Royal Holloway, University of London, is one of the eight larger colleges of the University of London and in the top 20 per cent of research institutions in the UK. Situated on spacious parkland campus at Egham, Surrey, 19 miles west of Central London, we have around 5,600 undergraduate and postgraduate students in 21 departments. Royal Holloway has the largest History Department in the University of London and admits approximately 120 undergraduate students each year. The standard offer for entry is ABB.

The Egham campus

Why study at Royal Holloway?

• A beautiful campus set in 120 acres of parkland.
• Easy access to London, but a more relaxed, and less expensive, environment.
• One of the country’s foremost research-led universities.
• A University of London degree, a qualification recognised the world over.
• Accommodation guaranteed to all first-year students.
• Opportunities to study abroad.
• A thriving campus with a very active Students’ Union.
• The University of London’s best sporting college.
• Excellent career opportunities for Royal Holloway graduates.
• Hundreds of part-time and vacation jobs on and off the campus.

A record of excellence. The History Department is rated in the top categories for both teaching and research. The Funding Council’s Teaching Quality Assessment (TQA) has given it a rating of excellent, and the last Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) valued the quality of its research with a grade 5. The Guardian’s guide to university History Departments has rated us second in the country. All members of staff are active in research, and are respected authorities within their fields. They believe that research and teaching enhance each other: they pass on their work and ideas to their students, and find that new problems and lines of enquiry are suggested as they do so. Hence, as a student, you can feel yourself a fellow-worker in the discipline. We are the largest History Department in the University of London, and one of the largest in the country, with an undergraduate student body of about 400; this means a wide diversity of recruitment, with a mixture of students from different backgrounds, ages, and ethnic groups, and from both sexes.

Ideal Location. Another great asset of the Department is its location. The heart of the College is the astonishing Founder’s Building, an exuberant and majestic triumph of Victorian architecture. We ourselves are housed in the modern, spacious, and well-equipped McCrea Building, and adjoin the new Bedford Library, which gives access to over half a million volumes, and an agreeable working ambience. The College’s setting in gardens, fields and woodland, close to Windsor Great Park, with its lakes and deer-park, surrounds us with beauty and tranquillity. At the same time, we are only thirty-five minutes by train from the heart of London, where we have a second teaching base in Bedford Square. Hence, while based in a pleasant and secure environment, we enjoy all the benefits of a great metropolis, not least the splendid academic and cultural resources available there.

Ancient and Medieval History (UCAS code V116)

History with a Year in Europe (UCAS code V101)

Modern History, Economic History, and Politics (UCAS code V136)

Modern History, Economic History, and Politics with a Year in Europe (UCAS code V137)

In your first year, you will take courses of two types.

· Four Foundation Courses (these are designed to initiate you into unfamiliar skills, themes, and methods including the use of Information Technology)

· Two Gateway Course (these will introduce you to broad historical themes and unfamiliar periods and cultures.)

In your second year, you will take two Group 1 Courses and one Group 2 Course.

In your third year, you will take another Group 2 Course, and a Group 3 Course.

· Group 1 Courses have a wide chronological or geographical range.

· Group 2 Courses are deeper and more thematic.

· Group 3 Courses involve the close scrutiny of source texts; each has a 10,000-word assessed dissertation attached to it.

As the largest History Department in the University of London we have an exceptional selection of courses covering a variety of different periods, geographical areas and approaches. In addition, students are permitted to take courses at other University of London campuses. Each year the University of London White Book provides a directory of all the History courses taught within the University of London.

The Material World: Culture and Environment in the Last Two Millennia (This introduces you to the physical dimension of the past, and to the non-written sources employed in Archaeology.)

History and Meanings (This introduces you to the ways in which, over time, people have thought and written about the past.)

State, Society and the Individual in the Non-Western World

Introduction to Historical Computing (This is mainly devoted to the construction and analytical use of data-bases by historians. As preparation, you must take the College’s course in Basic Information Technology Skills [BITS].)

Gods, Men, and Power: Religion and the Political Life of the World of Ancient Greece and Rome

The Birth of Western Christendom, AD 300-1200

Major Themes in Social History, 1500-1800

Conflict and Identity from 1789 to the Present Day (This is a thematic exploration of modern history, focusing on warfare, race, empire and industrialisation.)

Republics, Kings and People: the Foundations of Modern Political Culture

Greek History to 322 BC

Roman History: the courses currently taught in the History and Classics Departments will shortly be replaced by new ones.

Expansion and Renewal, Europe 900-1250

The Flowering of the Middle Ages, 1250-1500

From Nation State to Multiple Monarchy: British History, 1485-1649

History of the British Empire, 1763-1953

British History, 1860-1979

European Society and Politics, 1890-1945

Safe European Home? European History, 1945-2000

History of the USA since 1890

Spanish History, 1898 to the Present

Twentieth Century World History

Modern Times: British and International Economic History since 1901

Crisis and Critics: Athenian Democracy and Society

Greek Law and Lawcourts

Roman Britain

Egypt in the Roman Empire

The Christianisation of the Roman World, Constantine to Justinian

The Late Roman and Early Byzantine City

The Crusades and the Eastern Mediterranean, 1095-1291

Medicine and Society in Medieval Europe

The Nobility and Gentry of Medieval England, 1150-1500

London Urban Society, 1400-1600

Witchcraft and Society, 1450-1750

Poverty and Disease in Early Modern Europe, 1450-1750

English Parliaments, 1485-1649

Experience, Culture and Identity: Women’s Lives in England, 1688-c.1850

Early Feminists and Socialists in France, 1789-1871

The Politics of Sport: Power, Identity and Race in Britain, 1880s-1990s

Culture and Society in Britain, 1884-1964

Spain in Conflict, 1931-39

Ethnicity, Identity and Settlement: the Experience of Black and Asian Migrants

Modern Middle Eastern History since c.1880

America in the 1960s

Gender and Society in the Modern Islamic World

Modern Political Ideas

Britain, the United States, and the Decline of the West in Asia, 1894-1975

Politics and Government of the USA

Periclean Athens

Augustus: Propaganda and Power

The Origins and Impact of the Second Crusade, 1145-49

England in the Reign of Richard II

Power and Politics in Renaissance Florence, 1434-1502

Blasphemy, Irreligion, and the English Enlightenment, 1620-1720

Language, Power and Resistance: British History, 1789-1820

Revolutionary Movements in France, 1827-1848

Victorian Social and Political Thought

Politics and Society in Palestine, c.1900-1948

US Foreign Policy during the "High" Cold War, 1957-1965: Berlin, Cuba, and Vietnam

The History and Historiography of the Holocaust

Ending empire in Malaya, 1952-1957

Between the Wars: British Economic and Social History, 1918-39

Class, Gender, and Nation in Edwardian Britain

Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement

From Austerity to Affluence: British Politics, Society, and Culture, 1945-1960

Department of History

Royal Holloway

University of London

Egham

Surrey TW20 0EX

Admission Tutor

Jonathan Phillips

E-mail: j.p.phillips@rhul.ac.uk

Further details: see our website http://www.rhul.ac.uk/history/

And/or write for a prospectus and departmental handbook