HENKF2604U Free topic D: Contemporary Histories of the UK and US

Contemporary Histories looks at selected fields within British and American history and social studies, and provide new insights within historical and societal thinking.

Joe Goddard’s component, Turning up the Power looks at American foreign policy from 1960 to the present (from Cuba, Vietnam, the Middle East, Russia, Ukraine, and China) seen through international relations and foreign policy decision making lenses. It examines theories of foreign policy decision making, where the roles of presidents, administrations, rationality and intentionality are interrogated critically as decisions are forged. Then, through studies of U.S. foreign policy cases, seminars will focus thematically on aspects of U.S. relations since the early sixties—the period which provides perspective on how American foreign policy decision making is still made today. Bringing the course fully into the present, seminars will focus on current foreign policy decision dilemmas faced by the Trump Administration.

Peter Leese’s section discusses decolonization and foreign conflicts and their domestic implications, including postcolonial population movements, multiculturalism, as well as social, cultural, and political developments in the late 20th and early 21st c. The emphasis here will be on longer term processes of social change as they are seen in present day society, and on the ways in which political processes mingle with social and cultural change. The part of the course also addresses the state of post-Brexit Britain by taking a regional view of Britain, examining Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as England. This approach takes us away from the ‘Westminster bubble’ and considers instead local identities, cultures, and histories. The wider purpose of this approach is to gain a better understanding of how recent historical developments have shaped post-Brexit Britain, and to consider the prospects of Britain in a globalized world.