Should I do History and Politics at uni?

Hi, I' looking at university courses - and unsure what I could realistically do. I'm doing History, Art, English Literature and Classical Civilisation at AS but I want to Modern History at university.

I loved studying the Cold War and British Politics in history - so should I do History and Politics? My background knowledge on politics isn't great and I don't want to apply to a course that's out of my depth. :redface:

What does a History and Politics course actually involve? And what do I have to look at to improve my knowledge/ prepare/ to see if it'd be my thing?
Thanks :smile:

Reply 1

Nymthae

I don't have much experience with the course - but there's usually a good chance you can cut that back to a single subject after your first year, for instance. The "and Politics" usually just means you'll have some mandatory politics modules, rather than more unrestricted credits to use on history/other. I would imagine you can take politics-based modules in history with your unrestricted credits, but this depends a lot on the course structure/university. It may be worth emailing admissions at places of interest to see what their stance is on swapping from dual to single, and when you can do that - and the range of available courses within history that target politics.

Check the course content/structures for history and pol combined courses - the module names should give you a rough indication of the areas you'll be made to cover, and then you can look them up and see if it's of interest.

History and Pol at Shef - just whacked it up (my university, so check where you're interested) but it looks really open. So these are potential politics choices. The history page has some information on their modules as well (dept history on the right, undergrad, should expand to pages with module choices for years 1/2/3/4).

I would also imagine that having little politics background isn't a huge issue - because areas you study may not be relevant to other areas, much like in history. You'll have the skills you need from studying the subjects you're doing already.

Reply 2

Origami Bullets

You don't need a politics background to do a politics degree - few sixth forms offer the A Level, so they assume nothing more than general knowledge. However, an interest in politics is going to be enormously helpful, bearing in mind that you're not just going to be studying political history.

Have a look at the modules at different universities, but to show you the diversity involved in a politics degree I've covered topics including social policy, freedom and equality (in a political philosophy context), terrorism, borders and international political economy.

If you are interested in the Cold War, you might like to have a look at international relations, which is a discipline within politics that is more international in focus, looking at matters such as how states interact with each other.

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Reply 3

amiemay

Thank you so much! This is really helpful, I think I'll have a look at History and International Relations a bit or maybe into doing politics and then cutting back to history. :smile:

Thanks