Gateway modules for 1st year students

This sweeping module introduces students to the dramatic story of the ancient world, from the classical Greeks and Romans to the rise of Christianity and Islam. That story begins with Homer’s epic poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, and the emergence of the Greek city states led by the military might of Sparta and the democratic genius of Athens. The Greeks drove back the Persian empire to the east, but as the city states declined they fell under the dominion of Philip of Macedon and his son Alexander the Great. We follow Alexander’s conquests to the borders of India and back, yet his empire died with him while further west Rome was rising. The Roman Republic, with its unique constitution and marching legions, dominated the Mediterranean world only to destroy itself through ambition and civil war, until power fell into the hands of one man: Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Over the next 400 years the Roman empire spanned from Hadrian’s Wall in Britain south to the Sahara and east to the Euphrates. Within that empire a new faith emerged, venerating Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and gathered strength until the emperor Constantine converted and Christianity became the favoured imperial religion. By this time, however, the empire was facing ever greater challenges. Goths and Franks swept across western Europe, their conquests immortalised by Edward Gibbon as the “Decline and Fall of Rome”. In the east Roman power survived as the Byzantine empire centred on Constantinople. While in Arabia, the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed inspired the forces of Islam, which swept forth to redraw the map of the ancient world. Throughout this wide-ranging module, we will explore the values these societies expressed in their own words (read in translation), debate the latest scholarship, and assess the ancient legacies that shaped our modern age.

This course investigates the origins of how we have come to understand politics: the question of human rights and duties, of revolution and democracy, consent and liberty. Key original texts are studied, ranging from Plato and Aristotle in the ancient world to Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke and the Enlightenment. The module takes a wide view of the boundaries of ‘European Political Thought’, also introducing a number of political thinkers from the Islamic world like al-Mawardi, Ibn Khaldun and Ibn Taymiyya, who inspired many of present-day Islamic radicals. Like their Christian counterparts elsewhere, their work marked a close engagement with Greek philosophy, and explored the question of what the presence of an almighty creator God meant for the conduct of human politics. This module always keeps an eye on what the close and careful reading of classical texts has to offer for our understanding of politics in the present. Working with primary sources, rather than the learning of factual details, stands at the centre of both how the module is taught and how it is assessed.

From the Enlightenment to the collapse of Communism, Europeans have struggled to make sense of and shape a continent in the grip of profound changes. Revolution, industrialisation and urbanisation transformed the face of politics and societies and spawned a series of new ideologies that continue to shape our world today. This module surveys a range of major events and dynamics from the late eighteenth to the early twenty-first century, including the French Revolution, the emergence of the nation state, the decline of monarchy, the rise of mass politics, the emergence of the working classes and the middle classes, the First World War, the Russian Revolution and the rise of fascism, the Second World War and the Cold War. In studying specific events and developments students will also be introduced to more general concepts like revolution, constitutionalism, liberalism, nationalism, industrialisation, urbanisation, socialism, communism, fascism, parliamentary democracy and the welfare state. Exposure to different historical methods and conflicting interpretations will help students to hone their own analytical skills. The emphasis throughout the module will be on recovering the experiences of Europeans across more than two turbulent centuries when the very shape of the modern world was fiercely contested. 

Characterised by profound social, cultural, and political transformations such as the Protestant and Catholic Reformations, the emergence of European empires and resulting global encounters, the print and scientific revolutions, and the rise of central states and national monarchies, the period from 1500-1800 is often regarded as the dawn of modernity. Yet these centuries also witnessed violent conflict, the rise of the transatlantic slave trade, ongoing persecution of religious minorities, refugee crises, and persisting social and gender inequality. This course will explore these complex continuities and changes by focusing on key episodes in the social, economic, religious, political and intellectual history of the centuries between the Renaissance and the French and Haitian Revolutions. Special attention will be given to the unprecedented global circulation of goods, people and ideas, and its impact on lived experiences. Many issues of relevance today can trace their historical roots to this period, including globalisation, religious movements, gender and racial inequality, and the rise of consumer culture.

Using a wealth of primary sources and the most significant secondary works, this course will explore the impact that these transformations had on the lives of ordinary people and how they responded to these challenges.  

In this course you will be encouraged to think in terms of long-term trends rather than events and precise dates, and you will be directed to some of the most exciting writing in the recent social and cultural history of early modern Europe. Using techniques of close reading, document analysis and discussion, you will be encouraged to develop your own skills of interpretation. The course will be concerned with both the transformations taking place in Europe, including England, and in their relationships with the wider world. 

This course introduces you to the non-Western world through the lens of leaders. It examines how individual leaders came to power, created new nation states, and made an impact on the wider world during the twentieth century. While focusing on a leader each week, we adopt a comparative and thematic approach, by exploring the similarities and differences between leaders in terms of their aims, style, policy, and impact. The individual stories of leaders thus serve as the starting point for examining key developments and themes that have shaped the world in which we live today.

Course highlights:

• Where is the non-Western world? – Asia (East, South, and Southeast), the Middle East, Africa
• Why the twentieth century? – A period of imperialism, nationalism, decolonisation, and warfare
• What kind of leaders? – Revolutionaries, communists, emperors, religious leaders, democratic politicians, dictators
• Some examples – Mao Zedong of Communist China; Emperor Hirohito of Japan; Osama Bin Laden in the Middle East; Mahatma Gandhi of India; Nelson Mandela of South Africa; Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam; Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore; Gamal Nasser of Egypt …
• Comparative themes – Nationalism, imperialism, war, religion, economic development, modernisation, Westernisation …
• Fundamental question – Do men make circumstances, or circumstances make men?

Some people are put off medieval history because they see it as a period of dark superstition and oppression. It does not seem relevant to the modern world because it all happened a long time ago, between 400 and 1500 CE (or AD). Yet this was the time when the countries and cultures that constitute western Europe came into being and we are still living with that legacy, both positive and negative. We will look at the rise of the pope (still the spiritual leader of millions today), the arrival of Islam, the impact of the Vikings, the crusades, medieval women (they had an important role to play too), architecture and castles (some of them are still around today) and many other topics. At the end of the day though, medieval history is worth studying not just because it is relevant but also because it is a gateway to a vibrant, colourful and exciting world.