This course will discuss the ways in which populist and nationalist political activists use history to serve specific purposes. Students will develop their critical thinking skills and their ability to analyse the ways in which history is always a current topic.

Students will be introduced to nationalist and populist movements across the political spectrum to assess the way in which they attempt to legitimise their actions by viewing history through dystopian or utopian lenses. Students will gain an understanding for how history is used to legitimise these political actors’ ideological ideas and values. They will also develop their ability to relate critically to these. The module is global in scope, using case studies from the Nordic countries, the Americas, sub-Saharan African and other regions.

After completing the course, students will be able to:

Lectures, seminars, exercises

The learning outcomes are examined through an individually written essay.

The assessment criteria will be made available by the course leader at the start of the course.

All assessments are based on individual performance.

Anderson, Benendict, Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, (London: Verso Books 2016) – one chapter (34 p.)

Billig, Michael, Banal Nationalism London: Sage 2014, pp. 1–59 (59 p)

Blain, Keisha M. Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018) – one chapter (46 p.)

Breuilly, John, “Introduction: Concepts, Approaches, Theories” in Breuilly John (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the History of Nationalism Nationalism, (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2013), p. 1–20 (20 p.)

Burke, Peter, “Nationalisms and Vernaculars, 1500–1800”, in Breuilly, John (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the History of Nationalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2016), pp. 21–33, (13 p.)

Chatterji, Joya ’Nationalisms in India, 1857-1947’ in Rovira Kaltwasser, Taggart, Ochoa Espejo & Ostiguy (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Populism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), pp. 242–263 (21 p.)

Clark, Anna, “Politicians Using History”, Australian Journal of Politics and History, 56:1, 2010, pp. 120–131 (12 p.)

Clarke, David & Duber, Pawel, “Polish Cultural Diplomacy and Historical Memory: the Case of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk”, International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, published online 05 september 2018, (15 p.)

De Cleen, Benjamin, “Populism and Nationalism”, in Kaltwasser, Cristóbal Revira, Paul Taggart, Paulina Espejo and Pierre Ostiguy (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Populism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), pp. 342–359 (18 p)

Enloe, Cynthia, ‘Chapter 3: Nationalism and Masculinity’ in Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014), p. 83-124

Geiger, Susan 'Women and African Nationalism' Journal of Women's History, Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 1990, pp. 227-244, (18 p.)

Guibernau, Montserrat Belonging: Solidarity and Division in Modern Societies (London: Polity, 2013) – two chapters (47 p.)

Hunt, Lynn, History: Why It Matters (Cambridge, Polity 2018) pp. 1–88 (88 p.)

Hyslop, Jonathan “The Imperial Working Class Makes Itself ‘White’: White Labourism in Britain, Australia and South Africa Before the First World War”, Journal of Historical Sociology, 12, 4, 1999, pp. 398-421, (23 p.)

Kumar, Krishan ’Chapter 2: Nationalism and the Historians’ in Delanty & Kumar (eds). The SAGE Handbook of Nations and Nationalism (London: Sage, 2006), (14 p.)

Paul Lawrence, “Nationalism and Historical Writing”, The Oxford Handbook of the History of Nationalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2016), pp. 713–726, (14 p.)

MacMillan, Margaret, Dangerous Games: The Uses and Abuses of History, (New York: Modern Library 2010), (118 p.)

McClintock, Anne ”No Longer in a Future Heaven”: Women and Nationalism in South Africa Transition, No. 51 (1991), pp. 104-123, (20 p.)

Müller, Jan-Werner, What Is Populism?, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016, (102 p.)

Törnquist-Plewa, Barbara, “The Jedwabne Killings – A Challenge for Polish Collective Memory: The Polish Debate on Neighbours” in Karlsson, Klas-Göran, & Zander, Ulf (eds.), Echoes of the Holocaust. Historical Cultures in Contemporary Europe, (Lund: Nordic Academic Press 2003) pp. 141–176, ¬(36 p.)

All students who participate in or have finished a course are given the opportunity to evaluate the course at the end of the term. The university will compile the comments before making the evaluation and any subsequent changes to the course structure or content available to students. (HF 1:14).