The World Since World War II (HIST10012)

The subject examines social, economic and political change in the world from Hiroshima to September 11, using case studies to explore topics and themes such as the Cold War, the population explosion, civil rights, decolonisation, fundamentalism and global warming. Key concepts developed during the period under study (second-wave feminism, post-industrialisation, imagined communities, Orientalism, postcolonialism, the clash of civilisations, globalisation) are introduced and discussed in the context of the history that produced them. Students will be encouraged to develop a command of major developments in recent world history, and invited to consider and analyse changing ideas of the world in the second half of the twentieth century.