HS2O51: Revolutionary Cities

Module code: HS2O51

Module provider: History; School of Humanities

Credits: 20

ECTS credits: 10

Level: 5

When you’ll be taught: Semester 1

Module convenor: Professor Jeremy Burchardt, email: j.burchardt@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: No placement specified

Academic year: 2026/7

Available to visiting students: Yes

Talis reading list: Yes

Last updated: 25 March 2026

Overview

Module aims and purpose

This module seeks to re-imagine, explore and understand one of the high points of human experience: the euphoria of the revolutionary moment.  Many, although perhaps not all, revolutions generate a passionate upwelling of hope, idealism and enthusiasm.  This has occurred across a wide range of time and space, in many different places and periods.  This euphoria seems to arise most readily in an urban context.  The module therefore focuses on urban revolutions.  It takes a comparative, diachronic approach, seeking to assess how far there are genuine similarities in the popular experience of urban revolutions across time and space and to identify continuities and changes.  The module uses a wide range of visual and aural material to find a way into the elusive and evanescent character of the ‘what it was like’ of the revolutionary moment.  Among the cities we will consider are Florence in 1494, Münster in 1534-5, Paris in 1789, 1871, and 1968, Petrograd in 1917, and Barcelona in 1936.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to:

1. have a detailed knowledge of the events through extensive reading in specialised literature;
2. appraise critically the primary sources and historical interpretations of the subject;
3. organise material and articulate arguments effectively in writing; and
4. have developed their oral communication skills.

Module content

Among the cities to which we will be paying virtual visits are Florence in 1494, Münster in 1534-5, Paris in 1789, 1871, and 1968, Petrograd in 1917, and Barcelona in 1936. In Florence, the passionately idealistic preacher Giacomo Savonarola sought to create a ‘New Jerusalem’ of virtuous living and communal charity between 1494 and 1498. Münster was the scene of an extraordinary proto-communist Anabaptist experiment in the early years of the Renaissance. Paris, more than any other city in the world, is the home of revolutions: the seismic upheaval of the French Revolution of 1789, the brief flowering of the Commune in 1871 and the equally evanescent but equally influential May Days of 1968. Petrograd was a city in ferment in 1917, generating two revolutions in the same year, while the intense tradition of Spanish anarchism, idealistic and violent by turns, culminated in Barcelona and the surrounding countryside in 1936. Throughout, we will be assessing what it was that caused these great upsurges of human hope and passion, whether the euphoria of the revolutionary moment and the violence that sometimes accompanied it are two sides of the same coin or arise from different causes, and what the legacy of these extraordinary events was.

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching and learning will be by a variety of methods, which may include:

• Lectures;
• Seminars, which rely on structured group discussion and may also include seminar papers by students, discussion of evidence, team-based exercises, and debates;
• Online exercises, including quizzes and worksheets;
• Discussion boards; and
• Independent study. 

Study hours

At least 33 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

Students need to achieve an overall module mark of 40% to pass this module.

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

Assessments with numerical marks

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each calendar day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of three calendar days;
• where the piece of work is submitted up to three calendar days after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in you Individual Learning Plan), the mark awarded due to the imposition of the penalty shall not fall below the threshold pass mark, namely 40% in the case of modules at Levels 4-6 (i.e. undergraduate modules for Parts 1-3) and 50% in the case of Level 7 modules offered as part of an Integrated Masters or taught postgraduate degree programme;
• where the piece of work is awarded a mark below the threshold pass mark prior to any penalty being imposed, and is submitted up to three calendar days after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan), no penalty shall be imposed;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three calendar days after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan): a mark of zero will be recorded.

Assessments marked Pass/Fail

• where the piece of work is submitted within three calendar days of the deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan): no penalty will be applied;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three calendar days after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan): a grade of Fail will be awarded.

Where a piece of work is submitted late after a deadline which has been revised owing to an extension granted through the Assessment Adjustments policy and process (self-certified or otherwise), it will be subject to the maximum penalty (i.e., considered to be more than three calendar days late). This will also apply when such an extension is used in conjunction with a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf

You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

1,000 words or 2 pages of A4 maximum to include, at the module convenor's discretion, an essay plan, bibliography, book review or other preparatory work towards each of the summative essays.

Reassessment

Additional costs