The primary aim of this module is to introduce students to the biographical approach to the study of post-war British political history as a vivid - if problematic - method of exploring the interplay between political ideas, personalities, institutions and events. Through close examination of the diaries, memoirs and biographies of various political figures, this module will investigate issues such as the role of gender in shaping political careers, the construction of political reputations - particularly of those skilled and lucky enough to reach the summit of the ‘greasy pole’, the role of ideas and individuals in the policy process, the critical relationship between the ministers and the officials, the significance of political scandals, and the role of the ‘maverick’ in the political process. The module will also encourage students to develop their own biographical skills. 

Knowledge and Understanding:

• Analyse and evaluate different assessments of individuals and interpretations of political events  (assessed through project and examination)
• Display familiarity with the methodological issues associated with a biographical approach to the study of British political history (assessed through project and examination)
• Identify and evaluate the economic, historical and cultural contexts of political behaviour, and the factors that account for political change (assessed through project and examination)
• Display critical awareness of issues such as the portrayal of gender roles and the construction of political reputations (assessed through project and examination)
• Understand important features of British Politics through the perspective of diaries, memoirs and biographies (assessed through project and examination)

Intellectual Skills:

• Gather, organize and deploy evidence and information from a variety of sources (assessed through project and examination)
• Develop a reasoned argument, synthesize relevant information and exercise critical judgement (assessed through project and examination)
• Develop skills necessary to perform independent research (assessed through project and formatively assessed through presentations)
• Manage her/his own learning in a self-critical manner (assessed through project and formatively assessed through presentations)
• Develop peer-review skills (formatively assessed through feedback to presentations)

The module is to be delivered through a combination of small and large group teaching, including an IT-based workshop.  In line with the learning objectives, these experiences will provide a platform of knowledge of the key events of UK postwar political history, an understanding of the main methodological challenges involved in biographical investigation, and an awareness of the centrality of their own critical judgement in the re-constructions of particular life-stories.  The students will build from this platform through practical tasks, such as the development of their own biographical project.  There will also be opportunity for collaborative learning through the utilisation of a discussion board (set up through Learning Central), and students will also be informed by the experience of presenting early ideas to peers, and by the feedback from the tutor and from other students in the group.

• Competently use communication and information technologies for the retrieval and presentation of biographical information
• Effectively structure and communicate ideas through written and oral presentations
• Develop a reasoned argument and synthesize information
• Develop skills necessary to construct a biographical entry matching, or at least  close to, the standard of those to be found in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  
   

The course is based around a series of lectures, seminars and workshops, and will include discussion around these themes:

1. Methodological issues involved in using memoirs, diaries and biographies
2. Constructing the ‘perfect’ prime minister
3. The role of gender in shaping political careers
4. Examining Seldon’s recipe for political change: ‘Ideas, individuals, circumstances and interests’
5. ‘Yes Minister?’: Investigating the relationship between ministers and officials
6. The significance of political scandals
7. The role of the ‘maverick’ or ‘outsider’ in British political history

Case studies will include:

Barbara Castle, Alistair Campbell, Alan Clark, Richard Crossman, Edwina Currie, Gwynfor Evans, Roy Jenkins, Oona King, Harold Macmillan, Peter Mandelson, Jeremy Thorpe, Harold Wilson

The course is based around a series of lectures, seminars and workshops, and will include discussion around these themes:

1. Methodological issues involved in using memoirs, diaries and biographies
2. Constructing the ‘perfect’ prime minister
3. The role of gender in shaping political careers
4. Examining Seldon’s recipe for political change: ‘Ideas, individuals, circumstances and interests’
5. ‘Yes Minister?’: Investigating the relationship between ministers and officials
6. The significance of political scandals
7. The role of the ‘maverick’ or ‘outsider’ in British political history

Case studies will include:

Barbara Castle, Alistair Campbell, Alan Clark, Richard Crossman, Edwina Currie, Gwynfor Evans, Roy Jenkins, Oona King, Harold Macmillan, Peter Mandelson, Jeremy Thorpe, Harold Wilson 

Castle, B. (1984), The Castle Diaries 1964-70, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

Castle, B. (1980), The Castle Diaries 1974-76, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

Clark, A. (1993) , Diaries, London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson.

Currie, E. (2003), Diaries 1987-92, London: Little, Brown

Evans, G. (trans. Meic Stephens) (2001), For The Sake Of Wales: The Memoirs of Gwynfor Evans, updated ed., Cardiff: Welsh Academic Press. First published, in Welsh, as Bywyd Cymroin 1982.

Gamble, A. (2002), ‘Political Memoirs’, The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 4(1), 141-51.

Garnett, M. (2007), ‘Banality in Politics: Margaret Thatcher and the Biographers’, Political Studies Review, 5(2), 172-182.

Garnett, M. (2011), ‘Cash for quotations: The memoirs of Peter Mandelson and Tony Blair’, British Politics, 6(3), 397-404.

Horne, A. (2008), Macmillan: The Official Biography, London: Macmillan.

Marquand, D. (2009) ‘Biography’, in M. Flinders, A. Gamble, C. Hay and M. Kenny (eds), The Oxford Handbook of British Politics, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 187–200.

Mandelson, P. (2010), The Third Man, London: Harper Press.

May, T. (1997), Social Research, 2^nd ed. Buckingham: Open University.

Mowat, C. (1970), Great Britain Since 1914: The Sources of History, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Pal, L. (1988), Review: 'Thanks for the Memories...': Political Memoirs, Public Policy and the Political Imagination, Canadian Public Policy / Analyse de Politiques, 14 (1 ), 92-103.

Pimlott, B. (ed) (1994), Frustrate their Knavish Tricks: Writings on Biography, History and Politics, London: HarperCollins.

Richards, D. and Mathers, H. (2010), ‘Political Memoirs and New Labour: Interpretations of Power and the “Club Rules”’, The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 12(4), 498-522.

Sandbrook, D. (2006), White Heat:A History of Britain in the Swinging Sixties, London: Little, Brown.

Scott, J. (1990), A Matter of Record, Cambridge: Polity Press.

Seldon, A. (1988), Contemporary History: Practice and Method, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Theakston, K. (1997), ‘Comparative Biography and Leadership in Whitehall’, Public Administration, 75, 651-667.

Theakston, K. and Gill, M. (2006), ‘Rating 20th-Century British Prime Ministers’, The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 8(2), 193-213.

Thompson, J. (2000), Political Scandal: Power and Visibility in the Media Age, Cambridge: Polity.