The World Since World War II

The subject examines social, economic and political change in the world from the aftermath of World War II to the present using case studies to explore topics and themes such as the Cold War, civil rights, decolonisation, migration and the rise of political extremism. Key concepts developed during the period under study (second-wave feminism, post-industrialisation, imagined communities, Orientalism, postcolonialism, globalization, critical race theory) are introduced and discussed in the context of the history that produced them. Students will be encouraged to develop a command of major developments in recent world history, and invited to consider and analyse changing ideas of the world in the second half of the twentieth century.