This module (and its co-requisite Terrorising History: Terrorist Motivations, Methods, and Mayhem (Masters): A) 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involve a detailed examination of primary as well as secondary sources, (documents, newspapers etc) both published and unpublished, and students will be tested on their ability to compare different source materials from the period under scrutiny. This special subject module will challenge skewed perceptions by examining in historical context the phenomenon of terrorism. It will do so by looking at the evolution of the historiography around terrorism, exploring and challenging key concepts in the field, and by making a case for the importance of historical scholarship in understanding terrorism. Most importantly, through secondary and primary sources, the module will study the motivations of terrorists, including David Rapoport’s four waves of modern terrorism theory, their methods, such as suicide bombings, car bombings, aircraft hijackings, assassinations, and lone-actor attacks, and their actions through specific case studies of major attacks like the 1972 Munich Olympics, 9/11, and 7/7.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students should be able to:
analyse and critically appraise key events and historical processes relevant to the subject under scrutiny;
analyse and critically 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, synthesise and evaluate the subject material in a sophisticated written form showing an awareness of further research potential.
