NOTE: Almost all tutorial descriptions are taken from the University of Oxford website and are copyright University of Oxford.  Only the selection and matter for tutorials which reflect the research interests of SCIO staff members are copyright SCIO.

Tutorials in ecclesiastical history are listed under ‘Tutorials in Theology and the Study of Religion’; students wishing to choose the history concentration may also select tutorials from among those listed there.

History of the British Isles I 300–1087
Many of the fundamental characteristics of western society took shape in these centuries.  Out of the collapse of Roman civilization, new forms of social and religious organization emerged.  The forging of ethnic and political identities brought into being the entities that we now call England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.  Students in this course will examine this period using such investigative topics as archaeology and ethnology.  Also, because the written historical sources for this period are limited, relative to later periods, students may at times be able to approach the subject—and the work of historians—in original ways: e.g., by reading in translation Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, and Beowulf and other Old English poems.

History of the British Isles II 1042–1330
Medieval society with its warriors, kings, bishops, and peasants can seem alien to us in Britain today, but these three centuries saw the emergence of essential pre-conditions for modern society.  The whole spectrum of human activity was transformed, both through increasing collectivization—in villages, towns, churches, and under governments—and by a pluralization of ways of life.  Students in this course will examine such topics as the restraint of kings (as seen in the Magna Carta), the church’s challenge to royal ideology, the revival of scholarship in the universities, and the social and economic changes as evidenced in the emergence of towns and in increased trade.

History of the British Isles III 1330–1550
For England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales this was a period of dramatic conflict and change which presents many fascinating paradoxes.  The Black Death and the Peasants’ Revolt suggest economic and social crisis; and yet the cloth industry grew and living standards rose.  The Scots were united enough to resist English aggression, yet slew two of their kings in rebellion.  The English won spectacular victories in France—Crécy, Poitiers, Agincourt—yet lost ground to the Gaelic lords in Ireland.  The English crown steadily endowed itself with one of the most effective governmental machineries in Europe; yet Richard II was deposed and his successors fell prey to factionalism in the Wars of the Roses.  Students in this course will examine how political, social, cultural, and religious issues related to each other in ways that continue to provoke debate among historians today.

History of the British Isles IV 1500–1700
The two centuries from 1500 to 1700 are rich in memorable incident.  Henry VIII, clothed in white, presiding at a heresy trial; Elizabeth in full armour addressing her troops at Tilbury; Charles I stepping from the Banqueting House to the scaffold in Whitehall; Cromwell at Dunbar reigning in his cavalry for prayer before pursuing the shattered Scottish army; the disguised James II fleeing his kingdom in a fishing boat.  Students in this course will study the formation of the British state, the shifting power of the English monarchy, the crisis of parliaments and civil war, and the drama of the Reformation.

History of the British Isles V 1685–1830
This period begins with the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688, which entrenched parliament at the centre of British government and established a system of regulated toleration for some kinds of Christian worship outside the Church of England.  At the period’s end in 1830 Dissenters and Catholics had acquired full political rights, and the election of a reforming ‘Whig’ government put the reform and extension of the parliamentary franchise squarely on the agenda.  Students in this course will study the religious changes of this period; the economic changes (which saw Britain become ‘the first industrial nation’); the political changes (which saw the emergence of a ‘British’ identity in parallel with English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish identities); and social changes (where the growth of ‘enlightenment’ in Europe raised questions about Britain’s claim to be an exceptionally liberal and humane society).

History of the British Isles VI 1814–1924
This course covers a period which is today regarded by journalists and sentimentalists as an epoch of British ‘greatness’.  To say this is not just to comment on heroic individuals such as Gladstone and Disraeli; rather it is a reflection of what all ordinary Britons really thought.  Students will study the British political attempts both to reform and to preserve England’s ‘ancient constitution’, and how ‘Victorian’ reforms supply the basic structure of our political institutions today.  Equally, students will also study British society and the extent to which historic social class distinctions were able to give way to that elusive residuum, the ‘middle class’.

History of the British Isles VII Since 1900
This period was a time of almost unprecedented political, social, and economic change.  At its beginning Great Britain was the centre of a world-empire, the hub of the world’s financial system, and Ireland was still politically united to Britain.  At the end of the century, the Empire was gone, to be replaced by a Commonwealth, in many respects vestigial; and Ireland, with the exception of the northern six counties, had become an independent republic.  At the beginning of the century Britain was almost wholly white; at its end it had large Black and Asian populations whose influence on British life was profound.  By 2000 Britain was no longer central to the world’s financial system—though London was still one of its most important foci—and in military terms Britain had become a middle-ranking power.  Despite all this, few other societies had such a successful 20th century.  Its people experienced a rise in living standards and social opportunities which would once have been thought inconceivable.  It emerged victorious from two world wars with its political institutions intact; its civil life was remarkably peaceful; and its cultural productivity, at elite and popular levels, was surpassed only by the United States. 

General History I 370–900: the Transformation of the Ancient World
At the beginning of this period a significant portion of the Roman Empire was Christian, and the traditional culture of the Greek and Latin classics was still thriving.  Yet, within three centuries, most recognizable features of the world created by Rome and Persia had ceased to exist.  Nearly all the most prosperous and articulate arenas of ancient civilization had succumbed to ‘barbarian invasion’, and the Arab armies of Islam, the last of the world’s great religions, took over the bulk of the ancient Near East, creating an enormous new capital at Baghdad.  Western Europe progressively fell victim to peoples of Germanic origin, who had themselves been set moving by the Huns, a steppe power from Central Asia.  Thus, this course has a Eurasian rather than merely European scope, stretching from Persia’s inner Asian frontiers to the British Isles and Scandinavia.  Though this period is often considered a turbulent time, students will also examine certain ordered developments within this period, such as: the devising of scripts, which are substantially the same as those in use today; the production of metalwork and book-illumination in art; and the kind of expansionism that would one day carry European culture into all the corners of the world.

General History II 1000–1300: Medieval Christendom and its Neighbours
This course introduces students to medieval Europe.  It follows a thematic approach and progresses from the fundamental to the more complex aspects of medieval society and culture.  Beginning with the introduction of medieval institutions such as kingship, papacy, and empire, the course then explores the rich learning of the scholastic age and the religious culture of its monasteries.  Students will also analyse the growing towns and villages of a continent experiencing an agrarian revolution with resulting widespread urban and commercial growth.  The new forms of family life, religion, art, and literature which resulted from these changes are introduced to students through the issues of gender, heresy, knighthood, and romance.  The course takes in the margins and borders of Europe—the Holy Land and crusading, Spain and Sicily, the Baltic world—and ends with an examination of ethnic and religious diversity of medieval towns, and the experiences of disease and violence.

General History III 1450–1650: Renaissance, Recovery, and Reform
This was a defining period in the creation of modern Europe and its relations with the rest of the world.  Beginning when population and agricultural production had been sharply reduced by plague, it saw both rise to new levels, while the development of cross-European trade began the process of economic specialisation.  There was a dramatic increase in the number and size of Europe’s cities, whose authorities struggled to cope with the rising numbers of poor, but also had the resources to build the palaces, mansions, and churches at the heart of the modern urban landscape.  At the same time explorers, adventurers, and merchants were opening up the New World of America, Africa, and the Far East, laying the basis of a future world economy.  This economic and political expansion was matched by enlargement of intellectual and cultural horizons, with a new type of scholar, the humanist, breaking new ground in language, morals, and science.  On the religious front, Luther and Calvin succeeded where 15th-century heretics had failed: in creating new ‘Protestant’ churches and in forcing the long process of reform within the Roman Catholic Church to harden into Counter-Reformation.

General History IV 1815–1914: Society, Nation, and Empire
This course approaches the nineteenth century in the widest possible way, ranging from population trends and social structure to cultural history, and from revolution to imperialism.  Students will study the effects of the population explosion of the nineteenth century, the agricultural and industrial revolutions which helped to sustain it, the dramatic growth of towns, and the various waves of emigration to the New World.  Students may also explore the European elites, noble and non-noble, the middle classes who finally came into their own, and the doctrine of liberalism which they predominantly embraced.  Also, students will have the opportunity to examine the state and state-building, including the development of bureaucracy, the growth of education for both elites and masses, and the practice of diplomacy and statecraft.  Finally, students may look at central aspects of cultural history: changing gender roles and ideologies, the question of whether the century was one of secularisation or religious revival, and the representation of modern life in the arts.

Europe and the Wider World 1815–1914
The long nineteenth century saw the most dramatic phase of European expansion in modern world history.  Europeans transformed their earlier beachheads in the Americas into nation states, and occupied or imposed their rule over vast new areas of the ‘Outer World’ in Sub-Saharan Africa, South East Asia and the Pacific.  This course examines the processes of European expansion including its economic and cultural bases, and the nature and extent of its impact (political, economic, cultural) in the extra-European world.  While part of this course will be on general themes, students may have the opportunity to focus in come tutorials on specific regions—e.g., India or China.

The Crusades 1095–1291 (FS5)
The Crusades were a central phenomenon of the High Middle Ages.  The product of an aristocratic society suffused by a martial culture and a militant religion, the Crusades reveal aspects of social relations, popular spirituality, techniques of waging war, and attitudes toward violence.  The aims of this course are twofold: (1) A full exploration of the dramatic events of the campaigns in the Near East, covering the experience as well as the motivations of crusaders and the settlers in the Crusader Kingdoms; (2) Investigation of the interaction over a period of two centuries between Western Christians and the indigenous populations, both Christian and Islamic, in and around the states and settlements established in the East.

Literature and Politics in Early Modern England (FS9)
This period for study, a golden one in English literary achievement, was one in which major poets and dramatists were involved in, or preoccupied with, political events.  This course invites students to explore the relationship between literary developments and political ones.  The following authors have been selected for study: More, Skelton, Wyatt, Surrey, Sidney, Spenser, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Bacon, Jonson, Middleton, Massinger, Milton, and Marvell.  Students are encouraged to consider the lives and influences, as well as the writings, of these writers, and to relate the writings  to their historical contexts.  The themes of this course include: the court, the relationship between Christian and classical values, early Stuart monarchy and the masque, the development of the history play, the relationship of the drama to politics and Puritanism, and the responses of writers to the Puritan revolution.

Court Culture and Art in Early Modern Europe 1580–1700 (FS12)
This course involves the study of courts as the focus of political, social and cultural authority within the early modern state.  Equally, the course involves the impact of both art-historical and historical scholarship in exploring the practical mechanisms of art patronage, the use of art by rulers and other elites to construct justifications for the legitimization of authority, and the respective role of artists, patrons, and scholars in the formulation of ideological programmes within a court context.  This course will seek to bring these two areas together in a study that will focus on a number of specific courts and on wider issues connected with court patronage of the arts, the resources and aims of patrons, and the reactions of elites to these initiatives.  The prescribed texts and documents will introduce students to details of commissions and execution of works of art, inventories of collections, correspondence between artists, lives of artists and their role within a court culture, and the role of factional rivalries in determining commissions.

British Economic and Social History 1700–1870 (FS21)
This course explores the transformations of Britain’s society and economy during the industrial revolution.  It explores the causes and nature of industrialization, urbanization, and economic modernization; the social dislocations associated with economic change; and the changing economic, administrative, and social discourses which helped reshape Britain’s economic relations and social institutions.  Topics studied include: agricultural change; the rise of manufacturing industry; the nature of British capitalism; labour discipline; the problems of poverty and attitudes towards the poor; changes in social structure; demography; public health; fiscal policy; and social reform.  Study will be based on set texts.

Medicine, Empire, and Improvement 1720–1820 (FS14)

Topics such as racial differentiation, consumerism, colonialism, ‘medicalisation’ (the increasing authority of medical ideas in society as a whole), environmentalism, and alternative medicine are studied.  No medical or technical knowledge is needed.  The focus is on Britain and its empire, but also looks to America and France.  The course uses set texts in English.

The Age of Jefferson, 1774–1826 (FS15)
The course uses Jefferson’s life and writings to pose a number of questions:  how did the enlightenment affect government and intellectual enquiry in this period?  Were Jefferson’s racism and hostility to the abolition of slavery widely shared beliefs?  What were the origins and influence of Jeffersonian theories of democracy?  How far were men in Jefferson’s position able to embrace ‘the age of the common man’?  Is America an exceptional nation?

Intellect and Culture in Victorian Britain (FS18)
This course aims to study the ideas and culture of the Victorians with some reference to their analytical content and social context.  The topics covered range from progress and faith, through natural and social science, to fine art and gender.  There are many common themes running through the prescribed texts, such as the tension between materialism and idealism, and between historical and positivist modes of thought.  The major issues to be explored include: the concept of ‘Whig’ history; the attempt to advance towards a ‘general science of society’ or sociology; the religious spectrum from catholicism and natural religion to agnosticism and secularism; the influence of ‘cultural critics’; educational reform of universities and public schools and the professionalization of study; and the impact of Darwin and of evolutionary thinking.

Imperialism and Nationalism 1830–1980 (FS19)
This course provides the opportunity for students to study empire-building and freedom-fighting as aspects of the historical processes of imperialism, and so to extend a knowledge of European history to other continents and other civilizations.  Consideration of the rise and fall of empires and the flight of phoenix nations from the ruins during the past century and half is divided into two parts: The first invites broad analysis of the European and extra-European foundations of empire in the light of existing theories of imperialism and ‘orientalism’.  The second requires closer study of the working of European expansion within the societies of a particular region—e.g., South Asia (1885–1947); East and Central Africa (1870–1980); Australasia and South Africa (1847–1909) and South East Asia (1830–1975)—in the light of theories about indigenous collaboration and resistance, anti-imperial nationalism, and decolonization. When this tutorial is selected for application, students should state in which geographical area they wish to specialize.

British Economic History since 1870 (FS19)
The emphasis in this course is on the economic development of the British economy in the period of its maturity and relative decline.  The main themes covered include the long-run growth and performance of the economy; the contribution of labour, capital, and entrepreneurship; the role of government policy, especially in the 1930s and in the postwar era of Keynesian demand management; the determinants of employment and unemployment; foreign trade, tariff protection, international investment, and balance of payments problems; and trends in the distribution of income and wealth, poverty, and living standards.

British Society in the Twentieth Century (FS22)
This course offers students an opportunity to study in depth the profound changes that affected British society and popular culture in the past century.  The focus is on the history of society rather than on social policy, and the course study extends to the present day.  Themes explored in this course include: population, sexuality, and the family; class, gender and stratification; immigration and ethnicity; health and living standards; urban life; the experience of work and of unemployment; religion; education; crime; leisure and the influence of the mass media; the impact of war; and methods of social research.  This course surveys an extensive, lively and often topical secondary literature, and primary source material includes oral history and memoirs, as well as social surveys, commentaries, official reports, and quantitative data.  There may also be opportunities for using film. 

Nationalism, Politics and Culture in Ireland c.1870–1921 (FS24)
This course explores events and ideas in Ireland from the Home Rule era to the Anglo-Irish Treaty, stressing themes and rhetoric as much as narrative.  Topics covered include the Fenian tradition (separatist ideology, republican rhetoric, émigré nationalism); the idea of Home Rule (Isaac Butt, federalism, Protestants, and nationality); the land issue; the Home Rule crisis of the 1880s; the polarization of Ulster Unionism and Catholic nationalism from that era; cultural revivalism and the debates over ‘Irishness’ from the 1890s; the development of radical political options such as Sinn Fein, suffragism and co-operativism in the early 1900s; the pre-war crisis over Ulster and Home Rule; the 1915 Rising; and the rearrangement of Anglo-Irish relations. 

Political Theory and Social Science (FS31)
This course is organized around a body of authors—most notably Marx and Weber—who still form the basis of our thinking about politics and society today.  We still live in a world dominated by the polarities of liberalism and socialism, and reports of Marx’s ‘death’ at the end of the Cold War have been greatly exaggerated.  The themes for this course involve questions such as: Should one believe in social and political ‘progress’?  What should we make of the increasing dominance of theories that are ‘critical’ of established modes of social and political behaviour?  How optimistic should we be about the role of natural scientific models in analysing human society?  Students will enjoy this course if they enjoy the careful reading of texts, and if they have an interest in decoding the meaning of apparently abstract concepts—such as ‘ideology’, ‘class’, ‘charisma’, and ‘liberty’—by looking not only at texts but also at the historical contexts from which they emerged.

The Scientific Movement in the Seventeenth Century (SS11)
This course examines the intellectual revolution which inaugurated the modern understanding of our world.  This course enables students to study the work of all the major figures of the scientific movement—from Galileo at one end of the seventeenth century to Newton at the other.  The focus of this course is upon both the ideas themselves and the social contexts in which they were developed.  The course thus provides an ideal opportunity to engage with modern approaches to intellectual history.  The prescribed texts cover the whole spectrum of writing produced by the scientific movement.  The major statements of the new philosophy of Bacon, Descartes and Hobbes are explored, in addition to the announcements of scientists such as Galileo, Kepler, Harvey, and Newton as to their discoveries.

Science in the Age of Empire
This course examines the main debates in nineteenth-century British science through the lives of various men and women of science. The lives of Robert Malthus, Charles Darwin, Francis Galton, T.H. Huxely, Richard Owen, Roderick Murchison, and various women of science allow the student to analyse the relationship between science on the one hand and public policy, religion, gender, professionalisation, and imperialism on the other.

Theories of the State (OS1)

No understanding of Western history is complete without knowledge of the ideas which have fundamentally shaped social and political life, and it is as theories of the state that these ideas have been given their clearest expression.  Built upon such enduring, constantly reinterpreted concepts as justice and liberty, authority and community, theories of the state have ranged far beyond the institutions of government to consider the position and power of the church, the role and responsibility of the individual, the interests and conflicts of social classes.  This course provides the opportunity to study these through reading works by four major political thinkers:  the works are Aristotle’s Politics, Hobbes’s Leviathan, Rouseau’s Social Contract, and Marx’s Communist Manifesto.

Augustine: Life and Thought
Students will study Augustine's major works in the context of his life and Late Antique culture. Augustine was a leading bishop in a seminal period, and his dogmatic works, commentaries, and sermons played an important role in shaping the Latin west. A prolific writer known best for his works, The Confessions and The City of God, he provides significant and far-ranging discussions. Attention will be paid to the relationship between the church and the world, the nature of the person, the problem of evil, the nature of culture, the relationship between church and state, implications for political philosophy, and the debates with Manichaeans, Donatists, and Pelagians.

The Age of Bede c.660–c.740 (OS2)

The seventh and early eighth centuries were a time of fundamental change for the English, in which conversion to Christianity was only one element.  Influences from Ireland, Gaul, and the Mediterranean operated on the warlike, aristocratic society of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to create a rich and innovative culture.  During the few generations between the 660s and the 730s, Britain produced works of learning, literature, and art which were preeminent in Western Europe.   The period is studied through set texts, notably those by the Venerable Bede.  Students can also study the spectacular manuscript illumination, metalwork, and sculpture of the era.

Conquest and Frontiers:  England and the Celtic peoples 1150–1220 (OS4)

The reigns of Henry II, Richard I, and John provide the first opportunity to look in some documentary detail at the impact of the English on the countries we know as Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.  The story is in part one of military conquest and confrontation, as the English tightened their grip on Wales, and for the first time began to bring Ireland under their control.  But it is also the story of economic, cultural, and institutional change, as the impact of English models and practices came into contact with native societies, cultures, and polities.  This course is based on the study of rich English texts, complemented by Irish, Welsh, and Scottish annals and poetry, all read in English.

English Chivalry and the French War (OS5)

This course focuses on the history of the fourteenth-century phase on the Hundred Years’ War between England and France, and on the social military, and political pre-occupations of the knightly sector of English society that was involved with it.  The period has been called England’s age of chivalry and the focus is mainly on England, though continental European aspects are also covered.  The course is based on the study of set texts in English.

Witchcraft and Witch-Hunting in Early Modern Europe (OS7)

This course examines the causes and consequences of witch hunting in early modern Europe.  It will consider the intellectual background of the witch hunt, the relationship of witchcraft to the protestant and catholic reformations, the diverse and changing legal and judicial arrangements, and literary and feminist interpretations phenomena.  The course is based on a study of set texts in English.

Nobility and Gentry in England 1550–1660 (OS8)

This course considers the English nobility and gentry in a century when the landed classes played a critical role in the political, religious, and social life of the nation.  It examines the elite’s attitudes and experiences in this troubled period, considering their private lives and their public offices and influence.  The course is based on a study of set texts in English.

Culture, Society, and Politics in England 1700–1795 (OS10)

Although now seen by many as a period of stability, many contemporaries regarded it as a time of profound change.  Increasing prosperity led to cultural enrichment, but a subversion of traditional values.  A wide variety of literary texts and images is combined with secondary sources to enable students to study the social, economic, and political developments of the century.

Revolution and Empire in France 1789–1815 (OS11)

This course examines the nature of the conflicts that brought instability in the 1790s and the character of the Napoleonic settlement after 1799.  It examines the process of revolutionary politics and the mechanisms of the Napoleonic system, and invites students to consider the dichotomy between myth and reality.  The course is based on the study of set texts in English.

The American Empire 1823–1904 (OS12)

The course invites students to consider the process by which America built its empire during the period:  consolidating its continental territories, expanding its commercial reach, and building its informal empire.  The course is based on the study of texts in English.

Theories of War and Peace in Europe 1890–1914 (OS13)

The Peace movement, a countervailing ‘war movement’, Marxism, and Fascism are all studied in this course to allow students to reflect on the social, economic, and intellectual antecedents of the first world war.  The course is based on the study of set texts in English.

Working Class Life and Industrial Work 1870–1914 (OS14)

By the latter part of the nineteenth century the organization and conditions of work, and the structure of families and communities, had laid the basis for what were to become the characteristic institutions of the industrial working class in Britain until the second half of the 20th century.  Thus by 1914 a quarter of all manual workers were unionised while the patterns of a new working-class culture were increasingly evident.  The development of this culture therefore lies at the core of this course.  Autobiography, contemporary writings, oral history, and social surveys furnish the documents for an analysis of the experiences of work, community, family (including the lives of adolescent working-class boys and girls), and leisure from which men and women forged their new culture. Students will be able to visit, if they choose, various archives in the city to undertake research using primary sources about Jericho, a working class district in Oxford.

Approaches to History 

This course introduces students to ways of looking at the past that will probably be novel to them.  The course is concerned with the ways in which the writing of history has been influenced by other disciplines, methods, and techniques.  Such approaches to history include anthropology and history; archaeology and history; art and history; economics and history; gender and history; and sociology and history.  The course explores both the strengths and weaknesses of looking at the past from the perspective of these other intellectual disciplines.  The course also offers a chance to examine the particular perspective on history offered by an awareness of the role of gender and gender difference, an approach that has been developed powerfully in recent decades.

Historiography
There are two routes commonly pursued in the study of historical writing and method: first, study of the techniques which, as of today, we hold to be most relevant; and secondly, the study of classic texts in Western historical writing.  The paper takes the second road, and the student may reasonably hope to be exercised in the following areas: (1) The close reading of texts which really will bear close reading—reading being still the most fundamental of all historical techniques.  (2) Grasp of central problems in their broadest outlines—such as the scope and proper subject matter of history, historical objectivity, the interrelation of the author’s past and present concerns, the relations of literature and history, and why we should bother with history at all. (3) The outlines of how the Western historical tradition has evolved in fact.