The range of specialisms across the School of History, Classics and Archaeology and its related centres is reflected in the broad scope of option courses and dissertation topics available on the programme. HTML Core courses You will take two compulsory courses, which will provide a general introduction to graduate study in history and give you the opportunity to develop your research skills. The compulsory courses for this programme are: Historical Research: Skills & Sources - Semester 1 This course is one of two 'core' courses on the online MSc in History. The aim of these two courses is to prepare students to undertake their dissertations. This course focuses on research skills and the analysis of different types of primary source. More information can be found on the course catalogue: Historical Research: Skills & Sources Historical Research: Approaches to History - Semester 2 This course is one of two 'core' courses on the online MSc in History. The aim of these two courses is to prepare students to undertake their dissertations. This course focuses on approaches and methodologies that historians have employed in order to understand and write about the past. More information can be found on the course catalogue: Historical Research: Approaches to History Option courses You will choose a further four courses from a wide selection on offer. We aim to offer in the region of 8-10 option courses each academic year. Our courses change from year to year and generally rotate on a two to three year cycle. This gives part-time students wider access to our full range of options across the duration of their studies. Option courses previously offered include those listed below. Option courses change from year to year and those available when you start your studies may be different from those shown in the list. Option Courses 2024-2025 * * Please note that the list of courses below is provisional and subject to change. British Empires, 1601-1948 - Semester 1 This course examines the theory and practice of British imperialism between the late Elizabethan period and the mid-twentieth century. The focus is on the degree to which British imperialism changed over time. More information can be found on the course catalogue: British Empires, 1601-1948 Debating Marriage Between Antiquity and the Middle Ages - Semester 1 This course examines how and why ideals and practices of marriage in later Roman and post-Roman societies shifted between c.400 and c.1000. Focussing on a range of primary sources, students will gain a detailed understanding of how marriage was contested, disputed and transformed in this period, and will carefully examine the social, political and religious contexts of these developments. Students will also critically examine strikingly different ways in which historians have debated the evolution of marriage, gender, family and kinship within grand narratives of the transition from antiquity to the middle ages. More information can be found on the course catalogue: Debating Marriage Between Antiquity and the Middle Ages Race, Religion, and Ridicule: The American South from Reconstruction to World War II - Semester 1 The American South's distinctive history can be traced through slavery, secession, Civil War defeat, Reconstruction, Lost Cause ideology, populism, and the era of Jim Crow. Seminal southern journalist W. J. Cash summarized such understandings in his 1941 book, The Mind of the South, in which he claimed that the region's 'peculiar history ... has so greatly modified it from the general American norm' that it is 'not quite a nation within a nation, but the next thing to it.' In this course, we will chart the short-lived promise of Reconstruction, and the development of 'Jim Crow modernity,' as shifting residential patterns and urban expansion prompted a new form of racial control through legalized segregation and extra-legal violence at the turn of the twentieth century. More information can be found on the course catalogue: Race, Religion, and Ridicule: The American South from Reconstruction to World War II The Holocaust - Semester 1 This course examines the murder of the European Jews during the Second World War, aspects of the past leading up to the genocide, and features of the way that the genocide has entered popular consciousness in the postwar years. More information can be found on the course catalogue: The Holocaust Theories of Empire in the Early Modern Period - Semester 1 This course looks at the development and meaning of the concept(s) of 'empire' from the late sixteenth until the early seventeenth centuries, using the Stuart ideas of empire as its starting point. More information can be found on the course catalogue: Theories of Empire in the Early Modern Period Gender, Empire, and Labour in the Nineteenth Century: Perspectives from the Wider World - Semester 2 The nineteenth-century saw structural changes in technologies and relations of work across the globe. As the expansion of European empires contributed to the growth of an integrated world market, categories of labour went into transformation to reflect new roles for women and men in economic production. More information can be found on the course catalogue: Gender, Empire, and Labour in the Nineteenth Century: Perspectives from the Wider World Myth and the History of Scholarship in Early Modern Europe - Semester 2 This course provides an introduction to the history of scholarship from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment (c. 1550-1750), a period which arguably gave birth to the modern human sciences. It does so by examining one particular theme: the study of pagan myth (including the myths of Graeco-Roman antiquity, the myths of contemporary 'savages' and 'primitives', and the myths of the ancient pagan peoples mentioned in the Bible). More information can be found on the course catalogue: Myth and the History of Scholarship in Early Modern Europe The Closest of Enemies: Cuban-American Relations 1898-2014 - Semester 2 This course will examine Cuban-American relations from the end of Spanish colonial rule in 1898 through to US President Barack Obama's decision to resume formal diplomatic relations in 2014. More information can be found on the course catalogue: The Closest of Enemies: Cuban-American Relations 1898-2014 The Contemporary Theory of War - Semester 2 War is the most demanding of all human endeavours. Devising strategies and waging war has preoccupied leaders, states, and intellectuals since antiquity. This course examines major developments in the history of strategic thought and the refinement of military doctrine in the process of analysing how war is theorised in the contemporary world. More information can be found on the course catalogue: The Contemporary Theory of War The Lords of the Isles: Clan Donald, c.1336 - c.1545 - Semester 2 The course covers the origin, development and demise of the Clan Donald Lordship of the Isles, one of the most distinctive aristocratic lordships of late medieval Europe. The course will involve discussion of the most important stages in the development of the Clan Donald, but will also try to examine why the Lordship has become, in the modern era, such a powerful symbol of Gaelic linguistic and cultural identity. More information can be found on the course catalogue: The Lords of the Isles: Clan Donald, c.1336 - c.1545 In addition to the above History courses, students enrolled on the MSc in History (online) can take up to two courses from the MSc Ancient Worlds (Archaeology and Classics) (Online Learning). A list of their courses can be found on the Ancient Worlds courses page. Previous Option Courses We hope to be able to run some of these courses again in the coming years. An Age of Great Dreams: The 1960's in the United States An Imperial Game? Cricket, Culture & Society Athens of the North: the Origins and Ideas of the Scottish Enlightenment British Empires, 1601-1948 British Politics and Policy in the Second World War Charles Martel in the Digital Age Consensus to Thatcherism: Government and Politics in Post-War Britain Crisis and Conflict in Late-Victorian Britain Debating Marriage Between Antiquity and the Middle Ages Diaspora, Migration & Exile: A History of the Global Irish since 1600 Empire or Continent?: British Foreign Policy in the Era of the Great War Freedom and Coercion in the Making of the Atlantic World Gender, Empire, and Labour in the Nineteenth Century: Perspectives from the Wider World Genocide in Contemporary History Global Environmental History Ideology and Politics in the Soviet and Post-Soviet Space Islamic Africa Malfeasance and Misbehaviour in Finance - Perceptions and Realities, c. 1500 to the Present Material Histories of Asian Societies in the Early Modern Period Medicine and Society in Modern Britain Modern Latin American History Narrating Native Histories Seeking 'Japan' in a Westernizing World: Revolution, Romance, and Imperialism, 1868 - 1945 Society and Culture in the Soviet and Post-Soviet Space The Crusades and the Euro-Mediterranean world of the Central Middle Ages The Lords of the Isles: Clan Donald, c.1336 - c.1545 The School of Statecraft: History, Leadership, and Policymaking The Shadow of Versailles: Interwar Europe, 1918-1939 The Trial of the Templars Willingly to War? The Origins of the First World War Further information You can see more details about the 2024/25 programme structure on the Degree Programme Table for the online MSc in History. We have also compiled a summer reading list should you be interested in get ahead of your studies. This article was published on 2024-06-19
HTML Core courses You will take two compulsory courses, which will provide a general introduction to graduate study in history and give you the opportunity to develop your research skills. The compulsory courses for this programme are: Historical Research: Skills & Sources - Semester 1 This course is one of two 'core' courses on the online MSc in History. The aim of these two courses is to prepare students to undertake their dissertations. This course focuses on research skills and the analysis of different types of primary source. More information can be found on the course catalogue: Historical Research: Skills & Sources Historical Research: Approaches to History - Semester 2 This course is one of two 'core' courses on the online MSc in History. The aim of these two courses is to prepare students to undertake their dissertations. This course focuses on approaches and methodologies that historians have employed in order to understand and write about the past. More information can be found on the course catalogue: Historical Research: Approaches to History Option courses You will choose a further four courses from a wide selection on offer. We aim to offer in the region of 8-10 option courses each academic year. Our courses change from year to year and generally rotate on a two to three year cycle. This gives part-time students wider access to our full range of options across the duration of their studies. Option courses previously offered include those listed below. Option courses change from year to year and those available when you start your studies may be different from those shown in the list. Option Courses 2024-2025 * * Please note that the list of courses below is provisional and subject to change. British Empires, 1601-1948 - Semester 1 This course examines the theory and practice of British imperialism between the late Elizabethan period and the mid-twentieth century. The focus is on the degree to which British imperialism changed over time. More information can be found on the course catalogue: British Empires, 1601-1948 Debating Marriage Between Antiquity and the Middle Ages - Semester 1 This course examines how and why ideals and practices of marriage in later Roman and post-Roman societies shifted between c.400 and c.1000. Focussing on a range of primary sources, students will gain a detailed understanding of how marriage was contested, disputed and transformed in this period, and will carefully examine the social, political and religious contexts of these developments. Students will also critically examine strikingly different ways in which historians have debated the evolution of marriage, gender, family and kinship within grand narratives of the transition from antiquity to the middle ages. More information can be found on the course catalogue: Debating Marriage Between Antiquity and the Middle Ages Race, Religion, and Ridicule: The American South from Reconstruction to World War II - Semester 1 The American South's distinctive history can be traced through slavery, secession, Civil War defeat, Reconstruction, Lost Cause ideology, populism, and the era of Jim Crow. Seminal southern journalist W. J. Cash summarized such understandings in his 1941 book, The Mind of the South, in which he claimed that the region's 'peculiar history ... has so greatly modified it from the general American norm' that it is 'not quite a nation within a nation, but the next thing to it.' In this course, we will chart the short-lived promise of Reconstruction, and the development of 'Jim Crow modernity,' as shifting residential patterns and urban expansion prompted a new form of racial control through legalized segregation and extra-legal violence at the turn of the twentieth century. More information can be found on the course catalogue: Race, Religion, and Ridicule: The American South from Reconstruction to World War II The Holocaust - Semester 1 This course examines the murder of the European Jews during the Second World War, aspects of the past leading up to the genocide, and features of the way that the genocide has entered popular consciousness in the postwar years. More information can be found on the course catalogue: The Holocaust Theories of Empire in the Early Modern Period - Semester 1 This course looks at the development and meaning of the concept(s) of 'empire' from the late sixteenth until the early seventeenth centuries, using the Stuart ideas of empire as its starting point. More information can be found on the course catalogue: Theories of Empire in the Early Modern Period Gender, Empire, and Labour in the Nineteenth Century: Perspectives from the Wider World - Semester 2 The nineteenth-century saw structural changes in technologies and relations of work across the globe. As the expansion of European empires contributed to the growth of an integrated world market, categories of labour went into transformation to reflect new roles for women and men in economic production. More information can be found on the course catalogue: Gender, Empire, and Labour in the Nineteenth Century: Perspectives from the Wider World Myth and the History of Scholarship in Early Modern Europe - Semester 2 This course provides an introduction to the history of scholarship from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment (c. 1550-1750), a period which arguably gave birth to the modern human sciences. It does so by examining one particular theme: the study of pagan myth (including the myths of Graeco-Roman antiquity, the myths of contemporary 'savages' and 'primitives', and the myths of the ancient pagan peoples mentioned in the Bible). More information can be found on the course catalogue: Myth and the History of Scholarship in Early Modern Europe The Closest of Enemies: Cuban-American Relations 1898-2014 - Semester 2 This course will examine Cuban-American relations from the end of Spanish colonial rule in 1898 through to US President Barack Obama's decision to resume formal diplomatic relations in 2014. More information can be found on the course catalogue: The Closest of Enemies: Cuban-American Relations 1898-2014 The Contemporary Theory of War - Semester 2 War is the most demanding of all human endeavours. Devising strategies and waging war has preoccupied leaders, states, and intellectuals since antiquity. This course examines major developments in the history of strategic thought and the refinement of military doctrine in the process of analysing how war is theorised in the contemporary world. More information can be found on the course catalogue: The Contemporary Theory of War The Lords of the Isles: Clan Donald, c.1336 - c.1545 - Semester 2 The course covers the origin, development and demise of the Clan Donald Lordship of the Isles, one of the most distinctive aristocratic lordships of late medieval Europe. The course will involve discussion of the most important stages in the development of the Clan Donald, but will also try to examine why the Lordship has become, in the modern era, such a powerful symbol of Gaelic linguistic and cultural identity. More information can be found on the course catalogue: The Lords of the Isles: Clan Donald, c.1336 - c.1545 In addition to the above History courses, students enrolled on the MSc in History (online) can take up to two courses from the MSc Ancient Worlds (Archaeology and Classics) (Online Learning). A list of their courses can be found on the Ancient Worlds courses page. Previous Option Courses We hope to be able to run some of these courses again in the coming years. An Age of Great Dreams: The 1960's in the United States An Imperial Game? Cricket, Culture & Society Athens of the North: the Origins and Ideas of the Scottish Enlightenment British Empires, 1601-1948 British Politics and Policy in the Second World War Charles Martel in the Digital Age Consensus to Thatcherism: Government and Politics in Post-War Britain Crisis and Conflict in Late-Victorian Britain Debating Marriage Between Antiquity and the Middle Ages Diaspora, Migration & Exile: A History of the Global Irish since 1600 Empire or Continent?: British Foreign Policy in the Era of the Great War Freedom and Coercion in the Making of the Atlantic World Gender, Empire, and Labour in the Nineteenth Century: Perspectives from the Wider World Genocide in Contemporary History Global Environmental History Ideology and Politics in the Soviet and Post-Soviet Space Islamic Africa Malfeasance and Misbehaviour in Finance - Perceptions and Realities, c. 1500 to the Present Material Histories of Asian Societies in the Early Modern Period Medicine and Society in Modern Britain Modern Latin American History Narrating Native Histories Seeking 'Japan' in a Westernizing World: Revolution, Romance, and Imperialism, 1868 - 1945 Society and Culture in the Soviet and Post-Soviet Space The Crusades and the Euro-Mediterranean world of the Central Middle Ages The Lords of the Isles: Clan Donald, c.1336 - c.1545 The School of Statecraft: History, Leadership, and Policymaking The Shadow of Versailles: Interwar Europe, 1918-1939 The Trial of the Templars Willingly to War? The Origins of the First World War Further information You can see more details about the 2024/25 programme structure on the Degree Programme Table for the online MSc in History. We have also compiled a summer reading list should you be interested in get ahead of your studies.