Bachelor of Arts (BA)

BA Ancient History and History

Study ancient, medieval and modern history for a wide range of career options.
  • Duration: 3 years
  • Year of entry: 2025
  • UCAS course code: VV50 / Institution code: M20

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Course description

Our BA Ancient History and History joint honours course will enable you to combine the study of ancient, medieval and modern history.

Half of the course engages with the history and culture of the Greco-Roman civilisations of the Mediterranean and its hinterland, while the other half explores medieval and contemporary history, stretching from Late Antiquity to modern day histories of globalisation.

As well as offering breadth of perspective, this course will give you training on a large variety of historiographical techniques, including specialisms which are vital tools of historical research.

You will be equipped to move into a wide range of careers or further study options.

Special features

Placement year option 

Apply your subject-specific knowledge in a real-world context through a  placement year  in your third year of study, enabling you to enhance your employment prospects, clarify your career goals and build your external networks. 

Study abroad 

You can apply to spend one semester  studying abroad  during Year 2, with exchange partners including those in Europe as well as the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. 

Connect with like-minded students 

Our students can take part in history-related activities outside of the course, including the  Manchester Histories Festival  and our student-led publication -  The Manchester Historian . 

Explore world-class collections 

Enjoy  unique opportunities  to explore special archived material and carry out research in a wide range of archives, libraries, museums and other research institutions in Manchester and beyond.

Teaching and learning

You will learn through a variety of channels, including lectures, seminars, small group tutorials and field trips. You'll also be encouraged to undertake independent study at every level, and to develop your own original and imaginative approaches to the subject.

Coursework and assessment

Assessment methods vary from course unit to course unit, but our basic objective is to achieve a good balance between formal written examinations, continuous assessment and project work.

Course content for year 1

You'll take course units that will introduce you to the methods and practice of the study of ancient and modern history, with a range of exciting options in both subjects.

Course units for year 1

The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.

TitleCodeCredit ratingMandatory/optional
Constructing Archaic Greek History CAHE10011 20 Mandatory
From Republic to Empire: Introduction to Roman History, Society & Culture 218-31BC CAHE10022 20 Mandatory
History in Practice HIST10101 20 Mandatory
The Odyssey CAHE10101 20 Optional
The Story of Britain: one million years of humanity CAHE10142 20 Optional
Cities and Citizens CAHE10232 20 Optional
Discoveries and Discoverers: Sights and Sites CAHE10281 20 Optional
Virgil's Aeneid CAHE10422 20 Optional
Introduction to the History and Culture of Pharaonic Egypt CAHE10651 20 Optional
Intensive Greek 1 CAHE20151 20 Optional
Introduction to Egyptian Hieroglyphs  CAHE20162 20 Optional
Intensive Latin 1 CAHE20171 20 Optional
Advanced Latin Language 1 CAHE30111 20 Optional
Advanced Greek Language 1 CAHE30121 20 Optional
Intensive Greek 2 CAHE30162 20 Optional
Intensive Latin 2 CAHE30182 20 Optional
Modern China: from the Opium Wars to the Olympic Games HIST10151 20 Optional
Histories of the Islamic World HIST10172 20 Optional
Capitalism in Historical Perspective: 1700-1913 HIST10182 20 Optional
Imperial Nation: Empire and the Making of Modern Britain, 1783-1902 HIST10191 20 Optional
An Introduction to the Medieval World HIST10261 20 Optional
Forging a New World: Europe c.1450-1750 HIST10302 20 Optional
States, Nations and Empires. Europe, c.1750-1914 HIST10312 20 Optional
‘There is Black in the Union Jack’: Black and South Asian British Histories HIST10351 20 Optional
Climate change and societal response: Lessons from the past SALC11011 20 Optional
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Course content for year 2

Specialist course units on Greek and Roman history are a central element of your second year and there will be a wide range of optional topics on medieval and modern history.

Course units for year 2

The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.

TitleCodeCredit ratingMandatory/optional
The Roman Empire 31BC - AD313 Rome's Golden Age CAHE20052 20 Mandatory
Politics and Society in Classical Greece CAHE20061 20 Mandatory
From Jamestown to James Brown: African-American History and Culture AMER20141 20 Optional
The American Civil War AMER21002 20 Optional
The World of Late Antiquity: Europe and the Med from the Severan Dynasty to the Rise of Islam CAHE20022 20 Optional
The Conquering Hero: The Life, Times and Legacy of Alexander The Great CAHE20042 20 Optional
Social Life in Ancient Egypt CAHE20072 20 Optional
Ancient Egyptian Literature CAHE20091 20 Optional
Introduction to Egyptian Hieroglyphs  CAHE20162 20 Optional
The Emergence of Civilisation: Palaces, Peak Sanctuaries, and Politics in Minoan Crete CAHE20332 20 Optional
Roman Women in 22 Objects CAHE20531 20 Optional
Athens and Attica CAHE20632 20 Optional
National Identity and the Roman Past CAHE23022 20 Optional
Men, Beasts and Marvels: the Limits of Nature in Classical Antiquity  CAHE23361 20 Optional
Weimar Culture? Art, Film and Politics in Germany, 1918-33 GERM20262 20 Optional
Making of the Modern Mind: European Intellectual History in a Global Context HIST20182 20 Optional
Winds of Change: Politics, Society and Culture in Britain, 1899 -1990 HIST20251 20 Optional
Late Imperial China: the Great Wall and Beyond HIST20422 20 Optional
The Cultural History of Modern War HIST20481 20 Optional
Colonial Encounters: Race, Violence, and the Making of the Modern World HIST21122 20 Optional
Back to the Future: The Uses and Abuses of History HIST21182 20 Optional
Histories of the Islamic World HIST21192 20 Optional
Capitalism in Historical Perspective: 1700-1913 HIST21202 20 Optional
A Transnational History of Europe in the Short Twentieth Century, c.1917-1991 HIST21211 20 Optional
Silk Roads: Eurasian Connections from the Mongols to Manilla, 1200-1800 HIST21241 20 Optional
Revolutionary Cities: The Urban World of the Middle Ages HIST21251 20 Optional
From Cholera to COVID-19: A Global History of Epidemics HSTM20081 20 Optional
The Crisis of Nature: Issues in Environmental History HSTM20592 20 Optional
In Frankenstein's Footsteps: Science Fiction in Literature and Film. HSTM20801 20 Optional
Aesthetics and Politics of Italian Fascism ITAL20502 20 Optional
The Italian Renaissance ITAL21011 20 Optional
Themes in the Histories of Arab and Jewish Nationalisms MEST20272 20 Optional
History of Modern Islamic Thought MEST20501 20 Optional
Religion, Culture and Gender RELT20121 20 Optional
End of the World and Apocalypticism RELT21082 20 Optional
100 Years of Revolution: from Lenin's Soviet Union to Putin's Russia RUSS20242 20 Optional
The Revolutions of 1989 and their Aftermaths: Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia RUSS20472 20 Optional
Displaying 10 of 37 course units for year 2
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Course content for year 3

In your final year there will be a range of specialist options in Greek, Roman and modern history.  By now, you'll have developed a keen interest in a topic which you can research in -depth for a dissertation in either Ancient History or modern History under the guidance of a specialist in your area of interest.

Course units for year 3

The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.

TitleCodeCredit ratingMandatory/optional
Introduction to Egyptian Hieroglyphs  CAHE20162 20 Optional
Classics, Ancient History, Archaeology and Egyptology Dissertation CAHE30000 40 Optional
The World of Late Antiquity: Europe and the Med from the Severan Dynasty to the Rise of Islam CAHE30022 20 Optional
Social Life in Ancient Egypt CAHE30072 20 Optional
Ancient Egyptian Literature CAHE30091 20 Optional
From Cloud Cuckoo Land to Atlantis: Utopian thinking in the Ancient World CAHE30141 20 Optional
The Emergence of Civilisation: Palaces, Peak Sanctuaries, and Politics in Minoan Crete CAHE30332 20 Optional
Athens and Attica CAHE30632 20 Optional
Dealing with the Dead: The Archaeology of Death and Burial CAHE30721 20 Optional
The Roman Army and the North-West Frontiers CAHE30881 20 Optional
Men, Beasts and Marvels: the Limits of Nature in Classical Antiquity  CAHE33361 20 Optional
'A Nation In The Making': India, 1800-1947 HIST30292 20 Optional
History Dissertation HIST30970 40 Optional
Wealth and Welfare: Reconceptualising British Economy and Society between 1832 and 1942 HIST31052 20 Optional
China and the West: the Age of Empire and Beyond HIST31202 20 Optional
Heroes and Holy Men: The Irish Sea World in the Viking Age, c. 780-1100 HIST31362 20 Optional
The Holocaust: History, Historiography, Memory HIST31491 20 Optional
The Comparative and Transnational History of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany HIST31522 20 Optional
John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and U.S. Foreign Policy in the 1960s HIST31551 20 Optional
Defining the Deviant: Crime and British Society, 1888-2000 HIST31592 20 Optional
The Aftermath of War in France, Britain and Germany: Violence and Reconstruction after WW1 and WW2 HIST31672 20 Optional
Ceaseless Revolution: France, 1781-1871 HIST31721 20 Optional
The Black Freedom Movement, 1955-1975 HIST31752 20 Optional
War, Memory and Politics of Commemoration in Eastern Europe HIST31842 20 Optional
Material Encounters in the Early Modern World, 1400-1800 HIST31881 20 Optional
'Brains and Numbers': Intellectual Life in Victorian Britain HIST31891 20 Optional
Pirates: The Sea, The Empire and The Other HIST31941 20 Optional
The Normans and the Kingdom of Sicily in the Mediterranean World (1000-1200) HIST31992 20 Optional
Curating War and Human Rights: methods in cultural and public history HIST32012 20 Optional
From New Left to New Times: Socialist Ideas in Post-War Britain HIST32152 20 Optional
Black Britain: Power, Neighbourhoods and the Everyday, 1948-1990 HIST32171 20 Optional
Africa and Development: A Political History of the Social Sciences HIST32221 20 Optional
Cultural Entanglements: Life & Death in Colonial America HIST32241 20 Optional
The Anglo-American Connection & National Identity in the long C19: Race, Reform & National Identity HIST32251 20 Optional
Mixing It Up: A Global Intellectual History of Race and Miscegenation HIST32322 20 Optional
Vanished: Histories of Extinction from the Mammoth to Extinction Rebellion HIST32342 20 Optional
Global China in the Second World War HIST32351 20 Optional
Revolution, Conflict, Democratization: East Central Europe, 1848-1939 HIST32362 20 Optional
Minority Rights in Islamic World History HIST32391 20 Optional
Moving Stories: Migration and Modern European History HIST32412 20 Optional
Empire, Freedom and Community in Late Medieval Central Europe HIST32512 20 Optional
The Nuclear Age: Global Nuclear Threats from Hiroshima to Today HSTM31712 20 Optional
From Sherlock Holmes to CSI: a History of Forensic Science and Medicine HSTM32511 20 Optional
Climate Change & Society HSTM33501 20 Optional
Madness and Society HSTM40332 20 Optional
Tools and Techniques for Enterprise MCEL30001 10 Optional
Tools & Techniques for Enterprise MCEL30002 10 Optional
Enterprise Feasibility MCEL30052 10 Optional
Culture, Media and Politics in the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia RUSS30601 20 Optional
History of the Spanish Atlantic World: Empire, Trade, War SPLA31151 20 Optional
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Facilities

The John Rylands Library 

You will have access to internationally significant collections at  The John Rylands Library , which include primary mediaeval and early modernist printed sources, including approximately 12,500 books printed between 1475 and 1640 (e.g. books by Caxton. 

The library is also home to special collections including The Methodist Archives and Collection, The French Revolution Collection, The Women's Suffrage Movement Archive and The Labour Party Library Collections.  

Manchester Museum 

Manchester Museum  is The University's own award-winning facility, home to important prehistoric, classical and ethnographic collections, which you'll draw from in your learning. 

You'll go behind the scenes to handle, analyse and interpret rare artefacts, including one of the finest Egyptology collections in Britain. 

Our ongoing collaboration between the museum and the global work of archaeology staff offers unique opportunities for students to get involved in the design of major exhibitions.

Disability support

Practical support and advice for current students and applicants is available from the Disability Advisory and Support Service. Email: dass@manchester.ac.uk