MA History

Twentieth-century political and diplomatic history is a core research area at the School of History at Nottingham. The School’s staff, which includes leading authorities on modern history - such as Professor John Young, Professor Chris Wrigley and Professor Elizabeth Harvey, research a wide variety of 20th-century British, European and World history subjects and offer an inspiring and challenging set of modules. The pathway provides insights into the manner in which social, political and cultural change in the 20th century has shaped the 21st century.

Modules:

Themes in History: AJP Taylor as a Contemporary Historian

1960s in Europe and America: Social and Cultural Change

Foreign Policy and Appeasement, 1933-39

History of Children and Childhood in Nineteenth Century Britain

Occupied France on film

Villains, vice and violence: crime and punishment in late Imperial Russia

Gender history is 'here to stay' (Lynn Hunt). It has established itself as one of the most exciting areas of historical research and stands out for the quality of the work it has inspired as well as for the lively debates it has triggered - debates that are relevant to the practice of any historian. This pathway aims to provide postgraduate students with a specialized grounding in the theoretical approaches and research methodologies characteristic of gender history combined with stimulating range of optional modules. Nottingham is a world-leading centre for the study of gender history. Staff members, including Professor Elizabeth Harvey, Dr. Karen Adler, Dr Harry Cocks and Dr. Ross Balzaretti, publish widely in the field.

Modules:

Themes in History: Gender and Sexuality 

1960s in Europe and America: Social and Cultural Change 

History of Children and Childhood in Nineteenth Century Britain 

Women in Italy:  Travel writing and gender discourse in the Nineteenth Century

Occupied France on film

Staff in the School of History has considerable expertise in British History which ranges chronologically from early medieval England to the 20th-century Britain. The British history pathway draws on staff expertise by offering a core module which addresses aspects of British identity across the centuries. In addition, staff offer a thought-provoking range of options to those interested in more specialised aspects of British history, ranging from the Anglo-Saxon politics of the 10th century to the British slave trade of the 18th century.

Modules:

Themes in History: Exploring English Identity

Anglo-Saxon England

History of Children and Childhood in Nineteenth Century Britain

People, Power and Profits: British-Atlantic Controversies 1607-1807

Sacred and Profane in Early Modern England

The medieval pathway of the MA in History allows students to explore the medieval world at postgraduate level. From expressions of power in the medieval Europe and the study of rebels, outsiders and Crusaders to Anglo-Saxon political history, a wide range of themes are available for study. Students will also be introduced to the methodologies, languages and palaeographical skills (through the Research Skills for Historians module) needed to progress to medieval research. As such, the MA offers a first step for those wishing to progress to PhD research, whilst also being suitable for those with a more general interest in the history of the Middle Ages. Nottingham has a vibrant research culture in Medieval Studies and students are part of a lively international community of researchers centred upon the Institute for Medieval Research.

Modules:

Themes in History: Power and Authority in the Medieval World

Fear, Faith and the Good Fight in the Medieval Mediterranean

Anglo-Saxon England 

Intermediate medieval Latin 

Siege, plunder and slaughter: waging war in the middle ages  

This exciting multi-disciplinary pathway is run by the School of History and the Department of Classics at Nottingham. The pathway encourages independent comparative research into war and society in the ancient, medieval and early modern world. This pathway is ideal for those students interested in the study of warfare and society in the pre-modern period. The programme compares and contrasts a number of warrior societies: the warriors of the Ancient World; the knights of medieval Europe and the Japanese Samurai. However this is far more than just tactics and battlefields; the modules examine the societies that produced warriors in these cultures. From the martial societies of the Ancient world to the aristocratic, Christian knights of the Crusades and the Wars of the Roses to the Japanese Samurai and the Bushido code, students have the opportunity to explore these themes in detail.

Modules:

Themes in History: War and Society 

Warfare and Society in the Ancient World 

Fear, Faith and the Good Fight in the Medieval Mediterranean

Siege, plunder and slaughter: waging war in the middle ages 

Samurai Culture: The Way of the Warrior, 1150-1878

This module examines the context, content and impact of A J P Taylor's writings on continental European and British History. It includes an exploration of the international relations and foundations of Taylor's early work which will lead students to consider why there was major interest in this area between 1918 and 1950. There will be an examination of Taylor's approach to Central European History between 1848 -1914 and especially varying interpretations of the causes of the First World War. The module will also consider his analysis of the origins of the Second World War and will appraise his work on British dissenters and leading politicians and on Churchill and the Second World War.

This module focuses on a selection of key texts to explore some of the themes, approaches and techniques that have characterized writing on women’s and gender history in recent decades. It will consider how a perspective of gender has influenced historical writing, asking how women’s and gender historians have framed historical questions, located and interpreted source material, and challenged conventional ways of narrating history. Sessions will focus on defining gender norms and identities and use a variety of sources to approach the gendered past, for example; biography and autobiography and visual sources.

Recent historians have been conscious of English identity not as a stable phenomenon that needs to be described, but rather as an artificial historical construct, ambiguous, hotly debated and subject to regular change and revision. This module examines the ways in which that identity has been constructed in different periods, while keeping an eye on how, in the present day, those periods themselves have been used to create an ‘historic’ sense of English identity. Among the themes to be considered will be the relationship between Britishness and Englishness, and the ways in which the promotion of identity has depended upon ideas of inclusion and exclusion. Themes for analysis which transcend seminars include consideration of race, religion, culture and politics in the making and representation of English national identities. 

The module provides an insight into some of the conceptual issues and historiography relating to power and authority in the Middle Ages. Topics studied cover a long medieval chronology and European-wide geographical spread and include detailed case studies of subjects such as the ideologies of power in Paul the Deacon's History of the Lombards , judicial power in records of north Italian court cases, the ecclesiastical authority of Aethelwold of Winchester and Wulfstan of Worcester, the Pope & the Inquisition, English royal propaganda versus royal slander, The Peasants' Revolt of 1381, lord-peasant relationships at a manorial level and heresy trial records in 15th and 16th-century England.  

The module introduces students to the key themes of war and society in the Ancient world, medieval and Early Modern Europe and pre-modern Japan. Students compare and contrast the martial societies of these different periods. In the second semester students are required to give presentations, based upon their optional modules, that directly compare and two warrior societies.

This module explores the historiography of 1960s social and cultural change with reference to the problems of historical evidence, memory, interpretation, authentication and the political uses of history. The 1960s represent one of the most controversial periods of modern history. The module will analyse and reappraise the heavily politicised historiography on the 1960s. Topics studied will include: the 1950s and the seeds of change; the civil rights campaign; protest movements and problems of memory; the sexual revolution; rock n' roll, counter-culture and generational conflict and the rise of the women's movement.

This module examines the evolution of British foreign policy from Hitler’s ascendancy to power in Germany in 1933 until the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939. Students will gain knowledge of how British foreign policy evolved to meet the challenges posed by the revisionist powers, both in Europe and beyond, the various strategies of appeasement that were employed, the contemporary critiques of appeasement, the various domestic, political and economic constraints that precluded the pursuit of alternative policies and the ultimate failure of appeasement to prevent the Second World War. This will provide students with a more sophisticated understanding of the origins of the Second World War and an enhanced appreciation of the foreign policy-making process, based on extensive use of primary source material.

This module examines the religious culture of early modern England, from the Henrician Reformation through to the English Civil War. Its particular focus is on the practicalities of religious and social life, looking at how far and why people’s perceptions of the division between sacred and secular changed in the period. Different sessions concentrate on topics such as ‘sacred spaces’ (churchyards, church buildings, sanctuary), ‘sacred time’ (the observance of the sabbath, fast days, feast days), sacred objects, images and iconoclasm.

This module looks at the changes which Viking raids and settlement brought to the social and political framework of Anglo-Saxon England, at the subsequent development of a unified English kingdom in the tenth century and at the threats which it faced in the eleventh century. 

This module focuses on the evolution of diplomatic practice from the earliest times to the twentieth century. It provides an historical analysis of the major developments such as the use of envoys, the rise of resident embassies and foreign ministries, and the impact of multinational organisations and summitry. In doing so, it also discusses the purposes and major features of diplomacy. 

This module explores recent theoretical work on the nature of childhood and the social history of children with particular reference to nineteenth-century Britain. Topics covered include conceptualizing of childhood, relationships between children and their parents, child labour and industrialization, children's leisure, children's health, children and the school system and juvenile delinquency. 

The module focuses on sources for Christian-Muslim encounters in the early and high middle ages. Recent translations of Latin, Arabic and Greek sources allow students to get to the heart of the beliefs and motives of crusader and Islamic societies, and also the experience of the indigenous Christian populations of the Middle East. The module covers topics ranging chronologically from the rise of Islam in Arabia in c.600 CE to the surrender of the seventh crusade to the Mameluks in Egypt in 1250 CE. It studies the military, political and social aspects of the crusades and the crusader ‘kingdom’, border societies and cultural thresholds, trade, piracy and slavery, the military orders, warrior slaves, the ‘Assassins’, non-combatants and camp followers. 

Module information to be published.

This module is taught jointly by Japanese specialists and considers a variety of sources, including warrior ‘codes’ and literary texts which reflect the outlook and priorities of the samurai as a warrior class. Through these sources the module focuses on the common structures and conventions which can possibly be compared and contrasted with ‘feudal’ societies in medieval Europe. Special reference is made to the epic Japanese ‘war tales’ or Gunki Monogatari, in particular the important Heike Monogatari. Students will be encouraged to take a broadly thematic, rather than a chronological, approach to the study of samurai culture. Topics addressed in lectures and seminars will include, Bushido and conceptualising samurai culture, swords, titles and banners: political legitimacy and symbols of prestige, portrayals of honour and ‘chivalry’ in poetry and song, emperor, shogun and rival courts: the dynamics of sharing power, lord and vassal: a study in obligation, punishment and mutual self-interest and castles, weapons and military technology.

The module considers major themes in the history of medieval warfare from c. 800 to c. 1500. These will be addressed, typically, by exploring topics such as the origins of the knight and knightly families in England and France, violence and peace in the eleventh-century, Anglo-Saxons and Normans, the Crusades, knightly orders, the development of the castle, warfare and political strife in 1297 and 1340-1, the chevauchée and the military revolution and fourteenth-century diplomacy.

This module explores histriographical controversies concerning the British-Atlantic world 1607-1807. Themes covered will include the so-called ‘New’ world, the myth of the ‘founding fathers’, the slave trade and its effect on Africa, the causes and consequences of the American Revolution and the end of the slave trade.

This module explores the ways that shared, competing and contradictory versions of the past reach a mass audience through film. It is not a course on film history. Instead, it focuses on a highly contested period of twentieth-century French history, namely the German Occupation, in order to problematise issues such as collaboration, resistance, deportation, community relations, propaganda, nostalgia and war. In so doing, it further investigates the post-war political and social contexts which gave rise to these varying views of the past. A number of films about the period will be screened in subtitled versions and no knowledge of French is required.

This module explores different aspects of crime, criminality and punishment in late Imperial Russia (1861-1917). This subject allows the in-depth investigation of a range of key aspects of late Imperial Russian society, including, apocalyptic visions at the turn of the century; Russia's connections with western European thought; principles and practice of containment and punishment; visions of Siberia as a place of punishment; conditions of life in prison and exile and women as criminals.

This module explores the broad theme of the relationship between war and society in either the ancient Greek world or the ancient Roman world. The types of issues considered include, the relationship between citizenship, landholding and military service - different sources of army recruits (conscripts, volunteers, mercenaries) - attitudes to military service (heroic ideals, masculine identity etc.) - the evolution of military institutions in their wider social context - the impact of warfare on societies - military-civilian relations - the relationship between warfare and religion - women and war - visual representations of war - literary representations of war. As well as gaining a knowledge of war and society in either the Greek or the Roman worlds, students will also become familiar with the range of ancient source material for the study of these topics, the problems which these sources present, and modern scholarly debate about central issues.

This module offers focuses on the varieties of British travel writing since 1900. It offers an opportunity to explore in some detail not only the content and strategies of individual travel writers and travel texts, but also the critical theories and practices that may be applied to such texts. Consideration of such general questions as genre, form, narrative voice, gender, cultural encounters and national identity will place the authors and texts to be studied in a larger context. In particular the idea of the journey as a fundamental narrative structure – as pilgrimage, quest, escape or mode of discovery – will provide a link between the various texts to be studied. Although most of the texts studied will be non-fiction, attention will also be paid to poetry and fiction, in particular the ways in which they make use of tropes of departure, arrival and return, and how the idea of travel can be employed both literally and metaphorically.