Modern and Contemporary History

Modern and contemporary history covers the period from roughly the late eighteenth century to the present, a span of time that includes industrialisation, democratisation, empire, genocide, world wars, decolonisation, the rise and fall of communist states, and the emergence of the globalised world we inhabit today. Studying this period demands engagement with an extraordinary range of sources and methods, from diplomatic archives and personal diaries to photographic evidence, film, oral history, and digital materials, and requires the historian to grapple with events whose consequences are still unfolding.

At Queen Mary University of London, this four-year full-time programme encourages you to explore how the huge advances in society and technology of the past two centuries have been accompanied by injustice, violence, and ideological conflict. You will examine the social and economic transformations that followed industrialisation alongside the political upheavals that produced two world wars, fascism, Soviet communism, and the Cold War. Decolonisation, civil rights movements, gender equality, and the politics of memory are among the themes through which you will understand how the present has been shaped by historical forces often still contested and incompletely understood.

Queen Mary's location in east London, itself a place of enormous historical significance in terms of migration, labour history, and urban change, informs the programme's concern with connecting historical inquiry to contemporary social realities.

Throughout the degree, you will develop skills of research, critical reading, argument construction, and clear writing that are among the most transferable a university education can provide. Historians are trained to evaluate competing interpretations of evidence, to understand how knowledge is constructed and contested, and to communicate complex ideas with precision and clarity.

Graduates from history programmes work in education, journalism, the civil service, publishing, heritage and museums, law, politics, research, and a broad range of management and professional roles. The analytical and communication skills developed through historical study are genuinely valued across sectors that depend on evidence-based reasoning and clear argument. Postgraduate study in history, area studies, heritage management, or archival science is a common progression for those drawn to academic or specialist careers.