Studying at York
Decolonisation and Social Revolution in the Modern Middle East and North Africa, 1945 to the present - HIS00169I
- Department: History
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: I
- Academic year of delivery: 2024-25
Module summary
This module explores the histories of decolonisation, national liberation and social revolution in the modern Middle East and North Africa from 1945 until the present. Popular movements in the region confronted a diverse range of colonial regimes and class relations in the course of the twentieth century. These included settler colonialism in Algeria, Morocco and Palestine, military occupation in Egypt and South Yemen, mandate structures in Transjordan, Palestine, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, as well as various forms of neo-colonial domination in Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. These colonial systems and the conservative elites upon which they commonly relied found their pervasive influence and power challenged by a new generation of anti-colonial nationalists, communist militants, guerrilla fighters, Islamist autodidacts, and popular social forces.
A new generation of politicians and militants espoused contrasting visions for self-determination, transnational solidarity, cultural and religious reconstruction, and social justice, and were imbued with hopes for revolutionary change across multiple scales. This module examines the efflorescence of revolutionary movements, upheavals and civil wars across the Middle East and North Africa. Revolutionary nationalists, Arab socialists and militant Islamists pursued their own distinct projects for decolonisation and postcolonial governance and irrevocably transformed their states, societies and the broader politics of the region. These revolutionary projects and political movements, however, were not without their own contradictions and blind-spots enacting new forms of domination and exclusion in turn. Drawing on primary and secondary sources the module sets out to explore these complex legacies and their continued relevance for the present.
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Semester 2 2024-25 |
Module aims
The aims of this module are:
- To provide students with the opportunity to study particular historical topics in depth
- To develop students’ ability to examine a topic from a range of perspectives and to strengthen their ability to work critically and reflectively with secondary and primary material
Module learning outcomes
Students who complete this module successfully will:
- Have acquired a deep knowledge of the specific topic studied
- Have developed their ability to use and synthesise a range of primary and secondary sources
- Be able to evaluate the arguments that historians have made about the topic studied
- Have developed their ability to study independently through seminar-based teaching
Module content
Students will attend a 1-hour briefing in week 1. Students will then attend a 1-hour plenary/lecture and a 2-hour seminar in weeks 2-4, 6-8 and 10-11 of semester 1. Weeks 5 & 9 are Reading and Writing Weeks (RAW) during which there are no seminars. Students prepare for and participate in eight 1-hour plenaries/lectures and eight 2-hour seminars in all.
Seminar topics are subject to variation, but are likely to include the following:
- Free Officers, Pan-Arabism, and Arab Socialism in Egypt
- The Palestinian Revolution and the Struggle for Self-Determination
- Revolution, Civil War, and Internationalism in North Africa
- Communism and Revolutionary Nationalism in Iraq and Syria
- Colonialism and Revolutionary Movements in the Arabian Peninsula
- The Iranian Revolution of 1979 and its Aftermath
- Islamism, Occupation, and Resistance in the Levant
- The Arab Uprisings of 2011: Historical Lineages and Aftershocks
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Additional assessment information
For formative assessment, students will complete a referenced 1200 to 1500-word essay relating to the themes and issues of the module. This will be submitted in either the Week 5 or Week 9 RAW week (on the day of the weekly seminar).
For summative assessment, students will complete an Assessed Essay (2000 words, footnoted). This will comprise 100% of the overall module mark.
Summative assessments will be due in the assessment period.
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Module feedback
Following their formative assessment task, students will typically receive written feedback that will include comments and a mark within 10 working days of submission.
Work will be returned to students in their seminars and may be supplemented by the tutor giving some oral feedback to the whole group. All students are encouraged, if they wish, to discuss the feedback on their formative work during their tutor’s student hours. For more information, see the Statement on Feedback.
For the summative assessment task, students will receive their provisional mark and written feedback within 25 working days of the submission deadline. The tutor will then be available during student hours for follow-up guidance if required. For more information, see the Statement of Assessment.
Indicative reading
For term time reading, please refer to the module VLE site. Before the course starts, we encourage you to look at the following items of preliminary reading:
- John Chalcraft, Popular Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016).
- Hanna Batatu, The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq: A Study of Iraq’s Old Landed and Commercial Classes and of its Communists, Ba‘thists and Free Officers (London: Saqi, 2012 [1978]).
- Betty S. Anderson, A History of the Modern Middle East: Rulers, Rebels, and Rogues (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2016).