Prof Janet Hartley SAR 2.12

A permanent member of International History staff supervises this course. LSE Teaching Fellows lead the group-work sessions.

This course is compulsory on the BA in History and BSc in International Relations and History. This course is not available as an outside option. This course is available with permission to General Course students.

This course is optional for General Course students whose home department is International History. This course is optional for first year BSc Government and History students. Students for whom the course is optional must commit to the course when they choose it.

The aims of the course are two-fold: first, to enable you to reflect and share ideas with other students about why you have chosen to study history and international history in particular; second, to discuss the skills you need and will develop as a history student. Apart from being extremely enjoyable and enabling students to learn about the past – that is, to understand the past and, through that process, come to a better understanding of the present – history also offers students the opportunity to acquire and improve on key skills, including communication (verbal and written), analytical skills, and learning to learn (improving one’s own performance and working with others).

Week 3. Thinking about history

Week 4: Reading history - secondary sources

Week 5: Reading history - primary sources

Week 7: Lecture: Writing history

Week 8: What is international history?

7 hours and 30 minutes of workshops in the MT.

1.5 hour workshop each week in weeks 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8 of Michaelmas Term only. 

There is no formative coursework for this course.

Richard Evans, ‘Prologues: What is History? – Now’, in David Cannadine, ed., What is History Now? (Palgrave, London, 2002), pp. 1-18.

W. Caleb McDaniel, How to Read for History.

Learn to speed read tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPOIZ6DGXWE

Trachtenberg, The Craft of International History, Chapter 5.

Mary Abbott, History Skills (Routledge, London & New York, 1996), pp. 42-53.

Ernest R. May & Richard E. Neustadt, Thinking in Time: the Uses of History for Decision Makers, (Freedom Press, New York, 1986), Chapter 1

There is no summative assessment for this course.