MODULE SPECIFICATION
Code: UPHPHF-30-2 Version: 7 Level: 2
Title: International History 1914-1945: The End of European Dominance in World Politics
UWE credit rating: 30 ECTS credit rating: 15
Module type: Standard
Owning Faculty: Social Sciences and Humanities Field: History
Faculty Committee approval: QSC, Chair’s Action Date: 16th July 2009
Approved for Delivery by:
(indicate name of affiliated institution if module will only be delivered by them)
Valid from: September 2009 Discontinued from:
Contributes towards: Awards up to BA (Hons)
Pre-requisites: None Co-requisites: None Excluded combinations: None
Learning outcomes:
Students should be able to:
1. demonstrate an understanding of the major issues in the international history of the Great Powers between 1914 and 1945 (assessed through Component A and Component B, Elements 1-3);
2. evaluate critically the role of key international events (assessed through Component A and Component B, Elements 1-3);
3. provide critical interpretations of the major historical debates in the international history of the period (assessed through Component A and Component B, Elements 1-2);
4. make historical judgements based on the synthesis of secondary sources, including monographs, journal articles and essays in edited collections, and the analysis and evaluation of documentary sources (assessed through Component A and Component B, Elements 1-3);
5. demonstrate a clear understanding of causation, the role of individuals, groups and impersonal forces in international events (assessed through Component A and Component B, Elements 1-3);
6. show an understanding of the processes of foreign policy formulation in the countries studied: the role of government, armed forces, bureaucracy, political system and civil population within this process (assessed through Component A and Component B, Elements 1-3);
7. demonstrate knowledge of the longer term historical questions of continuity in history, the role of foreign policy in politics, and the nature of relations between states (assessed through Component A and Component B, Elements 1-3).
Syllabus outline:
The module begins with the First World War, focusing on the war aims of the Great European Powers, the entry of the United States into the war and Russia’s exit from the war followed by the Russian Civil War. There is then further analysis of the negotiations surrounding the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and the political and territorial settlements, which ended the First World War. The focus of the module then shifts to two broad subject areas: the search for international security in the inter-war years and the origins, conduct and settlement of the Second World War. In addition to a broad overview of the period, each subject area will incorporate a series of detailed case studies. These include: German–Soviet relations between the wars; Anglo-French-German relations during the period 1919-33; the Manchurian Crisis and the League of Nations, 1931-3; the Abyssinian Crisis of 1935-6 and foreign intervention and non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-9; the nature and conduct of British and French appeasement strategies with particular emphasis on the Czech crisis of 1938; Anglo-French-Soviet relations, 1933-9; the United States, Japan and the Far East, 1933-41; German-Soviet-Japanese relations and the Far East, 1933-41; German-Soviet relations 1939-41; the collapse of the Anglo-French alliance, 1939-40; the politics of the Grand Alliance, 1941-45.
Teaching and learning methods:
The module will be delivered through a combination of lectures, seminars and tutorials. Students will be directed to contemporary documentary sources as well as a wide range of secondary literature including
monographs, journal articles and essays in edited collections. They will be required to lead the seminars through seminar papers, which will be assessed.
Reading Strategy
Students are encouraged to read a wide range of secondary texts and monographs, some of which are on short loan and one week loan. They are also encouraged to read journal articles either in hard copy or by accessing JSTOR. To help them in locating relevant works each seminar in the module handbook includes a range of recommended reading, including the titles of essays in edited collections or articles in journals. To enable them to
complete their document analysis assignment the students are provided at the beginning of the year with a document handbook containing extracts of documents in International History from which they will select four. The original source of these documents is indicated at the end of each extract and in every case is available in the library. The International History journal and book collection is extensive and students should have no difficulty in accessing them.
Indicative Reading List:
The following list is offered to provide validation panels/accrediting bodies with an indication of the type and level of information students may be expected to consult. As such, its currency may wane during the life span of the module specification. However, as indicated above, CURRENT advice on readings will be available via other more frequently updated mechanisms.
Boyce, R and Robertson, E.M. (eds.), |
Paths to War: Essays on the Origins of the Second World War, (London: Macmillan, 1988) |
Dockrill, M.L. and Fisher, J.(eds.), |
The Paris Peace Conference 1919: Peace without Victory, (London: Palgrave, 2001) |
Fischer, F. |
Germany’s Aims in the First World War, (London: Chatto and Windus, 1967) |
Hildebrand, K. |
The Foreign Policy of the Third Reich, (London: Batsford, 1973) |
Hunt, B. and Preston, A. (eds.), |
War Aims and Strategic Policy in the Great War, (London: Croom Helm, 1977) |
Iriye, A. |
The Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations Volume III: The Globalizing of America, 1913-1945, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993) |
Iriye, A. |
The Origins of the Second World War in Asia and the Pacific, (London: Longman, 1987) |
Kolko, G |
The Politics of War: Allied Diplomacy and the World Crisis, 1943-1945, (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969) |
Lukes, I. and. Goldstein, E. (eds.), |
The Munich Crisis 1938: Prelude to World War II, (London: Frank Cass, 1999) |
Marks, S. |
The Ebbing of European Ascendancy: An International History of the World 1914-1945, (London: Arnold, 2002) |
Parker, R.A.C. |
Chamberlain and Appeasement: British Foreign Policy and the Coming of the Second World War, (London: Macmillan, 1993) |
Roberts, G. |
The Soviet Union and the Origins of the Second World War: Russo-German Relations and the Road to War, 1933-1941, London: Macmillan, 1995) |
Sharp, A .and Stone, G. (eds.), |
Anglo-French Relations in the Twentieth Century: Rivalry and Cooperation, (London: Routledge, 2000) |
Watt, D.C. |
How War Came: The Immediate Origins of the Second World War, 1938-1939, (London: Heinemann, 1989) |
Young, R.J. |
France and the Origins of the Second World War, (London: Macmillan, 1996) |
Assessment
Weighting between components A and B (standard modules only) A: 50% B: 50%
ATTEMPT 1
First Assessment Opportunity
Component A
Description of each element Element weighting
1. Exam (3 hours) 50%
Component B
Description of each element Element weighting
1. Seminar Presentation + Paper (1000 words) 10%
2. Essay (2,000 words) 20%
3. Document Exercise (2000 words) 20%
Second Assessment Opportunity (further attendance at taught classes is not required)
Component A
Description of each element Element weighting
1. Exam (3 hours) 50%
Component B
Description of each element Element weighting
1. Essay (2500 words) 25%
2. Document exercise (2500 words) 25%
SECOND (OR SUBSEQUENT) ATTEMPT: Attendance at taught classes is required.
Specification confirmed by …………………………………………………Date ……………………………
(Associate Dean/Programme Director)