Why Study Modern British History at UEA?

Modern British History at UEA offers a unique blend of political, international and imperial history. It provides a rare concentration of expertise on nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century foreign policy, matched by strengths in imperial history and political history. This provides an ideal research environment for anyone with an interest in Britain’s role in the modern world and the political debates about it, from the mid-nineteenth century to the post-war retreat from Empire.

This course enables students to explore the latest developments in an area with vibrant debate and a rich historiography that has been growing steadily in recent years, not least through the work of scholars at UEA. The MA course provides the opportunity to examine in depth a range of topics in this field from the era of ‘gunboat diplomacy’ to the bitter debates about appeasement, its replacement by Churchillian commitment and, ultimately, imperial decline. Seminars are led by scholars who have extensive research experience and are based on a series of key sources for the period. Guided by specialist teaching staff, and supported by a trained archivist in the same discipline, students are encouraged to develop the skills essential for postgraduate research. The culmination of the MA course is the dissertation, undertaken in the second half of the degree. This independent study will be completed under the supervision of one or more members of the School.

Content and Structure of the Course

The MA, which can be taken either as a one-year full-time programme or a two-year part-time degree, aims to equip students with the advanced skills and intensive subject knowledge they need to proceed to further independent research. This preparation is provided by three main elements. The first is the dissertation, the completion of which will provide all MA students with the experience and expertise to go on to doctoral study should they so wish. The second is a core module, in British history, which runs over both semesters, all of which reflect the challenges these countries experienced in coming to terms with the modern age.

Core Modules

The Politics of British Foreign Policy, 1850-1940, runs over the course of two semesters. Here the following themes and topics will be covered, to a greater or lesser degree according to the needs and interests of those participating in the programme of study: the ‘Age of Palmerston’; Conservatism and foreign policy; the radical ‘Troublemakers’; the Great Eastern Crisis; Lord Salisbury and ‘Splendid Isolation’; the continental commitment and the first World War; the challenges to Empire; appeasement; the Churchillian alternative.

Optional Modules

Students also take a supplementary module, which runs either weekly for a semester or fortnightly over the whole year.

The Empire at Bay, 1939-1956 explores developments within the British Empire between the outbreak of the Second World War and the Suez Crisis of 1956, with particular emphasis on imperial questions in Anglo-American relations.

Themes in Global History explores key transnational interactions of the last two centuries. Rather than examining diplomacy between states, it focuses on global connections between markets and societies which have contributed to contemporary globalization.

The culmination of the programme is a dissertation on an approved topic of your own devising. It is undertaken mainly in the second half of the degree and supervised by one or more members of the School.

Course Tutors and Research Interests

Larry Butler: twentieth century British history and the history of the British Empire, especially British decolonization

John Charmley: modern diplomatic and political history; Britain and the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century

Geoff Hicks: British political history and foreign policy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

Anthony Howe: free trade; William Cobden; William Huskisson and the British State; international and national political economy, 18th to 20th centuries

Thomas Otte: diplomatic and international history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries