BA History and Russian

Why and how did societies in the past celebrate certain men and women as heroes? To answer this question we must turn our attention away from the heroes themselves to the hero-makers, to those who promoted heroes to achieve particular ends, and to their tools - books and portraits, speeches and sermons, statues and ceremonies. Heroes have always been made not born. Politicians, religious leaders, writers and artists celebrated heroes, usually promoting elite white men as a national ideal. Students will examine how the heroes which Britons chose to celebrate expressed the attitudes of the past. We will analyse how far the rise and fall of the British empire, the development of the mass media, world war, immigration, and campaigns for women's rights changed the face of British heroes. The course will introduce students to different approaches to the study of heroes: heroes as propaganda, as commodities and brands, as expressions of 'charisma'. Women and BAME Britons rarely gained entry to the nation's halls of fame. How much changed between 1885 and 1985?

HIST30621 is restricted to History programmes, History joint honours programmes (please check your programme structure for further details).

This module is only available to students on History-owned programmes; Euro Studies programmes; and History joint honours programmes owned by other subject areas.

This course aims to show students how the heroes which Britons chose to celebrate expressed the attitudes of the past, attitudes towards violence, class, gender and race. The intention is for students to learn how major historical developments - e.g. the rise and fall of the British empire, the two world wars, immigration, and campaigns for women's rights - changed the face of British heroes between 1885 and 1985. Through an examination of the impact of these developments, the course also aims to enable students to learn about different approaches to the study of heroes: for example, heroes as propaganda (e.g. John M. MacKenzie), as commodities and brands (e.g. Berny Sebe), and as expressions of 'charisma' (Edward Berenson).

By the end of this course students will be able

• to explain why Britons raised certain individuals as heroes
• to outline and explain why heroes generated a range of meanings in different contexts;
• to use heroes to illuminate changing attitudes to gender and race;
• to assess how the expansion and contraction of the British empire shaped British culture and society;
• to assess the impact of the two world wars on British culture and society.

 

• to evaluate the factors which contribute to the genesis of heroic reputations;
• to evaluate the significance of heroes within national cultures.

• to navigate the wide range of online resources available for late-nineteenth- and twentieth-century British history;
• to interpret primary sources within their historical context;
• to plan, research and write effective essays.

• to improve communication skills by contributing to class debates and discussion;
• to develop confidence in their interpretation of popular culture.

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Max Jones, ‘What Should Historians Do With Heroes? Reflections on Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Britain’, History Compass, 5:2 (2007), 439-54.

Graham Dawson, Soldier Heroes: British Adventure, Empire and the Imagining of Masculinities (London: Routledge, 1994). · Geoffrey Cubitt & Allen Warren (eds), Heroic Reputations and Exemplary Lives (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000).

Edward Berenson, Heroes of Empire: Five Charismatic Men And The Conquest of Africa (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011).

'Decolonising Imperial Heroes: Britain and France’, Special Issue: Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 42:5 (2014).

Barbara Korte and Stefanie Lethbridge (eds.), Heroes and Heroism in British Fiction since 1800: Case Studies (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).

Max Jones, The Last Great Quest: Captain Scott’s Antarctic Sacrifice (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003)