The role of this module is to provide students with a historical background to their studies on other economics modules and to prepare them for the third year module in International Economic History.

A    Knowledge and Understanding:

• show an awareness of the main methodological tools used in the study of economic history.
• make use of the main sources of historical data employed in the subject.
• demonstrate an overall knowledge and understanding of the main economic and social trends in Britain since 1914
• undertake a more advanced module in economic history in the third year of their degrees

B    Intellectual Skills: 

• synthesise and evaluate data.
• solve problems in the historical context.
• exercise powers of inquiry, logic and critical analysis, interpretation and evaluation of arguments and evidence.
• sustain a critical argument in writing. 

C    Discipline Specific Skills: 

• apply theoretical concepts to explain the development of the Economic Thought and Methodology since 1914.

D    Transferable Skills: 

• to be able to seek out from libraries, databases or the Internet data of a statistical or documentary nature relevant to a particular topic of study
• to organise and formulate arguments based on this statistical and documentary data in answer to specific questions
• to make oral answers to specific questions and handle questioning from members of the group.
• write assignments or essays in a structured and well argued fashion

Teaching will take place in the Autumn and Spring semesters. There will be approximately 34 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes.

For each lecture students are supplied with data and/or stimulus material and are encouraged to take notes and to ask questions while the lecture is in progress. Lecture summaries are posted on the internet Blackboard database for students to download.

For each class, students are provided with reading material and a series of questions on a particular topic which will be prepared in advance for discussion within the class.

Indicative study hours:   200

Formal assessment:

The two essays each count for 15% of the final mark. The assignments require a basic understanding of the topics augmented with further secondary research and reading. At this level the students are expected to include in their reading recent research published in the leading journals.

Summer Examination:

The exam paper consists of two sections: one compulsory section of 25 short answer questions, and a second section consisting of 12 questions on topics selected from all parts of the course from which three questions have to be answered. The exam is three hours long and is designed to test student understanding of underlying concepts, factual knowledge of the subject and the ability to order their thoughts, answer questions directly and relevantly and demonstrate their skill at written presentation.

Informal Assessment:

Informal assessment is provided through the class programme. Classes consist of a wide variety of questions/ problems, based on lecture material but requiring further reading. The class questions are designed to get students to order their material and their own thoughts in order to answer specific questions in a focused and relevant manner.

The economic consequences of the first and second world wars; the problems of economic management and the gold standard in the 1920s; the causes of mass unemployment in the interwar period; the Great Slump of the 1930s; the recovery of the 1930s;  interwar industrial relations; interwar social policy; the New Jerusalem of the post-1945 period; nationalisation; social welfare; women in work since 1945; the consumer revolution; the motor industry and manufacturing decline; industrial relations from 1945-1990; the golden years; the problems of the 1970s; the Thatcher Years. 

D.H. Aldcroft, The Economic Thought and Methodology: Vol 1, The years of turmoil 1920-1951 (Harvester, 1986).

N.F.R. Crafts and N. Woodward (eds.), The Economic Thought and Methodology since 1945 (Oxford, 1991).

R. Floud and P. Johnson (eds), The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain, Vols 2 & 3 (Cambridge, 2004).

P. Johnson (ed.), 20th Century Britain: Economic, Social and Cultural Change (Longman, 1994).