The World Since 1945 Course Descriptor

Course Overview

The period since the end of the Second World War is the past of our present. Accordingly, this course offers an historical overview of the contemporary world, attending both to the commonalities and diversities that have shaped and characterised the history of the world since 1945 up to the end of the Cold War and beyond. Additionally, the course provides deep historical context to the actors, institutions, events, and issues that have been significant in the post-war era. It does so primarily in the context of the non-Western world while attending to the influence and engagement of the superpowers in affairs beyond their borders.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

Subject Specific Skills

Transferable and Employability Skills

Teaching and Learning

This course has a dedicated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) page with a syllabus and range of additional resources (e.g. readings, question prompts, tasks, assignment briefs, discussion boards) to orientate and engage students in their studies.

The scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course are:

Lectures/seminars 

40 scheduled hours – typically including induction, consolidation or revision, and assessment activity hours.

• Version 1:all sessions in the same sized group.

OR 

• Version 2: most of the sessions in larger groups; some of the sessions in smaller groups.

OR

Directed study 

4-12 scheduled hours, the exact number varying according to the balance of 1:1s, 2:1s, or small groups. The plan will be confirmed by the start of the course, taking into account student numbers and the proposed topics, readings, and specific tasks.

Faculty hold regular ‘office hours’, which are opportunities for students to drop in or sign up to explore ideas, raise questions, or seek targeted guidance or feedback, individually or in small groups. 

Students are to attend and participate in all the scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course and to manage their directed learning and independent study.

Indicative total learning hours for this course: 150

Assessment

Both formative and summative assessment are used as part of this course, with purely formative opportunities typically embedded within interactive teaching sessions, office hours, and/or the VLE. 

For the written assignments, students will gather and analyse information, placing it in its wider institutional and historical context, examining and discussing the particular, situated experiences and perspectives of the groups or individuals under discussion.

Summative Assessments

For the written assignments, students will gather and analyse information, placing it in its wider institutional and historical context, examining and discussing the particular, situated experiences and perspectives of the groups or individuals under discussion. 

Further information about the assessments can be found in the Course Syllabus.

Feedback

Students will receive formative and summative feedback in a variety of ways, written (e.g. marked up on assignments, through email or the VLE) or oral (e.g. as part of interactive teaching sessions or in office hours).

Indicative Reading

Note: Comprehensive and current reading lists are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative reading list provided below is for a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• ​​Walter White (1945): A Rising Wind (New York: Doubleday).
• Debra Posel (2011): “The Apartheid Project,” Cambridge History of South Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Vladislav M. Zudok (2017): “The Collapse of the Soviet Union,” Cambridge History of   Communism, vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Indicative Topics

Note: Comprehensive and current topics for courses are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative topics provided below are used as a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• The Shape of the Post-War World
• The Cold War Commences
• India and Partition
• The Struggle Against Apartheid