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Critical Approaches to Modern British History

Module description

What is modern British history today? This module introduces you to classic and emerging debates in the study of modern British history, covering themes such as social change, and the experience of war, colonialism, and immigration. Our approach insists both on the importance of recognising the role the wider world has played in shaping Britain’s history – and on the value of exploring this history through a local lens, drawing on the unique heritage resources of the city of Exeter and its surroundings to do so. No prior knowledge is required. The module will provide you with an essential toolkit for the further study of a wide range of aspects of modern British history.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The aim of this module is to introduce you to key themes, methods, and analytical frameworks in the study of modern British history. Exeter has one of the largest concentrations of historians in this subject in the UK and seminars will draw on the research expertise of its tutors, as well as local heritage resources unique to the city of Exeter and the surrounding region. The module will enable you to think critically about key methods and techniques used by historians – and scholars in related disciplines such as heritage and public policy – to analyse and interpret debates and themes in modern British history, and will introduce you to innovative public heritage and digital humanities work in this area. It will give you the skills necessary to review scholarly books and articles in modern British history, and to produce critical writing assessing key themes, approaches and methods. It will also raise questions about what ‘Britain’ and ‘Britishness’ are, and how national identity has changed over time engaging with recent work which has called for a ‘global history of Britain’.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Understand and evaluate key themes, approaches, and debates in the study of modern British history
• 2. Assess critically the role of primary sources in informing the study of modern British history

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Analyse and synthesise different types of historical evidence and scholarship
• 4. Acquire a critical understanding of key concepts and debates, as well as different source types

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Demonstrate capacity for independent critical research, study, and thought, including the ability to construct and defend a sustained argument using primary and secondary materials
• 6. Work as an individual and with a tutor and peers in an independent, constructive, and responsive way

Syllabus plan

The course will be taught primarily through weekly seminars, each of which will focus on key themes and approaches to modern British history. This will be a team-taught module and the syllabus will vary according to the composition of the module team and student choice. Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics: 

• New directions in modern British history
• Electoral politics and government
• Britain and its maritime world
• Black British history, pre- and post-1945
• Sex and sexuality in modern Britain
• Class and gender in modern Britain
• Britain and Ireland
• Brexit and its origins

As well as seminars on campus, and depending on logistics and availability, the course may involve field trips or tours that engage with local heritage projects and institutions. This might include some of the following:

• Introductory walking tour of Exeter
• The country-house and the South-West
• Victorian popular culture (with the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum)
• Colonialism and its legacies (with the Royal Albert Memorial Museum)
• The literary South-West (with the Agatha Christie and Daphne Du Maurier papers, at the University’s Special Collections)
• Queer Exeter (with the Section 28 and its afterlives project, at the University’s Special Collections)

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of referral will be capped at 50%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Adrian Bingham, United Kingdom (Polity Press, 2023).
• Corinne Fowler, Our Island Stories (Penguin, 2024).
• Jon Lawrence, Electing Our Masters (Oxford University Press, 2009).
• David Olusoga, Black and British: A Forgotten History (Pan, 2016).
• Charlotte Lydia Riley, Imperial Island (Penguin, 2023).
• James Vernon, Modern Britain: 1750 to the present (Cambridge University Press, 2017).

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, Exeter https://www.bdcmuseum.org.uk/
• Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter https://rammuseum.org.uk/

Key words search

Modern British history; modern Britain; political history; social history; cultural history; economic history.