Curriculum : Second Year

HY458 Dissertation Workshop

Topics examined in this course include German decision-making 1914; Peacemaking, 1919; the Ruhr crisis; Manchurian, Abyssinian and the crises of collective security; the Munich conference; the Nazi-Soviet Pact; the outbreak of the Pacific War; the decision to drop the Atomic bomb; the origins of containment; the decision on Palestine, 1948; the Berlin Blockade; the Korean War; the Suez crisis; the Cuban missile crisis; the US and Vietnam; the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973; Iran, Aghanistan and the fall of détente; the end of the Cold War; the first Gulf War. Read More

 

The course covers three themes in the history of the Second World War that are normally treated separately, but were in reality inextricably intertwined: its diplomatic, internal-political, and ideological origins; its military, strategic, and economic preparation; and its conduct by governments and peoples. The course aims to introduce students to a variety of methods and interpretative perspectives; to provide comprehensive understanding of the origins, events, and dynamics of the Second World War; to offer a firm basis for more advanced historical work in this and other areas; and to provide the factual grounding and conceptual apparatus necessary to understand the contemporary implications of the greatest war in history. Read More

The antecedents and development of Western European integration from the First World War to the 1990s. Read More

A detailed analysis of the relationship between political and socialtensions within Spain and the international context of the pre-1939period, the Second World War and the Cold War. Read More

Using a range of primary as well as secondary sources, the course explores the dynamic interaction between presidents, public opinion, and foreign policymaking in order to test a range of common assumptions about the determinants of American foreign policy in the period from 1933 to the present. Read More

The history of empires and their legacy in the contemporary world. Read More

The Napoleonic Empire was crucial in the formation of modern Europe. Much of Europe was covered by the Napoleonic Empire and its impact was felt on all of Europe and parts of the non-European world. Through an analysis of both the areas directly incorporated into the Napoleonic empire and of those outside it, the course will examine the extent of the direct and indirect influence of this era on the development of what we understand by a modern European society and a modern state system. The course analyses how this empire was created and the states and society which it forged. The varied and sometimes contradictory elements of this era will be analysed - from the impact on the growth of secularisation, constitutionalism and the codification of laws to the beginnings of Romanticism, manifestations of early nationalism and monarchical reaction after 1815. The course will also assess the significance of both the reality and the 'myth' of empire not only at the time but also in the later nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Read More

The 18th century European Enlightenment is frequently regarded as the defining category of modernity and as the chief source of many of the liberal humanist assumptions that underpin present-day Western ideology and culture. This document-based course will attempt to outline its origins, varieties and historical significance. Particular attention will be given to the creation of a 'science of man' which reshaped philosophical, religious and political priorities in elite culture which in turn made an impact upon the realm of popular culture and belief. Read More

Efforts to ‘Make Poverty History’ (to invoke a current slogan) have a past which is worth studying to better understand the present-day dilemmas of the existing aid systems. Many humanitarian and development agencies originated in the era following the Second World War. So did some of the fundamental ideas and motivations underpinning them. It was the devastation in war-torn Europe itself which first triggered aid efforts before repeated crises and political/ economic interests in former colonies turned European attention towards other parts of the world. The course examines the entanglement between European domestic and foreign affairs and their relations to the Third World. In a comparative perspective, Germany will be in the focus of attention. Its history exemplifies many of the paradoxical features of humanitarian aid and development. Read More

This course analyses the changing nature of the Anglo-American "special” relationship from its creation against the backdrop of the Second World War in Europe through to the end of the Cold War. It will illuminate the foundations of the relationship in terms of culture and ideology, and also the threat posed by common enemies in the Second World War and Cold War. The competitive dimension of the Anglo-American relationship will also be highlighted as a means of explaining instances of discord such as the Suez Crisis of 1956. Read More

Western (European) diplomacy in the 1980s to the mid-1990s examiningtensions, rivalries and linkages not merely between the western andcommunist blocs, but also within them, as well as studying the eventsreflecting the shift from the Cold War to the post-Cold War world. Read More

The aim of this seminar-course is to address from a historical perspective fundamental questions about European imperialism, colonial contexts for cross-cultural interaction, the role of perceptions of the other, issues of gender and religion in situations of cultural conflict, and the role of non-Europeans in the making of the West.  Read More

The course will examine the rise, survival and collapse of the SovietCommunist ideology and Communist regimes based in Russia and EasternEurope during the period 1917-1990. The course will also deal with thestruggle for Communist influence in Western Europe during the sameperiod.  Read More

This course has six objectives:

1. To examine the evolution of political Islam as a set of ideas.
2. To compare and contrast different models of Islamic State.
3. To explore the strategies used by Islamist movements to Islamise a state as well as state strategies to prevent this.
4. To explore the phenomena of transnational Islamism and international jihadism.
5. To analyse and evaluate the relationship between Islam and the West.
6. To familiarise the student with a some of the primary sources (in translation) and the historiographical controversies.

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This course examines the mentality behind the savage persecutions of certain 'out-groups' in Europe from the Renaissance to the present day, and the mechanisms that were employed, in order to test, through historical data, the hypothesis that European society is fundamentally prone to persecution and has developed specific mechanisms and a distinctive ideology that facilitate this process.  Read More

What will the narrative of the birth of the modern world look like if we take an oceanic perspective? This course will explore the role of the oceans –the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic -- in giving birth to our modern world, and in particular to globalisation.

Students will study several types of oceanic connections. First how empires were shaped by oceans in the long nineteenth century; for empires used coastal regions as stepping stones to wider imperial programmes of trade and colonization. Second, how people, from elites to labourers, moved with the expansion of empires, taking with them particular cultures, religions and political ideas. Third how ideas were globalised across the oceans, leading to new forms of patriotism, rights and nationalism; and new kinds of knowledge such as science, medicine, art and orientalism.

Globalisation is seen to be the recent product of a shrinking world, yet this course seeks to historicise globalisation, by thinking through a particular moment in its history, which was linked to the great seas and to routes of shipping. Like us, many people in the long nineteenth century felt that theirs was a world which was becoming smaller, and that new exchanges were possible across vast distances. In historicising globalisation, we will be able to reflect more critically on our own condition.

In addition to seminars at the LSE, we will make four visits to the National Maritime Museum. The purpose of these visits is for students on the one hand, to be given access to unique historical materials. The Museum will allow students to handle objects, and curatorial staff will be on hand to advise on how to use these objects as historical sources. A second objective is for students to learn how a museum works, and also to consider how a museum creates and disseminates international history. As part of the assessment each student will complete an assignment based on materials at the Museum, and this will give them the chance to put into practice the experience of these visits, by understanding the research skills associated with doing historical work in museums. Read More

 

This course examines the mentality behind the savage persecutions of certain 'out-groups' in Europe from the Renaissance to the present day, and the mechanisms that were employed, in order to test, through historical data, the hypothesis that European society is fundamentally prone to persecution and has developed specific mechanisms and a distinctive ideology that facilitate this process. Read More

This course is designed to enable students both to examine historicalchange over a much longer period than usual and to examine how humanbeings behave in contexts which are not exclusively-or evenmainly-political. The focus of the course is the individual as a memberof a race, family, or sexual group, rather than as a political animal.The subjects chosen interact at all stages of history: slavery involvedthe enslavement of different races and the need to justify this byinventing theories of race; sexual fears often conditioned relationsbetween races; while the sexual exploitation of slaves has been aconstant throughout history. The advent of Christianity certainlyaltered attitudes and practices with regard to all three; but changecame at different times and at different speeds in each distinct areaof study. This course examines how and why.  Read More

The course looks at the origins and the political, strategic, economic and cultural consequences of the arrival of Western imperialism in East Asia. Read More

The course re-appraises the European political upheavals of the first half of the twentieth century, taking its leading theme issues of national identity and nationalism. It centres on the origins and impact of the 1914-1918 war and on the road from the First World War to the Second, concentrating on the circumstances in which nationalist movements gained or lost popular support and political influence. Read More

This course examines the rise of the Cold War as an international system during the period from the Russian Revolution up to the Cuban Missile Crisis. The course centres on how markets, ideas, and cultural interactions affected political discourse, diplomatic events, and strategic thinking in the early part of the Cold War. The main part of the course material is from the forthcoming Cambridge History of the Cold War, edited by Prof. Westad. Read More

This course examines the period of crises anddétente in the Cold War between the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 andthe Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The course centers on howmarkets, ideas, and cultural interactions affected political discourse,diplomatic events, and strategic thinking in the middle part of theCold War. The main part of the course material is from the Cambridge History of the Cold War, edited by Prof. Westad. Read More

Subjects covered by this course include:

Traditional Chinese Views of the 'World'; Origins of the Chinese Communist Foreign Policy; The Rise of the 'New China'; Mao, Zhou and China's Foreign Policy Making; The Sino-Soviet Alliance; China and the Korean War; Geneva and Bandung, 1954-1955; The Polish and Hungarian Crises, 1956; The Taiwan Straits Crises, 1954 and 1958; The Tibet Challenge, 1950-1959; The Chinese-Indian Border War, 1962; The Sino-Soviet Split; China and the Vietnam Wars; The Cultural Revolution and the Deepening of the 'Legitimacy Crisis'; The Chinese-American Rapprochement, 1969-1972; The Path toward 'Opening to the Outside World'; Chinese Foreign Policy during the Reform Era; 1989 as a Turning Point; The 'China Challenge' in the 21st Century. 

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Students may take additional options among Economic History courses only with the prior written agreement from the teacher responsible and the Academic Coordinator. Students should note that some core courses in EH degree programs are closed to students in other programs. One of the EH courses may be replaced by an additional course from another LSE department (subject to prior written agreement from the teacher responsible and the Academic Coordinator). The courses marked with an asterisk are half units. 

From the eighteenth century, the South Asia region played an important part in international transactions in goods, people, and money. The world economy, in turn, shaped potentials for economic growth in the region. The aim of the course is to impart an understanding of the global factors that shaped economic change in the South Asia region in the 18th through the early-20th century. It will also deal with the principal ways in which South Asia contributed to economic change in the rest of the world. The political context of globalization, especially imperialism and colonial policies, will be considered. The course will be divided into a set of topics, which together cover a large ground, but a selection from which will be discussed in the class. Lectures and seminars will centre on the readings assigned to each topic.

Topics to be covered: Introductory: India and the world economy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries – how each shaped the other; textiles in eighteenth century India: scale – organization – impact on global consumption and innovation – trade and territorial politics; nineteenth century market integration: de-industrialization and the artisans; nineteenth century market integration: Agricultural exports, land rights, and the peasantry – Trade and famines; Government finance in colonial setting: The drain controversy – public debt;  overseas migration in the nineteenth century: Who went where, how many, and why – private gains and losses – social effects: slavery and indenture, women, nature of work and skill-formation – labour and non-labour migrants compared; foreign capital and industrialization; balance of payments and the monetary system; overview: Globalization and economic growth. Read More

The course examines major issues in international migration over the last 500 years. The course will consider free and coerced migration in the early modern period, the emergence (and eventual decline) of mass migration in the later 19th century, and the rise of "managed" migration in the post World War II period.

The course will examine the economic foundations of indentured servitude and slavery in the early modern period, and the interactions between these two types of labour. The contribtion of economic and demographic forces to the rise of mass migration on destination and source labour markets, the determinants of immigrant destination choice, and the interplay between migration and exogenous crises in Europe. In the post World War II environment, the focus will be on the political impact of mass migration on developing economies in the present day. In this part of the course, we will consider how historical episodes of migration can inform the present day. 

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The course provides a concise introduction to Africa's economic development from the Atlantic slave trade to the present.

 

The course will examine approaches to African economic history: theories and historiography. Precolonial era: resources and technology, culture and economic behaviour, markets and states, slavery and slave trading. Colonial era: political economy of colonial rule and decolonization; 'peasant' colonies: dynamics and developmental limitations of the cash-crop 'revolution'; settler colonies: the 'rise and fall of the African peasantry' debate, and ramifications for manufacturing. Post-1939 and post-independence: the rise and fall of 'state-led' development policies (from marketing boards to Structural Adjustment); economic performance and distributional coalitions. C.1900-present: capitalism and apartheid in South Africa; poverty, welfare and inequality in tropical Africa. Read More

 

The interaction of theory, politics and empirical research in the development of the subject; global economic history and the study of Africa; Sources and methods: archival, oral and published sources; resources and problems in the construction and use of quantitative data; Specific historical topics, the list of which will change from year to year, but may include factor endowments and choice of production technique (in agriculture and manufacturing, including ecological aspects); rational-choice and culturalist approaches to the history of markets and property rights (including land tenure, slavery, free labour, and the gender division of work and wealth); the influence of interest groups and collective identities (including ethnicity) on the formation of institutions and policies (notably in the post-colonial era).

 

 

The course introduces the sources and considers the methods used in the economic history of Sub-Saharan Africa; reviews the evolution of knowledge and debate; and considers the state of the field, theoretical approaches and priorities for further research.

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This course explores the experiences and organisation of work in Europe before industrialisation. An introductory session introduces the key themes and context. Over the next nine weeks we examine the major subjects in the economic and social history of labour in the early modern period and how they developed. Issues covered will include (but not be limited to): how was work organised? How were skills acquired? What work did women and children do? How did work differ in town and countryside? Did the intensity of work change?

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This course analyses the impact of epidemic disease on human societies and economies from the Black Death to the present. It examines arguments and evidence about epidemics’ relationship to economic, social, demographic and political change – such as the role of the black death in initiating economic growth in Europe, of epidemics in allowing the conquest of the Americas, and cholera in leading to social tensions and even revolution in 19th century Europe. It will also explore the development and implementation of medical, political and social responses to epidemics. Epidemics are crises that test the capacity of societies to manage disaster and that divide communities along lines of wealth, race and blame. We will explore the characteristics of social responses to disease, the development of local and state capacities to manage crises, and the patterns of resistance that this elicited from those affected. Case studies will focus on epidemics in Europe, Central America, and Asia, but reference may also be made to the experience of other regions, in order to achieve a more global picture. Read More

The course aim is to understand the changing nature and content of economics as it turned from a branch of moral philosophy in the 18th century to a technical social science at the end of the 20th century.

The course will explore the long-term changes in certain key concepts in economics, in its change from moral philosophy to social science. The primary texts on these themes, chosen from a variety of European and American authors, will provide material for study of the changes in methods, concepts and theories of economics. Secondary literature will be used to help understand and assess the changing role of economics both as a science and as an art intended for state action. Read More

The course compares the discovery, storage and diffusion of scientific, technical and other forms of ‘useful knowledge’ in pre-industrial Europe and Asia in the long term. Contrasts in these respects were crucial in explaining the eventual divergence in economic performance between continents. This course will address the meta questions of where, when and why contrasts emerged and why the discernible successes of European science and technology were not emulated more rapidly in Asia.

Topics to be covered include: the flowering of science and technology in Song China. Arab science and technology. Indian and European industrial and agrarian technology in the Middle Ages. Universities and other institutions for the discovery and validation of useful knowledge. Military and nautical technologies. The scientific revolution in Europe. Connections between science and technology. The decline of Chinese science. The Arab heritage in science and technology. Religion and science. Culture and political constraints on the accumulation of scientific knowledge. Notions of rationality in Europe and Asia. The status of scientists and technologists. Incentives to innovation. Read More

This course examines the development of shipping, sea power and maritime-related industries in East and Southeast Asia, c1600-1860.

Topics include: Introduction to theories and models. Sailing conditions and sea routes in Asian waters. Strategic importance of Asian waters in the global sense. Development of shipping technology. Emergence of naval capacity. Function and pattern of long-distance trade; formation of regional markets and networks; linkages to the home economy. Migration. Investments and returns. Role of governments. Impact of modern capitalism. Regional hegemony. The context of the process and impact of globalisation in Asia. Read More