MA Modern History

This module looks beyond the university and examines the roles of history and historians more broadly. In this module we will bring in expertise from across the academic, museum and heritage sectors and explore how history shapes the world in which we live in seen and unseen ways. The use of the past is everywhere – from how your food and drink is branded, to video game characters to the creation of our national identities. Writers and filmmakers use versions of the past to sell their stories, governments use it to create national narratives, businesses use it to sell their products. Museums, galleries and heritage sites and text books are often regarded as impartial but there is no such thing as a neutral history. The module will also explore how and why certain stories aren’t told (or haven’t always been told) and we will look at how the past has been forgotten, misremembered and reclaimed. 

The module discusses how, through various mediums of interpretation and presentation, a range of organisations and individuals including museums, archives, government agencies, historians and the media make history available to a wide audience. It explores how societies use history and provides an understanding of the ways in which historians can take their skills and apply them outside the university.

History Beyond the University will examine the 'public' dimensions of history - how has the past been represented, remembered and used. We will look at how the past has been forgotten, misremembered and reclaimed. We will consider how historical knowledge can illuminated the past while shaping the present.

Explore Masters level research methods to enable you to make the most of your participation in the MA.

This module enables you to:

•  engage in independent and critical thinking and apply theoretical concepts in the field of Modern History
• identify, assess and critically evaluate relevant research resources
• present and defend research findings in an appropriate and scholarly manner

You will meet with your supervisor to discuss the dimensions of the project, identify and address key scholarship in the field, develop an appropriate methodology, and establish an agreed framework for progress.

This module is designed to examine films produced in Britain, for British audiences, between 1939 and 1945. By focussing on a range of films, an understanding of the British government’s propaganda policy during the Second World War will be developed alongside a detailed knowledge of the processes, functions, execution and themes of propaganda. At the core of the module will be a critical approach to film as a source and a structured reading of the films. This will draw on, and be related to, the key schools of thought regarding the nature of film on the British home front. By applying each of these frames to the films to be considered, debate and discussion will be opened up to establish the drivers and influence on national culture. Whilst this module will reflect on the history of propaganda in general through this time, it will also speak to the nature of popular engagement with the war, and the effectiveness of these initiatives as related through popular responses to these films.

This module will explore Liverpool’s history through its involvement in the Atlantic slave economy. Liverpool’s involvement in the transportation of enslaved people to the Americas and the trade in goods produced by enslaved people transformed the city from a minor port, to the centre of the Atlantic World. In this module you will have the opportunity to research the legacies of slavery through the links that LJMU had to the slave economy. Through a self-generated research project you will discover the extent that slavery reached into the heart of institutions, and transformed the way that institutions function today. Through links to merchants, businesses that traded in goods produced by enslaved people, and even abolitionists, you will discover that even LJMU has extensive links that are not too difficult to unearth.

With the ending of the Second World War, France was liberated from the immediate traumas of defeat and occupation. But with victory in 1945, the country was confronted with a new set of challenges. With much of its national infrastructure in ruins, many towns and cities ravaged, and an economy suffering from years of exploitation by the Germans, the task of reconstruction was immense. The physical damage of war was not all, however. After more than four years of occupation, and the social tensions and divisions wrought by this experience, it was not just the economy but equally the political body, indeed the nation as a whole, which required renewal. In the years immediately following the liberation, French political elites grappled with the challenges of reconstructing France. Looking back from the perspective of the 1980s, French commentators and academics heralded the success of these efforts. Noting how the liberation had inaugurated a new era of unprecedented economic growth and consumer wealth, undergirded by a robust welfare state, which lasted until the global economic crisis which followed in the wake of the ‘oil shock’ of the mid-1970s,  historians adopted the label of the ‘thirty glorious years’ to refer to this period in post-war French history. These years witnessed profound transformations in French politics and society which many experienced as a liberating force, yet they also led to growing levels of social marginalisation, poverty and alienation. What is more, through these years of ever-growing prosperity for many of its citizens, France fought and lost two brutal colonial wars in Indochina and Algeria, marking the end of the country’s status as a major colonial empire.

In this module, you will explore the rise of internationalism as a political idea in the ‘long’ nineteenth century and how it influenced political movements. This will not be limited to the history of the idea alone but will also include the fascinating biographies of activists, the international networks of political movements and the establishment of international organisations, such as the League of Nations. You will engage with a relatively new and burgeoning field of historical research that combines international and local histories and uses different theoretical approaches. It will challenge some of the established assumptions about modern history and its dominant national frameworks. The module will be delivered as a series of workshops, which will combine short lectures with group work and student-led presentations.