This module (and its co-requisite Britain at Bay in the Age of the Dictators. From Appeasement to World War Two, 1931-1942Masters): 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involve a detailed examination of primary as well as secondary sources, (documents, newspapers etc) both published and unpublished, and students will be tested on their ability to compare different source materials from the period under scrutiny.
To take students in detail through the crises of the later 1930s leading up to the outbreak of the Second World War including the Munich Crisis, the Prague Crisis, and the Polish Crisis. Within these, to consider the policies adopted and the underlying factors which drove them and the debates they have generated. The focus will be on the German threat, but some attention is given to the Italian threat and efforts to appease Mussolini. The final part of the module considers the early part of the war when the defence policies of the Chamberlain government were either vindicated or found wanting: the Norway disaster, bringing about the resignation of Chamberlain; the fall of France and Dunkirk, when the inadequacies of the British Expeditionary Force were exposed; the triumph of the Battle of Britain when the focus on building up Fighter Command and a radar defence system bore fruit; the smashing of Mussolini's Tenth Army when the pre-war decision to create an armoured division (7th Armoured Division) to defend Egypt proved correct; the decision to fulfil the guarantee to Greece bringing about military disaster for largely political reasons; the fall of supposedly impregnable Singapore, ‘the Gibraltar of the Far East’ and the surrounding controversy over where blame should fall.
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
critically evaluate the historiographical context and trends of the subject under exploration.
Summarise, synthesise and evaluate the subject material in a sophisticated written form
