This module examines how politics and protest has changed within Britain over the post-1945 period. Should Britain be assessed as activist or apathetic? Should it be thought of as globally minded or parochial and insular? The module tackles these questions by exploring the history of protests, social movements, and activism from multiple perspectives. The module takes a broad view of politics but may include historical case studies of international and global activism associated with human rights, Women's Liberation and feminist politics, anti-racist movements, the new left and the new right, religious movements, environmentalism, think tanks, as well as charities and voluntary organisations.
This module is specially designed for distance learning students to allow you to research and engage with our expansive (and expanding range) of digitized primary sources. It makes use of a variety of under-used online primary source collections available within and beyond the University of Birmingham. You will be trained to research, analyse, and discuss such collections and how to find out new things and bring them into conversations with existing historical and contemporary debates.
The module concludes by thinking about what digital histories of protest or activism allow us to do that previous generations of scholars could not and how these relate to a world of politics and protest that also increasingly exists in an online world. The module will complement those who are taking/have taken Contemporary History, Global History and Modern British Pathways modules, but is open to all who might be interested.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students should be able to:
Demonstrate understanding of changes in activism in Britain since 1945
Place changes in activism in a global context
Use and critically analyse a range of digital sources to engage with relevant scholarship
research and present on key areas of debate within the field of Modern British Studies
articulate their ideas and understanding of Modern British Studies in written form.
