Course for international guest/part time students
- Faculty
- Faculty of Humanities
- Organization
- BTK Department of English Studies
- Code
- BBI-ANG17-322E.11
- Title
- Elective seminar in the history of Great Britain: Changing Patterns of British Foreign and Imperial Policy from 1902 to 1945
- Usual semester
- Spring
- ECTS
- 5
- Language
- en
- Learning outcomes
- The aim of the course is to introduce the outlines of British foreign policy during the stated period. The methodology avoids unexplained narrative descriptions. Basic definitions of state action and actors, the essence of foreign relations are explained from the start. Foreign policy is explained in the context of an ongoing process involving domestic and external factors. The aim of the course is, therefore, to impart the ability to integrate these factors into a single purpose of understanding this aspect of British state action in a global context during the first half of the 20th century. A) Knowledge Students will learn about the European and global dimensions of British foreign policy during the first half of the 20th century characterised by the most intensive conflicts in the history of human civilisation. They will understand the role the British decision makers played in these events. B) Skills Students acquire the skills of dissecting the factors of foreign policy decision making, of understanding how hard and soft power translate into foreign influence in times of peace and of war. They will understand how diplomacy operates in various contexts. They will acquire the skill of appreciating these processes without passing judgements on them. They will also learn the relevant new terminology, names, geographical features and timelines. C) Attitudes Students accept the cultural, social and political contexts, paradigms and attitudes that are similar to, as well as those that are different from, their own. They acquire the ability to associate, compare, successfully mobilize and apply the contexts studied during the course. D) Autonomy and responsibility Students will be able to arrive at independent conclusions regarding the social, cultural and power political environments, contexts and situations associated with the knowledge and skills acquired by studying this subject area. They will be able express articulated, independent, balanced and well-informed views and arguments regarding the subject area reflecting technical knowledge in the context of an ethically responsible value system.
- Course content
- British foreign policy and decision-making behind it played an immense role in shaping the world around us during the first half of the 20th century. The course will concentrate on the following main junctures in this period. – The conclusion of Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902 and its background – The circumstances of the January 1st 1907 Memorandum by Sir Eyre Crowe – Sir Edward Grey, the “July Crisis” (1914) and the outbreak of the First World War – The British Foreign Office during the First World War – The Foreign Office and British foreign policy at the time of the Paris Peace Conference, 1919-20 – The Foreign Office in the Age of the Collective and the New Europe I: The Age of Illusions, 1920-1925 – The Foreign Office in the Age of Collective Security and the New Europe II: The Age of Retrenchment, 1926-1928 – British foreign policy during the “Hinge Years”, 1929-33 – British foreign policy in the age of Appeasement, 1933-39 – Britain’s changing perspectives towards a post-war settlement during the Second World War I: 1939-1941. – Britain’s changing perspectives towards a post-war settlement during the Second World War II: 1942-1945.
- Assessment method
- There is a half-term and an end-of-term in-house paper that determine the grades. Students volunteering for class presentations in term-time significantly improve their performance during the semester.
- Bibliography
- Compulsory Reading Boemeke, Manfred F, Feldman, Gerald D and Elisabeth Glaser, eds. The Treaty of Versailles: A Reassessment after 75 Years, London: German Historical Institute, Cambridge University Press, 1994. Cato, Guilty Men, London: Victor Gollancz, 1940. Clark, Christopher. The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 London: Harper, 2013. Dockrill, Michael and McKercher, Brian, eds. Diplomacy and World Power: Studies in British Foreign Policy, Cambridge University Press, 1996. Keynes, John Maynard. The Economic Consequences of the Peace, London: Macmillan & Co. Limited, 1919. Lammers, David. “Fascism, Communism and the Foreign Office, 1937-39”, Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 6, No. 3 (1971), pp. 66-86. Lentin, Antony. Lloyd George and the Lost Peace: From Versailles to Hitler, 1919-1940, London: Palgrave, 2001. Lentin, Antony. The Treaty of Versailles and the Carthaginian Peace: Peacemaking and Mythmaking 1918-1919, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2025. McKercher, B J C and Moss, D J eds. Shadow and substance in British foreign policy, 1895-1939, University of Alberta Press, 1984. Otte, Thomas G. July Crisis: The World's Descent into War, Summer 1914, Cambridge University Press, 2014. Reynolds, David, Summits, Six Meetings that Shaped the Twentieth Century, London, Basic Books, 2007, 2. Munich 1938: Chamberlain and Hitler, pp. 37-102. 3, Yalta 1945: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin, pp. 103-162. Recommended Sources Books/Könyvek, monográfiák Best, Anthony and Cortazzi, Hugh, eds, British Foreign Secretaries and Japan, 1850-1990, Aspects of the Evolution of British Foreign Policy, Folkestone: Renaissance Books, 2018. Colvin, Ian. Vansittart in Office: An historical survey of the origins of the Second World War, London: Victor Gollancz, 1965. Charmley, John. Chamberlain and the Lost Peace, London: Papermac, 1991. Crowe, Sybil and Corp, Edward. Our Ablest Public Servant: Sir Eyre Crowe GCB, GCMG, KCB, KCMG, 1864-1925, Braunton Devon: Merlin Books Ltd, 1993. Lojkó, Miklós. British Policy on Hungary 1918-1919: A Documentary Sourcebook, London: School of Slavonic and East European Studies, 1995. Parker, R A C. Chamberlain and Appeasement: British Policy and the Coming of the Second World War, London: Bloomsbury, 1993. Parker, R A C. Churchill and Appeasement, London: Macmillan, 2000. Peden, George C. Churchill, Chamberlain and Appeasement, Cambridge University Press, 2023. Reynolds, David. The Long Shadow: The Great War and the Twentieth Century (London and New York: Simon & Schuster, 2013. Roberts, Andrew. Salisbury: Victorian Titan, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000. Rowse, A L. All Souls & Appeasement, London: Macmillan, 1961. Steiner, Zara S. The Lights that Failed: European International History 1919-1933, Oxford University Press, 2005. Steiner, Zara S. The Triumph of the Dark: European International History 1933-1939, Oxford University Press, 2010. Warman, Roberta M. The Foreign Office, 1916-1918: A Study of Its Role and Functions, New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1986.