• Inactive for Year: 2024/25

• Module Leader(s): Prof. Tim Kirk
• Lecturer: Dr Robert Dale, Dr Felix Schulz, Professor Daniel Siemens, Professor Alejandro Quiroga, Professor Violetta Hionidou

• Owning School: History, Classics and Archaeology
• Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus

Semesters

Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.

Aims

The interwar years, the ‘crisis years of classical modernity’, have for a long time attracted students and researchers alike. How did Europe recover from the devastating aftermath of WW1? Why did many of the new democracies established in Europe not survive and give way to authoritarian regimes? How successful were the newly established international organizations like the League of Nations? These are just three of the important questions that still matter today, not least on light of recent political developments in Europe and the crisis of democratic representation in the ‘West’. However, the interwar years were also a period that saw the breakthrough of modern mass media and popular culture, of new gender relations and generational clashes. All these phenomena can only be fully explored in transnational perspective. This module aims at bringing together colleagues with extensive teaching and research expertise on the interwar years in order to provide students with a thought-provoking thematical and chronological overview of key aspects of European history in the first half of the twentieth century.

Outline Of Syllabus

We will begin with sessions providing a broad chronological and thematical overview; subsequent sessions will focus on particular themes. We believe in transnational perspectives and entanglements, so all topics will cover a variety of states and regions. Possible topics include:

The Age of Ideologies: Liberalism, Socialism, Communism, Radical nationalism and Fascism
During WWI, the old political order crumbled away. After the armistice, new and often competing political ideologies came to the fore that transcended national boundaries. Their proponents all thought ‘big’, assuming they were involved in an international political struggle that would decisively shape the future. This class will analyse these ideologies - their origins, programmes and political parties - in different parts of Interwar Europe.

Social Reforms
A consequence of the breakdown of the old political and social order in many European countries was a renewed interest and activities in social reform. Ambitious housing project, the protection of minors and the elderly, better healthcare and pension schemes were tested and often implemented. Despite such initiatives, most countries in Interwar Europe remained deeply divided by class, ethnicity and upbringing.

Gender relations
Women’s suffrage was one of the many changes gender relations in the 19th century. The module will explore gender relations in the 19th century with a particular emphasis on political participation, martial expectations, sexual identities and educational opportunities.

Youth and generations
The history of interwar Europe was often marked by generational clashes and fights, with a younger generation vividly challenging what their parents and grandparents took for granted. We will analyse how contemporaries at the time thought about generations and youth, and how the discourse of the interwar years still resonates today.

Modern business and workplace changes
The Interwar years saw the breakthrough of the principles of ‘scientific management’ and the proliferation and consolidation of globally active companies that often came to dominate segments of industrial production of the next decades. At the same time, new jobs in the service industries – most noticeable the (mostly female) office worker – were created. Leisure also gained a more prominent place in society unseen before, due to stricter work hour regulations coming into effect, providing in particular members of the working classes.

A media revolution: Newspapers, Radio, Film
The Interwar years can also be described as the age of modern communication technologies, with film and radio being popularised and soon taking centre stage in politics and society. We well explore this media revolution and its importance for the transformation of cities and countryside.

Creating the new men: Social hygiene and eugenics
The logic of military efficiency, vital during WWI, came to resonate in the social thinking of the interwar years. We will study the rise of eugenics and social hygiene in international perspective, exploring criminological and political discourses and reform initiatives.

Nationalism, ethnicity & belonging
Multi-ethnically inhabited regions, the norm in many parts of Central & Eastern Europe up to WWI, became hotbeds of social and political unrest in Interwar Europe. We will present some case studies and critically discuss challenges and problems of ethnicity and (national) identity and belonging.

Tourism
With more time and money available for leisure, tourism became a middle-class lifestyle as well as an important industry. We will explore forms of tourism, its impact on the destinations and its importance for the formation of a (shared) European identity.

International organisations & approaches
We will explore legal and political initiatives of the 1920s like the League of Nations, but also non-governmental aid organisations that soon came to play an important role in interwar Europe.

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

SEMINARS encourage independent study and promote improvements in oral presentation, interpersonal communication, problem-solving skills, research skills and adaptability.

LECTURES enable students to gain a wider sense of historical argument and debate and how such debates operate, which also allows them to develop comparisons between different historiographical debates.

SURGERY TIME: Staff will make themselves available in their offices for four hours over the course of the module to see students individually on issues concerning them, although we expect this will focus on preparation for assessments.

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners

Exams

Other Assessment

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

1. Work submitted during the delivery of the module forms a means of determining the student’s progress.
2. Summative assessment tests knowledge outcomes and develops skills in research and reading.

Formative exercises may also be set for this module. They will be un-assessed, but will be discussed in the seminars and will feed into the assessed work.

All Erasmus students at Newcastle University are expected to do the same assessment as students registered for a degree.
Study-abroad, non-Erasmus exchange and Loyola students spending semester 1 only are required to finish their assessment while in Newcastle. This will take the form of an alternative assessment, as outlined in the formats below:

Modules assessed by Coursework and Exam:
The normal alternative form of assessment for all semester 1 non-EU study abroad students will be one essay in addition to the other coursework assessment (the length of the essay should be adjusted in order to comply with the assessment tariff); to be submitted no later than 12pm Friday of week 12. The essays should be set so as to assure coverage of the course content to date.

Modules assessed by Exam only:
The normal alternative form of assessment for all semester 1 non-EU study abroad students will be two 2,000 word written exercises; to be submitted no later than 12pm Friday of week 12. The essays should be set so as to assure coverage of the course content to date.

Modules assessed by Coursework only:
All semester 1 non-EU study abroad students will be expected to complete the standard assessment for the module; to be submitted no later than 12pm Friday of week 12. The essays should be set so as to assure coverage of the course content to date.

Study-abroad, non-Erasmus exchange and Loyola students spending the whole academic year or semester 2 are required to complete the standard assessment as set out in the MOF under all circumstances.

Reading Lists

• HIS2311's Reading List

Timetable

• Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
• HIS2311's Timetable