BA History and Sociology

This course explores the history of early modern Europe during an unprecedented phase of transformation. European states expanded their global frontiers, discovered new worlds, experienced revolutions in politics, society and religion, and devised revolutionary new forms of knowledge and communication with the advent of the printing press and the scientific revolution. The course offers an introduction to all of these themes.

• Students will be introduced to the significance of key events and developments in the early modern world including European voyages of discovery, encounters with new peoples and cultures, religious reformations, political transformations, and intellectual change.
• The course aims to develop students’ understanding of the nature and consequences of these developments in a wide-ranging and comparative context. This will be achieved through detailed case studies outlined in the reading for each week and in the course assignments.

Manifest knowledge and understanding of:

• The key events and developments that transformed early modern European and its relations with the wider world.
• Historical definitions of ‘early modernity’.
• The interaction of religious, political, economic and socio-cultural factors in shaping the lives and beliefs of early modern people.

• Critical analysis of primary and secondary source materials.
• Understanding, assessing and summarising historical debates and arguments.
• Making connections between overarching historical explanations within early modern history and detailed case studies in a comparative context.

• Strategic and critical reading.
• Locating and analysing appropriate historical evidence.
• Writing short focused analyses of primary sources.
• Essay writing and the organisation of research into a coherent argument.
• Enhanced verbal communication skills.

• Time management.
• Written and oral communication skills.
• Teamwork skills developed through discussion with other students.

Source Analysis (Summative) 35%

Essay (Summative) 65%

• Written feedback on submitted assessments, given through Canvas/TurnItIn (Summative)
• Additional optional oral feedback on assessed work during scheduled office hours (Summative)

Greengrass, Mark, Christendom Destroyed: Europe 1517-1648 (London, 2014)

Kümin, Beat (ed.), The European World 1500-1800: an introduction to Early Modern History (London, 2009)

Richards, John, The Unending Frontier: An Environmental History of the Early Modern World (Berkeley, 2003)

Rublack, Ulinka, Reformation Europe (Cambridge, 2005)

Sangha, Laura and Jonathan Willis (eds), Understanding Early Modern Primary Sources (London, 2016)

Te Brake, Wayne, Shaping History: Ordinary People in European Politics, 1500-1700 (Berkeley, 1998)

Wiesner-Hanks, Merry Early Modern Europe, 1450-1789 (Cambridge, 2006)

Walker, Garthine (ed.), Writing Early Modern History (London, 2005)

Tuition fees for home students commencing their studies in September 2027 will be £10,050 per annum. Tuition fees for international students will be £29,200 per annum.

For general information please see the undergraduate finance pages.

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

We know that student finance can be complicated. The links below provide further information to help guide you.

Learn more about student finance options for UK students .

Learn more about f ees and finance for international students .

As an international student you may be eligible for our Global Futures Scholarships . This is open to students starting their studies in September 2026.