The Short Twentieth Century and Beyond (L2005)

15 credits, Level 4

Spring teaching

In this module, we’ll take a journey through the big events and key themes of the 20th century. Few periods in history have been more tumultuous or world changing. Two world wars had been fought even before the century’s halfway point. The European colonial empires reached their zenith by the 1920s, only to be swept away in a wave of anti-colonial struggles by the 1970s. In 1917, the Russian Revolution gave birth to the Soviet Union, which then challenged the United States in a superpower stand-off that almost lead to nuclear annihilation in 1962, and then collapsed altogether by 1991.

By the end of this module, you’ll have a strong understanding of the dramatic events that brought the global politics and power relations of the 2020s into being.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 22 hours of contact time and about 128 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.