First Year (Level 4): BA in History

Level 4

The first year of your degree programme lays the foundation for future success.  You will study six core modules that will give you a taste of everything that is available to you throughout your degree programme, and equip you with the skills necessary for you to become an accomplished and first-rate historian.  Scroll down for more information on your first-year modules.

HI4112 – The Mystery of History

This module allows students to explore a historical event that has caused particular controversy. Each year, a series of different case studies will be made available for students to research. During the first half of the module, students will examine both secondary and primary material. The former will allow them to understand how historians have already explored their case study, while the latter will help to shed new light onto each historical controversy. After researching their case studies, students will spend the second half of the module presenting their research in a variety of different ways, from utilising electronic media through to academic essays. At the end of the module, students will not only have undertaken a detailed piece of historical research, but will also have developed the key skills required for studying history at degree level.

HI4114 – Turning Points in History: Europe and the Wider World, 1000-2000

This module provides an overview of the principal developments and ‘turning points’ in history over more than a thousand years.  This overview and analysis will be driven forward by a detailed examination of themes and issues including: the transformation of the landscape, and the urban and commercial revolutions in the medieval era, the Black Death, Reformation across Europe, witchcraft and warfare in the Early Modern era, Absolutism and the Enlightenment, industrialisation and urbanisation in the modern era, race and migration, colonisation and decolonisation, the first World War, the nuclear age, global pandemics and 9/11.

HI4116 – Constructing History

This module takes as its starting point the question: what is history? In exploring this complex question, it examines the development of the historical discipline from its earliest origins through to the present day. The historical discipline continues to evolve as each generation of historians apply their own values and ideas to the subject. As well as exploring the nature of these changes, the module also engages directly in philosophical debates about the direction, substance and future for studying the past, including the relevance and significance of a variety of public histories, ranging from film and television through to museums and heritage sites.

HI4127 – Themes in Modern History

Successful students of history must engage with history both in breadth and in depth.  This module will enable students to study a selected theme of Modern History in detail, and will therefore complement the other core elements of the History programme at Level 4. 

Themes offered will vary from year to year, but will normally embrace aspects of political, social, economic and cultural history.  Examples include: The Rise of Multicultural Britain: Race, Immigration and National Identity, 1837 to the Present; The American Century: The United States, 1898-2001; Spaces of Conflict: The First World War; Leisure, Sport and Society in Modern Britain.

HI4128 – Themes in Medieval and Early Modern History

Complimenting HI4127, this module allows students to engage with a selected theme of Medieval and Early Modern History in detail. Themes offered will vary from year to year, but will normally embrace aspects of political, social, economic and cultural history.  Examples include: The Shaping of Britain; The Crusades, 1095-1204; Martyrs, Missionaries and Mystics: the Age of Reformations, c.1450-1650; Rebellion and Society in the Later Middle Ages; Reform and Resistance during the Reign of Henry VIII.