HI2E2-15 Historiography II: Recent and Emerging Trends in History Writing, 1990 to today
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 aims
This is a core module counting for one 15-CAT unit in the intermediate year. It is compulsory for all single-honours History students, optional for joint degree and other students. As a core module it complements teaching in specialised History modules, by providing a broad context for understanding developments in the discipline of history from the Enlightenment to today. The overall aims is to introduce students to the important idea that the different methodologies and theories used in history writing to explain human individual and collective agency and historical change do not exist in ‘empty space’. Since the Enlightenment they have been reflecting wider explanatory trends in a society and culture, its politics and economic structures, ethical values and morals. Powerful history is not simply written by clever women or men but requires a deep engagement with and sensitivity to the present, its possibilities and challenges. Since the Enlightenment, the past has been continuously ‘re-written’ by historians to ‘make meaning’ of an every-changing present.
The module introduces students to these ongoing changes in which the past has been understood by exploring key theories and methodologies within their specific historical context from the Enlightenment to the present. Historiography, part I (Term I) concentrates on methods and theories which dominated history writing roughly between 1750-1990, part II (Term II) focusses on more recent and emerging trends in history writing since the 1990s. It offers students a clear orientation as to what is at stake in history writing today, what is considered but also what is ‘left out’ or silenced. It also asks students to relate the historiographical developments discussed during the course to the subjects and historiographical trends they study on Advanced Option and Special Subject modules. The more recent concepts and methods encountered in the module (part II) may be helpful in crafting dissertations. Historiography is also intended to develop students’ abilities in study, research, and oral and written communication, through a programme of seminars, lectures and essay work.
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.
- Academic History Writing in Post-Truth Times: An Introduction
- Post-Postcolonialism
- Environmental History
- Material Culture and Global History
- Marginality
- Reading Week
- Histories of the Self
- Memory, Heritage and Public History
- Return to Marx? Histories of Class, Exploitation and Labour Movement in the 21st Century
- 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.
Study time
Type | Required |
---|---|
Lectures | 9 sessions of 1 hour (6%) |
Seminars | 9 sessions of 1 hour (6%) |
Tutorials | 1 session of 1 hour (1%) |
Other activity | 4 hours (3%) |
Private study | 127 hours (85%) |
Total | 150 hours |
Private study description
History modules require students to undertake extensive independent research and reading to prepare for seminars and assessments. As a rough guide, students will be expected to read and prepare to comment on three substantial texts (articles or book chapters) for each seminar taking approximately 3 hours. Each assessment requires independent research, reading around 6-10 texts and writing and presenting the outcomes of this preparation in an essay, review, presentation or other related task.
Other activity description
2 essay writing workshops each term (term 1; term 2)
Costs
No further costs have been identified for this module.
You do not need to pass all assessment components to pass the module.
Assessment group A4
Weighting | Study time | |
---|---|---|
Seminar Contribution | 10% | |
1500 word essay | 30% | |
1500 word assignment. |
||
3000 word essay | 60% | |
3000 word assignment. |
Feedback on assessment
Written feedback will be delivered through Tabula. Feedback on assessments will be given in tutorials.
Courses
This module is Core for:
-
UHIA-V100 Undergraduate History
- Year 2 of V100 History
- Year 2 of V100 History
- Year 2 of UHIA-V102 Undergraduate History (Renaissance and Modern History Stream)
This module is Core optional for:
-
UHIA-V100 Undergraduate History
- Year 2 of V100 History
- Year 2 of V100 History
This module is Optional for:
- Year 2 of UHIA-V1V5 Undergraduate History and Philosophy
-
UHIA-VM11 Undergraduate History and Politics
- Year 2 of VM11 History and Politics
- Year 2 of VM11 History and Politics
- Year 2 of VM11 History and Politics
- Year 2 of UHIA-VM13 Undergraduate History and Politics (with a term in Venice)
- Year 2 of UHIA-VL13 Undergraduate History and Sociology
- Year 2 of UHIA-VL15 Undergraduate History and Sociology (with a term in Venice)
This module is Option list A for:
- Year 2 of UHIA-V1V5 Undergraduate History and Philosophy
- Year 2 of UHIA-V1V7 Undergraduate History and Philosophy (with a term in Venice)
- Year 2 of UHIA-VM13 Undergraduate History and Politics (with a term in Venice)
- Year 2 of UHIA-VL15 Undergraduate History and Sociology (with a term in Venice)
This module is Option list B for:
-
UHIA-VM11 Undergraduate History and Politics
- Year 2 of VM11 History and Politics
- Year 2 of VM11 History and Politics
- Year 2 of VM11 History and Politics
This module is Option list C for:
- Year 2 of UHIA-VL13 Undergraduate History and Sociology