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Undergraduate History 2014-2015

HI1022: EUROPE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

15 credits

Level 1

First Term

A comprehensive treatment of this enormous subject is obviously impracticable in an introductory course within the space of one semester, so we aim to highlight a selection of six key political, economic, social and other themes. The selection varies from year to year, but is likely to include the rise of Bolshevism, reconstruction and European integration after WW2, and the Cold War. The twice-weekly lectures introduce the topics, while the eight tutorial meetings emphasise the development of practical transferable research and presentation skills as well as the building of historical knowledge.
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HI1025: VIKINGS!

15 credits

Level 1

First Term

This course introduces students to a period of warfare and pillage, political turmoil and social transformation, but also economic expansion and cultural innovation. In 795 Viking raiders mercilessly attacked the Christian monastic community on Iona in the Scottish western isles. From then on their activities extended from Denmark, Norway and Sweden out to Continental Europe, North America, Russia, and the Mediterranean Basin. Over time they became transformed from heathen raiders into Christianized settlers. In Iceland they created a republic which has remained Scandinavian in culture; elsewhere, for instance Britain, Ireland, and Russia, they adopted and modified the host culture. 
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HI1522: AN INTRODUCTION TO SCOTTISH HISTORY

15 credits

Level 1

Second Term

Scotland is one of the oldest political units in Western Europe, arguably emerging as a discernible entity by no later than the middle-to-late 10th century. The overall objective of this course is to chart the underlying continuities and radical changes that mark the nation’s historical development since the early 12th century up to the present day. In doing so it aims to assess and question the value of, and the problems inherent in, studying societies through the prism of national history. 
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HI1523: RENAISSANCES AND REFORMATIONS

15 credits

Level 1

Second Term

The course provides a broad overview of the changes which the Renaissance and Reformations introduced to European culture, politics, religion, society and people’s understanding of their role in the world. It traces these developments in a comparative way, from Europe’s Atlantic cost to East Central Europe and Russia, throughout a changing image of the world and its relationship to the spiritual, brought on by Renaissance, a time of unrest triggered by European Reformations, the radical and magisterial reformations, European expansion, the growth of monarchies and republics, and the wars of religion of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

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HI2020: BIRTH OF MODERNITY: POLITICS, CULTURE AND SCIENCE IN EUROPE, 1700-1870

30 credits

Level 2

First Term

This course introduces students to the crucible of the modern age. Hinging on the American, French and 1848 Revolutions, it explores how men and women in elite and popular communities generated new modes of living, experience and expression and how they understood and manipulated the natural world. Attention will be given to the Enlightenment, Revolution, Empire, Romanticism and Ideology with interrelated developments in politics, culture and science also being explored. Students will be introduced to the works of figures such as Newton, Voltaire, Paine, Goethe, Marx, Darwin and Nietzsche. Topics will include Salons, the Terror, nationalism and secularisation.
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HI2021: POWER & PIETY: MEDIEVAL EUROPE, 1100-1500

30 credits

Level 2

First Term

Between 1100 and 1500 western Europe underwent fundamental transformations: new technical, economic and political challenges, fresh developments in religious and intellectual life and catastrophes like wars, diseases and climate change fundamentally shaped European societies for centuries to come. This course offers a thematic survey of medieval western societies, focusing on religion, kingship and warfare, economy and environment, cultural renaissances and intellectual novelties, the emergence of national states and identities and the discovery of new worlds.   
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HI2520: GLOBAL EMPIRE IN THE LONG NINETEENTH CENTURY

30 credits

Level 2

Second Term

The  long nineteenth century (c.1760-1914) saw dramatic rises and falls in political units and power systems (empires) bringing together a range of peoples and territories.  Generally, but not exclusively, they were dominated by Europeans (or those who at least claimed European descent). These global empires are now recognised by historians as a key feature of modern history, and have generated an increasingly rich and varied literature. This course offers you the chance to examine this crucial and controversial phenomenon which, for better or worse, made the modern world. 
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HS2003: HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE I

15 credits

Level 2

First Term

Topics from the history of science from antiquity to the early eighteenth century, with particular emphasis on the Scientific Revolution of 1500-1700. The course offers two complementary perspectives: (i) an introduction to the history of science in a social, cultural, and intellectual context focusing on well-known figures (Copernicus, Galileo, Newton), topics (astronomy, alchemy, medicine), institutions (Royal Society of London, court culture), practices (experiment, instruments), and other themes (the role of women, science and religion); and (ii) an introduction to central themes in the philosophical understanding of science and its methods (induction, deduction, Popper, Kuhn).
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HS2503: HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE II

15 credits

Level 2

Second Term

How is science made, and how is it shaped by the culture which creates it? This course explores the making of some of the most important scientific developments in modern times. Spanning the period from 1750 to the present, it covers such topics as the Industrial Revolution, the unearthing of geological time, the emergence and impacts of Darwinism, the birth of psychology, and the making of the atomic bomb. Students will be asked to think not just about how science and technology changed, but why, and what connected these changes to the societies which hosted them.
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HC3003: THE CLASSICAL HERITAGE: THE GLORY THAT WAS GREECE, THE GRANDEUR THAT WAS ROME

30 credits

Level 3

First Term

This is a team-taught course with input from History, Art History, Divinity and Philosophy, on approaches to the classical tradition within these disciplines. Greek themes are Religion, Heroes and Ideal Forms, Greek Philosophy, the invention of science, the invention of history. Roman themes are the Republic, Augustan Rome, Translating Cultures, Christianity, and the Fall of Rome.  Two lectures a week, 100% assessed by final essay, a 'general paper', with open ended questions to which students are invited to bring relevant knowledge.
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HC3004: THE GLORY THAT WAS GREECE

15 credits

Level 3

First Term

This is the first half of the Classical Heritage, which can be taken as a 15-credit stand alone option. The themes for each week are Greek myths and religion (taught by Divinity), Heroes, ideal forms and the heroic body (taught by Art History), Greek Philosophy (taught by Philosophy), the invention of science, and the invention of history (both taught by History). Two lectures a week, 100% assessed by final essay, a 'general paper', with open ended questions to which students are invited to bring relevant knowledge. 
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HC3304: THE GRANDEUR THAT WAS ROME

15 credits

Level 3

First Term

This is the second half of the Classical Heritage, which can be taken as a 15-credit stand alone option. The themes for each week are the Roman Republic (taught by History), Augustan Rome and architecture (taught by Art History), Translating Cultures (taught by Philosophy), Christianity and the Roman empire (taught by Divinity) and the Fall of Rome (taught by History). Two lectures a week, 100% assessed by final essay, a 'general paper', with open ended questions to which students are invited to bring relevant knowledge.
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HI303Q: DECOLONIZATION - THE BRITISH EXPERIENCE

30 credits

Level 3

First Term

Few changes in the twentieth century were more dramatic than the collapse of European colonial empires and of a world system centred on Europe. Drawing widely on a vibrant literature, this course will examine the decline of British imperialism. It will consider causes and consequences of that decline. It focuses on key areas including India, Africa, and the former settler colonies, Britain itself, and global developments such as the cold war and the rise of global humanitarianism. In so doing it sheds new light on a modern world still haunted by the ghosts of empire.
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HI303T: IMPERIAL RUSSIA 1801-1914

30 credits

Level 3

First Term

This course will examine key issues and events in Russian history during the period 1801-1914. The following themes will be central: Autocracy, opposition and alternatives; International affairs, military might and great-power status; Social problems and the inter-relation of sections of Russian society; Economic problems such as modernisation, industrialisation, finance, communications etc; and Problems of a vast contiguous Empire, containing many non-Russian groups, religions and cultures, in an age of imperial competition.
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HI303Z: MEN, WOMEN AND EUNUCHS

30 credits

Level 3

First Term

This course introduces you to the idea of gender as a social construct, while at the same time, teaching you a certain amount about the Byzantine world, focusing particularly on the period from the fourth to sixth centuries. Sexual identity is an extremely important aspect of personal identity in all societies, but by looking at a pre-medieval set of ideas which are in fundamental ways, radically different from our own, you will be helped to think critically and analytically about an area of human experience which is commonly regarded as ‘natural’, and not subject to this kind of enquiry.
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HI304C: THE THIRD REICH

30 credits

Level 3

First Term

In this course we will study political, social and economic aspects of the history of Germany between 1933 and 1945, attempting to examine these matters in a historical, a comparative and a European context. Recent historiographical trends and debates about the history of the Third Reich will form a central part of this course.
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HI304G: 'CITY OF THE WORLD': LONDON IN THE LONG EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

30 credits

Level 3

First Term

By the late seventeenth century London was already one of Western Europe’s most important cities; by 1832 it was a ‘world city’, dominating processes of imperialism, finance and international trade. This course focuses on the social and cultural factors underpinning this ‘metropolitan’ status. It explores how the city acted as human magnet, forcing Africans across the Atlantic while drawing in immigrants from Britain, Europe, North America, Africa and Asia.  It assesses London’s elites, as well as its criminals and outcasts, concluding with a general assessment of life and death in an early modern world city.
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HI304J: HISTORICAL RESEARCH FOR VISITING STUDENTS

30 credits

Level 3

First Term

This course is only open to Erasmus students who have to finish their end-of-studies thesis at their home universities, and wish to develop this within the framework of this course. There is no formal scheduled teaching, but after an initial meeting to discuss individual topics, students will get some support and supervision in the area of their chosen research topic.
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HI304M: POWER AND TRADITIONS: FRANCE 1799-1900

30 credits

Level 3

First Term

Questions about who exercised power and why resonated at every level of nineteenth-century French society. The Revolution of 1789 had brought about fundamental reforms to the political and social order in France. It set down the roots of the French republican tradition whose supporters became locked in an ongoing ideological struggle against conservative political and social elites. This course examines the myriad forms that power took in French society, from Napoleon’s coup d’état of 18 Brumaire to the early Third Republic.
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HI304S: SCOTLAND: A SOCIOLOGICAL HISTORY

30 credits

Level 3

First Term

Questions of national identity have been thrown into high relief by devolution and potential independence, so how might we explain contemporary Scotland?  Assessing what Scotland and Scottishness are today requires a thematic approach to historical understanding.  This course provides a case study of how ideas about of the development of nations stand up against the evidence since the mid-eighteenth century.  It addresses popular myths about difference from England, industrial development and decline, education and empire, immigration and emigration, sectarianism, political allegiance, tourism and heritage as well as the images and icons constituting ‘Scottishness’.
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HI304T: WORLD WAR ONE: INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES

30 credits

Level 3

First Term

This course examines the history of the First World War in an international comparative perspective through detailed study of contemporary as ell as secondary sources. Following a series of introductory lectures on various aspects of the war, the students taking this course will be divided into sub-groups with normally a maximum of 20 students per group. Each group will focus on either the war experience of a particular country such as Russia or France or undertake comparative study of selected themes such as political, social and cultural transformations and the peacemaking process.
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HI304U: THE MAKING OF MODERN IRELAND

30 credits

Level 3

First Term

This course offers a chronological survey of Ireland and the Irish from the Act of Union with Great Britain to the present day.  It will consider the social, political, cultural and economic aspects of that history, and will place the island of Ireland within its wider contexts, as part of the United Kingdom, as part of Europe, as part of the British Empire, and as the source of the global Irish Diaspora.  The course will focus on a number of central issues.
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HI304Y: THE HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS

30 credits

Level 3

First Term

Although clearances were effectively over by the 1850s, the course reviews their impact and long-term legacy, with reference to social, economic, political and cultural issues, as well as their contentious historiography. A central theme is demographic upheaval, including the settlement of Highlanders overseas. Hydro-electric schemes and tourism are included in scrutiny of economic developments, and attention is paid to religion, education, and literature. The study of original sources is integral to the course, which utilises, inter alia, official reports, newspapers, letters and oral testimony.
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HI305E: LAWYERS AND LECHERS IN THE MIDDLE AGES: THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH COURTS AS EVIDENCE FOR MEDIEVAL LIFE

30 credits

Level 3

First Term

By the end of the mediaeval period, European society had learned to solve most of its conflicts in courts rather than in military confrontations. The records of these courts allow us to see life as lived by ordinary people. Using translated legal sources, we investigate why people resolved conflicts in court and asks what we can learn about litigants, law and lawyers.
More Information

HI305H: THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION: KNOWING THE NATURAL WORLD 1500-1800

30 credits

Level 3

First Term

Between 1500 and 1700, Copernicus moved the sun to the centre of the cosmos, Harvey made the blood circulate around the body and Newton discarded a closed world for an infinite universe. Did this 'Scientific Revolution' establish 'modern' views of the natural world, reducing the Renaissance and Reformation to mere episodes? This course investigates this major re-assessment of ancient learning and the creation of new ways of knowing, from magic to mechanism. To see how new knowledge was made, it explores religious and political divisions, voyages of discovery, exotic collections, gender roles, and Galileo’s struggles with the papacy.
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HI305K: OLD NORSE LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY

30 credits

Level 3

First Term

Myth, adventure, love, death, feud, outlaws and the supernatural. This course explores some of the most important and exciting sources for the study of early Scandinavia, including mythological, historical and literary texts. Students will have the opportunity to study some of this material in the original Old Norse, with the aid of structured language classes and printed and online resources, while other texts for discussion will be read in English translation.
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HI306A: BACK IN THE VIKING HOMELANDS

30 credits

Level 3

First Term

This course offers a study of the society, culture and religion in Viking Age Scandinavia. Within these broad themes, special attention will be devoted to the situation during the Viking Age in Scandinavia, and also the impact from the continent and the Isles, especially regarding the change of religion, the introduction of literacy and the social links between Scandinavia and the rest of Europe. Detailed attention will also be paid to the Christianization process.
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HI30BD: GERMANY, 1517-1806: REFORMATION, EMPIRE AND ENLIGHTENMENT

30 credits

Level 3

First Term

Composed of hundreds of territories, the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation seemed an incoherent patchwork. Yet it functioned as a political entity for centuries. This course studies the profound transformation of Germany from the onset of the Reformation to the destruction of the Empire by Napoleon. We will look at religious conflict, the impact of war, the early Enlightenment and the development of early national identity. The question we have to ask is not why did the Holy Roman Empire fail, but why and how did it survive for such a long period?
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HI353M: THE HOLOCAUST. ISSUES AND DEBATES

30 credits

Level 3

Second Term

In this course we will study political, social and economic aspects of the history of Germany between 1933 and 1945, attempting to examine these matters in a historical, a comparative and a European context. Recent historiographical trends and debates about the history of the Third Reich will form a central part of this course.
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HI3540: THINKING HISTORY

15 credits

Level 3

Second Term

This course looks at how history is written. It considers the problems involved in studying and explaining the past, and the many dilemmas faced by historians in reconstructing it. By examining the ways in which history has been written from the Ancient Greeks to Postmodernism, it considers the limits of historical study, asks whether history can ever be a science, and reveals the assumptions behind the various approaches to history that inform its writing. It is designed to provide honours history students with an essential understanding of what they are doing when they study history. 
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HI354E: WAR AND PEACE: ANGLO-SCOTTISH RELATIONS, 1286-1603

30 credits

Level 3

Second Term

The course investigates Anglo-Scottish relations from the death of Alexander III (1286) to the union of the crowns (1603). Political, diplomatic and military relations are examined as well as a wide range of social and cultural issues. An introductory section covers important events in chronological order before weekly themes are examined in detail. The lecturer provides a general framework of essential knowledge while students give seminar presentations on particular illustrative examples of the weekly themes. The mentalities and attitudes underpinning Anglo-Scottish relations are carefully explored and key themes include warfare, diplomacy, identity, religion and culture.
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HI354J: HISTORICAL RESEARCH FOR VISITING STUDENTS

30 credits

Level 3

Second Term

This course is only open to Erasmus students who have to finish their end-of-studies thesis at their home universities, and wish to develop this within the framework of this course. There is no formal scheduled teaching, but after an initial meeting to discuss individual topics, students will get some support and supervision in the area of their chosen research topic.
More Information

HI354K: THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION

30 credits

Level 3

Second Term

This course examines one of the seminal moments in what is called the Age of Revolutions.  It places the tumultuous and violent years of the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) at the centre of a tale of liberty-talking, back-stabbing, in-fighting, manipulation and violence.  The Haitian Revolution is often described as the first successful slave overthrow that resulted in the formation of a nation.  It was this, in part, but was also so much more.  And full of more actors than just enslaved persons of African descent.  This course traces these roots and routes.
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HI355C: SCIENCE AND RELIGION IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

30 credits

Level 3

Second Term

Are science and religion deadly enemies? Would they be friends if they got to know each other better? Or should they politely ignore each other and get on with their jobs? By exploring how the science-religion relationship has worked in practice, in different cultural settings, this course will reveal the range and depth of possible engagements between science and religion. The true stories behind soap-opera episodes such as Galileo's spat with the Vatican and Darwin's brush with the bishops will be uncovered and compared with present-day flashpoints (e.g. young-earth creationism). Prepare to abandon all preconceptions.
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HI355F: A MILITARY REVOLUTION? WAR, STATE AND SOCIETY IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE, 1500-1800

30 credits

Level 3

Second Term

This course will look at the development of warfare in early modern Europe in the light of the theory that Europe in this period saw a military revolution which had profound effects not just on the way wars were fought, but on European state formation and social development. It will look at the supporters and opponents of the theory, examine the technological changes seen in warfare in this period, and consider the conduct of war at the tactical and strategic levels, before going on to examine the changing culture of war and its impact on state and society.
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HI355J: RUNES AND THEIR RECEPTION

30 credits

Level 3

Second Term

Runes were the main writing system of England, Scandinavia and the Germanic world before the introduction of Christianity. They are valuable sources for a world that we otherwise only know throuh foreign or Christian eyes. This course traces the use of runes from the first century CE, looking at their role in society, magic and belief. We will also look at the use of runes after conversion to Christianity, including their role in the various nationalist and antiquarian movements of the 16th to the 20th centuries.
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HI355M: AZTECS, MAYANS & INCAS: EMPIRES ON THE EVE OF APOCALYPSE

30 credits

Level 3

Second Term

This course will examine the economies, cultures, religions, and socio-political structures of the three ‘great’ civilizations of Meso- and South America: Aztecs, Mayas, and Incas. Their concepts of wealth, civilization, history, and overall worldviews will be examined in detail. The course will close by considering the status of these empires on the eve of contact with Europeans and the extent to which inherent factors within the empires may have contributed to their collapse and subsequent conquest by the Spanish.
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HI355X: REPUBLICAN CHINA, 1911-1949: COMMUNISTS, CAPITALISTS AND COLONIALISTS.

30 credits

Level 3

Second Term

The 1911 Revolution brought down the last emperor of China, ending over 2,000 years of imperial rule and ushering in the Republican period. But the young nation faced many challenges, from foreign imperialism to the titanic struggle between the Communist and Nationalist Parties. This course provides an in-depth study of the development of modern China and the major debates concerning its history. Students engage directly with contemporary documents (in English) to gain a thorough understanding of this period of intense and formative change, which culminated in the victory of the Chinese Communist Party still ruling China today.
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HI4015: SPECIAL SUBJECT

30 credits

Level 4

First Term

The Special Subject is the central final year History course, and each Special Subject deals in depth with a specific historical topic. Substantial emphasis is placed on the analysis of primary sources. Students typically have a choice of around a dozen different topics (of which they choose one), and the seminar-based learning environment is enhanced through the small group setup with normally no more than 12 students in each Special Subject.
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HI403Q: DECOLONISATION - THE BRITISH EXPERIENCE

30 credits

Level 4

First Term

Few changes in the twentieth century were more dramatic than the collapse of European colonial empires and of a world system centred on Europe. Drawing widely on a vibrant literature, this course will examine the decline of British imperialism. It will consider causes and consequences of that decline. It focuses on key areas including India, Africa, and the former settler colonies, Britain itself, and global developments such as the cold war and the rise of global humanitarianism. In so doing it sheds new light on a modern world still haunted by the ghosts of empire.
More Information

HI403T: IMPERIAL RUSSIA 1801 - 1914

30 credits

Level 4

First Term

This course will examine key issues and events in Russian history during the period 1801-1914. The following themes will be central: Autocracy, opposition and alternatives; International affairs, military might and great-power status; Social problems and the inter-relation of sections of Russian society; Economic problems such as modernisation, industrialisation, finance, communications etc; and Problems of a vast contiguous Empire, containing many non-Russian groups, religions and cultures, in an age of imperial competition.
More Information

HI403Z: MEN, WOMEN & EUNUCHS

30 credits

Level 4

First Term

This course introduces you to the idea of gender as a social construct, while at the same time, teaching you a certain amount about the Byzantine world, focusing particularly on the period from the fourth to sixth centuries. Sexual identity is an extremely important aspect of personal identity in all societies, but by looking at a pre-medieval set of ideas which are in fundamental ways, radically different from our own, you will be helped to think critically and analytically about an area of human experience which is commonly regarded as ‘natural’, and not subject to this kind of enquiry.
More Information

HI404C: THE THIRD REICH

30 credits

Level 4

First Term

In this course we will study political, social and economic aspects of the history of Germany between 1933 and 1945, attempting to examine these matters in a historical, a comparative and a European context. Recent historiographical trends and debates about the history of the Third Reich will form a central part of this course.
More Information

HI404G: 'CITY OF THE WORLD': LONDON IN THE LONG EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

30 credits

Level 4

First Term

By the late seventeenth century London was already one of Western Europe’s most important cities; by 1832 it was a ‘world city’, dominating processes of imperialism, finance and international trade. This course focuses on the social and cultural factors underpinning this ‘metropolitan’ status. It explores how the city acted as human magnet, forcing Africans across the Atlantic while drawing in immigrants from Britain, Europe, North America, Africa and Asia.  It assesses London’s elites, as well as its criminals and outcasts, concluding with a general assessment of life and death in an early modern world city.
More Information

HI404M: POWER AND TRADITIONS: FRANCE 1799-1900

30 credits

Level 4

First Term

Questions about who exercised power and why resonated at every level of nineteenth-century French society. The Revolution of 1789 had brought about fundamental reforms to the political and social order in France. It set down the roots of the French republican tradition whose supporters became locked in an ongoing ideological struggle against conservative political and social elites. This course examines the myriad forms that power took in French society, from Napoleon’s coup d’état of 18 Brumaire to the early Third Republic.
More Information

HI404S: SCOTLAND: A SOCIOLOGICAL HISTORY

30 credits

Level 4

First Term

Questions of national identity have been thrown into high relief by devolution and potential independence, so how might we explain contemporary Scotland?  Assessing what Scotland and Scottishness are today requires a thematic approach to historical understanding.  This course provides a case study of how ideas about of the development of nations stand up against the evidence since the mid-eighteenth century.  It addresses popular myths about difference from England, industrial development and decline, education and empire, immigration and emigration, sectarianism, political allegiance, tourism and heritage as well as the images and icons constituting ‘Scottishness’.
More Information

HI404T: WORLD WAR ONE: INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES

30 credits

Level 4

First Term

This course examines the history of the First World War in an international comparative perspective through detailed study of contemporary as well as secondary sources. Following a series of introductory lectures on various aspects of the war, the students taking this course will be divided into sub-groups with normally a maximum of 20 students per group. Each group will focus on either the war experience of a particular country such as Russia or France or undertake comparative study of selected themes such as political, social and cultural transformations and the peacemaking process.
More Information

HI404U: THE MAKING OF MODERN IRELAND

30 credits

Level 4

First Term

This course offers a chronological survey of Ireland and the Irish from the Act of Union with Great Britain to the present day.  It will consider the social, political, cultural and economic aspects of that history, and will place the island of Ireland within its wider contexts, as part of the United Kingdom, as part of Europe, as part of the British Empire, and as the source of the global Irish Diaspora.  The course will focus on a number of central issues.
More Information

HI404Y: THE HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS

30 credits

Level 4

First Term

Although clearances were effectively over by the 1850s, the course reviews their impact and long-term legacy, with reference to social, economic, political and cultural issues, as well as their contentious historiography. A central theme is demographic upheaval, including the settlement of Highlanders overseas. Hydro-electric schemes and tourism are included in scrutiny of economic developments, and attention is paid to religion, education, and literature. The study of original sources is integral to the course, which utilises, inter alia, official reports, newspapers, letters and oral testimony.
More Information

HI405E: LAWYERS AND LECHERS IN THE MIDDLE AGES: THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH COURTS AS EVIDENCE FOR MEDIEVAL LIFE

30 credits

Level 4

First Term

By the end of the mediaeval period, European society had learned to solve most of its conflicts in courts rather than in military confrontations. The records of these courts allow us to see life as lived by ordinary people. Using translated legal sources, we investigate why people resolved conflicts in court and asks what we can learn about litigants, law and lawyers.
More Information

HI405H: THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION: KNOWING THE NATURAL WORLD 1500-1800

30 credits

Level 4

First Term

Between 1500 and 1700, Copernicus moved the sun to the centre of the cosmos, Harvey made the blood circulate around the body and Newton discarded a closed world for an infinite universe. Did this 'Scientific Revolution' establish 'modern' views of the natural world, reducing the Renaissance and Reformation to mere episodes? This course investigates this major re-assessment of ancient learning and the creation of new ways of knowing, from magic to mechanism. To see how new knowledge was made, it explores religious and political divisions, voyages of discovery, exotic collections, gender roles, and Galileo’s struggles with the papacy.
More Information

HI405K: OLD NORSE LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY

30 credits

Level 4

First Term

Myth, adventure, love, death, feud, outlaws and the supernatural. This course explores some of the most important and exciting sources for the study of early Scandinavia, including mythological, historical and literary texts. Students will have the opportunity to study some of this material in the original Old Norse, with the aid of structured language classes and printed and online resources, while other texts for discussion will be read in English translation.
More Information

HI406A: BACK IN THE VIKING HOMELANDS

30 credits

Level 4

First Term

This course offers a study of the society, culture and religion in Viking Age Scandinavia. Within these broad themes, special attention will be devoted to the situation during the Viking Age in Scandinavia, and also the impact from the continent and the Isles, especially regarding the change of religion, the introduction of literacy and the social links between Scandinavia and the rest of Europe. Detailed attention will also be paid to the Christianization process.
More Information

HI406B: GERMANY, 1517 - 1806: REFORMATION, EMPIRE AND ENLIGHTENMENT

30 credits

Level 4

First Term

Composed of hundreds of territories, the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation seemed an incoherent patchwork. Yet it functioned as a political entity for centuries. This course studies the profound transformation of Germany from the onset of the Reformation to the destruction of the Empire by Napoleon. We will look at religious conflict, the impact of war, the early Enlightenment and the development of early national identity. The question we have to ask is not why did the Holy Roman Empire fail, but why and how did it survive for such a long period?
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HI4516: UNDERGRADUATE DISSERTATION IN HISTORY

30 credits

Level 4

Second Term

The undergraduate dissertation is the final-year major research undertaking, based on primary and secondary material and providing a critical analysis of a specific subject chosen by the student. It is obligatory for Single Honours students, whereas Joint Honours students choose to write their dissertation in either of the two subjects. After initial sessions about the nature of the dissertation and research approaches, students develop a topic with the help of a member of staff, who will also supervise their project throughout.
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HI4517: HISTORY IN PRACTICE I

15 credits

Level 4

Second Term

History is not simply a dry, academic study of the past; it shapes contemporary political, economic and cultural attitudes and is vital to the tourist and heritage industries - now one of the largest employment sectors in western societies. This course gives an understanding of the theoretical and practical links (as well as clear distinctions) between 'academic' History and 'public' History. This is done by having students assess how heritage and tourist businesses construct a particular version of the past. Students then undertake another project to present their ‘public’ version of an aspect of History
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HI4518: HISTORY IN PRACTICE II

30 credits

Level 4

Second Term

History is not simply a dry, academic study of the past; it shapes a host of contemporary political, economic and cultural attitudes and is a central underpinning to the tourist and heritage industries - now one of the largest sectors of employment among mature western economies. This course is designed to give a critical understanding of the theoretical and practical links (as well as clear distinctions) between the practice of 'academic' History and 'public' History. This is done by having students assess how heritage and tourist businesses project a particular version of the past.
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