Suspended in 2025/26
HY241 One Unit
What is History? Methods and Debates
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Dr Tim Hochstrasser
Availability
This course is available on the BA in History, BA in Social Anthropology, BSc in History and Politics, BSc in International Relations and History, BSc in Social Anthropology, Erasmus Reciprocal Programme of Study and Exchange Programme for Students from University of California, Berkeley. This course is freely available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. It does not require permission. This course is available with permission to General Course students.
General Course students must seek prior permission from the teacher responsible to take this course. Permission will only be given for students with previous study experience in History.
Course content
What is history? How and for what purposes do we study the past? What kinds of debates and controversies result from historical study? The purpose of this course is to provide undergraduate students with an introduction to these important issues. We will discuss the history of history from ancient times to the present and how it has changed as an intellectual pursuit over the years. We will think about different types of history – for example, international history, intellectual history, social history, economic history, cultural history or the history of religion – and we will discern their different concerns and priorities. We will analyse some of the most important themes in modern historical study: empires and colonialism, war and conflict, nationalism. We will outline different ideological frameworks for conducting historical research, for example Marxism, postmodernism, and gender studies. We will debate some of the key philosophical questions surrounding historical research: for example, how historians determine facts, and whether or not historical study can ever be truly objective? Finally, we will look at different ways of presenting the past, from traditional history books to museums and TV history.
This course also offers an opportunity for students who have taken Hy120 in their first year to take a deeper dive into the history, philosophy, methods, and genres of History. About half of the topics in Hy241 are different entirely from Hy120, and when the broad topics coincide then the questions asked, and readings set, diverge.
Teaching
1 hours of seminars in the Spring Term.
20 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.
20 hours of seminars in the Autumn Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn and Winter Term.
The first hour in each of the seminar sessions will be delivered as a lecture.
Formative assessment
Students will be expected to produce one formative essay in the AT and one formative essay in the WT (2000 words).
Indicative reading
A full reading list will be provided at the start of the course but will include the following introductory surveys: Berger, Feldner and Passmore, Writing History; D Cannadine (Ed), What is History now?; L Jordanova, History in Practice; R Evans, In Defence of History; J Tosh, The Pursuit of the Past; M Bloch, The Historian's Craft; R G Collingwood, The Idea of History; T. Garton Ash, The File.
Assessment
Exam (70%), duration: 180 Minutes in the Spring exam period
Course participation (15%)
Presentation (15%)
Students MUST give a summative presentation in either the AT or the WT.The class participation will be graded and averaged across the AT and the WT.
Key facts
Department: International History
Course Study Period: Autumn, Winter and Spring Term
Unit value: One unit
FHEQ Level: Level 5
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: 7
Average class size 2024/25: 7
Capped 2024/25: NoCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.