Entry requirements

Bachelor's Degree.

Learning outcomes

After completing the course the student will be able to:

• Describe different ways to define and delineate modern and contemporary history and to assess the consequences of using different definitions for the understanding of the phenomenon.
• Describe similarities and differences between the modern and contemporary period on the one hand and previous periods in history on the other and through these comparisons discuss the distinguishing features of modern and contemporary history.
• Describe differences and similarities in how modern and contemporary developments are described and analysed by historians on the one hand, and by representatives of other scholarly disciplines such as sociology and political science on the other.
• Describe and discuss the relationship between on the one hand research on modern and contemporary history and journalism, politics and the state on the other.
• Discuss the specific methodological problems in the form of vast and at the same time heavily deselected archival materials associated with research in modern and contemporary history and how these problems can be addressed.
• Discuss the problems that may arise as a consequence of the fact that the processes studied in modern and contemporary history are still on-going and have political and moral ramifications and how these problems can be resolved.
• Describe a number of key concepts and processes, which historians use to interpret the early modern period.
• Use a number of practical tools to read and arrange scientific literature, and to write academic papers.
• Use an adequate reference system, and to describe the rules concerning plagiarism.

Content

Beginning with the three revolutions during the latter part of the eighteenth century, the American, the French and the Industrial revolution, a new societal order, a capitalist society, was gradually established, beginning in the Western World. The economic and social conditions were radically transformed. The societies became more complex and the role and function of the state changed. Mass society as well as modern man were born, the process of globalization accelerated and man's impact on the planet increased dramatically. This course deals with these processes, e.g. the characteristics of modern and contemporary history. Furthermore it focuses on what separates modern and contemporary history from both previous periods in history and from other disciplines

also involved in the study of the modern and contemporary era. Thus, the course both concerns the object of study - modernity, modern/industrial/capitalist society and the postmodern era, postmodern, postindustrial/post capitalist society - and how it can be described and delineated in time (periodization) and content wise (specific features and characteristics in relation to previous epochs as well as in terms of sources and methodology). On top of this it addresses the differences and similarities between how the modern and contemporary period is analysed by historians and by scholars from other disciplines, the relationship between historians studying modern and contemporary history and the state (Speaking truth to power and taking part in government committees and commissions) as well as to journalism and politics (the roles both as expert and as public intellectual). The fact that the processes studied by researchers in the field of modern and contemporary history are often on-going and affect current political developments, more often than not are politically and morally charged, are studied also by other disciplines and has resulted in enormous amounts of sources simply places special and specific demands on scholars in the field of modern and contemporary history and it is these demands and how they have been met that are discussed in this course.

Instruction

The course will consist of seminars.

Assessment

Assessment will be based upon written and oral assignments. Students that have missed a small number of mandatory assignments may complete them by the end of the term at the latest. If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.