BA History and Politics
Entry requirements
A Level: AAB IB: 34; 33, with B in a history-based extended essay
About this course
BA in History and Politics BA, a politics and international relations and history degree centred on the study of past events and political systems. Core topics include research methods, historical research, and critical & analytical thinking. Students complete a final-year dissertation and research project. The first year introduces disciplinary foundations through History Workshop, Political Analysis 1: An Introduction to Research and Scholarship, Thinking Politically: Key Concepts, and Thinking Historically. The second year develops empirical and theoretical approaches through Political Analysis 2: How to do empirical research, Political Theory in Practice, History and the Public, and Parchment to Pixels: Interrogating Historical Evidence. Optional modules in these earlier stages allow exploration of topics such as world politics, Chinese politics, and early modern European history. The final year focuses on independent research through compulsory modules including Short Dissertation and Research Project 1, alongside optional modules covering areas such as the ethics of political leadership, global culture wars, and modern international conflicts.
Modules
- History Workshop
- Political Analysis 1: An Introduction to Research and Scholarship
- Thinking Politically: Key Concepts
- Thinking Historically
- The 'Disenchantment' of Early Modern Europe, c. 1570-1770
- Beyond Borders? A Deep History of the Connected World
- The Long View: an introduction to archaeology
- World Politics
- Global Political Economy
- Political Analysis 2: How to do empirical research
- Political Theory in Practice
- History and the Public
- Parchment to Pixels: Interrogating Historical Evidence
- From Democracy to Dictatorship: the 1973 coup in Chile
- Murder in the cathedral: the Becket Affair
- The Irish Republican Brotherhood, 1858-85
- The Putney Debates, October 1647
- A Very British Revolution? The 1926 General Strike
- Contemporary Crises in Historical Perspective
- Autocracies and Democracies
- Chinese Politics
- Migration and World Politics
- Oppression and Resistance
- Tackling the World's Wicked Problems: theoretical tools and applications
- Short Dissertation
- Research Project 1
- Permissive Britain? Social and Cultural Change 1956-74
- The World of Intoxicants in Early Modern England
- Cannibals and Christians: Mexico and Spain, c.1492-1600
- The Wars for Vietnam: Empire, Decolonisation and Liberation
- Resistance & Liberation in South Africa: Gandhi to Mandela
- Makers of a New World: Merchants, Scholars and Commoners in Late Medieval Europe
- Merchants, Pirates and Planters: The English Overseas, 1570-1624
- The National Security State, Treason, and Individual Rights during the Twentieth Century
- Italy in the Age of Dante, ca. 1200-1350
- The World Transformed? The League of Nations and the End of Empire, 1919-46
- The Ethics of Political Leadership
- Global Culture Wars
- Understanding Elections