• Offered for Year: 2025/26

• Module Leader(s): Dr Joseph Lawson

• Owning School: History, Classics and Archaeology
• Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus

• Capacity limit: 48 student places

Semesters

Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.

Aims

This module considers the history of both European integration and the UK’s relationship with it in the period from 1945 to the present day. The European Union (and its predecessor organisations) and the UK are central to the module, but other organisations, such as the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), and the role of other actors, such as France’s role in the development of the EU, are also explored.

One of the key questions we explore in this module is whether the UK’s relationship with the EU was doomed from the beginning. In examining this question we look at key concepts in the secondary literature, such as the idea that the UK has been an ‘awkward partner’ in Europe or a ‘reluctant European’. As such, key moments in the development of UK-EU relations are considered. These include, but are not limited to, the UK’s exclusion from the Schuman Plan, the failed attempts to gain entry to the EEC in the 1960s, the 1975 referendum, the Maastricht Treaty and the 2016 referendum.

This module also seeks to look ‘beyond’ Brexit and challenge the idea that the UK has always been an awkward partner by interrogating periods when the UK has played a constructive role in European institutions, such as the development of the Single Market and the UK’s role in the enlargement of the EU in the 1990s/00s.

It considers traditional ‘elite’ actors in international affairs but also explores the presentation of European integration in the British press and public opinion. Particular attention is paid to the role of the Murdoch press in the development of Eurosceptic discourse in the UK.

The module draws on a wide range of primary sources ranging across state archives, newspapers, political pamphlets/posters, memoirs and oral histories.

Outline Of Syllabus

A suggested list of seminar topics include
1.       Schuman Plan
2.       European Free Trade Association
3.       The failed applications in the 1960s
4.       France and the development of Europe
5.       Labour’s divisions in the 1960s and 1970s
6.       The 1975 referendum
7.       The UK’s contributions to the Single Market
8.       Euroscepticism and the Murdoch Press
9.       New Labour and the enlargement of the EU
10.       The 2016 Referendum
11.       Negotiating Brexit and Beyond

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

The weekly lectures provide the foundation for each weekly topic but preserve the seminar discussions for more in-depth discussions of our subjects and sources.

Drop-in sessions give the students an opportunity to discuss their assignments on a one-to-one basis with the instructor.

Independent learning, reading and research are central to this module and are necessary to support the seminar discussions. Students are expected to prepare in advance for seminars by reading a wide range of secondary and primary sources, both from a directed list and by reading more widely around each topic. A significant part of our seminar discussions will focus on primary sources but also, given the contemporary nature of the topic, link to ongoing events.

While oral communication is central to the seminar discussions, the assessments are selected to the students develop their written and visual communication skills by including both a campaign poster as a more creative element and an essay.

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners

Other Assessment

Formative Assessments

Formative Assessment is an assessment which develops your skills in being assessed, allows for you to receive feedback, and prepares you for being assessed. However, it does not count to your final mark.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Primary sources are at the heart of this module and so the assessments privilege a close-reading of those sources. The campaign poster assessment will help the students both understand the challenges of political communication in a referendum and closely interrogate the messages that were included in the campaign materials created at the time. The essay then extends these skills further by bringing in secondary material and focusing on developing the students’ written communication skills

The formative assessment, in the form of an essay outline and annotated bibliography, offers the students an opportunity for oral feedback during drop-in time.

Reading Lists

• HIS3370's Reading List

Timetable

• Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
• HIS3370's Timetable