Economics and History BA(Hons)

This module looks at the political and social histories of a number of case studies focusing on the period from the end of the 19th Century to the eve of the Second World War. We cover countries from a range of European and World powers, including the USSR, the USA and France. In each case you’ll analyse the main political concerns of the day, such as immigration, democracy, fascism and communism, considering them in wider social contexts.

This module will introduce you to statistical methods necessary for the study of applied economics and social sciences. You’ll be introduced to modern economic theory and this will be linked to applied content. Statistical and quantitative techniques will be used to gain a greater understanding of economic data and applied economics and help you develop an understanding of how these might be applied to real world data, as well as giving you the skills and experience to carry out data analyses that are often required in the economics profession.

This module helps to develop an understanding of the basic concepts in macroeconomics and provides you with the foundations to develop macroeconomic theory in year two. You’ll have the opportunity to develop and apply analytical skills to understand and explain various macroeconomic events such as such as unemployment, recessions and inflation.

The main purpose of this module is to develop a deeper understanding of modern macroeconomics. It will develop your analytical and policymaking skills and enhance your ability to analyse the implications of macroeconomic issues for government, business, and financial decision-making.

You'll gain a practical understanding of how non-textual sources can be used to write history. You'll be encouraged to explore at least three different types of source material and look at the variety of ways the past is represented in the historical record and the contemporary world. This may involve organising an oral history project or handling the objects in a museum collection.

This module explores the Crusades to the Holy Land from the late 11th to mid-13th Centuries in the context of contemporary political, social and religious developments in Western Europe and the Middle East. You'll be directed to different accounts of the Crusades in contemporary sources from the perspective of the crusaders themselves, as well as from the point of view of the Jewish, Islamic and Byzantine peoples who were affected by the influx of Western Europeans to the Eastern Mediterranean. You'll also have the opportunity to examine crusading activities within Europe (e.g. Spain and the Baltic).

On this module, you'll use archival resources to explore the social, cultural, legal and emotional history of refugees in the twentieth century. You'll think about how we can hear the refugee ‘voice’ in history and how this can help us reflect on the experience of displacement, in the contemporary world as well as in the past.

Through a study of primary and secondary sources, this module introduces you to the political and religious history of the Tudor and Early Stuart periods in areas under the control of the English Crown. You'll find out that many issues from this time have been debated by historians, and come to understand how they resonate into the 21st Century.

This module deals with the theory and practice of oral history in relation to the history of childhood and youth. You'll conduct at least one interview, and provide all the relevant ethical and archival documentation to accompany it. You'll be introduced to the key problems in oral history of memory, ethics, intersubjectivity and narrative. Finally, in order to write about the experience of childhood and youth in the past, you'll learn the analytical techniques which can be applied to oral history data.

On this module you'll get to grips with the history, memory and historiographical controversy surrounding the Nazi era in European History. You'll use a broad range of primary and secondary source material to develop a deep historical analysis, rooted in the debates over the consent or coercion of the German population, the limits of the totalitarian model and the nature of victimhood and commemoration.

You’ll be exploring histories of the African continent on this module, and thinking analytically about sources in order to break free from dominant colonial ideas, structures and questions. Following broadly chronological lines, you’ll consider the impacts of geography, religions, slavery, medicine and healthcare, among other key themes.

This module will help you to gain an understanding of important econometrics concepts used in the analysis of applied economics. It will encompass techniques and materials which will build on those introduced in the pre-requisite modules and apply the statistical techniques to real world economic problems. You’ll gain an understanding of the possibilities and limitations of such econometric techniques in order to understand the usefulness and limitations of quantitative methods in economics. The module is aimed at giving you important marketable skills such as data mining and forecasting.

The purpose of this module will be to familiarise you with different perspectives on international trade and international finance. We will cover both “old” and “new” trade theories as well as selected trade policy issues. Our goal is to enable you to analyse those economic issues that result from a country’s interaction with the outside world i.e. trade with other countries, international factor movements, trade and balance of payments imbalances, exchange rate vitality, debts and currency crisis.

In this module you’ll learn about the British economic history from the Post-World War and the structure and performance of the British economy, the role of the state in economic development and Britain’s changing position in the global economy. You’ll also have the opportunity to learn about economic and social problems faced by developing countries, especially between the UK and its former colonies and discuss possible policy recommendations.

In this module you’ll have the opportunity to learn how to integrate economic theory, mathematical methods, statistical techniques and data to study current economic issues in the business context. You’ll also learn how businesses operate and how managers make decisions and learn the different theoretical approaches to the analysis of public policy and business problems and what methods might be appropriately applied to the analysis of economics and business data.

The focus of this module is on the day-to-day operational and strategic management of passenger transport including urban, interurban and rural public transport operations (heavy rail, light rail, bus, coach, mobility-sharing schemes) and private transport. It should help contribute to your understanding of passenger transport cost considerations as well as aspects of transport demand and revenue management. This is relevant to those of you who intend to work in the passenger transport and tourism industries in the private and public sector.

This module looks at the contemporary challenges of smart and sustainable air transport. The main emphasis will be on technological, operational and policy measures, concepts related to technology, collaboration, innovation in airports, airlines, air traffic control and air traffic management and will cover policy measures and instruments, and industry initiatives to mitigate the environmental impact of aviation. The module also considers the current business structure and technology adoption in the air cargo industry.

The Honours Project is a 6,000-word tightly focused project based on primary sources. You can choose this instead of the longer dissertation, and pick up another module to make up the credits. The Project is on a topic of your choice. You’ll also produce and present a research poster outlining your progress.

This module will investigate East Central Europe in the period between the two World Wars. Carving states out of the remnants of the Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian Empires created much political (and, in some cases, military) turmoil over border disputes and ethnic exclaves, some of which resurfaced after the end of the Cold War. You will learn about Eastern European history in the 1920s and 1930s, theory and methods of spatial history and historical geography, maps as sources, and digital cartography for analysis and dissemination of historical geographies.

This module aims to develop your understanding of the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries in relation to the ‘care’ of what we would now call mentally ill and learning disabled people. By focusing on social and political, as well as medical themes, you’ll have the chance to explore both the understanding of mental ill health and learning disability, and the responses to them.

This module examines the impact of economic conditions in the era of the Great Depression on British politics, culture and society. You’ll be looking at government economic policy, the social impact of economic changes on education and other social issues, examining the consequences of unemployment, the problems of poverty and health, and the protest movements of the National Unemployed Workers' Movement, and the General Strike. You’ll also explore the fortunes of the Conservative, Liberal and Labour parties during the inter-war years and assess the activities of smaller parties such as the Independent Labour Party (ILP), the British Union of Fascists (BUF) and the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB).

This module will explore aspects of medieval history in depth, focusing on contemporary narrative sources, both historical and literary, and including some consideration of related visual and material sources. You'll also engage with the post-medieval representation of the Middle Ages in both academic and popular terms.

This module examines the history and memory of the French experience of World War II, focusing on the German Occupation, the Vichy Regime, French collaboration, and the development of internal and external resistance. You'll have access to a broad range of primary and secondary source material (in translation) to provide a cultural historical analysis, rooted in the debates over silence, truth and representation.We’ll watch a number of historical feature films together and use them to analyse how public or popular memory develops.

The module immerses you in the aftermath of the First World War and attempts at peacebuilding and reconstruction. You’ll investigate the work of new organisations like the League of Nations, the experiences of individuals and cultural responses. There’s a focus on Britain, but set in the context of international movements and global challenges.

The reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603) is at the heart of this module. By examining a range of primary sources from the era, as well as important secondary studies, you’ll gain real understanding of key themes in the early-modern era, such as gender, politics, foreign policy and religion. You’ll also consider how Elizabeth has been portrayed in the modern era, in images, television and film.

This module develops your understanding of the Great War: its origins, the military course of the conflict, its impact on British society, and reactions to the war in literature, art and memorial architecture. While we’ll mainly study the British experience of the First World War, we’ll also broaden our approach and consider continental European and imperial experiences too.

This module offers explanations of both the theories individuals would like to adopt to make better decisions, and the theories that explain how those around us behave. The focus will be on some fundamental principles developed in decision theory, as well as on violations of these principles derived from psychological literature, namely, behavioural economics. The module develops crucial insights into the decision-making process in social and business contexts.

This module offers opportunities to explore climate change issues and form the necessary quantitative skills required to evaluate the impact of climate change on the economy and business organisations. The module will also focus on the responses and policies to mitigate the effects of climate change. You'll be required to understand the role of financial and economic instruments in designing appropriate climate change tools and policies.

This module considers the strategic decisions taken by firms relating to key competitive variables such as pricing; advertising; research and development; mergers and acquisitions. You’ll develop an understanding on how an organisations decision making is affected by industry structure and also the implications. You’ll also explore the impact of regulatory regimes on this decision-making.

This module provides you with an in-depth understanding of contemporary transport problems and issues with a particular focus on economic considerations and transport policies. It will help you to appreciate how the key transport stakeholders operate, regulate, decide and function in the real world and will identify, prioritise, reflect and conceptualise mobility’s key priorities: environment, economy, safety and health, social inclusion and accessibility and integration.