First Year Induction

Introduction (Sarah Richardson)

Student Staff Liaison Committee (Issac
Leigh & Christoph Mick)

Making of the Modern World (Sarah
Richardson)

Introduction to the Library (Lynn Wright)

Making History (Beat Kümin)
Timetable
Christoph Mick,
Director of UG Studies
Isaac Leigh, President,
Students Union
Lynn Wright,
History Subject
Librarian
People
Sarah Richardson,
Director of First Year,
Convenor, MMW
Beat Kümin,
Convenor, Making
History
Making of the Modern
World
Course Overview
Course Director: Sarah Richardson
(sarah.richardson@warwick.ac.uk)
This module contextualises later modern history
by providing a framework in which major
historical processes of the later modern era are
studied on a world-wide scale. The module
moves away from a Eurocentric and narrative
focus and provides more scope for historical
approaches based on, among other things,
culture, identity and environmental history.
Context
The central focus of the module is the rise
of the modern, its diffusion and resistance
to it. Central features are the
Enlightenment, the rise of democracy,
industrialisation, imperialism and political
and cultural revolution.
Syllabus
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Rise of urban/commercial society
Emergence of territorial nation states
Growth of modern science
Rise of democracy
Enlightenment – Age of Reason
/rationalism
Rise of secularism and humanism
Nature dominated by man
What is the ‘modern’?

ENLIGHTENMENT, REVOLUTION AND MODERNITY
- definitions of enlightenment
- theories of revolution

THE WEALTH AND POVERTY OF NATIONS
- challenge to eurocentric/anglocentric view of
industrial growth
- what has been the effect of industrialisation on
India/Africa?
Themes
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NATURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT
- Arcadians and Romantics

IDEOLOGIES AND STATES
- Liberal Nation State
- Socialist Challenge
- Fascism
- Imperialism and Globalisation

FAITH AND MODERNITY
- the relevance of religion in the modern world
Themes

IDENTITIES: THE INDIVIDUAL & THE MODERN
- Class, Gender, Race, Nationhood
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WAR, VIOLENCE & MODERNITY/THE CHALLENGE
TO REASON
- Critiques of modernism
- Science/technology and war

CULTURAL REVOLUTIONS
- High culture: modernism
- Popular culture and the Sixties
Themes
POSTMODERNISM – AND AFTER?
Where are we now?
- In the late 20th century the postmodern critique become
widespread:
- The ‘enlightenment project’/’modernism’ has failed
- We live in a ‘postmodern’ condition
- There are no longer great political ‘isms’
- Instead ‘individual’ ‘choice’ reigns supreme in a
supermarket of cultures and values.
Themes
Skills
Group Project (10 CATS/33%)
 Two short essays – one skills based (10
CATS/33%)
 One hour examination (10 CATS/33%)
 Completion of Skills Module

Assessment