Taught courses
You will take several courses across two semesters of teaching, including two compulsory courses and a range of optional courses.
Core courses
There are two required core courses for this programme: two history skills training courses (20 credits each), one in each semester, which are taken by all MSc students in History in the school.
Compulsory courses previously offered include:
| Course name | Credits |
|---|---|
| Historical Research: Skills and Sources | 20 |
| Historical Methodology | 20 |
Optional courses
You will choose a further 80 credits from a wide selection of optional courses, subject to availability.
Option courses previously offered include those listed below. Option courses change from year to year and those available when you start your studies will be different from those shown in this representative list.
| Course name | Credits |
|---|---|
| The Sixties in the United States | 20 |
| Freedom and Coercion in the Making of the Atlantic World | 20 |
| The Demise of the Slave-Holding American South, 1846-1877 | 20 |
| Race, Religion, and Ridicule: The American South from Reconstruction to World War II | 20 |
|
Slavery in the British Atlantic World, 1650-1834 |
20 |
|
Conservatism in the United States, c.1930-c.1990 |
20 |
| The Civil Rights Movement | 20 |
| The United States and the Cold War | 20 |
| Directed Reading & Research (Semester 1) | 20 |
| Directed Reading & Research (Semester 2) | 20 |
| The American Civil War and Reconstruction | 20 |
You may also be able to select from relevant courses from the Online MSc History programme.
Teaching and assessment
You will take a variety of seminar-style courses in small groups.
Most courses are assessed by means of an extended piece of written work, while some courses also assess non-written skills.
Further information
You can see more details about the 2023/24 programme structure on the Degree Programme Table for the MSc in American History. We expect the 2024/25 programme structure to be available from May 2024.