Year 1

The first year provides a strong foundation for your degree, with core modules on American history since independence, US political institutions, processes and ideas, and the emergence of the modern world order. You will also choose from options on European, British and global history to understand American developments in a broader historical context.

Core modules

• Making History
• Introduction to American Government and Politics
• The Shock of the Modern
• People and Places
• US History since 1776

Option modules

Choose one option module from:

• Global History: Connections and Cultures in a Changing World, 1750 to the present
• Great Britain: The State We're In
• Europe 1861-1991: Emancipation and Subjugation

Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.

Year 2

The core modules will delve deeper into understanding the diverse people, communities and wider world relationships that have shaped America’s development, and will enhance your critical thinking, independent research, and intellectual creativity - skills you’ll put into practice in further optional modules.

Core modules

• Perceiving the Past (double module)
• Becoming the Historical Researcher (double module)

Option modules

Choose two option modules from:

• Gender History
• Jack-the-Ripper: Crime, Popular Culture and Policing in Victorian Times
• A World Connected: Economy, Wellbeing and Sustainability since 1945
• From Beer to Fraternity: Alcohol, Society, and Culture in North America
• Living with Dictatorship: European Societies, 1918-1941
• Fight the Power! Race, Rights and Protest in the USA, 1865-2008
• The Making of Contemporary US Foreign Policy

Then choose two option modules from:

• Class Struggle and the Industrial Revolution
• Histories of Violence
• Madness, Monarchy and Politics in Georgian Britain
• Domestic Revolutions: Women, Men, and the Family in American History
• Enter the Dragon: Modern Chinese History, 1839-1989
• History in the Classroom
• Heritage Field Project
• Foreign Policy Analysis

Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.

Year Abroad (optional)

We’ll make sure you have everything you need for your future career: not just by awarding you a high quality degree, but also by helping you to develop the skills, knowledge and confidence you need to make your mark in the world as a Citizen of Change. One way you can do this is by opting to take a Year Abroad between Years 2 and 3 of your degree.

Studying abroad is not just for people who are interested in travelling and meeting new people. It is about acquiring life skills that are becoming increasingly significant for a wide range of jobs in our modern globalised society. Whether you go on to a career in the private, public or third sector - or plough your own furrow as an entrepreneur – you will find the experience invaluable.

For more information, including a list of destinations, please visit our Study Abroad website.

Please note

• A year spent abroad still incurs a tuition fee, but this is much lower than for a normal year at Leicester. See the Fees and Funding tab of this page for details.
• You may be eligible for a travel grant from Student Finance England.
• Places are offered on a competitive basis, and eligibility is dependent on your academic performance in Years 1 and 2.
• Language courses, at beginners or advanced level, are available through our Languages at Leicester scheme.

Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.

Final Year

The final year is shaped entirely by your preferred areas of interest and specialisation. You will research and write an original dissertation – an independent research project of your own design – with the support of an expert supervisor. You will also choose from a wide range of optional modules that reflect the cutting-edge research expertise of your tutors.

Core module

• History dissertation

Option modules

Choose one option module from:

• A Sea of Conflict? Christian Muslim Encounters c.1100-c.1300
• The Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Church, State and Belief in Soviet Russia, 1941-1991

Choose two option modules from: 

• The Civil Rights Movement, 1945-1968
• The Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon Northumbria
• When Two Dragons Fight: China and Japan at War in the Twentieth Century
• Gender, Crime and Deviance in Eighteenth Century Britain
• Abolitionists: Antislavery Activism in Britain and America, 1787-1865
• Making Nazis: Propaganda and Persuasion In The Third Reich, 1933-1945
• Disasporas and Migrations in the Modern World

Then choose one option module from: 

• The Imperial Economy: Britain and the Wider World, 1815-1914
• The USA and the Vietnam War
• Crime and Punishment in African American History

Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.