Introductory description

While Historiography I introduced students to key methodological and theoretical approaches in history writing from the Enlightenment to roughly the 1990s, Historiography II explores such themes from the 1990s to the present. However, unlike Historiography I, the 9 lectures/seminars do not proceed chronologically. Instead, each week focuses on a different important theme/theory/methodology which is currently hotly debated among academic historians. Each lecture is therefore presented by a member of staff specialised in the week’s theme. While each lecture will start off with a brief introduction into the historiography of the subject, the bulk of it will concentrate on the individual lecturer’s methodological and theoretical approach. Historiography II aims to offer students a clear idea of what is currently exciting and important in Anglo-American academic history writing. It will develop students’ abilities in study, research, and oral and written communication, through a programme of seminars, lectures and essay work. Students are encouraged to link their studies in Historiography II with their other second- and third-year modules. Historiographical knowledge will help students to choose a dissertation topic and supervisor in year 3.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

1. Academic History Writing in Post-Truth Times: An Introduction
2. Post-Postcolonialism
3. Environmental History
4. Material Culture and Global History
5. Marginality
6. Reading Week
7. Histories of the Self
8. Memory, Heritage and Public History
9. Return to Marx? Histories of Class, Exploitation and Labour Movement in the 21st Century
10. A New Materialism? Latest News from History Land

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate a detailed knowledge of the development of the academic study of history throughout the world since the 1990s.
• Generate ideas through applying current historical methods to the analysis of primary source material.
• Demonstrate an awareness of current trends in the theory and practice of historical writing, within and outside of the West.
• Analyse and evaluate the contributions made by existing scholarship.
• Communicate ideas and findings, adapting to a range of situations, audiences and degrees of complexity.
• Act with limited supervision and direction within defined guidelines, accepting responsibility for achieving deadlines.

Indicative reading list

• Bentley, Michael. Modern Historiography: An Introduction (1999). Focuses on broad trends in largely European history-writing from the Enlightenment period onwards.
• Bentley, Michael. A Companion to Historiography (2002).
• Berger, Stefan, H. Feldner and K. Passmore (eds), Writing History: Theory and Practice (2003).
• Brown, Callum, Postmodernism for Historians (2005), explains it very well and has a super useful glossary of key terms!
• Burrow, John, A History of Histories. Epics, Chronicles, Romances and Inquiries from Herodotus … to the Twentieth Century (2007).
• Carr, E.H., What is History? (1961). A core text that you should read in full at the start of the year.
• Claus, Peter and John Marriott, History: An Introduction to Theory, Method and Practice (2012)
• Collingwood, R.G., The Idea of History (1946). A classic!)
• Duara, Prasenjit (ed.), A Companion to Global Historical Thought (2014).
• Ermath, Elizabeth Deeds, History in the Discursive Condition: Reconsidering the Tools of Thought (2011). Examines the state of history-writing in the light of the postmodern challenge.
• Green, Anna and Kathleen Troup (eds), The Houses of History: A Critical Reader in Twentieth-century History and Theory (1999). This is particularly useful for the way it introduces a theoretical and methodological vocabulary for studying twentieth-century historiography.
• Hughes-Warrington, Marnie, Fifty Key Thinkers on History (2008). Provides short essays on fifty mainly European and US historians, historiographers, and thinkers who have had an impact on history-writing.
• Hunt, Lynn. Writing History in the Global Era (2014)
• Iggers, George G. and Q. Edward Wang, A Global History of Modern Historiography (2008). Examines history-writing as a global phenomenon, getting away from the Eurocentricity of much of the existing literature on historiography. Focuses on the period covered in this module (in contrast to Woolf, below).
• Lambert, Peter and Schofield, Peter, Making History (2004). (very clear introduction to the topic)
• Maza, Sarah. Thinking about History (2017).
• Munslow, A., The Routledge Companion to the Historical Studies (London, 2006) (library electronic resource) excellent glossary of key terms!!!
• Poster, Mark, Cultural History and Postmodernity: Disciplinary Readings and Challenges (1997) (library electronic resources).
• Rochona, Majumdar, Writing Postcolonial History (2010).
• Smith, B. The Gender of History: Men, Women and Historical Practice (1998). Provides a particularly useful account of nineteenth-century developments in historical thinking and writing, and the professionalization of the discipline.
• Shryock, Andrew/Smail, D.L., Deep History: The Architecture of Past and Present (2001).
• Southgate, Beverley, History: What and Why: Ancient, Modern, and Postmodern Perspectives (1996).
• Stunkel, Kenneth R., Fifty Key Works of History and Historiography (2011). Provides short introductions to key writings of fifty historians and thinkers who have had an impact on history-writing, from all over the world.
• Walker, Garthine (ed.), Writing Early Modern History (2005). Provides a really helpful discussion relevant to all historians, not just early modernists.
• Woolf, Daniel, A Global History of History (2011). Takes a broad sweep, with chapters on the different historical epochs of the past three millennia.

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Subject specific skills

See learning outcomes.

Transferable skills

See learning outcomes.