Handbook

Why did the UK leave the European Union? Why did it join in the first place? These questions cannot be answered without studying the UK’s postwar history as a declining imperial power in a globalising world. In this course, you will examine UK politics, society, economy, and culture through the lens of the UK’s deep and changing engagement with Europe and the wider world, considering phenomena as diverse as wars, decolonisation, Beatlemania, currency crises, the rise and fall of the welfare state, nationalist movements in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and protracted, painful debates over the UK’s role in Europe. You will also examine the uses of history in British culture and politics, and how competing understandings of history have informed key decisions about Britain’s future.