The First World War

Learning Outcomes

Cognitive Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• analyse ways in which different historical interpretations are formed not merely through differences of opinion concerning the content and significance of the text per se, but as a product of different, changing methodological and critical approaches deployed by various historians
• examine and analyse ways in which historical interpretations of the First World War are rooted in consideration of varied forms of textual evidence
• demonstrate, through systematic and guided study of the different types of historical literature available on the First World War, the ability to assess primary and secondary source material

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• write fluently and effectively, preparing assessed work independently
• demonstrate problem-solving skills
• demonstrate oral communication skills at a standard appropriate for Level 1 study, preparing as required brief reports to start discussion in classes and taking part actively in debate
• find, assimilate and analyse diverse and complex information
• manage your own learning and your time effectively, meeting deadlines
• formulate arguments that are clearly reasoned and based on evidence

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• the ways in which the discipline of History has evolved from “traditional” to “non-traditional” over the last 40 years in response to the challenges and stimuli of other disciplines and approaches
• the history of the First World War

The history of the First World War will be studied through consideration, in turn, of the literature concerning its diplomatic origins, its nature as a military conflict, the social history of warfare, the nature of the home front, its impact on gender relations, its impact on the landscape, and its memorialisation and commemoration. Seminars will introduce you in turn to diplomatic history, military history, social history, medical history, gender history, landscape history, cultural history, the study of material culture. In each case, a key source will be considered; for example, on medical history an excerpt on shell-shock from The Lancet. The emphasis of this module is on your close reading of a set of defined primary texts which illustrate well the different types of history under discussion. In addition, a core set of historiographical readings will be focussed upon. These texts are chosen to illustrate how the historiography of the particular field has developed. Where possible, articles or monographs which refer to, and are to be understood in the context of, pre-existing scholarship discussed in previous seminars are used to underpin the cumulative and developmental aspects of the learning process. Emphasis is placed on research-based articles to encourage you to acquaint yourself with journal literature.

Teaching methods include

• lectures
• seminars
• independent study
• production of written work and preparation for exam.

Training on the use of original sources will be integrated into the seminars, and you will be expected to produce short commentaries on selected documents. You will receive a course booklet, with seminar list, essay questions and book and resource list.

Learning activities include

• intensive reading, guided by annotated reading lists
• independent study supported by a course website and email discussion list.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.