Global history for beginners
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- Start Date: 30 Oct 2025End Date: 27 Nov 2025Thu (Daytime): 15:00 - 17:00OnlineFull fee £149.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £97.00
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What is the course about?
Global history offers a broad perspective on the past by examining connections, communities, and comparisons across time and space. While traditional histories often focus on nations, global history highlights themes such as trade, migration, and empire. Today, historians increasingly engage with contemporary concerns—climate change, energy transitions, and globalization—recognizing that we are in a pivotal moment of world history and applying global lenses for a new reading of the past. This course introduces global history through three broad phases: 1) the world before fossil fuels, 2) the age of industrialization and empires, and 3) the modern world and its uncertain future beyond fossil fuels.
What will we cover?
• Introduction to World History & the First Civilizations
• The Rise of Eurasian Agrarian Empires
• Colonialism and Capitalism, 1450–1850
• Global Transformations and Industrialization 1850-1945
• Cold Wars, Globalization, Climate Change, and the Future of World History.
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...
• Connect historical events across different time periods and regions
• Describe key developments from early civilizations to today’s globalized world
• Analyse empire, imperialism, and their long-term legacies
• Identify challenges in studying and interpreting global history
• Relate contemporary global issues to historical trends.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
The course is ‘introductory’ and does not require previous studies on the topic. However, curiosity and a willingness to discuss will help both your learning and class discussions. A good grasp of English will also enhance your learning.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
The class will be a combination of illustrated teacher presentation, brief collective exercises (maps, quotes, illustrations etc.) and group discussion. The slides will be available to you after each session for note-taking. There will be no required work outside of class.
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
There are no additional costs. The course fee includes access to the British Museum’s collections used during the class.
When I've finished, what course can I do next?
We offer a range of courses on Global, European and British & Irish history & politics. Please visit the relevant sections of our website for further details.
Olivia Durand is global historian doing work and teaching on the politics of history and memory, settler colonialism and colonial port cities in addition to the history of 19th century Russia, Ukraine and America. Olivia has worked at Oxford University, the Free University in Berlin and the Institute of Historical Justice and Reconciliation in the Hague and is keen to offer more courses at City Lit.
Please note: We reserve the right to change our tutors from those advertised. This happens rarely, but if it does, we are unable to refund fees due to this. Our tutors may have different teaching styles; however we guarantee a consistent quality of teaching in all our courses.
