In recent years, the history of modern Britain has been transformed by a greater awareness of the multiple and varied communities that have shaped that history, with labour history, Four Nations history, the history of women, and the history of BAME communities all prompting new interpretations of developments in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Britain. There has been controversy over the character and timing of industrial development and its impact, and lively interest in the emergence of new forms of political culture, the role of the state, in the ways in which Britain was constituted as an imperial nation, and in what it meant to be British over the course of the period. The possibilities of oral history have opened up opportunities to explore the very recent past and the history of communities and individuals often neglected by the official record.
Oxford has a well-established tradition of work on British political and intellectual history in the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries, on political culture more broadly conceived, and on the social and cultural history of the period, with particular strengths in the history of women, the history of architecture, and the history of childhood. The outstanding print resources of the Bodleian Library are complemented by a wealth of digital resources and important Special Collections and archives, including the John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera and the Conservative Party archive.
The core Historical Methods classes will ask you to reflect upon, and critically discuss, current approaches to major themes in the history of the period, including for example Empire and the Imperial turn in British History, Political Culture, Class and Social Mobility, Selfhood and Identity, Nations and Regions. These themes will be related to debates over cultural and intellectual history, political thought and practice, material culture, the history of emotions, gender history and women’s history. You will also be asked to make presentations and discuss the application of discussed methods to your own research topics.
Alongside this, in the Skills component of the course, you will be encouraged to take advantage of opportunities to improve your knowledge of European languages, to attend library information sessions, and also training sessions organised by Oxford University Computing Services to learn about text analysis software, GIS or statistical packages.
Option courses particularly relevant to Modern Britain 1850 to the present typically include:
