Course Details in 2025/26 Session

Module Title	LH Special Subject: Fighting Over Freedom: American Political Ideas from Revolution to Civil War B
School	History and Cultures
Department	History
Module Code	09 38879
Module Lead	Tom Cutterham
Level	Honours Level
Credits	20
Semester	Semester 2
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions	None
Contact Hours	Seminar-30 hours Guided independent study-170 hours Total: 200 hours
Exclusions
Description	This module will allow students to study a historical theme or area in great depth, under the guidance of an individual member of staff. The module will allow students to study an aspect of history in detail and gain a fuller understanding of how different types of source material inform the historical process. Like Part A, Part B will involve a detailed examination of primary as well as secondary sources, (documents, newspapers etc) both published and unpublished, and students will be tested on their ability to compare different source materials from the period under scrutiny. The idea of freedom has been central to the identity of the United States since its birth in a revolution against the British empire. But what did freedom mean, who was it for, and how did it relate to other values, including justice, duty, and equality? This module analyses debates from the revolutionary era to the Civil War a century later, to think through the significance of \"freedom\" in American thought, and the radically different ways it could be understood. We'll focus not just on famous figures like Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, or elite thinkers like Henry Thoreau, but also on black radicals like David Walker, feminists like Lucretia Mott, and working-class organisers like Thomas Skidmore. In the process, we'll rethink our own ideas of freedom, what it means in practice, and how we might pursue it as we remake our own world, just as early Americans remade theirs in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module students should be able to: analyse and appraise key events and historical processes relevant to the subject under scrutiny analyse and evaluate a wide range of relevant primary source material offering where appropriate, an explicitly comparative perspective critically evaluate the historiographical context and trends of the subject under exploration summarise and evaluate the subject material with clarity and confidence, in writing
Assessment	38879-01 : Take home paper : Exam (School Arranged) - Written Unseen (100%)
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	Assessment: 1 x 3,000-word take home examination (100%) Reassessment: Resubmission of failed component(s)
Other
Reading List