M.SC. IN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL HISTORY

INTRODUCTION

The MSc in Economic and Social History is run jointly with the Department of Economics and the Faculty of History.

This one-year specialist course offers a unique framework for research training in economic and social history.

Economic and Social History is the study of economic activities, institutional change, and social organization in the historical past. It encompasses a range of methods and topics but typically studies the past using quantitative rather than qualitative approaches.

This course offers a unique framework for research training in economic and social history. You will be introduced to a wide variety of methods used in the study of economic and social history, as well as to the subject itself. The core papers provide an opportunity to evaluate a range of different qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches; they impart a common language, and create a close and friendly community, in which ideas are shared, and strong personal ties are forged, developing a community that provides a base from which to venture out and experience the intellectual, social and cultural rewards of Oxford.

COURSE STRUCTURE

Through studying this programme, you will develop the techniques, skills and knowledge required to contribute to the study of history from a social science perspective, within a unique framework for research training in economic and social history.

The course extends over eleven months, spread across three terms. In the first term (Michaelmas) students complete the core courses, in the second term (Hilary) students choose two advanced options courses, and the final term (Trinity) is devoted to a dissertation.

An overview of the core structure is outlined below. Further details about the Advanced Options courses can be found at the course website: https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/msc-mphil-economic-and-social-history

The advanced options of the History of Science and Medicine programmes are also available for Economic and Social History candidates.

QUANTATIVE METHODS

STANDARD COURSE

Quantitative Methods 1 is designed to help students understand basic quantitative methods with a consideration of historical sources and contexts. It is also meant to develop basic fluency with Stata. While the course does not require any previous knowledge relating to statistics or mathematics, it moves quickly starting with descriptive statistics and ending with basic multiple linear regression.

ADVANCED COURSE

Quantitative Methods 2 introduces students to multiple regression and related methods for analysing data in economics and related disciplines. Additional topics include regression with discrete random variables, instrumental variables regression, analysis of quasi-experiments, and regression with time series data. Students will learn how to conduct – and how to critique – empirical studies. Accordingly, the emphasis of the course is on empirical applications. The mathematics of econometrics will be introduced only as needed and will not be a central focus.

 

 

WHAT HAPPENED AND WHY

The course is designed (in conjunction with the quantitative methods courses) to prepare graduates for research in economic and social history. It provides an opportunity to view the subject as a whole and to consider its origins, its methodological foundations, its relations with adjacent disciplines and its current trends, achievements, and problems. It presents some of the central methodological issues of the social sciences, and some of their recent advances. It then indicates how these various methodological approaches can be applied to the study of economic and social history.

HISTORY OF ECONOMIC HISTORIANS (elective)

This course provides an optional introduction to (or refresher in) historical methods. Each class focuses on a type of documentary source that can be used either as the backbone of a historical study or as additional material to provide context and colour. The instructors begin each class with a brief description of the types of document to be considered before the group proceeds to read and analyze examples of primary source materials. The course also covers ways of locating relevant source materials and practicalities of archival work.

ECONOMICS FOR ECONOMIC HISTORIANS (elective)

Economics can appear inaccessible to anyone not familiar with its language and method. Yet it remains a versatile and useful approach to the study of social behaviour. The aim of this course is to introduce student to the principles and basic concepts of economics, both in microeconomics and macroeconomics, and to demystify some of the jargon often used in the discipline. This course does not assume or require any prior knowledge of economics or maths.

  • Examples of recent course titles are provided below. Courses on offer change from year to year, and this is an indicative list only.

  • International Money and Finance after 1945

  • Finance, Capitalism and the British Empire

  • Italy since 1800: Development in a Peripheral Economy

  • History From Below: Working-Class Autobiography as a Source for Economic Historians

  • Navies and Economies: Britain and France, 1740-1815

  • Problems in European Historical Demography, 1560-1945

  • Themes and Debates in Modern British Agrarian History

  • Topics in Historical Labour Markets

  • Inequality, Economic Growth and State Formation in Historical Perspective

  • Death of a Dream: Social Democracy and the Political Economy of the English Working Class since 1945

  • The growth of a metropolis: Society and Economy in London, 1550-1700

A dissertation of not more than 15,000 words on a topic of the student's choice, submitted in August. Students will begin to formulate and plan their dissertation in conjunction with their supervisors from the beginning of the course.

ADMISSION CRITERIA

For full details on the Admissions Criteria for the MSc in Economic and Social History, please visit the Oxford University webpage here.

FEES AND FUNDING

You can find more information about the annual fees for the MSc in Economic and Social History on the Oxford University webpage here by selecting the ‘Funding and Costs tab’.