Modern History MA (Hons)

In the first two years of your degree (known as sub-honours) you will take the required modules in Modern History alongside modules in at least one other subject.

1st Year

Students will take the following compulsory first-year modules:

• The Early Modern Western World (c. 1450-1770): looks at continental European history in the early modern period, and the expansion of Europe.
• Themes in Late Modern History (c. 1776-2001): provides a thematic coverage of major political and social developments in the Western world during the 19th and 20thcenturies.

Students will take the following compulsory second-year modules:

• History as a Discipline: Development and Key Concepts: provides an introduction to key theoretical and methodological approaches which have characterised the emergence of History as a discipline since mediaeval times.
• Scotland, Britain and Empire (c. 1500-2000): provides an introduction to how and why the British nation state evolved from the separate kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland and how and why it has survived over the last three centuries.

If you decide to take Modern History in your third and fourth years, you choose from a wide variety of advanced options, including modules ranging from Elizabethan England to East Asia in the 20th century.

Here is a sample of Honours modules which have been offered in previous years:

• From Cradle to Grave: Living and Dying in Early Modern England (c. 1500-1800)
• Imperial Russia 1815-1917
• Making Italians: Region, Nation and Empire in Italy from Unification to Fascism
• Pirates and Privateers in Early Modern Scottish History
• South Asia and the European Encounter (c. 1700-1857).
• Women and men in early modern Europe
• China’s revolutions in the nineteenth and twentieth centuriesBritish cinema history, 1920-1960
• Twentieth-century Germany: A sense of place
• Curiosity, empire, and science in eighteenth-century France

Some modules at Honours level are intended to build your portfolio and provide you with career experience. For example, the Recording the Past module allows you to submit a multimedia historical project in the form of a radio programme, video documentary, website or another appropriate medium.

In fourth year, students may also undertake a dissertation of around 10,000 to 12,000 words on a topic of their choice or an Honours Project. These modules based on independent research enable you to develop key research skills which are desired by both prospective employers and by graduate schools offering postgraduate degrees.