(NOT OFFICIAL) Durham University History (V100) Freshers 2025/2026

Wondering if anyone has spotted a good V100 History preparatory reading list for the final 3-4 weeks? Or any publications they'd strongly recommend?

There's recommended introductory reading for each first year module on the module choice SharePoint page

I suppose the trends towards war/empire type modules are because it's most similar to what a lot of us (in the UK at least) will have studied at school - lots and lots about the Norman conquest, the Tudors, ancient Greece/Rome and the world wars, and very little about anywhere outside Europe. (and maybe America - I've always hated how we learn more about the US's civil rights movement than our own!! Like, everyone in the UK knows who Martin Luther King Jr was, but ask them about the Bristol Bus Boycott and you'd be met with silence...) My module choices, at least, were based on what I found most interesting from my previous historical research.
I think my school and college may have been dark horses, because in Y9 we spent whole half-terms on the topics of Genocide and British Civil Rights, and then for my A-Level I studied the British Empire and Russia from 1917-1953 (although my NEA was on Tudor rebellions, so returning to convention there)

Nice mix eurotasking and a good foundation for future study.
Good to see that you managed to breakout of the usual mould.
The excessive historical focus the UK has placed on the Tudors and the Nazis to the marginalisation of everything else has never been particularly beneficial.

our head of history in secondary school was the goat honestly

Thanks for setting up the history thread eurotasking. You're a star.
As Durham University doesn't seem to offer a preparatory reading list (and no one seems to have posted anything specific) perhaps you could recommend a few publications to read for this month? Maybe based on what you most enjoyed and appreciated in your previous wide-ranging study.

I’m currently reading What Is History? by EH Carr, and I’ve also read In Defence of History by Richard J Evans - they were recommended to me as good introductions to historiography.
I also developed an interest in Japanese history after my parents got me The Japanese Myths by Joshua Frydman for my birthday. I thought Japan Story by Christopher Harding covered the modern period in Japan well.
I can also remember reading Empire by Niall Ferguson because it was one of the texts my A-Level teacher and textbook used - can’t remember exactly what I thought of it but it must have covered 1857-1967 (there or thereabouts) in enough detail for it to be used
that’s it I think?

Is it abnormal that I haven't heard from the history department at all yet? I did only get my log-in details for my email and banner recently but apparently I need to select my modules by the 20th (it says so on the self-service banner) but my friend who will also be doing history had a microsoft form they completed (apparently due for the 12th) that I have not seen at all. Is anyone else still waiting to hear? Selecting modules is the only thing I have left to do on the enrolment page and I'd like to start preparing for modules with reading although I am very aware that it would be a late start (though not my fault at all - I've been waiting for the module guidance I apparently should be getting).

Is it abnormal that I haven't heard from the history department at all yet? I did only get my log-in details for my email and banner recently but apparently I need to select my modules by the 20th (it says so on the self-service banner) but my friend who will also be doing history had a microsoft form they completed (apparently due for the 12th) that I have not seen at all. Is anyone else still waiting to hear? Selecting modules is the only thing I have left to do on the enrolment page and I'd like to start preparing for modules with reading although I am very aware that it would be a late start (though not my fault at all - I've been waiting for the module guidance I apparently should be getting).

Wait where are we supposed to pick modules?

The deadline was yesterday, I think. Didn't you get an email from the History Dept a week or so ago?

No I didn’t but maybe that’s because I do English lit and history so it looks like I can just pick my modules on banner