Learning outcomes
This is a second-year core 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 is the core module for all Single Honours schemes. It is intended to introduce students to the discipline of history and to enhance their self-awareness as historians. It seeks to do so by surveying the writing of history, the use of the past in past societies, and the current state of the discipline.
The module begins by surveying the main 'varieties' of history represented within our syllabus and examining the main intellectual currents within the discipline. It then explores the influence of other disciplines on historians and the present political, social and educational functions of historical writing.
Reading Lists
Books
** Recommended Text
A. Marwick (2001) The New Nature of History. Knowledge, Evidence, Language
A. Munslow (1997) Deconstructing History
B. Southgate (1996) History What and Why: Ancient, Modern and Post-modern Perspectives
D. Cannadine (ed) (2002) What is History Now?
E. Hobsbawm (1997) On History
J. Appleby, L. Hunt & M. Jacob (1994) Telling the Truth About History
J. Tosh (1984) The Pursuit of History
J. Warren (1998) The Past and its Presenters: An Introduction to Issues in Historiography
K. Jenkins (1991) Rethinking History
L. Jordanova (2000) History in Practice
R. J. Evans (1997) In Defence of History
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 6