History
History Short Period: Europe in the 20th Century
Module code: V1319
Level 5
15 credits in autumn semester
Teaching method: Seminar, Lecture
Assessment modes: Essay
This module addresses the long sweep of European history from before the First World War to the time after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
We begin by considering the cataclysmic destruction suffered during a second Thirty Years' War (1914 -1945), before moving on to examine the various economic miracles in Western Europe (the ‘Trente Glorieuses’ in France, the ‘Wirtschaftswunder’ in West Germany, the ‘miracolo economico’ in Italy) along with parallel attempts to build socialist utopias in Eastern Europe (1945-1975).
Overall this was a time of unparalleled prosperity that eventually gave rise to the present neo-liberal global age (1975 and after). You will analyse what drove these transformations by taking a comparative approach, with a view to identifying specific themes of overall importance, relating them to various national trajectories while, at the same time, trying to understand the emergence of a new European identity. As such the focus of the module is on Europe as a whole, cutting across distinctions of East and West, North and South, and encompassing a set of themes designed to draw out common features across the continent over the last century.
Module learning outcomes
- Deploy existing knowledge of topics of broad historical significance to the analysis of the national history of a particular country or region.
- Apply understanding of the historical concept of change over time to varied and contested national and regional chronologies
- Deploy existing knowledge of historiographical debates to questions specific to particular national histories.
- Communicate information, arguments and analysis relating to national and regional history in written forms suitable for an informed audience.