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EDH300
Europe between World Wars: peace-making and international cooperation, 1919-1939
This module focuses on European history between the First and Second World Wars. It places particular emphasis on international cooperation in that period by looking at the history of the League of Nations, the world¿s first ever intergovernmental organisation. Founded in the aftermath of the First World War, the League¿s primary function was to preserve international peace through the promotion of greater international cooperation between states.
This module uses the League of Nations as a way of exploring some of the key themes in the interwar period in Europe (1919-1939) that still shape the world today. These include gender, humanitarianism, race, public opinion, disarmament, war and peace, as well as many issues pertaining to relations between different nations. Students will be encouraged to explore different themes through the study of secondary and primary texts.
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HI-M22
Dissertation
Students produce a dissertation of up to 20,000 words on a historical topic, chosen in conjunction with their supervisor. This represents the culmination of the History MAs, and constitutes Part Two of the programme.
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HI-M38
Themes in History
This module provides an introduction to advanced historiography. It is designed to develop students¿ awareness of traditional historiographical concerns alongside their knowledge current trends and new directions in writing and thinking about the past.
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HIH121
Europe of Extremes, 1789-1989
The nineteenth century saw the rise of a western European civilization, characterized, as Eric Hobsbawm has noted, by capitalist economics, liberal politics, and the dominance of a middle class that celebrated morality and science. In the twentieth century this civilization faced unprecedented challenges from new political ideologies, and from a working class demanding the right to govern in its own name. The result was an eruption of violence not seen on the continent for centuries; in its wake, the Cold War divided the Europe with an Iron Curtain, and saw the continent become the client of two world superpowers ¿ the USA and the Soviet Union. This team-taught module relies on the specialist knowledge of its tutors to examine economic, political and social themes in the history of nineteenth and twentieth-century Europe.
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HIH122
Making History
How do historians study the past? Why do their accounts of the past differ, and why do they change over time? This module will help you to understand the various concepts, methods, and approaches that academic historians use when writing history and generating historical explanations. By the end of it, you will understand how and why professional historians disagree on many topics, and you will be equipped to evaluate competing interpretations of the same past events and processes.
The module also trains you in the fundamental skills required to study history as an undergraduate, and gives you an opportunity to learn more about the interests and expertise of the history staff you¿ll be working with at Swansea. It will help you make the transition from being taught history at school or college to studying history at university, and it will introduce you to the many different kinds of history you can explore in the course of your degree.
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HIH124
Britain and the World, 1800 to 2000
This module will provide an overview of the history of British politics, society, culture, and the economy from c. 1800 to the present, from a national and international perspective. The lectures and seminars for this module will give students the opportunity to engage closely with events, processes, and people - both male and female, from diverse ethnic backgrounds - who contributed to the making of the modern British state and society, and who defined Britain¿s relationship with the wider world. We will discuss the transformative impact of warfare, Empire and colonialism, industrial and technological change. We will also consider the significance of race, class, and gender, and how they relate to national sentiment and social and political emancipation movements in Britain and beyond.
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HIH237
The Practice of History
The purpose of the module is to encourage you to think more deeply about how historians work and, in particular, about how we as historians can locate and use primary historical sources effectively as a means of interpreting and understanding the past. During the module we will learn about the survival of historical evidence, how it is organised and made accessible to historians to undertake their research, and how to effectively locate and interpret it in your studies. We will consider how the process of doing historical research changes over time, in particular with the impact of recent developments like digitization.
At the core of the module will be the work you undertake with others in your seminar group using a range of primary sources which your seminar tutor will introduce to you. As part of the module assessment you will also undertake your own primary source based research project using items from these collections. The module is designed strengthen your analytical skills and to help prepare you for the more extensive uses of primary evidence which you will encounter in final year special subjects and dissertation.
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HIH288
Ruin and Renewal: Europe, 1918-1968
Europe¿s history in the twentieth century was marked by the catastrophic impact of two world wars. How did it recover from the cataclysms which have led some historians to label it a `dark continent¿? This module critically examines how the continent sought to rebuild in the aftermath of these conflicts by focusing on reconstruction in the aftermath of the first and second world wars. The period in question was punctuated by the outbreak of war between 1939 and 1945 and so the module does not tell a story of linear progress. Reconstruction is defined here as the process not only through which physical infrastructure was rebuilt, but also the broader ways through which states, institutions, and attitudes were reshaped in the aftermath of conflict. The module draws upon approaches from cultural, social, and political history in order to explore these developments. The module will focus on key cross-cutting themes which are evident in both periods of reconstruction, such as international cooperation, the politics of state building, rights, gender, and economics, and will encourage students to draw broad comparisons between countries and also across the periods in question.
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HIH3300
History Dissertation
The History dissertation is a free-standing, 40-credit module that runs across both semesters of Level Three. Candidates conduct research upon a subject of their choice, devised in consultation with a member of staff teaching for the degrees in History, and concerning a topic that falls within staff research and teaching interests.
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HIH3340
The Lights that Failed: the League of Nations and International Peace 1919 to 1939
This module focuses on the history of the League of Nations, the world¿s first ever intergovernmental organisation. Founded in the aftermath of the First World War, its primary function was to preserve international peace through the promotion of greater international cooperation between states. The League failed in its primary aim but had a great influence on the twentieth and twenty first centuries through its influence on organisations that followed, such as the United Nations.
This module is not a simple institutional history of the League. Instead, it uses the League of Nations as a way of exploring some of the key themes in the interwar period (1919-1939) that still shape the world today. These include gender, humanitarianism, race, public opinion, disarmament, war and peace, as well as many issues pertaining to relations between different nations. Students will be encouraged to explore different themes through the study of a wide range of primary sources.¿
