Dr Heather Jones

MA/MSc History of International Relations, MSc History of Nationalism, MSc History of Empires, MSc Theory and History of International Relations, LSE-PKU Double Degree in International Affairs and LSE-Columbia University Double Degree in International and World History. It is available as an outside option.

There are no formal pre requisites for the course, but background reading on twentieth-century European history is recommended.

The course re-appraises the European political upheavals of the first half of the twentieth century, taking its leading theme issues of national identity and nationalism. It centres on the origins and impact of the 1914-1918 war and on the road from the First World War to the Second, concentrating on the circumstances in which nationalist movements gained or lost popular support and political influence.

Approaches to the history of nationhood and nationalism; national identity in Germany, France, and Britain before 1914; patriotism and nationalism during World War One; the impact of war and the politics of self-determination (Zionism and the Balfour Declaration, the break-up of Austria-Hungary, independence and partition in Ireland); the cult of war memory and the ‘front generation’; nationalism and the rise of Fascism and Nazism in Italy and Germany; the Habsburg successor states; nationalism and civil war in Spain; patriotism and nationalism in inter-war France and Britain.

21 two-hour seminars in the MT, LT and ST: one mock exam in ST.

Each student will be required to write four essays over the academic year, including one essay for continuous assessment in the LT and one mock examination answer in the ST.

A detailed reading list will be issued at the start of the course. Recommended introductory works include: J. Breuilly, Nationalism and the State; O. Zimmer, Nationalism in Europe, 1890-1940; A. J. Nicholls and P. M. Kennedy, eds, Nationalist and Racist Movements in Britain and Germany before 1914; P. Nora, ed, Realms of Memory; D. Stevenson, 1914-1918: The History of the First World War; G Mosse, Fallen Soldiers: Reshaping the Memory of the World Wars; D. Vital, A People Apart: the Jews in Europe, 1789-1945; R. O. Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism.

One three-hour unseen examination paper taken in the ST will account for 75% of the overall grade for the course. The third essay written during the academic year (3,000 words in length) will be assessed and make up the remaining 25%.