Module Information
Course Delivery
| Delivery Type | Delivery length / details |
|---|---|
| Seminars / Tutorials | 1 x fortnightly seminars |
| Lecture |
Assessment
| Assessment Type | Assessment length / details | Proportion |
|---|---|---|
| Semester Exam | Takeaway examination over two days | 100% |
Learning Outcomes
This is a second-year module, the aim of which is to provide second-year students with an opportunity to study the history of historical writing in the West since the mid-nineteenth century. On completion, students will:
a) be familiar with the key developments in Western historiography
b) have a level of proficiency in distinguishing between historiographical traditions and approaches
c) be able to reflect critically on the work of individual historians and historical `schools'
d) be able to explain historiographical developments both in the contexts of intellectual shifts and in those of wider institutional, political, social and cultural change
e) be better able to reflect critically on historical writing encountered elsewhere in their degree scheme
f) be able to reflect critically on key issues of Western historiography in seminars, unassessed essays and a take-away examination.
Brief description
This module is designed to introduce students to the discipline of history and to increase their awareness as historians. It seeks to do this by tracing the development of a succession of `paradigms? in academic historical writing since the mid-nineteenth century. The module begins by considering how applicable Thomas Kuhn'r theory of `paradigms? is to academic historical writing. It then proceeds to examine the forms of statist history that developed in Britain, Europe and North America along with the professionalisation of history in the late nineteenth century, before moving on to look at a number of challenges to the `statist? paradigm, including the influence of Marx, the early Annales school, and British social and economic history. Postwar developments in historiography to be considered include the later work of the Annales historians, Namierism, the work of the British Marxist historians, and the `New Social History? in the United States, and the history of science and technology.
Reading List
Recommended TextBurke, Peter (1990) The French Historical Revolution: The Annales School, 1929-1989 Primo search Colley, Linda (1989) Lewis Namier Primo search Green A. and K. Troup, eds (1999) The Houses of History: A Critical Reader in Twentieth-Century History and Theory Primo search Higham, John (1983) History: Professional Scholarship in America Revised Primo search Iggers Georg G. and L. Powell, eds (1990) Leopold Von Ranke and the Shaping of the Historical Discipline Primo search Iggers, Georg G (1997) Historiography in the Twentieth Century: From Scientific Objectivity to the Postmodern Challenge Primo search Iggers, Georg G (1984) New Directions in European Historiography Revised Primo search Kaye, Harvey (1984) The British Marxist Historians Primo search Kenyon, John (1983) The History Men Primo search Keylor, W (1975) Academy and Community: The Foundation of the French Historical Profession Primo search Molho, Anthony and Gordon S. Wood, eds (1998) Imagined Histories: American Historians Interpret their Past Primo search Novick, Peter (1988) That Noble Dream: The `Objectivity Question and the American Historical Profession Primo search Schwarz-Cohen, R (1997) A Social History of American Technology Primo search Smith, Bonnie G (1998) The Gender of History Primo search Soffer, Reba N (1994) Discipline and Power: The University, History and the making of an English Elite, 1870-1930 Primo search
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 6