Course Details in 2026/27 Session

Module Title	LH Advanced Option: ‘The Young Ones’: Youth, popular culture, and social change in twentieth century Britain
School	History and Cultures
Department	History
Module Code	09 38759
Module Lead	Dr Sarah Kenny
Level	Honours Level
Credits	20
Semester	Semester 1
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions	None
Contact Hours	Lecture-10 hours Seminar-20 hours Guided independent study-170 hours Total: 200 hours
Exclusions
Description	Youth is a powerful category. It is also a contested one. Young people have historically signified both the promise of the future and the threat of the present. As such, young people are endowed with a particular political and social significance. But what did it mean to be young in the twentieth century, and how far did the experience of being young shift as new ideas about adolescence began to emerge? This advanced option introduces students to youth in the twentieth century, and asks how the lived experience of young people in Britain changed over the course of almost one hundred years. Students will explore how the very category of youth has been moulded by a range of bodies including politicians, institutions, commerce, and the media. This module will also explore how young people transformed the very face of modern Britain. By exploring young people's media, consumption habits, politics, and lifestyles, students will work directly with sources produced for, and in many cases produced by, young people. In doing so, the module shows how understanding youth experience is an essential way of charting social, cultural, and political change in modern Britain. Seminar topics may include: youth and the advent of mass consumerism, the 'invention' of the teenager; youth and the state; urban development and the spaces of teenage leisure; teenage magazines and youth media; teenage sexuality and sex education; youth culture and subculture; youth, work, and (un)employment.
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	38759-01 : 3,000 word essay : Coursework (100%)
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	Assessment: S1 = 1 x 3,000 word essay (100%)
Other
Reading List