HISS2010 History of Crises and Societal Changes (5 cr)

This course will explore the prevalence of famine in Europe during the Long Nineteenth Century, taking a comparative and transnational thematic approach, and including the ways in which European powers dealt with famines in their empires / colonies.

Despite the regularity of famine in pre-modern Europe, these social and demographic catastrophes tend to remain under-researched, and where they do become part of a national history, they are often treated as "unique" calamities. During this course, students will examine various famines in different parts of Europe and European Empires, and consider, for example:
 What different terms for “famine” are used in different societies?
 What are the causes / triggers for famine - how do natural events create social / demographic disasters?
 What are the common themes in famine / poor relief - how are
policies shaped by ethnic / racial presumptions?
 How do gender and class impact on famine vulnerability?
 How do (often imagined) national and international communities
contribute to famine relief fundraising?
 What factors affect migration and emigration?
 What / who decides whether a particular famine becomes politicised, and whether it becomes a part of national historiography?

Students will have the opportunity to explore case studies of their own particular interest, and will also be asked to consider commonalities between the famines / famine relief rhetoric of the 1800s, and those global crises which have occurred, and continue to occur, in the last four decades.

Specific cases include: Ireland; Sweden (Norrland); Estonia; Iceland; Scotland; Galicia (Poland); Russia; Anatolia; French Empire (Algeria); Spain and Finland.