The Crimean War

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• The key features of the history of the Crimean War
• Selected historiographical debates related to the study of war, politics, diplomacy, society and culture in this period
• The ways in which historical understanding is informed both by different interpretations of source materials, political perspectives, and by different and changing methodological approaches to the study of the past

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Manage your own learning and your time effectively, meeting deadlines
• Think analytically about the material you have located and read
• Share your thoughts about your reading in writing, constructing arguments based on evidence

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Identify and describe the key characteristics of debates about the Crimean War
• Interpret, analyse and evaluate historical arguments and source materials
• Engage with a range of approaches to understanding an historical problem

This module will examine the Crimean War from a number of perspectives. Indicative topics include:

• diplomacy: no-one ‘won’ the war: in its aftermath Russia, Britain and France all had cause to reflect on their status as great powers and it was the spur to a wide range of ‘modernising’ programmes in those countries
• military history: this war was fought using a variety of new technologies, yet militarily it was poorly executed, characterised by blunders and inflexibility
• the religious and cultural tensions exposed by the conflict
• medical history: Florence Nightingale, among others, famously highlighted medical shortcomings in the war and while her efforts achieved mixed results, this case study offers an opportunity to examine war from a medical point of view
• media history: this was the first media war, played out in graphic detail in the pages of the press
• memory and commemoration: it was often commemorated on a modest scale, but from Alma Road in Portswood to the Boulevard de Sébastopol in Paris the war has left its mark on the landscape and the module will therefore look at issues of memory and commemoration

Teaching methods include

• Lectures
• Seminars

Learning activities include

• Independent reading using resources available in the library
• Note-taking in lectures
• Active participation in seminars

You will use reading lists provided by the module convener to guide your reading and preparation for weekly seminars. You will be expected to make contributions to seminar discussions based on your preparatory reading.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.