HIST2220 Topics in History
The details for the course, Topics in History (HIST2220), apply to all of the following topics. Specific descriptions for Syllabus and Proposed Assessment that apply to each topic are detailed below.
Europe outside Europe, 1607-2007
Syllabus
Coordinator: To be advised
Not offered in 2009
Settler colonialism changed the world. As influential historian Alfred Crosby noted in Ecological Imperialism, "European emigrants and their descendants are all over the place, which requires explanation". In 1607 a community of Englishmen permanently settling outside of Europe was established in what would become Jamestown, Virginia. It was the start of a very successful and still powerful political tradition; many similar experiments, including those by other Europeans, would follow.
This course will outline the development of ideas pertaining to the establishment of communities of Europeans outside of Europe: how they became so important, who became interested in these projects and for what reasons, how different European societies imagined the New Worlds, and how different European ‘fragments' in the Americas, Africa, Asia, Australia and the Pacific eventually asserted a sovereign right to control their own affairs.
Indicative Assessment
1st Essay, 1500 words (30%); 2nd Essay, 2500 words (60%); class presentation and participation (10%).
Late Medieval Western Europe
There are no syllabus or indicative asesssment details for this topic.
The Making of British Modernity 1689-1848
Syllabus
Not offered in 2009
A series of major transformations took place in Britain between the end of the seventeenth century and the middle of the nineteenth century. These include the building of a global empire, the commencement of an industrial revolution and the emergence of new forms of politics, culture and social life. The causes and consequences of these changes were understood in various ways by those who lived through them. Their costs and benefits were the subject of ongoing dispute. But all believed these changes to have global implications. Participants in this course will study the process by which the British came, during this period, to believe they were living in a new kind of society - a ‘commercial society' - and they will investigate a range of early responses to that belief.
The course will offer participants the opportunity to develop an informed perspective on the genealogy of a range of 21st-century concerns, from globalisation and market philosophy to models of historical development and theories of a communication society. It will encourage critical engagement with prior accounts of the origins and character of ‘early modernity' in Britain and its relationship to broader patterns of social change.
Indicative Assessment
An essay of 1,500 words (30%); an essay of 2,500 words (50%); tutorial presentation (10%); and tutorial participation (10%).
Western Europe in the Later Middle Ages, c.1348-c.
There are no syllabus or indicative asesssment details for this topic.
The information published on the Study at ANU 2011 website applies to the 2011 academic year only. All information provided on this website replaces the information contained in the Study at ANU 2010 website.
