Module description
The modules offered in each academic year are subject to change in line with staff availability and student demand: there is no guarantee every module will run. Module descriptions and information may vary between years.
The aim of this module is to look at England (the module includes some reference to Scotland, Ireland and Wales) in European context. It will examine the ways in which the English thought of themselves as being different from their European neighbours, and the ways in which those European neighbours thought of the English as being different. The module is largely historiographical (and indeed will aim to stress that historical writing is itself a product of national culture). It will try to show how some famous interpretations of English history are rooted in comparison. More generally, the module will look at the ways in which England remembers, or forgets, its national history: it will ask, for example, why is it that every French person knows that 18 June 1940 is the date on which de Gaulle issued his ‘call to honour’ while almost no English person knows that this is the day on which Churchill delivered his ‘finest hour speech’ – or, for that matter, that it is the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. It will ask why there is a ‘rue Winston Churchill’ in Paris, but no ‘Churchill Avenue’ in central London.
It will focus on the period since 1918, and especially on that between 1918 and 1945, although writers on England almost invariably referred back to earlier periods, and such writers can in turn only be understood by looking at the long-term reception of their work. Attention will be paid to the new context in which ideas of England were discussed (the foundation of the BBC, the growth of English and History as subjects of study at universities). It will look at the inter-relationship of thinking about England with thinking about Europe, the Empire and Britain.
The module is intended to be a means of raising questions as much as of providing answers and it is hoped that it will prove particularly useful to those who are going to go on to do graduate work in British history.
Assessment details
1 x 3,500 words essay (100%)
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course students should be able to: demonstrate an understanding of recent debates on English exceptionalism; demonstrate an understanding of the uses of comparative history; demonstrate an understanding of how English history in the twentieth century compares with that of continental Europe; demonstrate an understanding of how national culture influences the writing of history; demonstrate an understanding of how different historical methods and ideological positions influence the writing of history; demonstrate an appreciation of how concepts and methodologies from other disciplines might influence the writing of history.