Military History - BA (Hons)
Military history isn’t just about tanks and planes.?It’s about strategy and politics and relationships and it makes you conscious of what’s going on in the world.
The Military History course – not many universities offer it. I really enjoyed studying history at A?level but I wanted to branch out and try something new. I wanted a different spin on history. War interests me because nobody can justify it and yet it’s so prevalent in the world.
I settled in quite quickly because I’ve always enjoyed independent study and this course was more geared to what I was interested in. Going to lectures and seminars is very different to being at school and I really liked getting into a discussion in the seminars. In Military History there can be quite big contrasts in terms of what people think, so that’s really interesting.
One compulsory module in the first year laid out the basic principles and the different theories of war that we had to become familiar with. Apart from that module, you have a lot of freedom; you can choose to study anything – it’s really great. I kept my options quite open in the second year by taking some social and cultural history options. I do a lot of wider reading too –?I have an extensive collection of history books now, which I’m very proud of.
By the third year I knew exactly what I wanted to specialise in. I looked at war and medicine and how they coexist. War can create a huge amount of disease and so medicine has developed quickly in times of war. I was interested in military leaders and how they often become cult personalities so?I did a module on war leaders, looking at Hitler, Napoleon and Churchill. I wrote my dissertation on Winston Churchill and went to the War Office and the National Archives in London for my research.
The lecturers and seminar leaders are very supportive – if you send them an email they always reply. In Military History, the support system is very strong because it’s a small course and the academics in this area have really close contact with us all the way through our degrees.?
In terms of facilities, the library is amazing; I revised for my exams and wrote my dissertation in there because it’s such a nice space to be in. But studying is only part of the university experience. I really enjoyed my first year on campus, making friends and socialising.
The restaurants are good and The Venue nightclub is great,?obviously! There’s a lot to do without going into town. When I was a first year I hardly ever left campus.
Me and some other students revamped the Military History society in our second year. We’ve done some debate evenings and they’re popular – we usually get about 30 people. We’ve also organised trips away and that’s been really fun.
We had a lot of careers talks in the School of History so I went to all of them. Our options were very clearly laid out and I decided that I wanted to go into teaching. The huge amount of support I’ve received here made me want to give something back.
I’ve also been to the Careers and Employability Centre. They checked over my CV and gave me advice on where to start my teacher training and how to make my application –?so I had a lot of help.
Military history isn’t just about tanks and planes.?It’s about strategy and politics and relationships and it makes you conscious of what’s going on in the world. It’s just an incredible subject to study. I would do it all over again if I could. So my advice is – you’re going to love it!
