This core module for first year History students explores the domestic history of Britain in its first half century of democracy. The module will range widely over leisure, society, politics and national identity, from the lives of ordinary people to influential film stars, like Charlie Chaplin, and wartime leaders, such as Winston Churchill. It will consider debates about whether the 1920s and 1930s were mainly a time of economic depression and hunger marches, or actually an exciting, socially mobile ‘Jazz Age' of dance, motoring, radio and suburbanisation. There will be particular emphasis on visual culture, from people's enjoyment of film in the ‘dream palaces' of cinema, to the role of television in the affluent 1950s.
We will examine the contrasting reputations and legacies of the two World Wars in British history, and assess whether those reputations are justified. Politically, we search for explanations for the surprising strength of the Conservative Party in an age of democracy, the fortunes of the British Union of Fascists, and Labour's creation of a welfare state and National Health Service. Throughout, students will be encouraged to reflect upon how much Britain was changing. Should we see Britain as wealthier, fairer, and more culturally vibrant by 1959, or as a society in which most people's opportunities remained limited, whether by class, gender and race, or, less tangibly, a poverty of expectations and horizons? Through studying modern Britain, the module will also introduce students to key historical skills, and train them in a wide variety of primary sources from films and television programmes to Cabinet documents. Seminars will be highly participatory, including debates, small group activities and mock general elections. Assessment will be by essay and source analysis.
On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
Course delivery will be via weekly lectures and seminars. Lectures will introduce students to each topic, highlighting key developments, identifying connections between cultural, social and political changes, and outlining the major historiographical debates on that topic. In seminars, there will be a strong emphasis on students' own participation in discussion, presentation and debate. Some seminars will focus on historiographical controversies, in which students, divided into teams, will take on different sides of a debate. A reconstruction of the 1945 general election will allow students to re-play the issues involved, and re-create the atmosphere of that post-war moment. There will also be a focus on primary sources, and students will be invited to analyse the significance of films and television programmes from the time, as well as written sources. Group presentations will be prepared, followed by whole class discussion of these. There will also be a strong focus in some of the early seminars on introducing students to some of the main skills of the historian, including researching and writing essays, and understanding key historical concepts. The third hour of the week on this module will be used for the department's Personal Tutor sessions.
| Definitive UNISTATS Category | Indicative Description | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled learning and teaching | 22 one-hour lectures | 22 |
| Scheduled learning and teaching | 22 one hour seminars 22 one hour personal tutor sessions | 22 22 |
| Guided independent study | 234 | |
| Total (number of credits x 10) | 300 | |
Summative assessment will consist of a short, 1250-word essay, submitted at the midway stage of the module (worth 30% of the module mark), a longer 1750-word portfolio of essay and short source analysis, submitted at the end (worth 60%), and a mark for seminar participation (10%). The essays will test students' in-depth understanding of modern British history, and their analytical engagement with different historians' perspectives on a topic. The short source analysis will assess their skills in analysing a primary source. The seminar participation assessment will encourage consistency of engagement across the module as a whole. Formative feedback and feedforward will include personal oral feedback on plans of the essays, discussion in groups of the primary source material to be analysed, and feedback in seminars on group presentations and the mock election exercise.
| Learning Outcome | Assessment Strategy |
|---|---|
| Display a knowledge and understanding of developments in modern British history, and of how culture, society, politics and national identity inter-acted. | Assessed summatively by the essays, and formatively by the essay plans. |
| Demonstrate analytical engagement with the various, and sometimes competing perspectives of different historians on topics in this period | Assessed summatively by the essays, and formatively by the essay plans, and feedback on group presentations. |
| Exhibit a foundation of historical skills of research, writing, oral communication and conceptual understanding. | Assessed summatively by the seminar participation assessment and essays, and formatively by the feedback on the mock election exercise. |
| Analyse a variety of different primary sources, ranging from films and television programmes to Cabinet documents. | Assessed summatively by the short source analysis, and formatively by the group discussion of primary sources. |
| Description of Assessment | Definitive UNISTATS Categories | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| CWK | 1250 word essay | 30 |
| CWK | 1750 word portfolio | 60 |
| CWK | Seminar participation | 10 |
| Total (to equal 100%) | 100% | |
It IS NOT a requirement that any major assessment category is passed separately in order to achieve an overall pass for the module
Carnevali, F and Strange, JM (2007). Twentieth-Century Britain. Economic, Cultural and Social Change. Pearson.
Pugh, M (2009). We Danced All Night. A Social History of Britain Between The Wars. Vintage.
Black, L (2010). Redefining British Politics. Culture, Consumerism and Participation, 1954-70 Macmillan.
Clapson, M (2012). Working-class Suburb: Social Change On An English Council Estate, 1930 – 2010. Manchester University Press.
Fowler, D (2008). Youth Culture in Modern Britain, c.1920-c.1970. Macmillan.
Gregory, A (2008). The Last Great War. British Society and The First World War. Cambridge University Press.
Kerry, M (2011). The Holiday and British Film. Macmillan.
Lawrence, J (2009). Electing Our Masters. The Hustings in British Politics From Hogarth to Blair. Oxford University Press.
Mandler, P (2006). The English National Character. The History of An Idea from Edmund Burke To Tony Blair. Yale University Press.
McKibbin, R (2010). Parties and People. England 1914-1951. Oxford University Press.
Nuttall, J (2006). Psychological Socialism. The Labour Party and Qualities of Mind and Character, 1931 To The Present. Manchester University Press.
Panayi, P (2010). An Immigration History of Britain. Pearson.
Pugh, M (2006). ‘Hurrah for the Blackshirts'! Fascists and Fascism in Britain Between The Wars. Pimlico.
Richards, J (1984). The Age of The Dream Palace. Cinema and Society in Britain 1930-1939. Routledge.
Todd, S (2014). The People. The Rise and Fall of The Working Class 1910-2010. John Murray.