bring together themes from the lecture and relate them to the text, and to discuss the effect of the ideas under discussion. Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x 1 page essay proposal 15 1 x Report (1000 words) 35 1 x Essay (2000 words) 50 Sample Source ‘Were all these dreadful things necessary? Were they the inevitable results of the desperate struggle of determined patriots, compelled to wade through blood and tumult, to the quiet shore of a tranquil and prosperous liberty? No! Nothing like it. The fresh ruins of France, which shock our feelings wherever we can turn our eyes, are not the devastation of civil war; they are the sad but instructive monuments of rash and ignorant counsel in time of profound peace.’ Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) Although many of his contemporaries and colleagues welcomed the events that took place in France in the summer of 1789, Edmund Burke vehemently opposed the Revolution. In arguing against the ideas and ideologies of the French Revolution, Burke drew on a different set of ideas to explain and justify the structure of society. His book, Reflections on the Revolution in France, ignited a great debate in Britain and beyond, and it continues to be influential today. Priced at three shillings, it sold 30,000 copies in two years, and its language and imagery have passed into British political discourse. 49
Year 1 Semester 2 – Ancient History Compulsory Module (15 credits)* HIST1154 – Ancient History: Sources and Controversies (Professor Dan Levene) *Compulsory for all students reading BA Ancient History Single Honours Left: Roman copy of a bust of Herodotus (484-425 BCE); Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Right: Fragment of Herodotus’ Histories on papyrus, early 2nd cent. CE (Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 2099). Module Overview The history of the ancient world is hugely significant for understanding subsequent periods of history and the origins of ideas and institutions of global significance. However, the nature of the ancient world continues to be highly debated due to the sources and evidence available to historians for understanding this period. This module looks at the societies and cultures of the ancient world through their written texts, visual art and material remains. What types of evidence are available to ancient historians? What makes them significant and exciting? What perspectives do they present? What is the relationship between literature or materials remains and the socio-political world in which they were produced? The aim of this module is to introduce you to different types of sources in study of the ancient world, and how to approach and analyse them as historical sources. Over the course of the module, you will be introduced to literary, material and visual evidence from Herodotus (484-425 BCE) to Procopius (500-560 CE), from buildings and monuments to art, coins and inscriptions, covering Greek, Roman and Byzantine history. In this way, the module will provide you with background knowledge and analytical skills useful throughout the rest of your degree and beyond. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Introduction: Themes and Approaches • Greek, Roman, and Late Antique Historiography 50
• Epic and Poetry % Contribution to Final • Oratory and Politics Mark • Philosophy 30 • Geography and Travel Writing • The Study of Ancient Inscriptions 40 • Integrating Written Sources and Material Remains 30 Assessment Assessment Method 1 x Commentaries exercise (3 x 500 words) 1 x Essay (2,000 words) 1 x take-away gobbets exercise (3 x 500 words) Sample Source ‘In this book I will write the biographies of King Alexander and of Caesar – the Caesar who overthrew Pompey. Now, given the number of their exploits available to me, the only preamble I shall make is to beg the reader not to complain if I fail to relate all of them or to deal exhaustively with a particular famous one, but keep my account brief. I am not writing history but biography, and the most outstanding exploits do not always have the property of revealing the goodness or the badness of the agent; often, in fact, a casual action, the odd phrase, or a jest reveals character better than battles involving the loss of thousands upon thousands of lives, huge troop movements, and whole cities besieged. And so, just as a painter reproduces his subject’s likeness by concentrating on the face and the expression of the eyes, by means of which character is revealed, and pays hardly any attention to the rest of the body, I must be allowed to devote more time to those aspects which indicate a person’s mind and to use these to portray the life of each of my subjects, while leaving their major exploits and battles to others.’ Plutarch (46-120 CE), Life of Alexander 1, Plutarch: Hellenistic Lives, trans. R. Waterfield. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016) This extract from the beginning of Plutarch’s Life of Alexander highlights a range of aspects relevant to the study of the ancient world, concerning historical context, genre, and the limitations (but also opportunities) of the source material available to us. Plutarch wrote his biography of Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE) centuries after the conqueror’s death, as part of a series of Parallel Lives comparing famous figures from the Greek world with Roman counterparts (in this case Caesar). The extent to which we can use Plutarch as a source for ancient history is debated not only due to the chronological distance to his subjects, but also due to Plutarch’s here self-declared intention not to write history but biography, and the moral tone which pervades his work. That said, Plutarch’s Life is our main source for the early life of Alexander the Great, about which little would otherwise be known. 51
Year 1 Semester 2 – Ancient History Compulsory Module (15 credits)* ARCH1062 – Wonderful Things: World History Told Through Objects (Dr Helen Farr and Professor Simon Keay) *Compulsory for all students reading BA Ancient History Single Honours Module Overview As he broke the seal and opened the door to Tutankamun’s tomb, archaeologist Howard Carter declared, breathlessly, that he could see ‘Wonderful things’. Ancient things have this special appeal. They enchant and captivate. They excite curiosity and unleash enthusiasm. But above all they are the way to tell big histories through small objects. In this module we set out to tell the seamless history of deep-time, from two million years ago to the maritime foundations of the modern world. Through our deep-history we will examine the motives behind making, acquiring, preserving and keeping things; the pride and passion of people in the past, the constantly changing desire of humanity for the sumptuous, the aesthetically pleasing and the exotic. To do this our archaeological experts have chosen a variety of objects from deep- history; starting with the stone handaxes of Africa and ending with the fatal voyage of the Mary Rose. During your historical journey you will learn about changing technologies and food- ways, the things that glued Empires together, concepts of citizenship, icons of faith and the variety of objects used in social networking and games of power. By the end you will have a different understanding both of history and wonderful, handmade, things. 52
Indicative List of Seminar Topics % Contribution to Final • Introduction: Making us Human Mark • Taming Nature 40 • Laying Foundations • The First Cities and States 60 • Empires and Faiths • Threshold of the Modern World Assessment Assessment Method Group exhibition 1 x Report (2,000 words) Sample Source Incan Khipu, Peru, c. 1430-1530 AD, British Museum Collection In a complex society without writing, the Incan Khipu acted as a record and accounting system. Still encoded and shrouded in mystery today, we learn from the Spanish accounts that they recorded complex stories about Kings, genealogy and census data. Is this early binary information storage, or were these mnemonic devices read in a different way? From the Quechua for ‘knot’, how we understand this form of knotted string record is still debated. 53
Year 1 Semester 2 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) *HIST1008 – A Tudor Revolution in Government? (Professor George W. Bernard) Module Overview This module is an exploration of how England was governed in the sixteenth century. How far did kings and queens rule as well as reign? What was the nature of monarchical government? What was the role of the court and of faction? The aims of this module are to: enable you to study the nature of government in Tudor England; consider the epistemology and significance of the lively historiographical arguments that have marked this subject; and explore how fruitful the concept of a revolution is in the study of the history of government and politics, and of history in general. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Kingship in Tudor England • The royal court, including culture • Council and counsel, consent and tyranny • The Nobility and gentry • Parliament • Military power • Finance and taxation • Institutions of central government • Local government and the challenge of enforcement 54
Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x Book review (750 words) 20 1 x Essay (2,000 words) 1 x Exam (1 hour) 40 40 Sample Source ‘Remembrances at my next going to the Court. For redress of the riots in the North. Letters to be written to Sir John Wallop. To declare Irish matters to the King, and desire what shall be done there. To send letters and money into Ireland, and advise the Deputy of the King's pleasure. To advertise the King of the ordering of Master Fisher, and to show him the indenture which I have delivered to the solicitor. To know his pleasure touching Master More, and declare the opinion of the judges. To declare to him the proceedings in his cause of uses and wills. To declare the effect of Master Pate's letters. To remember specially Master Shelley and Brothers for his concealment. To remember Sir Walter Hungerford in his welldoings. When Master Fisher shall go to execution, and also the other. What shall be done further touching J.S. Brewer, J. Gairdner and R.H. Brodie,Medass.t,eLreMtteorrsea.’nd Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the reign of Henry VIII (21 vols in 36, 1862-1932), VIII 892 [June 1535], is a summary of British Library, Cotton MS, Titus, B i. fo. 474. It is one of many remembrances – lists of things to do – made by Henry VIII’s leading minister Thomas Cromwell, or by Cromwell’s secretary. Sir Geoffrey Elton (1921-94) made great claims that Thomas Cromwell master-minded a ‘Tudor Revolution in Government’, and went as far as to claim that ‘Cromwell, not Henry [VIII], was really the government’. Cromwell’s memoranda throw interesting light on the relationship between king and minister. It is striking how often Cromwell makes a note of the need to know the king’s pleasure. Here Henry was being asked for instructions on how Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher, who refused to support the king over the break with Rome, should be dealt with. Does that suggest that it was the king, not Cromwell, who was very much in command? 55
Year 1 Semester 2 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) *HIST1074 – The Battle of Agincourt (Dr Andy King) Module Overview At Agincourt in 1415, ‘the flower of French chivalry' was destroyed by an English army led by Henry V, invading France in pursuit of his claim to the French crown. It is one of the most celebrated battles in English history, made famous by Shakespeare. But how do we know what actually happened on that St Crispin's day? How accurately can the dramatic but confused events of the battle be reconstructed? Can we determine exactly how and why the outnumbered English managed to inflict such a catastrophic defeat on the French? The module explores the often-contradictory chronicle accounts of the battle, both English and French, and contemporary and later; we shall examine the accuracy of these accounts, and how they are influenced and shaped by national and political biases, and cultural factors such as religion and chivalry. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • The Battle of Agincourt and medieval warfare • Interpreting the battle: Can we reconstruct what happened at Agincourt? • Explanations of victory and defeat • Chronicles and narratives. Why are there varying accounts of the Battle? • Chivalry and the killing of the prisoners at Agincourt • Chronicles and histories: Tudor views of the battle Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final 56 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 ‘In pursuing the king of England’s victory and seeing his enemy defeated and that they could no longer resist him, the English had started to take prisoners hoping all to become rich. That indeed was a valid belief, for all the great lords were at the battle.* Once taken, they had their helmets removed by their captors. Then a great misfortune befell them. Many of the rearguard [of the French army], in which were several French, Bretons, Gascons, Poitevins and others who had been put to flight, regrouped. They had with them a large number of standards and ensigns and showed signs of wanting to fight, marching forward in battle order. When the English saw them together in this fashion it was ordered by the king of England that each man should kill his prisoner. … When the wretched French who had caused the death of these noble knights, they all took to flight to save their own lives if they could.’ * [This sentence is in Le Fèvre’s account but not Waurin’s] The Battle of Agincourt: Sources and Interpretations, ed. Anne Curry (Woodbridge, 2000), pp. 164-5 The battle of Agincourt is one of the famous victories in English history; and Henry V’s massacre of prisoners at the battle is one of the most infamous incidents at the battle. This account justifies Henry’s actions, by presenting them in terms of military necessity, caused by ‘the wretched French’ of the rearguard. What makes this particularly interesting, is that this account was written in France. It is taken from an account of the battle which appears in two chronicles: Jean le Fèvre’s Chronique, and Jean de Waurin’s Gathering of the Chronicles and Ancient Histories of Great Britain, now called England. Both authors were in the service of the Dukes of Burgundy, a noble French dynasty of royal descent, who ruled over much of western France and Flanders, and followed their own policy – independently of their nominal lords, the kings of France. Le Fèvre was a Frenchman and a herald; Waurin was the bastard son of a Flemish nobleman, and a soldier. Both were present at the battle, le Fèvre as a 19 year- old herald accompanying the English, and Waurin as a 15 year-old with the French. Both were therefore eye-witnesses; yet their accounts are virtually identical, barring a few, but significant, differences. Furthermore, both were writing decades after the battle, with the benefit of hindsight. So how reliable are these accounts in constructing what happened in the battle? Are they more dependable because their authors were there? Was one drawing on the work of the other – or did they compose their accounts in consultation together? Why do these French accounts justify the English massacre of French prisoners? Were they influenced by the long-standing rivalries and antagonisms between the dukes of Burgundy and the king’s of France? The course will explore how the differing agendas and circumstances behind the different sources for the battle of Agincourt have shaped the perceptions of a famous historical event. 57
Year 1 Semester 2 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) *HIST1102 – The End of the World: Apocalyptic Visions of History (Dr Helen Spurling) Module Overview Apocalyptic writings are important because they shed light on attitudes to historical and social change at crucial periods in the development of world history. They are a product of political and social turmoil, and can be described as political commentary or propaganda. ‘The End of the World’ introduces you to the cultural and historical contexts of apocalyptic ideology in Late Antiquity (Palestine under Greek and Roman rule up to and including the emergence of Islam). It explores how concepts of the end of time and afterlife present a response to historical events such as the Maccabean Revolt, the Roman conquest of Jerusalem, the Byzantine-Persian Wars, or the Arab conquests. This module examines the Jewish and Christian communities that produced apocalyptic texts, the historical value of apocalyptic sources for understanding the period of Late Antiquity, and what they teach about relations between cultures and civilisations in this period. Throughout, we will examine the relevance of apocalyptic thinking for today’s world. 58
Indicative List of Seminar Topics • What is apocalyptic? • The Maccabean Revolt • Jewish war against Rome • Byzantine-Persian wars • The rise of Islam • Imperialism and Messianism • Messianism and Life after Death • Justice and injustice Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x Commentaries exercise (2x500 words) 20 1 x Essay (2,000 words) 40 1 x Exam (1 hour) 40 Sample Source ‘On the second night I had a dream, and behold, there came up from the sea an eagle that had twelve feathered wings and three heads. […] And I looked, and behold, the eagle flew with his wings, to reign over the earth and over those who dwell in it. And I saw how all things under heaven were subjected to him, and no one spoke against him. […] you will surely disappear, you eagle, and your terrifying wings, and your most evil little wings, and your malicious heads, and your most evil talons, and your whole worthless body, so that the whole earth, freed from your violence, may be refreshed and relieved.’ 4 Ezra 11 in Charlesworth, J. H., The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol.1 (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1983), 548-549. Over the centuries, the threat of an impending apocalypse has often been used as a literary medium to express social and political change and any accompanying fears. 4 Ezra is a Jewish apocalyptic text from the first century CE that provides a severe indictment of the Roman Empire – the Eagle – in the aftermath of the Jewish War with Rome in 66-74 CE. It provides us with an important and subversive perspective on the unwelcome dominance of Roman rule for the Jews, and their hopes for the destruction of this ‘worthless’ empire. 59
Year 1 Semester 2 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) *HIST1146 – Joan of Arc: History Behind the Myth (Dr Rémy Ambühl) Module Overview Joan of Arc is one of the most famous women in history, and almost certainly the most written about in the past fifty years. There are two good reasons for this. Firstly, she is still held today as a French national hero and a powerful political symbol, which is too often misused by the French far-right party to support anti-immigration policies. Secondly, the extraordinary life and fate of this young peasant girl, burnt at the stake some 600 years ago, in 1431, is shrouded in mystery. The purpose of this module will be to lift the veil on the self-proclaimed ‘virgin warrior’, who believed to have been sent by God to drive the English out of France, and put an end to what will be known as the Hundred Years War. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Joan of Arc and the fabric of History • France, a war-torn kingdom (1410 – 1435) • Joan, the virgin prophetess • Joan, the warrior • Joan and her king, Charles VII • The Trial of Joan of Arc (1431): on voices and transvestism • Joan, the saviour of the French nation? • Joan of Arc in films 60
Assessment % Contribution to Final Mark Assessment Method 50 50 1 x Commentaries exercise (2,000 words) 1 x Exam (1 hour) Sample Source ‘Asked about which she preferred, either her standard or the sword, she answered that she liked her standard forty times as much as her sword.’ How remarkable this short extract is! It is taken from the official record of the trial of Joan of Arc, in 1431. She was then a prisoner of the English, who had handed her over to the justice of the church. The trial was deeply political: its purpose was to remove the threat she represented to the English and their regime, in France. But this political motive was hidden, of course, since the competence of a church court was limited to the matter of faith and heresy. Joan of Arc, who was barely nineteen years old at the time of her trial, faced numerous interrogation sessions by experienced clergymen. Did she prefer her banner or her sword? The question was not innocent. A woman who took up arms and made war was transgressing the natural order, as willed by God. Joan had previously acknowledged that she had had a sword. But this marked preference for her banner somehow exonerated her. More importantly, Joan’s banner, on which the names ‘Jesus’ and ‘Maria’ appeared, was devoted to God. That way, fighting in the name of God, Joan asserted the authority and primacy of her divine mission on earth, placing herself above earthly or indeed church rules. 61
Year 1 Semester 2 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) *HIST1164 – Consuls, Dictators and Emperors: Roman Politics in the First Century BC (Dr Anna Collar) Module Overview The first century BC witnessed the fall of the Roman Republic and the establishment of the first emperor, Augustus. The first two-thirds of the century were marked by increasingly divisive Civil Wars and the emergence of a series of infamous political figures whilst the final third saw the beginning of the Principate – rule by a single man or Princeps. Augustus ruled alone for more than 40 years, and by the time of his death, the political landscape had changed to the extent that there was no serious thought of returning to the traditional Republic. The first part of the module examines the late Republic: the system of magistracies, the democratic element, and the emergence of charismatic leaders who disrupted this system such as Marius, Sulla and Caesar. The second part deals with the events following the assassination of Julius Caesar, the emergence of Augustus as sole ruler, and the transformation of the Republican institutions to allow for a sole ruler. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Introduction: context and sources • The Roman Republic: the aristocratic element • The Roman Republic: the democratic element • Marius and Sulla • Pompey 62
• Caesar % Contribution to Final • Cicero and New Men Mark • Octavian, Antony and Cleopatra 20 • A new political system 40 • Augustus and the Senate 40 • A new era for Rome? Assessment Assessment Method 1 x Commentaries exercise (2 x 500 words) 1 x Essay (2,000 words) 1 x Exam (1 hour) Sample Source ‘From that time on Julius Caesar could not rid himself of the odium of having aspired to the title of monarch, although he replied to the people, when they hailed him as king, \"I am Caesar and no king,\" and at the festival of the Lupercalia, when the consul Antony several times attempted to place a crown upon his head as he spoke from the rostra, he put it aside and at last sent it to the Capitol, to be offered to Jupiter Optimus Maximus.’ Suetonius, Life of the Divine Julius Ever since they deposed their last king and established the Republic, the Romans, especially the aristocracy, had a great suspicion of monarchs. Julius Caesar’s seizure of the constitutional office of ‘Dictator’ made him seem too much like a dreaded king, as Caesar’s biographer Suetonius alludes to here. It was Caesar’s monarchical behaviour that hastened his assassination on the floor of the Senate House, an event that also paved the way for a far more politically astute figure – Octavian, the future Emperor Augustus – to learn from Caesar’s shortcomings and finally overthrow the Republic. 63
Year 1 Semester 2 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) *HIST1106 – Emperor Constantine the Great: From Just Church to State Church (Professor Dan Levene) Module Overview The emperor Constantine is recognized as one of the most important of Late Antiquity. It is during the eventful and colourful reign of this commanding character that the foundations of post-classical European civilization were laid. His crucial victory at Milvian Bridge, and the vision he’s been claimed to have had just before it, proved a decisive moment in world history, while his support for Christianity, together with his foundation of Constantinople as a 'New Rome', can be seen as amongst the most momentous decisions made by a European ruler. Ten Byzantine emperors who succeeded him bore his name, testimony to his significance as a political figure and the esteem in which he was held. A saint in the Orthodox churches and a reputation for piety, Constantine was also known for the fear he inspired in others. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • The Early life of Constantine • The Roman Empire united under Constantine • Early Christianities and the controversies that would split the church 64
• The church’s search for orthodoxy, Constantine the uniter and the Council of Nicea • Differences between churches in East and West • Martyrdom • The death of Constantine 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 ‘The whole of the empire now devolved on Constantine alone. At last he no longer needed to conceal his natural malignity but acted in accordance with his unlimited power. … when he came to Rome, he was filled with arrogance, and thought fit to begin his impiety at home. Without any consideration for natural law, he killed his son, Crispus on suspicion of having intercourse with his stepmother Fausta.’ Zosimus, c. 500 CE. From his book ‘The New History’ While this was written sometime after Constantine it attests to the fact that the sycophantic literature that emerged around Constantine in the wake of his becoming the ruler of all of the Roman Empire was only part of the picture. 65
Year 1 Semester 2 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) HIST1084 – Cities of the Dead: Ritual, Mourning and the Victorian City, 1820-1914 (Dr Jonathan Conlin) Module Overview How do we, the living, make space for the dead? Death, after all, does not cut the ties that bind an individual to a community and place. We need to find a space for the dead: near enough to aid mourning and remembrance, but not so close as to cause problems for our public health. In this module we will be exploring how nineteenth-century Britons created a new space for the dead, on the edges of their cities. These cemeteries were true cities of the dead, beautifully planted and carefully planned to reflect all of the social, religious and other distinctions which indicated how the deceased fit into their community. They therefore tell us about how the British thought about cities of the living, as well as those of the dead. We are fortunate to have an important early \"garden cemetery\" close to Avenue Campus as well as, further afield, two important monuments to the dead of World War I. There are also maps, mourning dress and mourning jewellery to investigate in our local Museum and in the Special Collections Department at Hartley Library. Many of the seminars, therefore, will involve site visits and hands-on experience of historical artefacts. These sources will enable us to understand how changes in the disposal of the dead interacted with changing ways of mourning as well as changing understandings of what a \"Good Death\" should look, sound and feel like. In addition to designing your own cemetery formal assessments will see you write museum labels for a hypothetical museum display as well as a commentary on a specific cemetery - either one of the renowned \"Magnificent Seven\" around London, or Southampton, or your own local cemetery. Death, like life, is now experienced as much online as IRD. A final session will consider how FB, Instagram and other social media can provide a virtual space for mourning and remembrance. Indicative List of Seminar Topics 66
• What is a \"Good Death\"? • Cemetery Architecture (at Southampton Old Cemetery) • Mourning Jewellery/Dress (handling session at Southampton Museum) • Design your own cemetery • The Rise of Cremation (at Southampton Crematorium) • Death and Social Media Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x Museum label exercise (200 words) 1 x Essay (2,000 words) 20 1 x Exam (1 hour) 40 40 Sample Source Blind-stamped and engraved mourning card for Alfred Thomas (1879), courtesy of Southampton Museums. The mourning card shown here is particularly ornate, employing blind stamping (the cut-out and impressed relief decoration) alongside black and white engraved letterpress. Only a well- to-do middle- or upper-class Southampton family could have afforded to commission a printer to print a batch of such cards. This card was probably sent to a friend of bereaved family, who would have displayed it on their parlour mantelpiece, alongside wedding and other invitations. The verse is notable for the absence of any reference to an afterlife. Similar verse on contemporary mourning cards and headstones takes comfort in the knowledge that the departed had \"gone to Jesus”. The card is a bleak reminder that, despite improvements in sanitation, infant mortality remained high in High Victorian Britain, even for families with ample means. 67
Year 1 Semester 2 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) HIST1085 – German Jews in Great Britain after 1933 (Professor Joachim Schlör) Module Overview The module tries to build a bridge between the fields of German-Jewish history and the history of Jews in Britain. It will give an overview of the situation of Jews in Germany in the 19th and 20th centuries, focussing on the Weimar Republic and the years shortly before and after 1933. It explores the emigration policy of the regime in Germany and the British attitudes toward immigration. The module will then take a closer look at the processes of immigration (organisation; arrival; distribution in the country) and at the different ways of integration and adaption in Britain. Special attention will be given to personal memoirs and other personal documents as a source for the research of this topic. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • The history of Jews in Germany since the Enlightenment • Jewish life and culture in Weimar Germany and in inter-War Britain • Jewish reactions to the Nazi seizure of power in Germany • Emigration politics in Germany and Europe • Arriving in Britain • Personal documents of German-Jewish immigrants • German-Jewish circles and “landsmannshaften” in Britain • Contributions (Film, Literature etc.) • Remembering the Kindertransport • Exhibitions: Past and Present 68
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 ‘Miss Rosenthal came to England five months ago to learn English and whilst she was trying very hard she found that she was physically not fit to adapt herself to the duties she was requested to do. Miss Rosenthal is a typically academic type of girl and when we were asked to interest ourselves in her we did so because we actually needed somebody on our foreign department. We require somebody who is especially acquainted with German books on technical and general subjects and she has had five years experience in bookshops in Frankfurt and Heilbronn. Through various channels we have tried to get an assistant suitable to do that work, but have not been successful. We are the only bookshop in Birmingham who sells these types of books and the requests for the same are definitely increasing. It is therefore essential that we should have somebody well versed in these particular lines in our bookshop. We shall feel greatly obliged if you will reconsider your decision conveyed to us in your letter. We are prepared to give Miss Rosenthal every opportunity to increase her knowledge of English so that she will not only find a post with us, but prepare for a future career which unfortunately has been denied to her in her home country.’ The letter belongs to a private collection that will be donated to the city archives of Heilbronn, Germany. It has been published in Joachim Schlör, ‘Liesel, it’s time for you to leave’. Die Flucht der Familie Rosenthal vor nationalsozialistischer Verfolgung. Heilbronn Stadtarchiv 2016 The owner of the Hudson bookshop in Birmingham sends a letter to the British Home Office, early October 1937. Strict immigration laws make it difficult for employers to hire refugees. Liesel Rosenthal came to England in May 1937, as a domestic servant. In the course of the following 18 months she would manage to bring her parents and her brother out of Nazi Germany. The image overleaf is a document which shows that Liesel Rosenthal has found the guarantors who would financially support her parents after their immigration – six months before the beginning of the war. The German Jewish Aid Committee in London’s Bloomsbury House played a crucial role in the efforts to integrate Jewish refugees. 69
Year 1 Semester 2 - Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) HIST1109 - Terrorists, Tyrants and Technology: America’s “War on Terror” (Dr Chris Fuller) Module Overview 9/11; jihad; al-Qaeda; War on Terror; Osama bin Laden; Afghanistan; the Taliban; the Bush Doctrine; Iraq; WMDs; waterboarding; targeted killing and drones. America’s War on Terror, launched as a response to the terrorist attacks of 11 September, 2001 has created some of the most important and controversial themes in foreign policy in the twenty-first century thus far. This module tracks 9/11 back to its Cold War origins, answers the frequently asked question “why do they hate us?”, and explores the policies introduced by the Clinton, G.W. Bush and Obama administrations in their efforts to counter the ever-evolving terrorist threat. Indicative List of Content • What is terrorism? • The CIA’s role in the Afghan jihad during the Cold War • The rise of the Taliban • The roots and ideology of Islamic extremism • The foundation of al-Qaeda, and the group’s goals and strategy • The Clinton administration’s efforts to combat al-Qaeda • 9/11 and the Bush administration’s response • The origins, execution and consequences of the Iraq War • Counterterrorism policy under the Obama administration 70
Assessment % Contribution to Final Mark Assessment Method 20 1 X Commentaries exercise (2 x 500-words) 1 X Essay (2,000-words) 40 1 X Exam (1 hour) 40 Sample Source ‘[T]he President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.’ Senate Joint Resolution 23, 107th Congress, 18 September 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) Written in the emotional days following the 9/11 attacks and passed through Congress by 420 votes to one, this open-ended authorization granted the president authority to wage war against al-Qaeda and any other group even slightly associated with them, anywhere in the world. It has been used to authorise American military action in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Libya and Syria. Essentially, the AUMF has served as a licence for a permanent war- footing against terrorists, transforming US foreign policy in the post-9/11 world. 71
Year 1 Semester 2 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) HIST1119 – The Long Summer? Edwardian Britain 1901-1914 (Dr Eve Colpus) Module Overview Edward VII's accession to the throne in 1901 began a transformative moment in British history, when Britain was arguably still the greatest world power and the terrible destruction of the First World War was still to come. Imperial pageantry, the Titanic hitting an iceberg, the elderly queuing for their old-age pensions are defining images of Britain between 1901 and 1914. So too are suffragettes fire-bombing politicians' houses and art nouveau (and modernist art). But what defined the Edwardian era? A legacy of Victorian confidence? Authentic ambitions for modernity? Long summers or deep-seated conflict? In this module you will examine Edwardian Britain from a range of vantage points that take in the political, social, cultural, economic and technological developments of these years. And you will consider how the Edwardian period has been commemorated and re-imagined since 1914. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Introduction: locating the Edwardians • Edward VII and the Edwardians • The Franco-British Exhibition: imperialism or transnationalism? • Class and Poverty • The Liberal Party and New Liberalism • The Strange Death of Liberal England? • The Women’s Movement in Edwardian Britain • Art and Aesthetic Cultures • Edwardians in Film 72
Assessment % Contribution to Final Mark Assessment Method 50 50 1 x Commentaries exercise (2 x 500 words) 1 x Essay (2,000 words) Sample Source Still from Electric Tramlines from Forster Square, Bradford (dir. Mitchell and Kenyon, 1902) Sagar Mitchell and James Kenyon began producing films in 1897. Documenting scenes of work and social life largely in the north of England and Scotland, as well as fiction films, their collection of silent films went forgotten until 1994 when it was rediscovered. Electric Tramlines from Forster Square, Bradford (1902) is an example of a ‘local film’ produced by Mitchell and Kenyon which captured everyday scenes of Edwardian life in Bradford, Yorkshire. Such films offer a vantage point into the social history of the Edwardian period. They also present a critical challenge to historians to make sense of the coincidence of processes of social, cultural and technological modernization and the vibrancy of older traditions in this period. For example, many of Mitchell and Kenyon’s films show the co- existence in Edwardian towns and cities of older forms of horse-drawn transport alongside the new automobiles. Film was a new part of the cultural and aesthetic imagination of the Edwardian period, moving from an entertainment shown in music halls, fairgrounds and local spaces in the early period to the dedicated picture palaces that had popularized in urban centres by 1914. 73
Year 1 Semester 2 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) HIST1147 – The Real Downton Abbey (Dr Eleanor Quince) Thorington Hall, Suffolk - demolished 1949 (Image: Lost Heritage / Tiger Aspect Productions) Module Overview Life in the English Country House has long been a subject of fascination. The sprawling houses of the upper classes, complete with gardens, lands and hordes of servants, represent a way of life that few of us will ever experience. Recent television programmes, such as Downton Abbey, present a congenial view of the country house complete with cheery servants, friendly aristocrats, fabulous parties and the adoption of a 'brave face' against personal and national disaster alike. But was country house life really like that? Were servants really on such good terms with their masters? Was loss of fortune or the world being at war really so easily overcome? Did scandals, such as pregnancy outside of marriage, murder and abuse, really happen? Addressing these and other questions, this module focuses on the period 1870 to 1960, exploring life in the English Country House during one of its most tumultuous periods. 74
Indicative List of Seminar Topics • The social house – concerts, garden parties, shooting parties, dinners, racing, shows and fairs • Living off the land: relations between the country house and its estate, estate workers, estate cottages and jobs on the land • The ‘upstairs/downstairs’ relationship: families and their servants • 'The scandalous upper classes': myth or truth? • The Country House at War – the impact of WW1 and WW2 on the country estate, • Death and taxes: the impact of Death Duties, Entailment, shifts in economic growth and end of Empire on the country house way of life • Facing the future: moving with the times and modernising the country house • 'Everything must go' – the estate sales of the late C19th and early C20th, the impact of the Settled Land Acts, houses falling into disrepair and facing demolition • Visiting the country house – how visiting started, the birth of the National Trust and the concept of the 'open house' 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 ‘Questions will be asked which are now whispered in humble voices, and answers will be demanded then with authority. The question will be asked whether five hundred men, ordinary men chosen accidentally from among the unemployed, should override the judgment, the deliberate judgment, of millions of people who are engaged in the industry which makes the wealth of the country. David Lloyd George, Newcastle speech, 9th October 1909 David Lloyd George’s speech was given while controversy raged within Parliament. Lloyd George’s ‘People’s Budget’ – a finance bill which, amongst other things, levied a supertax on landowners in order to raise funds to fill a £7 million pensions deficit – had been rejected by the House of Lords, 375 votes to 75. At this time, four-fifths of British millionaires were aristocratic landowners and, as hereditary peers, members of the House of Lords; they wanted to stop a bill which would cost them money. Lloyd George’s heartfelt speeches, given across the country, eventually resulted in parliamentary reform, with the House of Lords – the five hundred ‘unemployed’ – losing the right to veto finance bills in 1911. The ‘People’s Budget’ was one of three legal measures which contributed, long term, to the loss of over one thousand Country Houses. As the value of land fell, as taxes increased, as the nature of industry within Britain moved away from farming, the upkeep of a large Country House on an estate became untenable. A way of life was lost, and with it, a considerable proportion of Britain’s architectural heritage. 75
Year 1 Semester 2 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 Credits) HIST1158 – Liberté, Egalité, Beyoncé: Women’s History in Modern Britain (Dr Charlotte L. Riley) Module Overview In this course, we will explore the history of women in Britain in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We will consider the ways in which the women’s movement developed in Britain, and the way that it was influenced, not only by Europe and North America but also by Africa, Asia and Latin America. Starting with ideas about gender developed in the early nineteenth century, this course looks at the key campaigns, people, images and debates involved in women’s history and the British feminist movement. We will consider issues such as the anti- slavery campaigns, imperial feminism, the role of women in the world wars, and the modern women’s liberation movement. We will work with an interesting and varied historiography, as well as a rich collection of archival material including pamphlets, speeches, audio/visual materials, memoirs and autobiographies, and legal and government documents. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • Herstory: an introduction to sex, gender and feminism • Am I Not A Woman and a Sister? Women and the antislavery movement • Separate but equal? The Victorians and the ‘separate spheres’ • Imperial Feminism: white saviours and global female identity • Sister Suffragettes: women and the vote • There’s Not Much Women Can’t Do: women and the two world wars • Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes: Women in the 1950s • Would You let your Daughter Marry a Negro? Women, gender and race • The Personal Is Political: the 1970s and Second Wave feminism • Margaret Thatcher: feminist icon? • 21st Century Feminism: women in Britain today 76
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 ‘Because women's work is never done and is underpaid or unpaid or boring or repetitious and we're the first to get the sack and what we look like is more important than what we do and if we get raped it's our fault and if we get bashed we must have provoked it and if we raise our voices we're nagging bitches and if we enjoy sex we're nymphos and if we don't we're frigid and if we love women it's because we can't get a 'real' man and if we ask our doctor too many questions we're neurotic and/or pushy and if we expect community care for children we're selfish and if we stand up for our rights we're aggressive and 'unfeminine' and if we don't we're typical weak females and if we want to get married we're out to trap a man and if we don't we're unnatural and because we still can't get an adequate safe contraceptive but men can walk on the moon and if we can't cope or don't want a pregnancy we're made to feel guilty about abortion and ….. for lots and lots of other reasons we are part of the women's liberation movement.’ Joyce Stevens, ‘Because we’re women’, Women's Liberation Broadsheet (1975) This document was written by the Australian writer, activist and campaigner Joyce Stevens. Born in 1928, Joyce was active in socialist politics and the women’s liberation movement throughout her life, working to support women’s and worker’s rights in Australia and internationally. This text, which was written in 1975 to mark the UN’s Year of the Woman, demonstrates the international context of the British women’s liberation movement; the piece became very popular in Britain and was adopted by a number of women’s organisations. When compared to documents produced by women’s rights campaigners in the nineteenth and earlier twentieth centuries, it is striking how this list repeats previous demands and concerns in women’s politics: the focus on the right to work for equal pay, sexual liberation and women’s health, domestic violence, the right to abortion, and support for childcare all echo campaigns by earlier groups in Britain and internationally. 77
Year 1 Semester 2 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) HIST1176 – Eisenhower and the World: U.S. Foreign Policy in the 1950s (Dr Alex Ferguson) Module Overview This module will explore the foreign policy of President Dwight D. Eisenhower during a hugely eventful decade that saw increasing Cold War tensions, nuclear standoffs, coups, decolonisation gathering pace, the rise of the non-aligned movement, and the beginnings of a space race. Students will examine Eisenhower’s handling of the global crises of his time, assess how Eisenhower’s background and broader currents of thought in the 1950s shaped his responses to the international challenges he faced, and reflect on the short and long-term legacies of the foreign policy decisions made by the 34th president of the United States. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • The ‘Hidden Hand’ President • Truman’s Legacy and Eisenhower’s New Look • Eisenhower and the Soviet Union • The Korean War • Race, the Third World and the Non-Aligned Movement • The Fourth Weapon: Eisenhower and Psychological Warfare • Cool, Calm and Collected?: Ike and Crisis Management • ‘Ike’s Spies’: Eisenhower and Covert Action • Eisenhower and the ‘Special Relationship’ 78
• ‘High Priests of the Cold War’: Eisenhower, Dulles and Religion • Ike’s Legacy Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x Commentaries exercise (3 x 500 words) 50 1 x Essay (2,500 words) 50 Sample Source ‘You have been issued a valued credential--the Passport of the United States. It requests that, in the countries you intend to visit, there be provided you, as an American citizen, safe passage, lawful aid and protection in case of need. As the holder of this passport, you will be the guest of our neighbors and friends in the world family of nations. Year after year, increasing numbers of our citizens travel to foreign countries. In most of these lands there exists a reservoir of good will for the United States and a knowledge of what we stand for. In some areas, our country and its aspirations are less well understood. To all the varied peoples of these many countries, you, the bearer of an American passport, represent the United States of America.’ Dwight D. Eisenhower, Letter for Inclusion with Passports of Citizens Travelling or Serving Abroad, July 25, 1957 In what capacity did Eisenhower believe ordinary Americans could assist their government in the psychological struggle against the Soviet Union? What does Eisenhower’s appeal to U.S. citizens applying for a passport suggest about his approach to waging the Cold War? To what extent did Eisenhower’s foreign policy decisions assist or complicate his efforts to win the hearts and minds of people around the world? How far did psychological considerations impact the direction of Eisenhower’s foreign policy? 79
Year 1 Semester 2 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) HIST1177 – Twentieth-Century China (Dr Elisabeth Forster) Fight for the Survival of the Nation! 为国家生存而战! (1937) Module Overview Few nations had a more dramatic experience of the twentieth century than China. Over the course of this module you will learn about the tumultuous political events that defined this period - from the fall of the once mighty Qing empire, to China’s descent into chaos during an era of warlord misrule, to the rise of the Communist Party under Mao Zedong, to the resurgence of China as a major world power. Rather than focussing exclusively upon the elite political and cultural figures who often dominate the history of this period, we will also examine how momentous events shaped the lives of ordinary people. We will read about the beggars and prostitutes who scraped a living on the streets of Republican Shanghai, the idealistic Red Guards who gathered in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution, and the millions of farmers whose innovations sowed the seeds for the Chinese economic miracle. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • The Great Qing Dynasty • China Awakened: The Fall of the Qing Empire, 1900-1911 • The Rise of the Nationalists, 1927-1937 80
• Arise China! China in the Second World War, 1937-1945 • The Chinese People Have Stood Up! Early Communist China, 1945-1957 • The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, 1966-1976 • An Economic Miracle? China since 1989 Assessment Assessment Method % Contribution to Final Mark 1 x Commentaries exercise (2 x 500 words) 40 1 x Essay (2,000 words) 60 Sample Source The People's Communes are Good 人民公社好 by Rui Guangting 芮光庭 (1958) This propaganda poster was produced at the start of a Communist campaign known as the Great Leap Forward (1958-1962). It presents a utopian vision of a People’s Commune - a self- sufficient unit in which industry and agriculture would merge into one. The poster demonstrates how People’s Communes were designed to replace the traditional family, with all members eating together in giant kitchens, and care of children and the elderly becoming a collective responsibility. Mao Zedong believed that if he transformed rural society into People’s Communes, China could leap forward into a bright communist future. His grand vision ended in disaster, as the mismanagement of the People’s Communes resulted in one of history’s most catastrophic famines, in which over 30 million people would perish. 81
Year 1 Semester 2 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) HIST1089 – Histories of Empire (Professor Christer Petley) Module Overview Human beings have always engaged in migration and colonisation. Since the beginnings of written records, empires have also been important, with a much longer history than modern nation states. This module is about the histories of empires—including migration and colonialism. It begins by asking ‘what is an empire?’ It then considers examples of empires, with particular emphasis on the history of the British empire. It looks at how empires rise and fall, what empires mean to rulers and the ruled, and what legacies historic empires have left behind. Indicative List of Seminar Topics • What is empire? • Colonisers and rule • The colonised and resistance • Ending empire • Legacies of empire 82
Assessment % Contribution to Final Assessment Method Mark 20 1 x Commentaries exercise (2 x 500 words) 40 1 x Essay (2,000 words) 40 1 x Exam (1 hour) Sample Source Empire Marketing Board Poster (1930s), featuring British Empire flags of New Zealand, India, Ireland, Great Britain and Canada It’s generally good advice, and the sort of thing that more and more people are beginning to take very seriously. Nowadays, ethical consumption is fashionable, with many people asking how the goods they consume were made and where they come from. This sort of ethical consumption is nothing new. As early as the eighteenth century British people inspired by the anti-slavery movement boycotted slave-produced sugar from the Caribbean islands of their own empire. But this poster is encouraging something different. It has more in common with the sorts of ‘America First’ protectionist trade policies of Donald Trump. This British poster is promoting an ‘Empire First’ type of consumption—encouraging Britons of the 1930s to support their empire by buying its goods, whether that was New Zealand lamb, Indian cotton, Irish beef or Canadian bacon. It therefore provides us with ways of thinking about some of the topics of this module, such as how empires worked—including the relationships between imperial centres and colonies—and how understanding the histories of empires can help us to understand our own times. 83
Year 1 Semester 2 – Cases and Contexts Module (15 credits) HIST1103 – The Collapse of Austria-Hungary (Dr Katalin Straner) Module Overview In this module you will study the Habsburg Empire (or Austro-Hungarian Monachy) during its final decades, from the Austro-Hungarian Compromise in 1867 to its disintegration at the end of World War I in 1918. We will look especially at the forces that held the empire together and those that pushed it apart, producing several major domestic and international crises. We will begin with an introduction into the politics, society, and culture of the Empire in the late 19th century: we will look at its position as a Great Power in the international context; important domestic developments, including the significance of the Habsburg dynasty; as well as other themes in Habsburg society and culture, such as the architecture and metropolitan culture of Vienna and Budapest, and the impact of 19th-century mass migrations on the inhabitants of the multi-ethnic Habsburg lands. We will then turn to a number of case studies that will deepen your understanding of pre-war political and social tensions in Central Europe, including the nationalities question, governmental crises in Hungary, or the introduction of male universal suffrage in Austria. In the final weeks of the module we will turn to foreign policy and the international question, and we will study the Empire’s policy in the Balkans, the annexation of Bosnia, as well as the events that led to the July Crisis in 1914 and World War I. Following a study of the Habsburg Empire at was, we will conclude with the imperial collapse and the emergence of the successor states (including Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia) in 1918. Since the territory of the Habsburg Empire covered so much of Europe and was a major (perhaps the major) cause of the Great War, this course offers you an introduction to modern European history in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It not only equips you for studying further the complexity of multi-national and multi-lingual East Central Europe, but supplies a transnational framework for understanding national identity, nationality and empire in the modern era. Indicative List of Seminar Topics 84
· Mapping the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867) · The Habsburg Dynasty · Habsburg Cities: Vienna, Budapest, and Beyond · Magyars or Hungarians? · Transatlantic Migration from Central Europe · The Southern Slav Problem · Murder in Sarajevo and the July Crisis of 1914 · The Habsburg Army 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 Example of source: ‘And so they’ve killed our Ferdinand,’ said the charwoman to Mr Švejk, who had left military service years before, after having been finally certified by an army medical board as an imbecile, and now lived by selling dogs – ugly, mongrel monstrosities whose pedigrees he forged. Apart from this occupation he suffered from rheumatism and was at this very moment rubbing his knees with Elliman’s embrocation. ‘Which Ferdinand, Mrs Müller?’ he asked, going on with the massaging. ‘I know two Ferdinands. One is a messenger at Průša’s, the chemist’s, and once by mistake he drank a bottle of hair oil there. And the other is Ferdinand Kokoška who collects dog manure. Neither of them is any loss.’ ‘Oh no, sir, it’s His Imperial Highness, the Archduke Ferdinand, from Konopište, the fat churchy one.’ ‘Jesus Maria!’ exclaimed Švejk. ‘What a grand job! And where did it happen to His Imperial Highness?’ ‘They bumped him off at Sarajevo, sir, with a revolver, you know. He drove there in a car with his Archduchess.’ ‘Well, there you have it, Mrs Müller, in a car. Yes, of course, a gentleman like him can afford it, but he never imagines that a drive like that might finish up badly. And at Sarajevo into the bargain! That’s in Bosnia, Mrs Müller. I expect the Turks did it. You know, we never ought to have taken Bosnia and Herzegovina from them.’ Extract from Jaroslav Hašek, The Good Soldier Švejk (1921-1923), transl. Cecil Parrott Jaroslav Hašek’s popular satirical novel about the adventures of Švejk, a rather inept Czech soldier bent on avoiding authority and responsibility, is a valuable and informative artistic account of World War I. The book starts in the aftermath of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand (you can read the first few paragraphs above) and ends on the Galician front of the Great War. The good soldier Švejk experiences mobilisation, the military hospital, garrison arrest, transport to the front, and even capture. Published shortly after the end of the war, and heavily influenced by Hašek’s own experiences, the novel has become internationally famous. The point of view of the ‘everyman’ Švejk is especially important as it reflects an attitude very different from those of ‘Great Men’ – emperors, generals, ministers – who were in charge of the Empire. Švejk the soldier has become one of the most famous characters in Czech literature and culture, while Švejk the novel can be read as a pacifist satire of war; it is also a critique of the bureaucracy and inefficiency of the Habsburg Empire, and the many other factors that led to its collapse, and which we will be studying in this module. 85
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