School of Humanities  
 
 
HIS-30119 Urban Lives in Modern Europe, 1914-1939  
Co-ordinator: Dr Benjamin Anderson   Tel:33611  
Teaching Team: Miss Amanda  Roberts, Mrs Christine  Edge, Dr Shalini Sharma, Miss Jo-Anne  Watts, Dr Benjamin  Anderson  
Lecture Time: See Timetable...  
Level: 3 Credits: 15 Study Hours: 150  
School Office: Tel: 01782 733147
 
 
 
Programme/Approved Electives for
History Dual Honours (Level 3)
History Major (Level 3)
History Minor (Level 3)
Available as a Free Standing Elective
No
Barred Combinations
None
Prerequisites
None
Description

$ùUrban Lives in Modern Europe 1890-1914&© investigated how urban elites began to imagine a new future for Europe&©s cities before the First World War. This module examines how the inter-war period provided the opportunity to put many of their ideas into practice. Yet if anything, cities in the inter-war period proved to be even more difficult to govern than they had been before the war. Political tensions ran high across Europe, and many historians have characterised Germany&©s Weimar Republic in particular as being in an almost permanent state of crisis. More recent analyses have also seen its cities, and especially Berlin, as a $ùlaboratory of modernity&©, in which new forms of urban living were tested, and it is on these approaches that this module will concentrate.

While the rise of right-wing politics and the concomitant emergence of Fascism has often been seen as the defining element of the period, the module will also develop an understanding of how the spaces of Europe&© s cities contributed to changing cultures of sex, violence, work and consumption. A particular emphasis will be placed on how measures to identify and control urban problems may have exacerbated existing tensions or produced new ones. While exploring these aspects, you will be asked to consider approaches which emphasise the role of the state in attempting to order and control the city, providing continuities with both totalitarian regimes and the $ùpermissiveness&© and welfare states of post-war Western Europe.

Aims
To introduce students to the history of the city in early-twentieth-century Europe; to appreciate the divergent aspects of European interwar histories; to consider the interaction between changing urban experiences, new definitions of urban problems, and technical solutions in urban cultures; to critically interrogate the usefulness and limitations of online archives in urban historical research.
Intended Learning Outcomes
explain how the application of measures to improve and control urban space often differed from theory, and produced different outcomes from those intended will be achieved by assessments: 1, 2, 3
demonstrate awareness of the role of emerging subcultures in creating urban identities in the interwar period

will be achieved by assessments: 1, 3
recognise and explain the difficulties faced by urban reformers
will be achieved by assessments: 1, 2
critically appraise the opportunities and limitations of using online archives
will be achieved by assessments: 1, 3
demonstrate awareness of the shared history of totalitarian and social-democratic Europe will be achieved by assessments: 1, 2, 3
Study hours
Ten, two-hour seminars = 20 hours
Seminar preparation = 60 hours
Assessment preparation = 70 hours
Description of Module Assessment
01: Essay weighted 40%
One, 2000-word essay
An Essay of c. 2,000 words on a topic chosen by the student in consultation with the module tutor.
02: Presentation weighted 20%
Seminar presentation
A presentation of up to ten minutes on a proposed solution to one of three urban problems of the early-twentieth century, identified by the tutor.
03: Seen Exam weighted 40%
Two hour seen examination
One question from a choice of four on a topic arising from the module, and one question from a choice of four assessing the usefulness of an online archive for examining urban history.
Version: (1.06B) Updated: 03/Mar/2013

This document is the definitive current source of information about this module and supersedes any other information.