Contemporary History

The second half of the twentieth century was witness to many of the developments that have shaped our contemporary world, from the crystallisation of the Cold War to the decolonisations that swept across Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. At the same time, new forms of communication and transportation infrastructure transformed daily life, if in highly uneven ways.

Drawing on archival documents, artefacts of material culture and audio-visual content, historians of the contemporary period enjoy access to a widened pool of primary sources to explore these themes critically and analytically. With staff expertise across a broad thematic and geographic coverage, you have a unique opportunity to understand the present through the recent past.

How will I learn? This MSc allows you to explore such questions critically and analytically while discovering how the recent past shaped the modern world. You will gain a comprehensive understanding of the increasingly global experience of humankind in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

A specialised methodological and historiographical course will help you appreciate the distinctiveness of contemporary history; its use of radio, television, film, and internet-based sources such as Wikileaks; and its methodology.

This rigorous skills training will be supplemented by a variety of topical, specialised options, covering virtually every distinctive approach to history (for example, political, social and economic) and every region on the globe, underlining the increasing globalisation of our recent past.

Facilities The MSc makes use of Edinburgh’s unique archival and bibliographical resources – the National Archives of Scotland, the National Library of Scotland, the University’s library and archives – and is enriched by the city’s key role in current British politics.

Additionally, with our close association with the Centre for the Study of Modern and Contemporary History, Edinburgh is a wonderful environment for contemporary scholarship.