LHIST5220 London’s World War Course Descriptor

Course Overview

London’s wartime history retains mythic status in popular culture as a moment when the city symbolised Britain’s heroic resistance against Nazism in Europe. Yet despite scholarly efforts to deconstruct the ‘myth of the Blitz’, this pivotal episode is still often approached in rather narrow parochial terms. In response, this course aims to give students an understanding of the global history of London in the period before and during the Second World War. It examines how groups including black political organisations, exiled European governments, Jewish refugees and American GIs all collided in the city, remaking it and the wider world in the process.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

Subject Specific Skills

Transferable and Employability Skills

Teaching and Learning

This course has a dedicated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) page with a syllabus and range of additional resources (e.g. readings, question prompts, tasks, assignment briefs, discussion boards) to orientate and engage students in their studies

The scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course are:

Lectures/seminars 

40 scheduled hours – typically including induction, consolidation or revision, and assessment activity hours.

• Version 1:all sessions in the same sized group

OR 

• Version 2: most of the sessions in larger groups; some of the sessions in smaller groups.

OR

Directed study

4-12 scheduled hours, the exact number varying according to the balance of 1:1s, 2:1s, or small groups. The plan will be confirmed by the start of the course, taking into account student numbers and      the proposed topics, readings, and specific tasks.

Faculty hold regular ‘office hours’, which are opportunities for students to drop in or sign up to explore ideas, raise questions, or seek targeted guidance or feedback, individually or in small groups. 

Assessment

Both formative and summative assessment are used as part of this course, with purely formative opportunities typically embedded within interactive teaching sessions, office hours, and/or the VLE. 

Summative Assessments

Further information about the assessments can be found in the Course Syllabus.

Feedback

Students will receive formative and summative feedback in a variety of ways, written (e.g. marked up on assignments, through email or the VLE) or oral (e.g. as part of interactive teaching sessions or in office hours).

Indicative Reading

Note: Comprehensive and current reading lists are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative reading list provided below is for a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• Oliver Ayers, ‘Jim Crow and John Bull in London: Transatlantic Encounters with Race and Nation in the Second World War’ Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism (2020)
• Jerry White, The Battle of London, 1939-45 (Penguin, 2021)

Indicative Topics

Note: Comprehensive and current topics for courses are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative topics provided below are used as a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• Black communities in London during the Second World War
• American service personnel in wartime London
• Jewish refugees in London
• German prisoners of war in London

Version History