Postgraduate Course: Making War, Making Peace: European International History, 1914-1945 (PGHC11370)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course looks at the international history of Europe from the first years of the twentieth century to the early period of the Cold War. The focus will be on the changes and challenges to the international system, including the origins and consequences of the two world wars. |
| Course description |
This course provides an introduction to the advanced study of a crucial period of international history. The course will focus on the period from the first years of the twentieth century to the conclusion of the Second World War in 1945. The course is structured around historically and historiographically significant themes. Each class session will address a particular theme or interpretative issue that has generated significant controversy in recent scholarship. In addition to analysing the motivations and reasoning of the key decision-makers, the aim of the course will be to focus on such issues as the decline and development of international state systems, the relationship between domestic politics, diplomacy and international economics, the relationship between long- and short-term planning, the decision-making process during periods of international crisis, and the process of peacemaking. International history, and in particular, the emergence of Europe from the cataclysm of the First World War and its return to mass warfare at the end of the 1930's, is a prominent theme. The course will examine the historiographical debates that have raged since the period itself, and employ archival and other documentary material to evaluate them on the basis of their evidential strengths and weaknesses.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate in the article review and the final essay a detailed and critical command of the body of knowledge concerning European international history between 1914 and 1945
- Demonstrate in the article review and the final essay an ability to analyse and reflect critically upon relevant scholarship, primary source materials concerning, and conceptual discussions about European international history between 1914 and 1945
- Demonstrate in written assessment and seminar participation, an ability to understand and apply specialised research or professional skills, techniques and practices considered in the course
- Demonstrate the ability to develop and sustain original scholarly arguments in oral and written form in seminar discussions and written assessment by independently formulating appropriate questions and utilising relevant evidence considered in the course
- Demonstrate in seminar discussions and written assessment originality and independence of mind and initiative; intellectual integrity and maturity; an ability to evaluate the work of others, including peers; and a considerable degree of autonomy
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Reading List
Philip Bobbitt, The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace and the Course of History (2003)
Robert Boyce, The Great Interwar Crisis and the Collapse of Globalization (2009)
Eric J. Hobsbawm, The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914-1991 (1994)
James Joll, '1914: The Unspoken Assumptions', in H.W. Koch (ed.), The Origins of the First World War: Great Power Rivalry and German War Aims (1972), pp. 307-328
David Reynolds, 'International History, the Cultural Turn and the Diplomatic Twitch', Cultural & Social History, Vol. 3, no. 1 (2006), pp. 75-91
Brendan Simms, Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy, 1492 to the Present (2013)
Zara Steiner, 'On writing international history: chaps, maps and much more', International Affairs, vol. 73, no. 3 (July 1997), pp. 531-546
Zara Steiner, The Lights that Failed: European International History, 1918-1933 (2005)
Zara Steiner, The Triumph of the Dark: European International History, 1933-1939 (2011)
David Stevenson, The First World War and International Politics (1988) |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | War Peace European International History |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Mr David Kaufman
Tel: (0131 6)51 3857
Email: D.Kaufman@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Lindsay Scott
Tel: (0131 6)50 9948
Email: Lindsay.Scott@ed.ac.uk |
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