Syllabus
Level 1:
Foundation units
The material world: culture and environment in the last
millennium [HISF001]
This unit looks at the changing ways in which human beings
have interacted with their physical environment, and touches
on topics ranging from climate, landscape, communications,
housing and food, to religious places and consumer goods.
History and
meanings [HISF002]
This unit looks at how the understanding of historical time
has developed in different societies, and how the
interpretation and writing of history has evolved over the
centuries.
State, society and the individual in the non-western world
[HISF003]
This unit looks at changes and continuities in the social
framework and fundamental concepts of the non-western world
during the 19th and 20th centuries. It focuses particularly on
five main areas: the modernisation of the state; the
re-ordering of society; the role of religion; the nature of
the family and the role of women; the development of
individualism.
Level 1:
‘Gateway’ full units
The birth of western Christendom AD 300-1215 [HISF004]
This unit looks at the inter-relation of church, society and
government in a key period of the evolution of Europe. The
main themes are: the formation of the Christian Roman Empire;
the place of the Church in the new era of the early-medieval
successor states; the role of Christianity in the transmission
of culture; the empire of Charlemagne; the challenge to
Christian Europe from the Vikings; the nature of kingly
authority; and the revival of learning and literacy in the
twelfth-century Renaissance.
Conflict and identity in the modern world from 1789 to the
present day [HISF005]
This unit aims to introduce students to a variety of
approaches to modern history. It takes a thematic path through
such topics as revolution, imperialism, war and social change,
nationalism, ethnicity and gender. It covers both Europe and
the non-European world, and puts its emphasis on new
approaches and new interpretations.
Republics, kings and people: the foundations of modern
political culture [HISF006]
This unit investigates the origins of the ideas about human
rights and duties, revolution and democracy, consent and
liberty, etc. A number of key writings are studied: ranging
from Plato and Aristotle in the ancient world to Machiavelli,
More, Hobbes, Locke and the Enlightenment in the transition
from the early modern to the modern world. Analysis of the
development of fundamental ideas about politics and society
through these examples sharpens the mind and throws light upon
the present in the perspective of the past.
The rich tapestry of life: A social and cultural history of
Europe c. 1500-1780 [HISF007]
This unit aims to direct students to some of the most exciting
writing in the recent social history of early modern Europe;
to introduce students, week by week, to analytic concepts
(space, gender, status, identity, etc.); and to familiarise
students with primary source material. Topics covered will
include masculinity, femininity, sexuality, violence, poverty,
life and death, body and mind. The unit does not purport to
provide a complete coverage of social history in the period,
nor indeed of European history between c. 1500 and 1780, and
it draws on material from both Continental Europe and England.
Level 1:
‘Gateway’ half units
Introduction to Greek literature [CLAF001]
An introductory historical and critical survey of classical
Greek literature from Homer to the Alexandrian age, with texts
studied in translation.
Introduction to Roman literature [CLAF002]
An introductory unit studying, with reference to select works
in translation, the chronology and development of the main
literary genres from the beginnings of Latin literature to the
mid-second century.
Introduction to ancient philosophy [CLAF003]
An introductory unit aiming both to inform students about
ancient philosophical ideas and to introduce them to
philosophical argument. It combines a brief survey of the
principal ancient philosophers, from the Presocratics to
Aristotle, with study of selected texts, in translation, on
the topic of courage, including Plato’s Laches.
Greek history and the city-state [CLAF004]
(expected to be examined for the first time in 2005)
An introductory unit examining Greek history, society and
institutions from the beginning to the late fourth century BC
with particular attention to the problems and methods of
reconstructing the past from the ancient sources, the
historical context of Greek literature, and the development of
the city-state.
Roman
history and society: the Julio-Claudians [CLAF005]
An introductory unit dealing with the history and political,
social and economic institutions of Rome and her empire from
AD 14 to AD 68. The unit aims to provide an introduction both
to the period being studied through excerpts from the ancient
sources in translation, and to the methods and approaches
available to the ancient historian.
The
birth of Christian Europe [CLAF006]
An introductory unit dealing with the transformation of the
ancient world in the period from the end of the fourth century
to the seventh century AD. The unit focuses on Gaul and Italy
in the period from the rise of the Christian Church and the
formal division of the Roman Empire into East and West to the
effective end of Roman power in the West with the Byzantine
conquest of Italy and subsequent political turmoil.
Introduction to Greek archaeology [CLAF007]
An introductory unit designed to familiarise students with the
material culture of Greek civilisation from the Late Bronze
Age to the Hellenistic period, and also the principal forms of
Greek art and architecture, with their stylistic development
and social context. The latter part of the unit will introduce
the student to questions of production and trade, and to
different archaeological theories and interpretations and
their relationship with Greek archaeology.
Introduction to Roman art [CLAF008]
(expected to be examined for the first time in 2005)
An introductory unit designed to familiarise students with the
principal forms of Roman artistic culture (architecture,
painting and mosaics, statuary, sarcophagi, coins, metal-ware,
glass and pottery), from the 2nd century BC to the fourth
century AD, and with past and current theories regarding their
use as evidence of intellectual, social and economic life in
the Roman empire.
Level 2:
Group A full units
From nation state to multiple monarchy: British history,
1485-1649 [HISA008]
This unit aims to provide a survey, largely political and
religious, of the history of England from the accession of
Henry VII to the execution of Charles I. Focusing mostly on
England in the 15th and 16th centuries, it broadens to include
Scotland after the Union of the Crowns in 1603. Wales and
Ireland are also discussed where relevant to the main
narrative. The principal themes considered are the political
changes wrought by the successive dynasties of Tudors and
Stuarts, and the opposition they aroused; the chronology and
pattern of religious developments with the coming of the
Reformation; the accession of James VI of Scotland to the
English throne and its consequences; the impact of
demographic, agrarian and commercial developments; the
origins, outbreak and course of the ‘British civil wars’,
concluding with the execution of the king and the abolition of
the House of Lords.
British history 1770-1990 [HISA009]
Is Britain a class-ridden society? Why does Britain still have
its royal family? Is Britain culturally closer to Europe or to
America? Could Britain's decline after 1945 have been averted?
This unit is essential for anyone wishing to understand the
political, social and cultural make-up of modern Britain. It
offers a broad survey of modern British history, from the
reign of King George III through to the fall of Mrs Thatcher
in 1990, through the prism of five underlying themes:
politics, society, culture, gender and national identities. In
doing so it seeks to guide students through the formative
events of modern British history, and introduce them to the
main historical controversies and debates. Among topics
covered are British reactions to the French Revolution,
Victoria and the re-invention of the British monarchy, the
rise (and fall?) of the Labour party, the Irish question,
Appeasement in the 1930s, the impact of two world wars on
twentieth-century Britain, and the legacy of the 'Swinging
Sixties'. Take this unit to learn why the future Napoleon III
served as a British police constable in 1848, to discover
which Victorian Premier roamed the streets at night to carry
out 'rescue-work' with prostitutes, to understand who or what
a 'flapper' was, and to find out why feminist activists lobbed
flour-bombs at Bob Hope in 1970. Or simply take this unit to
be better able to understand the complexities of the society
in which we live today.
Modern times: international economic history c.1901-1990
[HISA011]
(expected to be examined for the first
time in 2006)
This unit covers the economic developments affecting the UK
and the wider world in the twentieth century. The first term
is devoted to the UK; topics covered include the Edwardian
period and the First World War; the long post-1945 boom; the
problems of the 1970s and 1980s; and the Major and Blair
years. The second term covers the same period, but extends the
discussion to cover the wider developments in the world
economy, with particular reference to the ending of free trade
and the rise of economic protection in the 1930s, and the
factors making for the reconstruction and revival of the world
economy since 1945, culminating in the recent performance and
problems affecting the world economy since the 1980s.
Homer [CLAI009]
A study of the Iliad and Odyssey in
translation, looking both at the texts in detail and the broad
themes with which they deal, and investigating the historical
and artistic background.
Virgil [CLAI010]
A literary study of the Virgilian corpus in translation, and
of its artistic and political context.
Greek history
to 322 BC [CLAI011]
This unit covers Greek political and social history from Homer
to Alexander, from the emergence of classical Greek
civilisation and institutions in the ninth century BC to the
break-up of the classical Greek world at the hands of Macedon.
Augustus: propaganda and power [CLAI012]
This unit studies the means by which the first Roman emperor
was able to establish monarchical power and then create a
structure of consent within which that power could be
exercised and handed on. Stress is laid on changes within the
social and political institutions of the Roman state as much
as on analysis of the events of the reign. The sources used
include not only the historians of the period but
inscriptional and visual evidence.
The
built environment in classical antiquity [CLAI013]
This unit studies the practice of architecture and building in
the Greek and Roman world, investigating such themes as the
development of architectural orders, the role of architects,
the design process, the sources and supply of building
materials and techniques, planning of cities and other forms
of settlement, and civic, religious, funerary and domestic
building types.
Levels 2 and
3: Group B full units
The Crusades and the eastern Mediterranean 1095-1291 [HISB012]
(expected to be examined for the first
time in 2006)
The triumph of the First Crusade (1099) resulted in the
establishment of a Latin Christian community in the Levant for
almost two hundred years. This unit is primarily concerned to
examine how the settlers maintained their hold on a region
which was spiritually, economically and politically important
to the Byzantine empire and the Muslim world as well. The
reaction of these groups to the crusades and the development
of their relationship with the settlers is an integral part of
the subject. The ‘jihad’ became the channel for Muslim
opposition and the Latins discovered that their own resources
were insufficient to meet this threat and they appealed for
help to Western Europe. The response and the consequences of
this reaction for settlers’ tenure of the Holy Land will be
analysed. The Frankish way of life will be studied; its
institutions, the economic position of the Christian
settlements; the role of women, and whether the Latin states
represent an early form of western colonialism will be
discussed. The preaching and preparation of crusading
expeditions, the evolution of the crusading idea, crusading
warfare and criticism of crusading will also be studied. The
unit will utilize a variety of primary material from European,
Byzantine, Muslim and Syriac sources in translation.
Experience, culture and identity: women’s lives in England
1688-c. 1850 [HISB013]
This unit examines the mental and material world of English
women in a period of rapid social, economic and cultural
transformation. It exploits the wealth of secondary literature
which has appeared on the subject in recent years, and
evaluates the dominant interpretations of continuity and
change in women’s history. Attention focuses on the diversity
of roles women played, the changing scope of female
experience, and the different languages available to
articulate that experience. Topics covered include: Love and
Marriage, Sexuality, Masculinity, Divorce, Motherhood, Work,
Consumerism, Material Culture, Print, Polite Culture,
Feminism, Politics and Religion. Students will be encouraged
to engage critically with the categories, modes of explanation
and chronology of recent women’s history.
Ethnicity, identity and citizenship in modern British life
[HISB014]
This unit provides a comprehensive introduction to the history
and functioning of multi-ethnic Britain. It covers the history
of immigration and settlement of minorities and explores
contemporary issues which concern Black and Asian groups.
Students will re-examine their own identity to understand
immigrant experience and ethnic conflict. The ways in which
racism and ethnicity have affected Britain and the
effectiveness of public policy are covered. Ethnic groups'
reaction to British society is considered.
Modern
political ideas [HISB015]
The unit examines the main currents of political thought in
Modern European and World History from Rousseau to the
present, e.g. The Eighteenth Century and the French
Revolution; Commercial society and its enemies (Hume, Smith,
Rousseau); the French Revolution (Paine, Wollstonecraft);
reactions to the revolution (Hegel); The Nineteenth Century,
Early socialism (Owen, Fourier, Saint Simon); Tocqueville and
the American model; Marx and communism; Mill and liberalism;
Nietzsche and modernity; Bakunin and anarchism; The Twentieth
Century - Anti-imperialist theorists (Fanon, Gandhi); Orwell
and dystopia; green political theory.
Roman Britain
[CLAI014]
This unit is a case-study in Roman imperialism and an
introduction to the material culture of the Roman empire. It
covers the conquest of Britain, its transformation into a
Roman province, later changes in its administration and
defence, and the impact of incorporation into the Roman empire
on the physical environment, religion, economy and society of
the island. Particular emphasis is placed on the rich
archaeological evidence.
Greek drama [CLAA015]
(expected to be examined for the first
time in 2006)
Selected plays by the three major tragedians, Aeschylus,
Sophocles and Euripides, and the comic writer Aristophanes are
studied in translation to illustrate aspects of tragedy and
comedy, including: drama as performance; the treatment of
myth, politics and religion; characterisation; language;
structure. Aristotle’s Poetics is also studied.
From
Nero to Hadrian: literature and society [CLAA016]
(expected to be examined for the first
time in 2006)
The period from Nero to the Death of Hadrian sees an
efflorescence of Latin literature, much of which deals
explicitly with issues raised by the new political context of
the powerful monarchy. These issues were not just political
but went to the heart of the ideologies of the elite. Looking
at poets such as Lucan and Statius, and prose authors such as
Pliny and Tacitus, this unit is designed to bring together
literary criticism and historical methodology to explore how
Romans reconstituted their identity in relation to the
literary tradition, mythology, history, gender, culture and
the political situation.
The dialogues
of Plato [CLAA017]
(expected to be examined for the first
time in 2006)
A study of the philosophical and literary aspects of dialogues
from all periods of Plato’s activity. Approximately equal
parts of the unit will be devoted to (i) Platonic dialogues
earlier than The Republic; (ii) The Republic;
(iii) the Philebus or Theaetetus, studied in
detail and with compulsory exam questions; (iv) other post-Republic
dialogues.
Women in
classical antiquity [CLAA018]
(expected to be examined for the first
time in 2006)
This unit examines the treatment of women in classical
literature, history philosophy and art, with emphasis on
Greece, Hellenistic Egypt, and Rome. Topics include: women in
myth. epic, law satire. drama, historiography, religion, roman
elegy; women’s writing; modern interpretations of women in
antiquity; and ancient medical theory.
The Roman army
[CLAA019]
(expected to be examined for the first
time in 2006)
This unit looks at the Roman army as an institution by close
study of the primary sources - literary, papyrological and
epigraphic - in translation, together with the archaeological
evidence. It surveys the army’s origins and development under
the Republic, but focuses mainly on the Principate, covering
its personnel, organisation and operation in war and peace,
but also its central role in the administration and policing
of the empire and impact on provincial populations.
Pompeii [CLAA020]
(expected to be examined for the first
time in 2006)
This unit studies the physical remains of the cities of
Pompeii and Herculaneum, and the villas of Stabiae, Oplontis
and Boscoreale, on their own exceptional terms and within the
wider context of roman Italy c. 200 BC-AD 100. Topics include
the analysis of the population, environment, urban planning
and infrastructure, housing (design, construction, decoration
and room function), suburbs, port, cemeteries, farming,
industry, trade and commerce, religion, bathing, sport, the
theatre and amphitheatre.
Level 3:
Group C double units
(not available for first examination before May 2006)
Blasphemy, irreligion and the English Enlightenment 1620-1720
[HISC016]
This unit examines the intellectual and political consequences
of the radical ferment (both popular and philosophical) of
ideas spawned in the English Revolution of the 1650s. The unit
texts include clandestine manuscripts, like the subversive
‘Treatise of Three Imposters’ which argued that Moses, Mahomet
and Christ were all religious frauds, and printed works by
critics like James Harrington, Thomas Hobbes and Charles
Blount. The primary objective will be to study the
anticlerical, heterodox and openly irreligious components of
the Republican attack upon Christianity. The second line of
enquiry will explore how the attack on Christianity of the
1650s developed into a systematic rejection of all revealed
religion in the later 17th century. Attention focuses upon
arguments that set out to destroy the authority of the
priesthood and to reject the authenticity of the Bible, as
well as their accounts of ‘other religions’ like Islam and
Judaism which were used to criticise Christianity.
US foreign policy during the `high’ Cold War, 1957-1965:
Berlin, Cuba and Vietnam [HISC017]
This unit examines the foreign policy of the Eisenhower,
Kennedy and Johnson administrations during a period of some of
the highest Cold War tensions. It deals in some depth with the
key crises faced in Europe, the Caribbean and South East Asia,
but aims also to cover general themes, attitudes and
approaches to policy, as the United States confronted
challenges from the Soviet Union, Communist China and
revolutionary developments in the Third World. Attention is
directed to the structure of the foreign policy-making
process, bureaucratic rivalries, and the influence of domestic
political pressures. Primary documents are drawn from
contemporary telegrams, memoranda, transcripts and speeches.
Students opting for this unit will be expected to have some
familiarity with post-1945 American history.
Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement in the USA
[HISC018]
‘Martin didn’t make the movement, the movement made Martin’,
noted veteran civil rights activist Ella Baker. Baker’s
perceptive comment goes to the very heart of contemporary
historiographical debates. On the one hand, scholars have
increasingly viewed the mass black movement for civil rights
in the United States between the 1940s and 1970s as a
grassroots phenomenon that was rooted in local communities and
based upon local leadership and local needs. On the other
hand, scholars still emphasize the vital national leadership
role played by Martin Luther King Jn, in the black struggle,
particularly from the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott to King’s
assassination at Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968. This unit looks
at both strands of this scholarship and seeks to assess the
dynamics of the movement at both local and national levels,
and examine the tensions that often existed between them, by
using a wide range of written, spoken and visual sources.
Politics and society in Palestine from c. 1900 to 1948
[HISC019]
This unit looks at the interaction of politics and society in
Palestine from the late Ottoman period until the establishment
of the state of Israel. What was the impact of the politics of
the West upon society in Palestine in the late Ottoman period?
How did different social and religious groups react? What were
the different interpretations of Zionism? What can we learn
from the documents about them? Another theme examined from
study of the texts is the struggle of the British to control
the situation and build a state in Palestine. How did the
Arabs respond? And look at the forms of modern organisation
and ideology they used and the problems of Arab identity and
nationalism at both the local and regional level. Texts
written by both Arab and Jewish women are examined to compare
their role in political and social developments. The changes
generated by the World Wars are a further theme, and include
the debate on the impact of terrorism, as well as the effect
of the growing involvement of America.
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