Unit name | Millennial Britain |
---|---|
Unit code | HIST30125 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | H/6 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Dr. Edwards |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
none |
Co-requisites |
none |
School/department | Department of History (Historical Studies) |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
In 1997 the Labour Party adopted D:Ream’s hit song, ‘Things can only get better’ as their anthem for the forthcoming general election. Was this just clever marketing, or was Britain coming through the other side of a particularly difficult period in its history?
As historians we have very clear narratives for much of the post-war period: the austerity of the late 1940s and early 1950s; 1960s affluence and the permissive society; a fractured and discordant 1970s; and a turbulent and painful economic realignment under Thatcher in the 1980s. Historians have repeatedly seen the post-war as a time in which Britain sought a new role in the face of steady economic decline, decolonisation and a diminished world status.
But what of the 1990s and 2000s? This is a period of the British past that has yet to receive thorough historical examination, in no small part due to its contemporaneous nature. Popular understandings of the period, too, seem to offer little clarity over the meaning attached to Britain as it faced the coming of the millennium. On the one hand, with the end of the Cold War, reconciliation in Northern Ireland, a period of relative economic growth and apparent political stability, it seemed that Britain had much to be positive about. Brit Pop, multiculturalism, socially progressive attitudes towards sex and sexuality all suggested that the British nation was looking forward to a bright new future with a steady sense of confidence.
And yet, this moment, if it ever existed, was surely only fleeting. A growing awareness of a detrimental human impact on the environment, fears of the millennium bug, a new global role fighting an American-inspired War on Terror, and a global financial crash signalled new challenging times ahead. Any sense of domestic harmony was countered by the anxieties that came with negotiating a truly globalised world.
This unit introduces students to the challenges of undertaking contemporary history, working at the edges of historical knowledge, and piecing together new narratives for periods that have yet to come under extended historical scrutiny. Turn of the century Britain was a place that at once seems familiar, but also now a distinctly historical place. How can we make sense of our immediate past, and its relationship to our ever-formulating present?
Unit Aims:
On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
Classes will involve a combination of long- and short-form lectures, class discussion, investigative activities, and practical activities. Students will be expected to engage with readings and participate on a weekly basis. This will be further supported with drop-in sessions and self-directed exercises with tutor and peer feedback.
1 x 2500-word Mock Proposal (50%) [ILOs 1-4]
1 x Timed Assessment (50%) [ILOs 1-3]
Siobhán Fenton, The Good Friday Agreement
J. R. McNeill, The Great Acceleration; An Environmental History of the Anthropocene since 1945.
Scott Newton, The reinvention of Britain 1960-'2016 :' a political and economic history
Alwyn W. Turner, A Classless Society: Britain in the 1990s
James Strong, Public opinion, legitimacy and Tony Blair's War in Iraq
Fiona Terry, Condemned to repeat'?:' The paradox of Humanitarian Action