The British and European (1700-1850) strand of the MPhil in History introduces you to interdisciplinary work on British history in the long eighteenth century, on the enlightenment and on the French revolution and its effects.

The MPhil in History has a sustained period devoted to archival research and writing, and is designed to give you a thorough training in historical research, improve your ability to conceptualise and engage with historical problems, and enlarge your understanding of the historical and historiographical context in which your own research is set. All strands in the programme can serve as either free-standing graduate qualifications, or as a springboard to doctoral study. Students wishing to proceed to doctoral study will be encouraged to develop their doctoral proposals during the first few months of the second year. Skills training and option-choice are flexible and open-ended, to allow you to gain the knowledge and training needed to complete your research project.

Oxford’s historians have risen to the challenge of finding ways of characterising the long eighteenth century that transcend older notions of a passage from ‘traditional’ to ‘modern’, addressing questions about the Enlightenment and all types of revolutions that occurred during the long eighteenth century.

You will take three compulsory core papers and two optional papers, as well as undertake an original research project. There is also a research masterclass, which is not assessed. This structure gives access to a wide range of both general and specialised training within the field of history.