Undergraduate Modules

Please note, we are unable to guarantee that all modules will run in all years. Available modules are constantly being updated.

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Broadly speaking, Level 4 modules are aimed at 1st year Undergraduates, Level 5 modules at 2nd year Undergraduates and Level 6 modules at 3rd years. Special Subjects contain a dissertation element and are all worth 60 credits. Please see the course outline for the relevant Degree Programme for information on which modules can be taken when.

You can find information about intercollegiate modules here.

Level 4 Modules

History in Practice

Dr Jo Cohen
HST4706, 15 credits
There are four questions all historians must address. What is History? Who makes History? What shapes History? Finally, why study History at all? more...

Unravelling Britain: British History since 1801

Dr Dan Todman
HST4701, 30 credits
How have Britain and the British changed over the last two centuries? more...

Europe in a Global Context since 1800

Professor Julian Jackson
HST4702, 30 credits
In the period covered by this course Europe rose to global dominance  and then entered a gradual process of relative decline which is  still underway more...

What the Middle Ages Have Done for Us: Europe 1100-1500

Dr Peter Denley
HST4703, 15 credits
Medieval institutions, ideas and practices still greatly influence the shape of modern Europe more...

Building the American Nation 1765-1890

Dr Jo Cohen
HST4705, 15 credits
This course examines the turbulent development of the United States from the mid-eighteenth century through to 1890 more...

From Reformation to Revolution: Europe and the World 1500-1800

Dr Professor Michael Questier
HST4704, 15 credits
The period 1500-1800, covering from the Reformation to the American and French Revolutions, is of formative importance in the origins of the modern world  more...

Critical Approaches to Film: Film Noir

Dr Mark Glancy
HST4307, 15 credits
Is film noir a genre, a cycle of films within the crime genre, a visual style or a period in Hollywood’s history? more...

History of the Medieval Islamic World 600-1500

Dr Yossi Rapoport
HST4106
This course offers an introduction to the history of medieval Islamic societies, from the rise of Islam up to 1500 more...

The Foundations of Modern Thought: Introduction to Intellectual History

Dr Richard Bourke
HST4601, 15 credits
This is a course in the history of ideas that introduces students to important shifts in the ways in which history, society and politics have been thought about from the Renaissance to the twentieth century more...

The Medieval World: Structures and Mentalities

Dr Peter Denley
HST4102, 15 credits
A broad introductory overview of some characteristics of the medieval world, starting with features of everyday life and material culture, and progressing to the institutional and mental framework within which society operated more...

Level 5 Modules

The Clinton Years

Professor Mark White
HST53XX, 15 credits
The basic aim of the course is for students to develop an understanding of Bill Clinton’s political career more...

Medieval and Renaissance Medicine

Course Organiser: Dr Sue Edgington
HS5401, Level 5, 15 credits
The history of western medicine between the fall of Rome and the scientific revolution of the Seventeenth-Century is often considered to be stagnant and superstitious more...

Gender and Politics

Dr Helen McCarthy
HST5340, 15 credits
Britain’s political culture in the modern period has been profoundly shaped by beliefs and practices concerning sexual difference more...

Creation of American Capitalism

Dr Joanna Cohen
HST5339, 15 credits
The market revolution in America defined the development of US society and culture over the course of the nineteenth century more...

Outcast London?  The East End From 1800

Dr Peter Catterall
HST5388, 15 credits
This course will explore the history of the East End from the building of the royal docks to the building of Canary Wharf more...

Embattled Eden: California in the Twentieth Century

Dr Daniel Peart
HST5310, 15 credits
This course surveys the recent history of California, an American state so large, so diverse, and so wealthy it has often been considered a “nation” unto itself more...

Victorian Values: Religion, Sex, Race and Deviance in 19th Century Britain

Dr Thomas Dixon
HST5332, 30 Credits
According to both popular stereotypes and to many historical accounts, those whose efforts developed and sustained Victorian Britain as the first modern superpower were deeply flawed individuals more...

Making the Modern City, 1789 -1914

Dr Tristram Hunt
HST5332, 30 Credits
Britain was the birthplace of the modern city more...

The Left in Western Europe Since 1945

Dr Donald Sassoon
HST5330, 30 Credits
How have economic and political factors constrained the development of the socialist, social-democratic and communist parties of Western Europe more...

From the Tsars to the Bolsheviks: Russia 1801-1921

Dr Jon Smele
HST5327, 30 credits
Following an introduction to imperial Russian politics and society and the rise of Russia as a multinational empire, this course examines the challenges posed to the existing tsarist order more...

From Napoleon to Berlusconi: Italy 1996-1996

Dr Maurizio Isabella
HST5326, 30 credits
Modern Italian history has often been portrayed as the history of a failed nation more...

A Century of Extremes: Germany 1890-1990

Dr Christina Von Hodenberg
HS5324, 30 Credits
This course provides a systematic account of German history in the twentieth century more...

Cabinet, Premiership and the Conduct of Central Government Since 1956

Dr Jon Davis
HST5323, 30 credits
This course will cover the style of Cabinet Government under post-war premiers, their management of party, Parliament and media, the changing nature of the job more...

Winning on the Western Front: The British Army 1914-1919M

Dr Dan Todman
HST5321, 15 credits
Britain’s military effort on the Western Front in the First World War was unprecedented and unrepeated more...

Race in the United States: Slavery to Civil Rights

Dr Jo Cohen
HST5317, 15 credits
This course is a survey of race relations in nineteenth- and twentieth-century America more...

Politics in the Age of the Pitts, c.1734 - 1806

Dr David Brooks
HST5316, 15 credits
This course will aid students in developing knowledge of Britain’s constitutional and political system at a key stage in its development more...

Madness and Medicine in Modern Britain

Dr Rhodri Hayward
HST5314, 15 credits
Psychiatry has been foundational to our understanding of a wide range of modern concepts from identity and responsibility through to illness and agency more...

History of Modern Political Thought

Dr Georgios Varouxakis
HST5313, 15 credits
This course introduces students to the major issues and thinkers in modern political thought more...

Gladstone and Ireland

Dr David Brooks
HST5312, 15 credits
The Irish Question dominated the last third of the nineteenth century more...

Early Modern Art in the Twentieth Century, 1990-1950

Dr Giovanni Aloi
HST5309, 15 credits
Examining many of the major movements in the visual arts we will consider both the aesthetic and political issues they raise more...

Disreali, Democracy and Empire

Dr David Brooks
HST5308, 15 credits
This course will examine half a century of British history, essentially between the first and third parliamentary reform acts of 1832 and 1884-5 respectively more...

Challenging Europe's Political and Social Order: The 1848 Revolution

Dr Maurizio Isabella
HST5306, 15 credits
The 1848 revolutions represented a truly pan-European phenomenon, one which gave rise to several republican experiments more...

British Horror: Film, Television and Literature

Mr Matt Jacobsen
HST5305, 15 credits
British cinema has made widely influential contributions to the Horror and Science Fiction film genres more...

Britain and Europe 1945-1963

Dr James Ellison
HST5304, 15 credits
This course examines the development of Britain's policy towards Europe from 1945 to 1963 more...

Art Since 1965: From the Rejection of Modernism to Postmodernism

Mr Giovanni Aloi
HST5303, 15 credits
This module is an introduction to the socio-historical context and artistic production from 1965 to the rise and fall of Saatchi’s Young British Art and today’s contemporary art more...

Architecture in London II, 1837-The Present

Dr Stewart Abbott
HST5302, 15 credits
This course is designed to enable students to make the most of what London has to offer in historic sites and buildings more...

Anglo American Relations, 1945-1970

Dr James Ellison
HST5301, 15 credits
This course examines Anglo-American relations from 1945 to 1970 and analyses the nature of the special relationship more...

The Age of Impressionism: Art in France and Britain 1860-1900

Giovanni Aloi
HST5300, 15 credits
From the revolutionary late paintings of William Turner, to the invention of photography and the challenging of classical representation, the 19th century remains one of the most contradictory and fascinating periods in the history of art more...

The Georgians: Society and Culture in Eighteenth-Century England

Professor Amanda Vickery
HST5212, 15 credits
The Georgian period was an era of startling contrasts: elegance and squalor, politeness and prostitution, ‘patricians’ and ‘plebs’, landed privilege and a booming economy more...

Africa in Europe, 1440-1650: Renaissance Encounters

Professor Kate Lowe
HST5210, 30 credits
The focus will be on sub-Saharan Africa, and the course will concentrate on three major elements more...

Catholicism in England

Professor Michael Questier
HST5209, 15 credits
The course will deal with some of the principal historical debates concerning Catholicism in England after the Reformation more...

Architecture in London I, 1600-1837

Dr Stewart Abbott
HST5200, 15 credits
This course is suitable for students with no previous knowledge of Architectural History more...

Bedouin, Fellahs and Sultans: History of the Islamic Countryside

Dr Yossef Rapoport
HST5112, 15 credits
This is a unique introduction to the history of the majority of the population in the Muslim world, past and present: the peasantry more...

The Crusades 1095 -1291

Dr Tom Asbridge
HST5111, 15 credits
In the eleventh century, a vast Christian army, summoned to holy war by the pope, rampaged through the Muslim world of the eastern Mediterranean more...

Outsiders in the Middle Ages

Dr Peter Denley
HST5109, 30 credits
The medieval Christian west abounded in prejudices, proscriptions, violence and atrocities against those who did not 'fit the mould' more...

Latin for Medievalists I

Dr Sue Edginton
15 credits
This course is designed to provide an introduction to Latin geared to the needs of students studying medieval history more...

The Black Death

Dr Antonella Liuzzo Scorpo
HST5101, 15 credits
The course will explore many aspects of later medieval society in the context of the Black Death more...

Women and Gender in Medieval Islam

Dr Yossef Rapoport
HST5306, 15 credits
This class will offer students an introduction in the history of women in medieval Islamic societies, their experiences and representations in art and literature more...

Level 6 Modules

Red, White and Blues: Jazz and the United States in the Twentieth Century

Course Organiser: Dr Daniel Matlin
HST6326, Level 6, 15 credits
Jazz offers a unique lens onto the history of the United States in the twentieth century more...

Exhibiting the First World War

Course Organiser: Dr Dan Todman
HST6324, Level 6, 15 credits
On this module, students will act as researchers for the Imperial War Museum more...

Film History: The United states in the Post-War Era

Course Organiser: Dr Mark Glancy
HST6322, Level 6, 15 credits
Key topics include the anti-communist witch hunts and their effects on filmmakers and films, challenges to the censorship system, the emergence of youth culture, more...

The British Empire in Political Thought from the Eighteenth to Twentieth Century

Course Organiser: Dr Georgios Varouxakis
HST6323, Level 6, 15 credits
All sorts of divergent views on colonies and empire and attitudes towards the British Empire will be studied through many different writings of several different genres more...

Terrorism in the Modern Age

Course Organiser: Dr Martyn Frampton
HST6319, Level 6, 15 credits
"Terrorism" has become a defining phenomenon of the modern era more...

Marx, Engels and the Making of Marxism

Course Organiser: Dr Tristram Hunt
HST6305, Level 6, 15 credits
By the mid-twentieth century, a full third of the human race lived under some system of Marxism more...

Cinema and Society: The United States and the Second World War

Course Organiser: Dr Mark Glancy
HST6304, Level 6, 15 credits
This course considers the political, cultural and social forces that influenced filmmaking in the United States during the Second World War more...

Cold War America, 1945-1975

Course Organiser: Dr Mark White
HST6301, Level 6, 15 credits
This module examines the major developments in United States history from the end of the Second World War to Watergate more...

Early Modern Travel and Cultural Encounters

Course Organiser: Dr Eva Holmber
HST6301, Level 6, 15 credits
This module examines historically encounters in the early modern period as interactions between people of different religions, ethnic and social groups more...

The Hussites: Reform, Revolution and Apocalypse in the Fifteenth-Century

Course Organiser: Dr Peter Denley
HST6200, Level 6, 15 credits
Over a century before the Reformation, in Bohemia religious, ethnic and social dissent boiled over into two decades of revolution, civil war more...

The Reform of Islam: The Legacy of Ibn Taymiyya

Course Organiser: Dr Yossef Rapoport
HST6101, Level 6, 15 credits
Taq"ç al-D"çn Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1328) is one of the most remarkable and controversial thinkers in Islamic history more...

We The People

Course Organiser: Dr Daniel Peart
HST6336, 15 credits
'We the People'. This famous phrase, the first three words of the United States Constitution, symbolises a political system founded on the principle that 'the People' must rule more...

Level 6 Special Subjects (All 60 credits)

The Edwardian Political Crisis, December 1905-August 1914

Course Organiser: Dr David Brooks
HST6307
In December 1905 the Liberals regained office, where they were to remain, at times somewhat precariously, until the First World War. more...

Behind Closed Doors: House, Home and Private life c.1660-1850

Course Organiser: Professor Amanda Vickery
HST62XX
‘A man’s house is his castle, for safety and repose to himself and his family.’ more...

Renaissance Rome, 1430-1530

Course Organiser: Professor Kate Lowe
HST6202
Site of the monuments and antiquities of classical Rome and seat of the Catholic Church, Rome’s twin foci and their complex interrelationships were apparent everywhere more...

The Russian Revolution and Civil War 1917-21

Course Organiser: Dr Jon Smele
HST6311
In the first semester this course analyses the roles of political leaders, parties and social groups in the series of crises between the February and October Revolutions of 1917 more...

Winston Churchill, Politician and Writer

Course Organiser: Dr Peter Catterall
HST6318
This course evaluates the long and eventful career of the man voted 'the Greatest Briton' in the BBC poll of 2002, more...

The French Civil War 1934-1944

Course Organiser: Professor Julian Jackson
HST6308
On 6 February 1934, demonstrators gathered in Paris to protest against government corruption more...

The Enlightenment

Course Organiser: Dr Richard Bourke
HST6308
This course is concerned with the history of Enlightenment debates in moral and political philosophy more...

The Lives of Oscar Wilde

Course Organiser: Professor Julian Jackson
HST6401
In 1895, the celebrated playwright Oscar Wilde was convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment with hard labour more...

The Troubles in Northern Ireland

Course Organiser: Dr Martyn Frampton
HST6321
The outbreak of violence in Northern Ireland in 1968-9 marked the start of over three decades of conflict in the province more...

The Kennedy Years

Professor Mark White
HST6310
The core of this Special Subject is an examination of the presidency of John F. Kennedy from 1961 to 1963 more...

English and British Political Culture c. 1595-1606 and the Accession of King James I

Course Organiser: Professor Michael Questier
HST6204
This course is an in-depth document-based exploration of the political culture of late Elizabethan and early Jacobean England and Britain more...