means that from the very beginning of your studies you are looking at both big ideas and focused case studies in order to build on your skills as an historian. 1
For Single Honours History Students (BA History) You need to take 60 credits in each semester. In both semesters, there is one compulsory module worth 30 credits each: HIST1151 World Histories in semester 1, and HIST1150 World Ideologies in semester 2. You will also select two optional Cases and Contexts modules in each semester; these modules are worth 15 credits each. Cases and Contexts modules typically focus on a key period of history or a key event, and trace the development of contexts and approaches to studying that history. You will find a summary of each of these modules in the booklet below, including an indicative primary source from the module and a description of it. The pattern of your modules for year 1 should look like this: SEMESTER 1 SEMESTER 2 HIST1151 World Histories (30 credits) HIST1150 World Ideologies (30 credits) AND AND 2 x 15 credit optional modules 2 x 15 credit optional modules You are required to take one optional module (15 credits) principally concerned with pre-1750 history, which can be in either semester during year 1. Of course, you do not have to restrict yourself to just one and you may take all of your optional modules in ancient, medieval and early modern history if you wish. Those which count as pre-1750 are identified by an asterisk. The tables below on pp. 6-7 set out the lists of modules that you can select in each semester. Please note that modules ONLY run in the semester in which they are listed, i.e. you cannot choose a module that is listed in semester 1 to take in semester 2. For Joint-Honours History Students (BA Modern History and Politics, BA Archaeology and History, BA English and History, BA Film and History, BA History and a Modern Language, BA Philosophy and History) Your degree is designed so that half should be in history and half should be in your other subject, so typically 60 credits in each subject area each year which translates to 30 credits in each discipline in each semester. In history, in semester 1 you will take HIST1151 World Histories. This is a 30-credit module and is compulsory for all Year 1 History students. It introduces you to a range of new histories, encompassing very wide chronological and geographical scope, running from the ancient world to the late twentieth-century. You do not take History option modules in semester 1. In semester 2, you need to select two Cases and Contexts option modules, worth 15-credits each. Cases and Contexts modules typically focus on a key period of history or a key event, 2
and trace the development of contexts and approaches to studying that history. You will find a summary of each of these modules in the booklet below, including an indicative primary source from the module and a description of it. The pattern of your modules for year 1 should typically look like this: SEMESTER 1 SEMESTER 2 HIST1151 World Histories (30 credits) 2 x 15 credit optional modules AND AND 30 credits from your other subject 30 credits from your other subject Please refer to the lists of modules for semester 2 set out on p. 7 from which you can make your selections. Please note that modules ONLY run in the semester in which they are listed, i.e. modules that are listed in semester 1 will not be running in semester 2, so ensure that you make your selections from the modules running in semester 2. Modern History and Politics programme (MHP) students only: If you taking MHP, you can only take post-1750 optional modules. The pre-1750 modules are those which have an asterisk next to them, do not try to select any of those asterisked modules. For Ancient History students (BA Ancient History, BA Ancient History and History, BA Ancient History and Archaeology, BA Ancient History and Philosophy, BA Ancient History and Spanish, BA Ancient History and German) You need to take 60 credits in each semester. In both semesters there are compulsory modules that will introduce you to ancient history and broaden your understanding of the field; HIST1155 Introduction to the Ancient World in semester 1 is worth 30 credits, and in semester 2 you have HIST1154 Ancient History: Sources and Controversies and ARCH1062 Wonderful Things, which are 15 credits each. Introduction to the Ancient World is designed to introduce you to some of the major civilisations and historical turning points of the ancient world. Ancient History: Sources and Controversies introduces some of the foundational primary sources for the understanding of the ancient world, and which will likely be sources that you will work with throughout your degree. Wonderful Things focuses on understanding the past through material evidence, which is an important skill for the understanding of antiquity. These modules are also designed to help with the transition from sixth form and college to university so you are developing and building the essential historical skills that you need throughout the rest of your degree. The compulsory modules are also structured to introduce you to different lecturers and give you a taste of the types of subjects you could study during your degree. You will also select two optional modules in each semester; these modules are worth 15 credits each and may be taught by lecturers in the History, Archaeology, English or Philosophy departments. You will find that the history of the ancient world is a very multidisciplinary subject, and you can use a number of different approaches and types of evidence to assess a 3
key period of ancient history and its legacy for today. You will find a summary of the history modules in the booklet below, including an indicative primary source from the module and a description of it, but you will be offered a whole range of modules relevant to the ancient world. Please see the list of modules available to you that you have been sent separately. Do not forget that you can opt to take Greek or Latin as part of your optional modules. Language modules identified as level 1A are available in semester one and level 1B modules are on offer in semester two. However, you can only take 1B if you have already taken 1A. For single honours ancient history students, the pattern of your modules for year 1 should look like this: SEMESTER 1 SEMESTER 2 HIST1155 Introduction to the Ancient HIST1154 Ancient History: Sources and World (30 credits) Controversies (15 credits) AND AND 2 x 15 credit optional ancient modules ARCH1062/HIST1130 Wonderful Things from within History, Archaeology, (15 credits) English, Philosophy, or Greek or Latin languages AND 2 x 15 credit optional ancient modules from within History, Archaeology, English, Philosophy, or Greek or Latin languages If you are studying ancient history as a joint honours degree, your degree is designed so that half should be in ancient history and half should be in your other subject, so typically 60 credits in each subject area each year. In ancient history, in semester 1 you will take HIST1155 Introduction to the Ancient World (30 credits). In semester 2, you need to select two optional modules, worth 15-credits each (30 credits in total). Your remaining credits come from your other subject area. As a joint honours ancient history student, the pattern of your modules for year 1 should typically look like this: SEMESTER 1 SEMESTER 2 HIST1155 Introduction to the Ancient 2 x 15 credit optional ancient modules from World (30 credits) within History, Archaeology, English, Philosophy, or Greek or Latin languages AND AND 30 credits from your other subject 30 credits from your other subject 4
Please refer to the lists of modules set out in the tables below (pp.6-7) from which you can make your history selections. Please note that modules ONLY run in the semester in which they are listed, i.e. you cannot choose a module that is listed in semester 1 to take in semester 2. All the modules available to you will be listed on the Online Option Choice system, and you will receive a list of the modules available to you separately. If you have any queries you can contact the Director of Programmes for History, Dr Christopher Prior ([email protected]) or the Joint Honours Liaison Coordinator, Professor Ian Talbot ([email protected]) (Ancient History student: you have your own coordinator, who is Professor Maria Hayward ([email protected]). For further details for all of these degree programmes, and for more information on joint degrees, see: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/history/undergraduate/courses.page? Online Option Choice You apply for modules through the university’s Online Option Choice (OOC) system The Student Office will send you information separately about how to use the OOC system. The OOC system operates on a first come first served basis. Individual module size is capped to ensure the quality of students’ experience. This does mean some modules will fill quickly. In making your selections, we encourage you to think broadly across the range of modules offered. If you find that a module that you wanted to take is already full when you make your choices you should pick an alternative module that does have space and you will be sent information about how to join waiting lists for modules that have reached capacity. Disclaimer The information contained in this Module Options Handbook is correct at the time it was published. The department works hard in ensuring that students benefit from a wide range of modules, but typically around a quarter of optional modules do not run due to lower than average interest or unanticipated changes in staff availability. If we do have insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, this may not be offered. If an optional module will not be running, we will advise you as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative module. The range of modules that History can offer means that interesting alternatives are always just around the corner. Please see the university’s official disclaimer http://www.calendar.soton.ac.uk/ 5
Full Module List History Year 1 Semester 1 Compulsory Modules HIST1151 – World Histories (compulsory for all students reading BA History, BA Modern History and Politics, BA Archaeology and History, BA English and History, BA Film and History, BA Philosophy and History, BA History and a Modern Language, BA Ancient History and History) p.8 HIST1155 – Introduction to the Ancient World (compulsory for all students reading BA Ancient History, BA Ancient History and History, BA Ancient History and Archaeology, BA Ancient History and Philosophy, BA Ancient History and a Language) p.10 Cases and Contexts Optional Modules p.12 *HIST1153: Alexander the Great and his Legacy *HIST1168: The Roman Army in Great Britain p.14 *HIST1134: The Murder of Edward II p.16 *HIST1062: Rebellions and Uprising in the Age of the Tudors p.18 *HIST1175: Castles: Military Technology and Social Change from the Middle Ages to the Modern p.20 *HIST1019: The First Crusade: Sources and Distortions p.22 *HIST1087: Papal Power in Medieval Europe: Crusades, Heresy and Clashes with Kings p.24 HIST1029: American Slavery p.26 HIST1173: The First World War p.28 HIST1118: The Seven Years War p.30 HIST1145: From Shah to Ayatollah: The Establishment of Clerical Power in Iran (1979 to today) p.32 HIST1012: Who is Anne Frank? p.34 HIST1170: Putin and the Politics of Post-Soviet Russia p.36 HIST1180: Russia in Revolution 1905-17 p.38 HIST1076: God’s Own Land: Pakistan History and Origins p.40 HIST1125: When an Empire Falls: Culture and the British Empire, 1914-1960 p.42 FREN1017: Liberté, égalité, fraternité? Introduction to key events in French history p.44 HUMA1038: Introduction to Ethnography: Food and Culture p.46 6
History Year 1 Semester 2 p.48 Compulsory Modules HIST1150 – World Ideologies (compulsory for all BA History students) HIST1154 – Ancient History: Sources and Controversies (compulsory for BA Ancient History) p.50 ARCH1062 – Wonderful Things (compulsory for BA Ancient History) p.52 Cases and Contexts Optional Modules p.54 *HIST1008: A Tudor Revolution in Government? *HIST1074: The Battle of Agincourt p.56 *HIST1102: The End of the World: Apocalyptic Visions of History p.58 *HIST1146: Joan of Arc: History behind the Myth p.60 *HIST1164: Consuls, Dictators and Emperors p.62 *HIST1106: Emperor Constantine the Great: From Just Church to State Church p.64 HIST1084: Cities of the Dead: Death, Mourning and Remembrance in Victorian Britain p.66 HIST1085: German Jews in Great Britain p.68 HIST1109: Terrorists, Tyrants and Technology: America’s “War on Terror” p.70 HIST1119: The Long Summer? Edwardian Britain 1901-1914 p.72 HIST1147: The Real Downton Abbey p.74 HIST1158: Liberté, Egalité, Beyoncé: Women’s History in Modern Britain p.76 HIST1176: Eisenhower and the World: U.S. Foreign Policy in the 1950s p.78 HIST1177: Twentieth-Century China p.80 HIST1058: Russia in Revolution 1905-1917 p.38 HIST1089: Histories of Empire p.82 HIST1103: The Collapse of Austria-Hungary p.84 ARCH1028: Landscapes and Seascapes of Britain p.86 7
Year 1 Semester 1 – Compulsory Module (30 credits)* HIST 1151 – World Histories: Contact, Conflict and Culture from Ancient to Modern (Dr Charlotte Riley) *Compulsory for all students on BA History, BA Modern History and Politics, BA History and a Modern Language, BA Film and History, BA English and History, BA Archaeology and History, BA Philosophy and History, BA Ancient History and History Module Overview The idea of historical periods—the division of the past into blocks such as ‘the middle ages’ or ‘the modern period’—is fundamental to how historians and the general public write and think about the past. The aim of this module is to introduce you to how different historical periods are defined, and how the idea of historical periods affects the way that history is written and understood due to these basic questions and assumptions. As well as introducing these ideas, the module will also provide you with the opportunity to discuss and debate some of the most important features of these periods, including the nature of cultural contact and conflict between world civilisations, the history of empires, and dynamics of change in world histories from ‘antiquity’ to ‘the modern period’. In this way, the module will provide you with background knowledge useful throughout the rest of your degree and beyond. Special Features of this Module • Wide-ranging introduction to historical periods • Wide-ranging introduction to historical methodologies • Intensive skills training for degree-level written work • Global historical coverage 8
Assessment % Contribution to Final Mark Assessment Method 75 25 3 x written evaluation of a journal article Group presentation Sample Source Australian Bark Shield, 1770, held in the British Museum. This shield was carried by one of two indigenous Australian men who encountered Captain Cook and his crew members on their first landing at Botany Bay, Sydney, in April 1770. Cook and his crew shot at the men, and took the shield when they fled. The shield shows faint traces of white clay decoration on the front, demonstrating the artistic as well as military significance of the item. The source is significant in its demonstration of the violence underpinning early colonial encounters between the Europeans and indigenous people in the new colonies. Its position today in the British Museum also raises questions about the imperial legacies in Britain today, and the role of museums in perpetuating colonial narratives about the world, especially as it is currently on display in ‘Room 1: Enlightenment’. Historians have many different ways of viewing the past: we do not just pick up facts like sweets from a jar. Instead, we craft different stories based on the sources we choose to examine, the approaches we choose to take and the way that our training, our beliefs and our identities shape our interaction with the past. In this history department, we have historians working on periods from the ancient world to the contemporary moment, covering the whole world (and beyond!) and working on themes like environment, technology and the material world; artistic, intellectual and cultural life; race, gender and the promise of a civil society; and big topics like faith, power, empire (and after), conflict, tolerance, prejudice and migration. This course will introduce you to some of these topics and themes, show you some periods and regions that you might not have encountered before, and introduce you to some of the stories that we find especially interesting and important. 9
Year 1 Semester 1 – Ancient History Compulsory Module (30 credits)* HIST1155 – Introduction to the Ancient World (Dr Louise Revell/Professor Dan Levene) *Compulsory for all students reading BA Ancient History, BA Ancient History and History, BA Ancient History and Archaeology, BA Ancient History and Philosophy, BA Ancient History and Spanish, BA Ancient History and German Module Overview The Ancient World has profoundly influenced subsequent generations of history, and helps us to understand the foundations of today’s world. This module provides an introduction to this momentous period of history from Dark Age Greece to the emergence of Islam. We will explore major civilisations including Classical Greece, the Hellenistic world, the Roman Republic, the rise and fall of the Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire up to the rise of Islam. This module will introduce you to central themes in Greek, Roman and Byzantine history, assessing political processes, socio-cultural changes and ideological developments. A wide array of evidence will be investigated from the literary to the material and visual, such as historical writings, art, architecture, archaeology, inscriptions, and philosophy. Throughout we will ask major questions: what were the key turning points and markers of change in the Ancient World? What were the distinctive features of the major ancient civilisations? How did the dominant civilisations interact with other cultures and societies under their rule? Importantly, we will also investigate the reception of the Ancient World: how has it been understood by subsequent generations and what is its significance and impact throughout history? In this way, the module will provide you with an overview and important background knowledge that will support you in the rest of your degree and beyond. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Minoan/Mycenaean to Dark Age Greece • Classical Greece • Hellenistic world • Greece and its Neighbours • Republican Rome • Roman Empire 10
• Rome and its Neighbours • Constantine and the fall of Rome • Byzantium and the rise of Islam • The reception of the Ancient World (including a visit to the British Museum) Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x Commentaries exercise (2 x 500 words) 20 2 x Essays (2,000 words each) 60 Group presentation 20 Sample Source ‘Say to Nimu'wareya, the king of Egypt, my brother: Thus Kadašman-Enlil, the king of Karaduniyaš, your brother. With regards to the girl, my daughter, about who you wrote to me in view of marriage, she has become a woman; she is nubile. Just send a delegation to fetch her. Previously my father would send a messenger to you and you would not detain him for very long. You quickly sent him off, and you would also send to my father here a beautiful greeting gift. But now when I sent a messenger to you, you have detained him for six years and you have sent me as my greeting gift the only thing in six years 30 minas of gold that looked like silver … When you celebrated a great festival you did not send your messenger to me saying \"Come to eat and drink\" Nor did you send my greeting gift in connection with the festival.’ Amarna letter EA3. Babylon king Kadashman-Enlil to Amenhotep III (trans. W.L. Moran) This is part of a letter from the king of Babylon the New Kingdom Egyptian Pharaoh. It is part of an archive of letters between the Pharaohs Amenhotel III and Akhenaten and the various kings and vassal kings of the eastern Mediterranean. The letter demonstrates how international politics was conducted in the second millennium BC. In particular, we can identify two important elements: marriage and gift-giving. It is clear that Amenhotel and Kadashman-Enlil have previously agreed to create a closer bond between the two kingdoms through the marriage between the former and the latter’s daughter. This must have been whilst the girl was a child, and now that she is considered of marriageable age, Kadashman-Enlil is proposing the marriage should now go ahead. Perhaps his eagerness for the union is because of slights he has received from the Pharaoh, and which he recounts in the remainder of the letter: Amenhotep has not sent acceptable greeting gifts and has not invited him to celebrations in Egypt. This are about loss of status or loss of face: presumably he neither needed the gifts nor would have attended these events. Instead, they stood as indicators of how far Amenhotep regarded Kadashman-Enlil and Babylon as equals to his power and the might of Egypt. Kadashman-Enlil’s unspoken complaint is that he is being treated as an inferior and not being shown the respect he feels he deserves. 11
Year 1 Semester 1 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) *HIST1153 – Alexander the Great and his Legacy (Dr Annelies Cazemier) Module Overview In this module, you will explore the evidence for the life and achievements of King Alexander III (‘the Great’), of Macedon (356-323 BCE). Throughout the course, the module will focus on the challenges of the surviving ancient sources (textual and material) for reconstructing the realities of Alexander’s world, his actions and intentions, and the wide-ranging debates and differences of interpretation that they have generated. You will learn to identify the varied agendas in ancient source material and in the scholarship surrounding its interpretation. The module will explore the historical context in which Alexander came to power in the kingdom of Macedon and the wider Greek world. It will further explore what can be known of Alexander’s early development and the ideologies and cultural factors that shaped his outlook and early policies. The major part of the module focuses on Alexander’s campaigns, his quest for the ‘liberation’ of the Greeks of Asia Minor and the conquest of the Persian Empire. Setting out in 334 BCE, with an army of c. 43,000 infantry and 5,500 cavalry of Macedonians and Greeks, Alexander led the ‘most formidable array ever to leave Greek soil’; by the time of his death in 323, he had conquered almost the whole of the known world of his time. In the context of his campaigns, particular attention will be given to Alexander’s actions – and the reception of Alexander by local peoples - in Egypt and Asia, and the development of his self- understanding as an absolute ruler and divine king. The module will then explore the consequences of Alexander’s early death in Babylon, and the creation of the Hellenistic kingdoms under dynasties founded by his Macedonian generals, with particular focus on the Ptolemies (in Egypt). How did these Greek-speaking, Macedonian elites transform these worlds of Alexander’s Empire, and vice versa? The final part of the module focuses on the reception of Alexander’s life and legacy from antiquity to the contemporary world. 12
Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Introduction: Sources and Approaches • Alexander’s Early Life and Fourth-Century Macedon • Alexander as King and the Campaign against Persia • Alexander’s Conquest: Defeating Darius • Alexander’s Conquest: To India and Back • Alexander’s Empire: Ruling the World • Alexander and the Hellenistic World • Alexander’s Death and his Successors • Images of Alexander: Ancient to Modern • Alexander’s Afterlife: Myth and History Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x Commentaries exercise (2 x 500 words) 20 1 x Essay (2,000 words) 40 1 x Exam (1 hour) 40 Sample Source ‘How I should like to come to life again for a little while after my death to discover how people read these present events by that time; at present they have good enough reason to praise and favour it; that is their way of angling for a share of my favour.’ Attributed to Alexander the Great, from Lucian of Samosata, How to Write History, 2nd century CE. Questions of how to interpret the life and legacy of Alexander the Great have been live since antiquity; and, if we trust this anecdote from Lucian, they began with Alexander himself. Would the histories of the future preserve nothing but distorted images created by flatterers? There are in fact both positive and negative interpretations of Alexander’s life and achievements in ancient sources as well as modern historical accounts. Different images of Alexander emerge. It is relevant to keep in mind who wrote when and with what aim. Your chance to make up your own mind about the great conqueror! 13
Year 1 Semester 1 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 Credits) HIST1168 – The Roman Army in Britain: Life on the Northern Frontier (Dr Louise Revell) Module Overview In this module, you will examine one of the greatest armies in European history. The Roman army has long excited interest, whether out of an interest in the past, or as a model for more recent military powers. The far-flung province of Britain hosted the largest contingent of Roman military units of any province, with 3-4 citizen legions and ?? non-citizen auxiliary units. From the end of the first century AD, conquest ceased, and a frontier was established in the north of England, at first an informal frontier and then the fixed frontier of Hadrian’s Wall. This area has been one of the most important sources of evidence for the Roman army, both textual and material. One of the revealing has been the fort of Vindolanda and the Vindolanda Tablets, a unique repository of written evidence from letters to daily manpower reports. What do we know about life on this frontier? Where were the soldiers from? What were their daily routines? How was such a large force supplied? Who else formed part of the military community? Addressing these and other questions, you will study the Vindolanda Tablets and other evidence to reconstruct the lives of this fascinating community. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • The development of the frontier zone • Language and literacy • Documenting the Roman army • The officers of the Roman army: getting to the top • How Roman was the Roman army of the frontier? • Women and children inside and outside the forts • The daily routines of military life • Supplying the troops • Military religion 1: Roman state religion? • Military religion 2: the gods of the frontier 14
• Creating a military community % Contribution to Final Mark Assessment 20 40 Assessment Method 40 1 x Commentaries exercise (2 x 500 words) 1 x Essay (2,000 words) 1 x Exam (1 hour) Sample Source ‘Karus to his Cerialis, greetings. ... Brigionus has requested me, my lord, to recommend him to you. I therefore ask, my lord, if you would be willing to support him in what he has requested of you. I ask that you think fit to commend him to Annius Equester, centurion in charge of the region, at Luguvalium, [by doing which] you will place me in debt to you both in his name and my own. I pray that you are enjoying the best of fortune and are in good health. Farewell, brother. (Back) To Cerialis, prefect.’ Tab. Vindol. 250 This is a letter to Flavius Cerialis, the prefect of the fort of Vindolanda. We know nothing about Karus and Brigionus, other than what is written in this letter. This letter tells us a lot about the structures of command on the frontier, and how personal relationships influenced military networks. Prior to this letter, Brigionus has presumably asked Cerialis to find him a position with greater authority, and has also asked Karus to support him. In the letter itself, Karus is expressing his support for Brigionus. However, Cerialis himself lacks the authority to grant a better posting; rather he is being asked to represent Brigionus to the regional commander, Annius Equester. This shows that the networks of patronage and recommendation through which Roman politics operated, extended as far as the furthest frontiers in northern Britain. 15
Year 1 Semester 1 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) *HIST1134 – The Murder of Edward II (Dr Craig Lambert) Module Overview From 1327 to 1485 three English kings were deposed, one murdered in the Tower of London and one killed in battle. Edward II was the first to be removed and his deposition, murder or possible survival is one of the most important events in English medieval history. It was the first time an English parliament deposed a divinely anointed monarch and it provided the blueprint for the removal of future monarchs. After Edward’s deposition several English kings were removed by popular mandate, channelled through a newly emerging political consciousness. It also ensured that English kingship developed differently to continental monarchy. Successful English kings ruled through parliament, not against it. In order to understand how Edward II was deposed we need to look at aspects of his reign. In particular how he treated the nobility, his military ineptitude and how this fostered discontent. We will then examine how chroniclers of the time treated his reign and his kingship. We also need to consider the development of parliament and how it was used to provide a popular platform, and thus credibility, to the removal of a monarch. More recently, a theory that Edward II escaped custody and survived as a hermit in Italy has been given a new lease of life. We shall examine this historical argument and the writings of those who oppose it. There is a wealth of historical records and secondary reading now available in translations and online that throw light on Edward’s reign, his murder or possible survival, including the parliament rolls. Through this module you will be introduced to historical sources of various provenances and how historians have used them. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Kingship • Historical theories • Kings as personalities • The development of parliament Assessment 16
Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x Commentaries exercise (2 x 500 words) 20 1 x Essay (2,000 words) 40 1 x Exam (1 hour) 40 Sample Source The execution of Thomas, earl of Lancaster, in 1322. From the Luttrell Psalter in the British Library, Add. Mss. 42130, fol. 56. A picture is worth a thousand words. In 1322 Edward II executed his cousin Thomas Earl of Lancaster, the most powerful man in the kingdom after the king. This image features in the Luttrell Psalter, a book of Psalms (c.1330) created for Sir Geoffrey Luttrell, a man with Lancastrian sympathies. Until 1322 Thomas had led the baronial opposition to Edward’s increasingly tyrannical rule by championing a series of political and fiscal reforms known as the Ordinances. Frustrated at the king’s unwillingness to implement the Ordinances Lancaster led a rebellion. In 1322 at the battle of Boroughbridge Lancaster’s forces were defeated and the earl was captured. After a summary trial he was led away and executed, the first man of his rank to be killed in such a way for over 300 years. Here we see an almost saintly Thomas holding his hands out in prayer while he is executed by a man holding a large sword, designed to represent the king’s tyranny and force. The Earl’s neck is bleeding, an image aimed at showing his path to martyrdom. This image represents much about Edward’s reign: the brutality of the age, the break with his nobles and his tyrannical rule that was encouraged by a cadre of unsuitable and power greedy couturiers. Yet, it also shows the contradictions and complexities of medieval society. Thomas was no saint who had showed himself to be a troublesome man unfit to perform the role as leader of the opposition. Yet, several years after his death a cult developed around his tomb and miracles were said to have occurred. Within a few years he was nominated for canonisation. So after his death a man who in life had proved himself to be a poor leader and a rebel was championed as a saint. 17
Year 1 Semester 1 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) *HIST1062 – Rebellions and Uprisings in the Age of the Tudors (Professor Mark Stoyle) Module Overview The aims of this module are to introduce you to the turbulent sequence of rebellions which took place during the Tudor period, to encourage you to ponder on the causes and consequences of those uprisings, and to help you to understand why previous historians have written about them in the way that they have. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Rebellion and taxation • Rebellion and religious conflict • Rebellion and ethnic conflict • Rebellion and class conflict • Women rebels • ‘Royal rebels’ • Noble rebels • Echoes of rebellion 18
Assessment % Contribution to Final Mark Assessment Method 20 40 2 x 500 word Commentaries (1,000 words) 40 1 x Essay (2,000 words) 1 x Exam (1 hour) Sample Source ‘By this time there was a scaffold made over against the White Tower, for the … lady Jane [Grey] to die upon. The said lady, being nothing at all abashed, neither with fear of her own death, which then approached, nor with the sight of the dead carcase of her husband … came forth … her countenance nothing abashed, neither her eyes moistening with any tears … with a book in her hand, whereon she prayed all the way, till she came to the said scaffold’. J.G. Nichols (ed.), The Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary, pp. 55-56. This eye-witness account of the execution of Lady Jane Grey at the Tower of London in 1554 illustrates the desperate stakes for which all Tudor ‘rebels’ played. Having briefly seized the crown in 1553, Jane had already been forgiven once by Mary Tudor, the woman who had replaced her on the English throne. When Sir Thomas Wyatt led a new rebellion against Mary during the following year, however – a rebellion which was swiftly quashed – the queen decided that she could no longer tolerate the risk which the continued existence of her teenage rival posed, and Jane and her husband were executed on a charge of treason shortly afterwards. 19
Year 1 Semester 1 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) *HIST1175 – Castles: Military Technology and Social Change from the Middle Ages to the Modern (Dr Nick Karn) Module Overview The castle was one of the most characteristic creations and symbols of the middle ages. They were advanced military technology which supported a range of functions; they dominated populations and secured conquests; they were garrisons, centres of government and elite residences, among other functions. Within this module, you will examine how the castle developed in terms of functions and uses. Changing military technology formed perhaps the largest single influence on the development of the castle, and the module will include consideration of the development of siege technology, and especially of the evolution of artillery. Social change also influenced the development of the castle, for castles depended on the predominance of an aristocratic class itself subject to change. Finally, you will look at the end of the castle as a serious military asset, and how some of its functions and values survived even that. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • The origin of the castle, or, why were there no castles in the early middle ages? • Castles and feudal society: functions and form • The spread of castles around Europe • Castles, innovation and the Crusades • Edward I of England and the castles of the conquest of Wales • Castles and technology: the origins of artillery and changing castle design • Castles and aristocratic culture in the later middle ages • Henry VIII and the defence of the nation • Elizabethan and Stuart castles: changing functions • The end of the castle? Military obsolescence and changing social norms • Castles and the Gothic imagination 20
Assessment % Contribution to Final Assessment Method Mark 20 1 x Commentaries exercise (2 x 500 words) 1 x Essay (2,000 words) 40 1 x Exam (1 hour) 40 Sample Source ‘And without delay, setting up engines most skilfully contrived around the castle, and posting an encircling ring of archers in very dense formation, he began to harass the besieged most grievously. On the one hand stones or other missiles launched from the engines were falling and battering them everywhere, on the other a most fearful hail of arrows, flying around before their eyes, was causing them extreme affliction; sometimes javelins flung from a distance, or masses of any sort hurled in by hand, were tormenting them, sometimes sturdy warriors, gallantly climbing the steep and lofty rampart, met them in most bitter conflict with nothing but the palisade to keep the two sides apart. In was in fact like this that the king’s men harassed the besieged by daily onslaughts; they, on their side, defended themselves manfully without giving way until those who were chief in command, without the knowledge of the others, sent secretly to the king and made an agreement conceding his demand for the surrender of the castle.’ The siege and capture of Faringdon Castle (Berkshire) in 1144 from the anonymous Gesta Stephani, translated by K. R. Potter and R. H. C. Davis (second edition, Oxford: OUP, 1976), p. 181 A castle siege could be violent and destructive, and might involve some of the most advanced military hardware of the day—giant catapults and slings, and later cannons—so that sieges could make a great impression on contemporaries and observers. The great engines of war could catch the eye, but were not the whole story of castles and sieges. Very few castles were ever captured through direct assaults that smashed walls and broke stone. Most sieges were won through bringing pressure to bear on the morale and attitudes of the garrison, and through intimidating the occupants of a castle. The noise and bombardment of siege warfare were principally meant to affect the people rather than the walls. This siege ended in a negotiated surrender, and this was normal for sieges. Few ended in violence and massacres. There was a clear procedure about how this should be done, and how the honour and status of both sides should be protected. There were conventions about when it was acceptable for a garrison to surrender, when resistance had been sufficient that honour was satisfied. As in this case, the approval or acquiescence of senior commanders and lords was essential to the process, so that garrisons could claim that they were just obeying orders. Honour and duty to lords, and a sense of masculine endurance (note the use of ‘manfully’ above) were fundamental to medieval warfare. 21
Year 1 Semester 1 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) *HIST1019 – The First Crusade (Nicholas Kingwell) 14th century manuscript depiction of the battle of Antioch in 1098 Module Overview How is the state of modern day relations between the Islamic world and the West to be explained and why does the term ‘crusade' carry such emotive resonance for Muslims? To help answer these questions we need to go back to the beginnings of the crusade movement in 1095 with the appeal of Pope Urban II to Western Christians to take up arms and liberate Jerusalem from Muslim control. Tens of thousands of people responded to this call to arms and left their homes to undertake an extraordinarily dangerous enterprise. This module considers the crusade not just from the perspective of the crusaders themselves but also explores the experiences and reactions of those who encountered the First Crusade along its route including European Jews, Byzantines and Muslims using the testimonies produced at the time, including chronicles, letters, charters and poetry. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • The ideas behind the concept of ‘crusade’ and the nature of Pope Urban’s II’s appeal for Catholic Europe to take up arms to liberate the Holy City of Jerusalem • The motives of the participants • The composition of the crusading army • The role of the Byzantine Empire • The impact of the crusade upon Western Jews and Eastern Christians 22
• Study of contemporary chronicles, letters and charters, including Muslim and Jewish sources • The significance of the siege of Antioch • The reaction of the Islamic world to the arrival of the crusade • The problems faced by the crusaders in defending the territories gained as a result of the crusade and the difficulties faced by them in maintaining a continued Western presence in the East Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x Commentaries exercise (2 x 500 words) 20 1 x Essay (2,000 words) 40 1 x Exam (1 hour) 40 Sample Source “When Pope Urban [II] had said those these and very many similar things in his urbane discourse, he so influenced to one purpose the desires of all who were present, that they cried out, ‘God wills it, God wills it!’” From The Jerusalem History by Robert of Rheims In his eye-witness account of the spell-binding speech delivered by Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont in 1095, Robert records the frenzied reaction of the audience of knights and clerics to the pope’s exhortation to relieve their eastern Christian brothers from their alleged sufferings at the hands of Muslims, and to fight to liberate Jerusalem for Christianity. His words set Christendom alight and initiated the expedition that we know today as the First Crusade which resulted in the capture of Jerusalem four years later. Urban’s appeal to fight for Christ was to have long lasting consequences, for it sparked not only the medieval period’s preoccupation with crusading, but it was to have profound and long-lasting effects on relations between the West and Islam which are still being played out today. 23
Year 1 Semester 1 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) *HIST1087 – Papal Power in Medieval Europe: Crusades, Heresy and Clashes with Kings (Professor Peter Clarke) Module Overview We are all aware of the power of the EU in modern Britain and the rest of Europe, but the idea of an international body making laws, decisions and interventions in national politics is nothing new. In the later middle ages, the Church and, above all, the papacy claimed and tried to exercise power in worldly affairs on spiritual grounds: Pope Innocent III was one of the most interventionist medieval popes and did more than any other to develop ideas to justify such interventions. The module will explore not only his political ideas and actions, but also his reputation as a pastoral pope, comparable in some ways to the charismatic Pope Francis in seeking to reconnect the Catholic Church with the people. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Introduction: Background and contexts • Innocent III's Ideas of Church and ‘State' • Innocent III, Politics and Power: - Papacy and Empire - Italy: the Papal State; the Communes; the Kingdom of Sicily - Kingdoms: England and France • Innocent III and Religious Authority: - The Crusades - Heresy and the Inquisition - Pastoral Care and the Friars 24
• Papal Law and Justice • Conclusion: the Legacy of Innocent III Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x Commentaries exercise (2 x 500 words) 20 1 x Essay (2,000 words) 40 1 x Exam (1 hour) 40 Sample Source ‘. . . To me is said in the person of the prophet, \"I have set thee over nations and over kingdoms, to root up and pull down, and to waste and to destroy, and to build and to plant\" (Jeremiah 1:10). To me is also said in the person of the apostle, \"I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth it shall be bound in heaven\" (Matthew 16:19) . . . thus the others were called to a part of the care but Peter alone assumed the plenitude of power. You see then who is this servant set over the household, truly the vicar of Jesus Christ, successor of Peter … set between God and man, lower than God but higher than man, who judges all and is judged by no one . . .’ Innocent III’s Sermon on his Consecration as Pope (22 February 1198) The rise of UKIP (and now of the Brexit Party) is a reaction to the European Union’s increasing involvement in our national affairs. The idea that Britain has long been separate from Europe dies hard, but in the Middle Ages another international institution influenced life across Western Europe in more ways than the EU: the Western Church and the papacy at its head. Pope Innocent III was one of the most important popes in this period and his interventions in national politics were unprecedented: he sought to decide who ruled Germany; he became overlord of King John’s England; and clashed with various local rulers. His laws as pope also affected daily life, notably on marriage. His sermon above preached when he became pope shows that he had a clear vision of papal power from the outset: the pope was God’s representative on earth, the ‘vicar’ (deputy) of Christ, and all inhabitants of western Christendom were accountable to him but he was accountable only to God. 25
Year 1 Semester 1 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) HIST1029 – American Slavery (Dr David Cox) Module Overview This module will explore New World slavery, specifically in the context of the United States. Within this context we will consider broad interpretations of slavery, from abolitionist critiques of the nineteenth century through to revisionist studies of the 1970s and beyond. We will also explore new approaches to the study of slavery and introduce you to different types of evidence; for example, the archaeological record, slave narratives and planters’ journals. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Origins of slavery • The Colonial Era • The American Revolution • Antebellum slavery – including slaves and work, slave communities, and slave resistance • Slavery and the Civil War • Abolition of slavery and freeing slaves Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x Commentaries exercise (2 x 500 words) 20 1 x Essay (2,000 words) 40 1 x Exam (1 hour) 40 26
Sample Source Illustration from Joel Chandler Harris, Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings (New York: D. Appleton, 1880) Because slaves rarely wrote about their lives (it was illegal for slaves to learn to read and write), historians of slavery have to use non-traditional primary sources such as the folktales told by the enslaved. The first collection of African-American folktales was published in 1880 and features a number of stories in which the Trickster (a rabbit) uses his cunning to get the better of larger and more powerful animals (such as the fox, pictured above). A number of historians have argued that the Trickster represented the slave, whilst the larger creature stood for the white slaveholder. If looked at in this way, the tales seem less simple entertainment and more a way to teach other slaves the importance of using their wits to survive the harsh and dehumanizing realities of slavery. In the United States, violent resistance to slavery was suicidal, but slaves could resist their masters in subtler ways. 27
Year 1 Semester 1 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) HIST1173 – The First World War (Professor Neil Gregor) Module Overview This course examines how changing approaches to the study of the past have affected the work of historians studying the First World War since 1918. You will analyse ways in which different historical interpretations are formed not merely through differences of opinion concerning the content and significance of the text per se, but also as a product of different methodological approaches. You will examine and analyse ways in which historical interpretations of the First World War are rooted in consideration of varied forms of textual evidence. You will demonstrate the ability to assess primary and secondary source material. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Diplomatic origins of World War One • Its nature as a military conflict • The social history of warfare • The nature of the home front • Its impact on gender relations • Impact on the landscape • Impact in terms of memorialisation and commemoration 28
Assessment % Contribution to Final Mark Assessment Method 20 40 2 x 500 word Commentaries (1,000 words) 40 1 x Essay (2,000 words) 1 x Exam (1 hour) Sample Source ‘We started away just after dawn from our camp and I think it was about an hour later that we encountered the enemy. They were on the opposite side of the valley and as we came over the brow of the hill they opened on us with rifle fire and shrapnel from about 900 yards. We lost three officers and about 100 men killed and wounded in that half hour. I do not want any more days like that one…Anyway we drove the Germans back and held them there for eight days. I cannot tell you all I should like to, as it would never reach you.’ Private James Mitchell of 7 Church Lane, East Grinstead, wrote a letter to his father on 17 October 1914 Many soldiers wrote letters from ‘the front’ during the First World War. This short extract carries themes that appear in many such letters: fear, shock, the awareness of censorship, and the challenge of communicating the realities of war to those who could not see it. 29
Year 1 Semester 1 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) HIST1118 – The Seven Years War and Britain’s Global Empire (Dr John McAleer) Benjamin West, The Death of General Wolfe, 1770 (National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa) Module Overview What role did the Seven Years War (1756–63) play in the development of the British Empire? How did it affect national identity? How did people in different parts of the empire experience the conflict? These questions inform our investigation of an episode which consolidated Britain’s growing status as a superpower and laid the foundations of a worldwide empire. We range across the globe – from North America to the Caribbean and India – exploring how the conflict amplified local concerns and reflected global contexts. We examine its effects on art and literature in Britain. And we consider some of the consequences of the war, as well as the ways in which different people have chosen to commemorate it, from the mid-eighteenth century up to the present day. 30
Indicative List of Seminar Topics • The Seven Years War: an imperial moment? • The European problem • Fighting the war • Heroes and villains: personalities, reputations and the Seven Years War • The global context I: North America • The global context II: the Caribbean and Britain’s Atlantic World • The global context III: India and Britain’s Asian Empire • The home front: Art and the Seven Years War • Representations, celebrations and commemorations • The end of the beginning? Consequences and legacies Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x Essay (2,000 words) 50 1 x Essay (2,000 words) 50 Sample Source ‘I am convinced that you will agree with me in one principle, that we must be merchants while we are soldiers; that our trade depends upon a proper execution of our maritime strength; that trade and maritime force depend upon each other; and that the riches, which are the true resources of this country, depend chiefly upon its commerce.’ (British Library, Add. MS 6815, f. 34, Earl of Holderness, Northern Secretary, to Andrew Mitchell, British Minister to the King of Prussia, 17 July 1757) Written by a key member of the Cabinet, this document demonstrates contemporary belief in the close connection between trade, empire and military power. The Seven Years War was a watershed in the development of the British Empire. Victory consolidated Britain’s growing status as a world superpower, laying the foundations of a truly global trading and colonial empire as well as sowing the seeds of future conflicts. 31
Year 1 Semester 1 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) HIST1145 – From Shah to Ayatollah: The Establishment of Clerical Power in Iran (1979 to Today) (Dr Hormoz Ebrahimnejad) Khomeini (1902-1989) (left) and Khamenei (1939-) (right) Module Overview The February 1979 Revolution, in Iran, the biggest in the world after the Russian October 1917 Revolution, followed the departure, into exile, of the Shah, on 16 January and the return of Khomeini from exile on 1 February. Whilst the departure of the Shah prompted the emergence of dozens of political parties and associations, and hundreds of newspapers, heralding the “Spring of Liberty”, the 11 February, when the remnants of the Shah’s army finally surrendered and gave allegiance to Khomeini, announced the beginning of a period of eliminating all political parties that had been forging themselves in the run up to the Revolution. Not long after the establishment of the Provisional Government under the Premiership of the liberal-Islamist, Bazargan, tensions between Khomeini and Bazargan grew in hostility. Finally, in November 1979, Bazargan resigned in protest at the 4 November occupation of the American Embassy by pro-Khomeini Islamist students. Thus, less than one year into the February Revolution, to the dismay of those who had instigated it a clerical regime was fully established. This regime then started its own “Islamic Revolution”, which is still ongoing. We therefore have two distinct Revolutions, although in the common wisdom they are wrongly perceived as one and the same. This module will survey the making of the February 1979 Revolution and its aftermath within the wider historical context. The examination will span from the rise to power of Mohammad Reza Shah, in 1941, to his fall, in 1979 and the subsequent rise of the clerics. Studying the Shah and Clerics in Iran will introduce you to the rise of Islamism in the last 40 years and give you an opportunity to reflect on the question of whether this is a return to an Islamic past or a manifestation of what Hamid Dabashi calls “a declaration of independence from the postcolonial condition and its epistemes”. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • The position of the Shiite ulama in Iran in the twentieth century 32
• Shari’ati and a new reading of Islam (Modern Islam, Political Islam or Islamism) • The Shah, clerics and the opposition • Khomeini’s theory of the mandate of the Islamic Jurist (velyat-e Faqih) • The Shah’s Oil policy, the West and his fall • After Khomeini (1989 to today) • Ayatollah Khamenei’s 30 years of absolute power • Anti-Americanism and pro-Russian policies of the clerical regime • The nuclear and missile technologies under the clerical regime and their political aims • The succession (crisis) of Khomeini and Khamenei Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x Commentaries exercise (2 x 500 words) 1 x Essay (2,000 words) 20 1 x Exam (1 hour) 40 40 Sample Source ‘If pilgrimage to Mecca that is one of the principles of Islamic religion [under specific circumstances] goes against the interests of the ‘Islamic Government’, the Vali-e Faqih (Islamic Jurisconsult) in charge of the Islamic Government can prohibit the pilgrimage to Mecca.’ This excerpt from the book of Ayatollah Khomeini, Hokumat-e Eslami (The Islamic Government), implies that the Islamic Government that he succeeded to establish in Iran in 1979 is more important that Islam itself. It indicates the difference between “Islam” as religion on one hand, and “Islamic State” as polity on the other. It also goes a long way towards illustrating the nature of the clerical power in Iran today. 33
Year 1 Semester 1 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) HIST1012 – Who is Anne Frank? (Professor Tony Kushner) Module Overview The Diary of Anne Frank is the most widely read non-fiction book in the post-war world. The author has become a symbol of Jewish suffering during (what we now term) the Holocaust and a figure emblematic of all victims of the Second World War. Indeed, she might be described as an iconic figure, her name invoked across the world in campaigns promoting anti-racism and human rights. This course will introduce you to the life of Anne Frank and to her writing and legacy. It will place her singular experience in the wider context of a history of the Holocaust as a whole and introduce you to broad themes of recent Holocaust historiography and the wider significance this subject has in the study of history and other disciplines. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Anne Frank as Refugee • Anne Frank in Hiding • The History of the Diary • Anne Frank beyond the Secret Annexe • Children’s Experience of the Holocaust • The Holocaust as a Gender Study • Writing and the Holocaust • The Americanisation of Anne Frank 34
• Anne Frank as Icon % Contribution to Final Mark Assessment 20 40 Assessment Method 40 1 x Commentaries exercise (2 x 500 words) 1 x Essay (2,000 words) 1 x Exam (1 hour) Sample Source ‘It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.’ Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl Written towards the end of Anne Frank’s two years in hiding with her family and others in an attic in Amsterdam, this quote has become the iconic representation of Anne Frank. Despite later being betrayed, arrested, deported to a death camp and succumbing to disease and starvation, Anne Frank’s essence and legacy has been summed up by this quote, the interrogation of which is at the heart of this module. 35
Year 1 Semester 1 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) HIST1170 – Putin and the Politics of Post-Soviet Russia (Dr George Gilbert) Module Overview This module provides an overview of major political, social and economic developments in Russia since 1991, and how they have been informed by a sense of Russian history. After the fall of the Cold War, Russia has found that it is no longer a superpower, and it has struggled to find a world role. The domestic and economic settlement in the country has also seen major changes, and life has changed in remarkable and sometimes dramatic ways for millions of ordinary Russian people. The primary focus on the module is to help us to understand contemporary Russia: lectures and seminars will examine themes and events that can help us to recognize in what ways Russia has changed since the fall of the Berlin Wall. But these debates will be placed in historical context: Russia’s domestic and foreign policy, and changing conceptions of national identity, can only be understood in the context of Russia’s history and the legacy of the turbulent twentieth century. 36
Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Soviet communism and its dissolution • Russia’s rulers and Russian history • Russian political parties • Russia’s foreign policy • Nationalism • Social identity • The media in Russia • Memory of the twentieth century • Russia and the contemporary world Assessment Type of assessment % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x Commentaries exercise (2 x 500 words) 20 1 x Essay (2,000 words) 1 x Exam (1 hour) 40 40 Sample Source “Whoever does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart. Whoever wants it back has no brain.” Vladimir Putin This module has two principal themes. It is a survey of very recent Russian history, which considers a number of political, social and economic developments over the past thirty years or so. It is also looks seriously at the Russian past and how that has informed the present. The above quote by Vladimir Putin reflects these two central engagements of the module: how do Russians view the Soviet Union now? What is seen to be good and bad about it? Furthermore, what is the official view? Who holds it, what are people encouraged to think about the past and why does this matter? All of these questions and more will come under scrutiny in this module. 37
Year 1 Semester 1 and 2 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) HIST1180 – Russia in Revolution (Dr Claire Le Foll) (Semester 1) HIST1058 – Russia in Revolution (Dr Claire Le Foll) (Semester 2) Please note: this module is running twice this year, once in each semester. You will only be able to take the module once, you cannot take it in both semesters. Module Overview The module will investigate in depth one of the most formative events in twentieth-century world history then examine the interplay between political, economic, social, military and ideological aspects of revolution in Russia between 1905 and 1917. To conclude we will engage with debates between historians on both the causes and outcomes of the revolution. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • 1905 revolution • Constitutional Russia • Russia on the eve of World War One • Whether Russia's experience in the First World War was the cause or catalyst for 1917 • Revolutionary Petrograd • The Bolshevik seizure of power • Political debates • What the Russian revolution meant for the twentieth century 38
Assessment % Contribution to Final Mark Assessment Method 20 40 1 x Commentaries exercise (2 x 500 words) 40 1 x Essay (2,000 words) 1 x Exam (1 hour) Sample Source This political cartoon of the tsar dancing to Rasputin’s tune from 1916 raises many interesting questions about the Russian monarchy and reception of it, crucially only one year prior to the revolutions of 1917. The reaction of the public to the tsar and criticism of him from educated society stemmed partially from a perception that the tsar was increasingly subject to the whims of devious advisors, among which was the ‘mad monk’ Rasputin. Powerless to resist the overtures of this crazed mystic, the tsar and his inner circle were inept and naïve in the face of the vast social, political and economic challenges occurring in the country during the First World War, and their inaction aided the swift demise of the 300-year-old empire. The direction late tsarism was heading in is a key feature of this module and something we shall consider in more depth. 39
Year 1 Semester 1 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) HIST1076 – God’s Own Land: Exploring Pakistan’s Origins and History (Professor Ian Talbot) Module Overview After 9/11, Pakistan emerged as a western ally in the ‘war on terror'. It was also seen as a training ground for attacks on the West following the London bombings known as 7/7. The discovery that Osama bin Laden had been hiding for years in a building adjacent to Pakistan's main military academy caused an international furore. Many of the developments in Pakistan, such as the presence of militant Islamic groups which raise doubts about the country's stability, can only be understood in terms of the historical legacies from the colonial era. Yet Pakistan's origins and inheritances are shrouded in historical controversy. This module examines Pakistan's evolution and its search for domestic and regional stability. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • The conflicting understandings of the foundation vision of its creator Muhammad Ali Jinnah • An examination of the failure to achieve a consolidated democracy in the post- independence period • The role of Islam in Pakistan’s politics will be assessed • The rise of Islamic militancy will be explored • The extent to which Pakistan is a ‘failed’ or ‘terrorist’ state will be debated. 40
• The conflicting understandings of the genesis of the Kashmir dispute will be assessed along with its role in the troubled Indo-Pakistan relationship since 1947 Assessment % Contribution to Final Mark Assessment Method 20 1 x Commentaries exercise (2 x 500 words) 40 1 x Essay (2,000 words) 40 1 x Exam (1 hour) Sample Source It is extremely difficult to appreciate why our Hindu friends fail to understand the real nature of Islam and Hinduism. They are not religions in the strict sense of the word, but are in fact different and distinct social orders and it is a dream that Hindus and Muslims can ever evolve a common nationality. Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Presidential Address to the All-India Muslim League, Lahore 22 March 1940 In this speech, Jinnah articulated the two nation theory which underpinned the demand for a separate Muslim homeland in India. The following day the Lahore Resolution was passed which committed the Muslim League to the Pakistan demand. In just over seven years, the goal of Pakistan was realized, transforming the history of the Indian subcontinent. 41
Year 1 Semester 1 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) HIST1125 – When an Empire Falls: Culture and the British Empire, 1914-1960 (Dr Chris Prior) Module Overview If the story of the nineteenth century was the expansion and consolidation of Britain’s global status, the story of the twentieth century was of challenges to this status that Britain found it increasingly difficult to contain and manage. The development of more popular forms of anti- colonial nationalism, the effects of two World Wars, and the rise of other global powers, most notably the United States and the Soviet Union after 1945, contributed to the fragmentation and eventual dismantlement of the empire. How did British society respond to this change in status? In this module, you will use a wide variety of primary sources, including newspapers, novels, and films to assess what Britons thought about the world in which they lived and the challenges they faced. Did Britons respond by facing up to such challenges, or by failing to do so? How much did Britons invest in the idea of the Commonwealth? How did immigration from the colonies affect ideas about Britishness? Looking at the period from the apex of empire to its demise, this module will look at a rapidly changing cultural environment and the impact that the fall of the largest empire the world had seen had upon British ideas about gender, race, and much more. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Indian nationalism and independence • The Second World War • The emergence of the Commonwealth • Immigration 42
Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x Commentaries exercise (2 x 500 words) 20 1 x Essay (2,000 words) 40 1 x Exam (1 hour) 40 Sample Source ‘Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun. The Japanese don't care to, the Chinese wouldn't dare to, Hindus and Argentines sleep firmly from twelve to one, But Englishmen detest a siesta, In the Philippines there are lovely screens, to protect you from the glare, In the Malay states there are hats like plates, which the Britishers won't wear, At twelve noon the natives swoon, and no further work is done - But Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun…' Extract from Noel Coward, Mad dogs and Englishmen (1932) Coward’s popular song of the early 1930s affectionately pokes fun at the overseas colonial figure. This is no rejection or critique of imperialism of the sort that figures such as George Orwell were starting to develop between the wars. Instead, Cowell embodied a growing tendency to paint British success as the product of idiosyncrasy or eccentricity, rather than the Christian respectability and upright masculinity felt at the heart of empire for much of the Victorian and Edwardian periods. The way empire was discussed in Britain shifted a great deal between the First World War and its dissolution after the Second World War, and this source captures some of the flexibility as British commentators tried to both embody or shape domestic social attitudes and reflect events in the empire at large. 43
Year 1 Semester 1 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) FREN1017 – Liberté, égalité, fraternité? Introduction to Key Events in French History (Dr Scott Soo) Description of module Liberty, equality, fraternity can be found emblazoned on public buildings across France. The words may well have been set in stone but they have been interpreted in very different ways since the start of the Third Republic in 1870. In the first weeks, we explore the how the themes of reason, civilisation and universalism became embedded in the nation-state building of the late 1900s and early twentieth century through the following questions: How could the same vocabulary be used both to advocate and reject colonialism? Why were women excluded from voting rights? How inclusive was the creation of state education? Why was the establishment of the Church deemed anathema to the interests of the Third Republic? This sets the framework for the remainder of the module where we focus on key events of twentieth-century France. What links these different moments is that they show how historical actors have tried, and sometimes failed, to realise the values of liberty, equality and fraternity. Indicative List of Seminar Topics Founding the Third Republic: Secularism (Laïcité), Education and Citizenship The Limits of the Republic: ‘Civilisation’, ‘Race’ and Gender The People’s Republic? The Popular Front The Liberation: A New Republic? The End of Empire and the Algerian War De Gaulle’s France and the Creation of the 5th Republic The Return of Socialism: Mitterrand and the 1980s Whose Republic? Women and ethnic minorities in twentieth-century France 44
Assessment % Contribution to Final Mark Assessment Method 35 55 1 x Essay (1,500 words) 10 1 x Essay (2,000 words) 1 x Presentation (10 minutes) Sample Source ‘Bread, Peace and Liberty’ was the electoral slogan and refrain that could be seen and heard at demonstrations rallying for a Popular Front coalition government in France in 1936. The above cover of a book, which contains texts from the leading figures of the Popular Front, reflects the political aim of protecting France from fascism in relation to both internal extreme right-wing leagues and the threat of fascism from neighbouring Germany and Italy. The slogan, however, does not stop with a call for peace and freedom against fascist authoritarianism. At the start of the Third Republic, the principle of equality had commonly been associated with equality before the law, but an increasingly self-conscious working class began calling for greater social and economic equality and hence the slogan’s reference to pain/bread. 45
Year 1 Semester 1 (15 credits) HUMA1038 Introduction to Ethnography: Food and Culture (Dr Yvonne Marshall and Professor Marion Demossier) Picture: Drying salted eels for smoking. New Zealand Module Overview Biological science tells us what items in our world are potentially edible, but culture decides what constitutes food. Culture informs us as to whether a specific item is appropriate, appetising, valued, desirable, prohibited, restricted, staple or medicinal. These and other qualities are products of culture not simply the ‘food’ itself. ‘You are what you eat’ illustrates the social dynamics through which identities, relationships, and hierarchies are created, performed and reproduced. This module examines cultural variation in what constitutes food, drink and medicine in contemporary societies and contexts. We will also look into changing patterns of food acquisition from prehistory into the present. In particular we will examine how our cultural definitions, discourses, values and practices concerning food act to build, sustain and nourish us as biological bodies, as individually specific persons, and as participants in specific social, cultural, ethnic, national and transnational groups. This module will allow you to develop a critical understanding of what constitutes ‘food’ from a cultural and comparative perspective. It will introduce you to the discipline of anthropology, including all the sub-disciplines of social/cultural anthropology, bio-anthropology, archaeology and linguistics, and how these fields of study inform our understanding of food. It will furthermore introduce you to Ethnography, the key methodology of Social & Cultural Anthropology, and provide opportunities for you to learn how to apply ethnographic research practices. Indicative List of Lecture & Seminar Topics Section One: Introduction to food studies. What is food? What is an anthropological approach to food? Food and the body: cultural and bio-anthropological approaches. Food and personhood: how food creates and nourishes persons. 46
The role of food in ethnicity, national cuisines, migration and global brands. Section Two: Food through Time. Why did people move to food production in prehistory? How do we know what people ate in the past and why they might have chosen it? Heritage food. Food security in changing worlds: foraging, farming, free-trade, fairtrade. Section Three: Selected themes Spices, simulants, fasting and altered states Proscription, taboos and cannibalism Sharing, abundance and feasting Food banks; food waste Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark Ethnographic Review (1200) Ethnographic Project (1500 words) 40 60 Picture: students eating individual pizzas. Southampton 47
Year 1 Semester 2 – Compulsory Module (30 credits)* HIST1150 – World Ideologies: The Ideas that Made the World (Dr Chris Fuller) *Compulsory for all students reading BA History (single honours only) Module Overview Ideas are fundamental to human societies and culture. Some, though, are identified by the term ‘ideology’, which indicates that they are all-embracing, and form the basis for an entire worldview, or a means of understanding the patterns of life and society. Ideologies can become the basis for much of an individual's identity, and as such are forces of great power and historical importance. Understanding ideologies thus provides a key means for understanding the minds of historical individuals, or, beyond the individual, much of the basis for politics and political organisation. Indeed, ideologies can give the ideas and moral authorisation for some to try to control or to transform politics, society and culture, and are highly influential in bringing about historical change. Indicative List of Seminar Topics This module is designed to introduce you to some key ideologies and to allow consideration of how ideologies have influenced societies and shaped history. The greater part of the module is built around week-long investigations of specific ideologies, selected for their long-term impact and global influence. These include examples such as Multiculturalism, Marxism and Imperialism. For each ideology, you will hear a broad, introductory lecture which will explain the basics of each ideology and highlight different historical case studies associated with them. This will be followed by a more specific lecture which will engage with the key texts for each ideology, and which will link to the seminar. The seminar will involve you in discussion about a seminal text related to the ideology and its impact. The aim of the seminar will be for you to 48
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