HST657: Approaches to International History
45 credits (semester 1: 2009-10) 30 credits (semester 1: 2010-11)
Module Leader: Dr. Miles Larmer
| Module Summary |
This module introduces students to debates and issues central to an understanding of International History. Through discursive seminars students will acquire an informed understanding of significant trends in the historiography of this field, covering topics such as theories of imperialism, the decentring of Europe. Global wars, decolonisation, the rise and fall of the nation state, revolution and counter-revolution, and hegemony and its discontents. Students will thus be enabled to explore developments in international history over a defined chronological period and will also explore historiographical controversies and debates, examining the paradigms historians use to structure both their approach to source materials and considering whether international history is inevitably interdisciplinary.
This unit aims to equip students with a clear understanding of the interanational dynamics which have shaped world history from the late nineteenth century onwards. Students´ knowledge will turn on an informed group of both metropolitan and area-specific historiographies and the integration of non-Western perspectives will be a particular aim of the module. To this end, students taking this core module will explore the methodological issues raised by the advanced study of international history, a field which is much influenced by the work of scholars in other academic disciplines. Those taking the module will examine how historians explore their material and write about the past, working from examples of historical writing and the approach taken by individual historians or historiographical schools. Such an approach will enable students to consider the nature of the sources available and how the selection of source material shapes the subject matter of history and the ways in which historians write. The module will thus provide students with a context from which to begin independent research and allow them to recognise any methodological problems inherent in their chosen area of specialism.
| Teaching |
The principal mode of contact will be fifteen two hour classes (ten classes to be taken in conjunction with students on HST665). Within this standard format, students will be offered a series of content-specific seminars, looking at a range of historical topics, issues, and problems that take the student through a particular historical period, providing both an introduction to advanced study in this field and the historical and historiographical context from which to undertake practice-based research. They will also be offered a series of methodological seminars examining different approaches to the research and writing of modern history. Some seminars will look at specific problems, such as how archives store and structure knowledge, others will focus on a particular methodological debate, such as the history of 'everyday life' or 'cinematic knowledge'. Students will thus have a forum in which to explore problems and methods in the advanced study of modern history.
Students will be set preparatory reading in advance for all seminars. They will be expected to share their knowledge of historiographical developments, debate controversial topics and listen and respond to the views of others in a structured environment. Students will, in addition, have individual tutorials in which to discuss the work they will write for assessment for this module.
| Assessment |
Students will complete two written papers for this module, totalling 9,000 words.
- A 6,000-word paper on a topic in international history to be agreed between the student and the module tutor. Students are encouraged to engage with one or more of the concepts or themes explored in the course through a case-study or case-studies.
- A 3,000-word paper identifying a particular historiographical approach (evidenced through the work of an individual historian or school of historical writing or, alternatively, through the use of a particular type of source material such as oral history or film) delineating the methodological or epistemological problems it raises and suggesting how these might be addressed.
| Intended Learning Outcomes |
By the end of the unit, a candidate will be able to demonstrate an ability to:
- Understand crucial themes and trends relating to global history in the twentieth century, above all where these reflect conflicts and tensions surrounding the experience of political, social and cultural modernity and modernisation.
- Distinguish between and critically evaluate important recent historiographical debates in twentieth-century global history, arriving at independent judgements of them through analysis of both primary and secondary sources.
- To formulate and articulate historical arguments both orally, before the members of the seminar, and in written form in assessed work.
- Interpersonal skills and ability to engage in cooperative group learning in seminar discussions of interpretive issues.
- Awareness of the methodological possibilities and implications of various kinds of history and of interdisciplinary approaches to historical research.
- Bibliographic skills in various media (including ICT).
- Knowledge of the skills and good historical practice necessary to engage in independent historical research.