Admission requirements
This course is part of the (Res)MA History Programme. Students from within the specialization the course belongs to have right of way. It is not accessible for BA students.
Description
This course examines the modern history of Britain from 1900 to the present. Unlike a traditional national history, we will place Britain’s dynamic relations with the wider world at the heart of our analysis. Indeed, we will explore the hypothesis that it was Britain’s radically shifting relations with the wider world that shaped repeated (re)constructions of state and society since 1900. We will see how Britain went from world empire and global commercial hegemon in 1900; to a more insular imperial political and economic bloc in the 1930s; through welfare statehood and a more nationalized economy in the post-1945 decades; to a neoliberal, multicultural, post-colonial and European state in the last quarter of the twentieth century. The dynamics we trace are far from ended. With the 2016 Brexit decision, Britain has shifted yet again: now no longer European, but the ultimate outcome of this latest shift in statehood remains unclear.
All of these transformations have entailed a radical remaking of the British polity, in which not just political and economic structures, but also cultural values and the meanings of ‘Britain’ and ‘Britishness’ had to be reworked. Empire has loomed (very) large in these political, cultural and economic transitions, and we will pay close attention to these imperial and post-imperial dynamics. But so too have shifting relations with other blocs and regions, such as Europe, North America, South America and China. It is easy to imagine Britain’s modern history as one of relative stability — no revolutions, no invasions, continuity of core institutions like parliament and the monarchy — but this course will challenge that perception and instead present Britain’s twentieth century as one of great flux and transformation, driven by the country’s radically shifting, and still unresolved, place in the wider world.
Course objectives
General learning objectives
The student has acquired:
The ability to independently identify and select literature, using traditional and modern techniques;
The ability to independently identify and select sources, using traditional and modern techniques;
The ability to analyse and evaluate a corpus of sources with a view to addressing a particular historical problem;
The ability to analyse and evaluate literature with a view to addressing a particular historical problem;
The ability to independently formulate a clear and well-argued research question, taking into account the theory and method of the field and to reduce this question to accessible and manageable sub-questions;
The ability to independently set up and carry out an original research project that can make a contribution to existing scholarly debates;
The ability to give a clear and well-founded oral and written report on research results in correct English, when required, or Dutch, meeting the criteria of the discipline;
The ability to participate in current debates in the specialisation;
The ability to provide constructive feedback to and formulate criticism of the work of others and the ability to evaluate the value of such criticism and feedback on one’s own work and incorporate it;
(ResMA only:) The ability to participate in a discussion of the theoretical foundations of the discipline.
Learning objectives, pertaining to the specialisation
The student has acquired:
- Thorough knowledge and comprehension of one of the specialisations as well as of the historiography of the specialisation, focusing particularly in the specialisation Politics, Culture and National Identities, 1789 to the Present: on political practices, symbols and perceptions, nationalism, and national identities in a cultural and societal context from 1800;
- Thorough knowledge and comprehension of the theoretical, conceptual and methodological aspects of the specialisation Politics, Culture and National Identities, 1789 to the Present: international comparison and transfer; the analysis of the specific perspectives of secondary studies; a cultural-historical approach of politics and a political-historical approach of culture.
Learning objectives, pertaining to this Research Seminar
The student:
- has acquired thorough knowledge of the post-1900 history of Britain, with particular attention to the country’s shifting relations with the wider world;
- has acquired thorough knowledge of key historiographical issues in modern British history, such as empire, welfare statehood, social democracy, neoliberalism, and multiculturalism;
- has become proficient in the use of relevant primary source collections for researching modern British history, including newer digital resource collections and research methods;
- (ResMA only) has acquired the ability to use a more complex corpus of sources in comparison to regular MA students; and/or the ability to set up and carry out original research which raises new questions, pioneers new approaches and/or and points to new directions for future research.
Timetable
The timetables are available through MyTimetable.
Mode of instruction
- Seminar (compulsory attendance)
This means that students must attend every session of the course. Students who are unable to attend are required to notify the lecturer beforehand. The teacher will determine if and how the missed session can be compensated by an additional assignment. If specific restrictions apply to a particular course, the lecturer will notify the students at the beginning of the semester. If a student does not comply with the aforementioned requirements, the student will be excluded from the seminar.
Assessment method
Assessment
Written paper (6500-7500 words, based on research in primary sources, excluding title page, table of contents, footnotes and bibliography)
measured learning objectives: 1-8, 11-15 (ResMA 10, 16)Source analysis assignment
measured learning objectives: 2, 3 15Oral presentation
measured learning objectives: 3-9
Weighing
Written paper 70%
Source analysis assignment : 20%
Presentation : 10%
The final grade for the course is established by determining the weighted average with the additional requirement that the written paper must always be sufficient.
Deadlines
Assignments and written papers should be handed in within the deadline as provided in the relevant course outline on Brightspace.
Resit
Should the overall mark be unsatisfactory, the paper is to be revised after consultation with the instructor.
Inspection and feedback
How and when a review of the written paper will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the results, a review of the written paper will have to be organised.
Reading list
David Edgerton, The Rise and Fall of the British Nation: A Twentieth Century History (London: Allen Lane, 2018).
Frank Trentmann, Free Trade Nation: Commerce, Consumption and Civil Society in Modern Britain (Oxford: OUP, 2008).
Bill Schwarz, The White Man’s World: Memories of Empire (Oxford: OUP, 2011).
Camilla Schofield, Enoch Powell and the Making of Postcolonial Britain (Cambridge: CUP, 2013).
Aled Davies, Ben Jackson, and Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite, eds. The Neoliberal Age? : Britain since the 1970s (London: UCL Press, 2021).
Robert Saunders, Yes to Europe! : The 1975 Referendum and Seventies Britain. (Cambridge: CUP, 2018).
Ben Jackson and Robert Saunders. Making Thatcher’s Britain (Cambridge: CUP, 2012.
Jordanna Bailkin, The Afterlife of Empire (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012).
Pat Thane, Divided Kingdom: A History of Britain, 1900 to the Present (CUP, 2018).
NB. This is an indicative reading list. Precise required readings will be listed on Brightspace before the start of the course.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Contact
For course related questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Huizinga.
Remarks
Not applicable