History - Modules
History is about people. Studying History means studying lives, events and ideas in times and places often very different from our own. History embraces everything from the rise and fall of empires, or the birth of new ideologies, to the contrasting everyday lives of people in a whole range of settings, across time and across the globe. Studying History means developing critical skills, learning to express your ideas and arguments clearly, and becoming self-directed in your studies.
Below we have listed some sample modules for both Junior and Senior Fresh level (first and second years) from previous years:
Religion and Society c.1095-c.1517
At the beginning of the twelfth century western Christendom had a new optimism: a commercial and urban boom, new religious orders, new church buildings, the codification of religious law, a flourishing of religious art, a movement to “recover” the Holy Land. Between 1250 and 1500 war, plague and religious dissent had a profound impact on European life.
This module offers a thematic survey of religious practices and the impact of religion on society more generally in the central and later medieval west, where everyday life was carried on to a soundtrack of church bells and sermons, but where the culture allowed for a surprising amount of diversity of belief and practice as well. Lectures and tutorials focus on the practice and impact of religion in medieval society, on social structures (such as family and community) and on relations with other cultures.
Kingship and Warfare: Ireland c.1000-1318
This module looks at three crucial centuries in the history of Ireland. It begins with the rise of Brian Boru from modest origins to become Ireland's most famous high king - a spectacular career that ended in the iconic battle of Clontarf in 1014. We explore how Irish society and kingship changed in the aftermath of Clontarf as a result of inter-provincial warfare and the changing role of the church. The second half of the module examines the causes and implications of the English (or Anglo-Norman) invasion of the late 1160s, perhaps the single most formative development in Irish secular affairs.
We study the interaction of cultures in its aftermath and the Irish opposition to English rule that saw the emergence of England's ongoing Irish problem through later centuries. The module closes with the most serious challenge to English power in medieval Ireland: the Scottish invasion (1315-18) led by Edward Bruce, brother of Robert Bruce king of Scots.
Christian Ireland 400-1000
This module deals with what has traditionally been known as Ireland’s ‘Golden Age’. Having begun with a brief introduction to prehistoric Ireland, it covers in more detail the period from the arrival of Christianity in the fifth century to the eve of the first Viking attacks at the end of the eighth.
The focus is wide-ranging, from early Irish politics and the emergence of a high-kingship to St Patrick and the impact of Christianization, from Brehon law and the bonds of society to the study of landscape and settlement and early Irish farming, and from Hiberno-Latin and Gaelic literature to the visual art that culminated in the creation of the greatest masterpiece of the Golden Age, the Book of Kells.
Imagining History
Most people, most of the time, never encounter the past through academic history books. Instead the past confronts them in images and interpretations that appear everywhere from museums to advertisements, movies to monuments. The imagining of history is such a prominent trend in popular culture that students need to be equipped to deconstruct representations of the past and to interrogate their own working assumptions about history imbibed from film and literature.
This module explores three examples of how historical events and themes have been imagined in the world outside of professional historical scholarship. Students will examine how these subjects have been ‘brought to life’ in film and literature. Students will also have the opportunity to consider wider questions and problems which link together the three subjects addressed in the module.
This is not a module designed to test the accuracy, in a narrow sense, of ‘historical fiction’ in literature and film. The aim is rather to enable students to examine the ways in which the past has been presented, interpreted and re-interpreted in various genres; to uncover the assumptions or agendas that shaped creative decisions and the responses of audiences to genuinely popular representations of the past; and to reflect critically upon the qualities that make for a great work of historical imagination or reconstruction, qualities which cannot easily be replicated by the conventional methods of historical inquiry.
Europe 1500-1800: Power and Culture
This module explores the political and cultural history of Europe during the early modern period. It analyses the efforts of reformers to revive their churches and societies during the sixteenth century. It then examines the legacy of these reform movements, and considers how cultural divisions as well as competition for power led to prolonged periods of conflict within states and between states during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
This module then charts the emergence during the eighteenth century of new ways of thinking about private life and popular culture and of new ideas about science, society and the self of the Enlightenment. Finally, it explores how these ideas contributed to political crisis following the French Revolution.
For further information on course modules visit: www.tcd.ie/students/orientation/visiting-exchange/module-directory/History.php