I am currently studying in my final year of a BA(Hons) degree in Politics & International Relations & am looking into applying for an MA in Modern History next year, as I did it at A-level & have a strong interest in the subject.

I was just wondering if anyone had an advice, or any other routes to going down the history pathway.


BA(Hons) degree in Politics & International Relations & am looking into
applying for an MA in Modern History next year, as I did it at A-level &
have a strong interest in the subject. I was just wondering if anyone had an
advice, or any other routes to going down the history pathway.
Thanks!

Hello!

Good to hear of another student interested in history. I am currently undertaking a PhD in the subject.

I did an MA in Modern European History in 2009-2010. I had a very good time, and would heartily recommend it. Especially if you're doing it full time, it will only be a year long too.

A few hints and tips:

1. Think carefully about what type of history you wish to study for your MA. It will be more specialised than anything you've done before.
2. Think carefully about what you want your thesis to be about.
3. Start early on the above.
4. Just out of interest, you say your BA is in Politics and International Relations - any particular reason you wish to slightly adapt your path from this subject to that of history? (Though, to be sure, many of the skills you would have picked up will be transferable to your new area).

Best wishes, and good luck with your choice!

Hi,
I did my MA in Cultural History after completing my BA in History. Whilst most people on my MA course did have a History BA, there were a few who had other backrgrounds - mainly English Lit and Politics if I remember correctly.

Although I guess it's different for every course/institution, I could not see it being a problem doing an MA in this field without a BA in History. With Cultural History, it was very much a case of everyone had their own interest areas on my course (e.g. I was/am interested in female crime and sexuality in early 20th century Britain whereas other people were interested in race in 20th century America) and it was these individual interests which typically formed the subject of our assignments, whilst tutorials were concerned with learning about the broader methodological issues and techniques, scholarly trends and the sub-disciplines of history. So, I would reiterate what was said above about going into the MA with quite a concrete and concentrated idea about your research area - the MA is a time and chance to really get to grips with your subject and therefore its much more rewarding and beneficial (in terms of grades) to be quite focussed rather than trying to tackle a lot of different and new areas (something I learnt early on in the MA).

Having lived with Politics students at undergrad, I know that a lot of our modules did overlap anyway. Also, in my MA department there was a MA course called Twentieth Century History, which a lot more Politics undergrads tended to op for at MA level and I was say that was probably half history undergrads and half politics.

Perhaps it would be worth looking at some of the introductory texts to history which we were encouraged to use at both undergrad and MA (and indeed, I often still use them at PhD level). One which I would certainly suggest is the 'The Houses of History: A Critical Reader in Twentieth-century History and Theory' edited by Anna Green and Kathleen Troup. It's brilliant for an overview of the trends in historical research/ different schools of thought - and although it is quite dry in parts I think it may be of use.

Well, good luck with everything and I hope you are successful in whatever you choose to do
:-)