Greek and Modern History

In the first two years of your degree (known as sub-honours), you will take the required modules in modern history alongside modules in at least one other subject.

Typically, you will take one modern history module per semester during your first two years, and two modules per semester during your third and fourth year (known as Honours).

Course information may change. Module information and course content, teaching and assessment may change each year and after you have accepted your offer to study at the University of St Andrews. We display the most up-to-date information possible, but this could be from a previous academic year. For the latest module information, see the module catalogue.

• First year

  Students will take the following compulsory first-year modules: 

  • The Early Modern Western World (c. 1450 - c. 1770): looks at continental European history in the early modern period, and the expansion of Europe.
  • Themes in Late Modern History (c. 1776 - 2001): provides thematic coverage of major political and social developments in the Western world during the 19th and 20th centuries. 

• Second year

  Students will take the following compulsory second-year modules: 

  • Scotland, Britain and Empire (c. 1700 - 2000): Provides an introduction to how and why the British nation state evolved from the separate kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland and how and why it has survived over the last three centuries.
  • History as a Discipline: Development and Key Concepts: Provides an introduction to key theoretical and methodological approaches which have characterised the emergence of history as a discipline since medieval times.

• Honours

  If you decide to take modern history in your third and fourth years, you choose from a wide variety of advanced options, including modules ranging from Elizabethan England to East Asia in the 20th century. 

  Here is a sample of Honours modules which have been offered in previous years: 

  • British Cinema History (1920 - 1960) 
  • Curiosity, Empire, and Science in Eighteenth-Century Europe 
  • From Cradle to Grave: Living and Dying in Early Modern England (c.1500 - c.1800) 
  • Gender and Sexuality in South Asia (1800s-2000s)
  • Imperial Russia 1815 - 1917 
  • Making Economic History Count: Economic Analysis from a Historical Perspective 
  • Stalinism, Nazism and Central Europe (1912 - 1941) 
  • The Decline and Fall of the French Old Regime (1715-1789) 
  • The Power of Persuasion: Propaganda in Renaissance an