Module HIST45130: Intellectuals and Public Opinion in Global History

Department: History

HIST45130: Intellectuals and Public Opinion in Global History

Prerequisites

• None

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• To familiarise students with different approaches to global and comparative history through the intellectual history of public opinion.
• To introduce students to classic theories of public opinion and mass culture as both sources of academic inspiration and as primary sources, and to consider how to relate these theories to more recent secondary scholarship on the history of public opinion.
• To make students aware of the ways historians can contribute to on-going discussions of the role of public opinion in different national and global contexts, and to help them develop the skills necessary to engage with non-historians who are active in contemporary debates.

Content

• "Ignore public opinion at your own peril". For good or for ill, whether in practice or only in theory, public opinion is assumed to exert a powerful influence on contemporary politics and society. Yet the commonsensical significance ascribed to public opinion today conceals a complex history that spans centuries and continents. This module explores this global history, with a focus on the different ways in which political thinkers, social scientists, and government officials have conceptualized, quantified, debated, and institutionalized public opinion in the twentieth century.
• The module is divided into topical seminars that address problems pertaining to the history of public opinion and the public sphere in different national contexts. These problems are anchored in Nancy Fraser's critique of the Westphalian assumptions of Habermas's work on the formation of public opinion within the modern public sphere. These problems pertain to the ways in which transnationality, multilingualism, colonialism and empire, non-Western political cultures and traditions complicate accounts of the operation of public sphere and the history of public opinion. They are explored through articles and historical monographs that have in past years ranged across British, American, French, German, Japanese, Chinese, Irish, and Indian history. We end with a consideration of global publics through a consideration of the history of international law.

Learning Outcomes

• A specialized knowledge and understanding of aspects of Modern History that relate to the history of public opinion and the social sciences.
• A sophisticated grasp of classic and contemporary debates around the subject of public opinion and its influence on society and politics.

• The ability to identify and analyse historical evidence in a sophisticated manner
• The ability to appreciate, assess and apply advanced historiographical and conceptual approaches to Modern History
• The ability to manage bodies of historical evidence and historiography, including the gathering, sifting, synthesising, marshalling and presenting of such information
• The ability to use advanced skills of historical analysis, including posing questions, assessing interpretations, assembling evidence and arguments to enable the evaluation of a hypothesis, which may involve exploring the current limits of knowledge
• The ability to present historical findings in clear and appropriate written forms

• discrimination, judgment and autonomy
• familiarity with appropriate means of identifying, finding, retrieving, sorting and exchanging information
• research capabilities, including the ability to pose, consider and solve complex problems
• structure, coherence, clarity and fluency of written expression
• intellectual integrity, maturity and an appreciation of the validity of the reasoned views of others

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Student learning is facilitated by a range of teaching methods.
• Seminars require students to reflect on and discuss: their prior knowledge and experience; set reading of secondary and, where appropriate, primary readings; information provided during the session. They provide a forum in which to assess and comment critically on the findings of others, defend their conclusions in a reasoned setting, and advance their knowledge and understanding of the history of public opinion and the public sphere in global history.
• Structured reading requires students to focus on set materials integral to the knowledge and understanding of the module. It specifically enables the acquisition of detailed knowledge and skills which will be discussed in other areas of the teaching and learning experience.
• Assessment is by means of a 5000 word essay which requires the acquisition and application of advanced knowledge and understanding of aspects of the history and historiography of public opinion in its various forms, and of relevant theoretical and comparative approaches from other disciplines. Essays require a sustained and coherent argument in defence of a hypothesis, and must be presented in a clearly written and structured form, and with appropriate apparatus.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Formative assessment will be a 20 minute oral presentation and a short primary source analysis.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University