Course Details in 2026/27 Session

Module Title	LH Advanced Option: Land, Law, and Violence in the American West
School	History and Cultures
Department	History
Module Code	09 38749
Module Lead	Tom Cutterham
Level	Honours Level
Credits	20
Semester	Semester 2
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions	None
Contact Hours	Lecture-10 hours Seminar-20 hours Guided independent study-170 hours Total: 200 hours
Exclusions
Description	Over the course of the nineteenth century, settlers from Europe and the United States transformed the western half of the North American continent, including the lives of its indigenous inhabitants, and even the landscape itself. But the process was not straightforward; it was full of conflict and contradiction. What did \"civilization\" really mean, and was it always desirable? What did \"progress\" look like, and what had to be destroyed along the way? Who had the right to control land and its resources, or to decide what justice and fairness truly meant? Migrants and settlers of all races, along with artists, writers, politicians, and businessmen, all had their ideas about these problems. In this module, we'll follow the links between changes and struggles on the ground, or on the land, and how people understood and sought to take control over that change—including by means of both law and violence.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module students should be able to: analyse and explain key events and historical processes relevant to the subject under scrutiny, analyse and explain reasons for and implications of these events and processes (including analysis of primary evidence where appropriate) compare and evaluate the main scholarly views on the subject under investigation, critically evaluate the historiographical context and trends of the subject under exploration work with an appropriate degree of learner independence to explain and analyse the material under scrutiny summarise, analyse and evaluate the subject material clearly and effectively in writing, synthesise and evaluate themes across a wide range of diverse material
Assessment
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	Assessment: S1 = 1 x 3,000 word essay (100%)
Other
Reading List