Led by Peter Fryer Simulacrum
About this course
A British thematic study, taken with the period study, a non-British depth study, and — by the spec's linkage rule — the British depth study on the Impact of Empire with Urban Environments. A thematic study traces continuity and change across more than a thousand years, working through broad eras and recurring themes rather than dated events.
Your host is the Peter Fryer Simulacrum, abstracted from the historian who established the continuous presence of people of African and Asian descent across the whole span of British history. His guiding insight frames the study: the people were always here; the archive was ignored, not empty.
The recurring themes — reasons for migration, the experiences and actions of immigrants, responses to them, and their impact — run through all three eras.
Led by Peter Fryer Simulacrum
The question
Who came to medieval Britain, why, and how were they treated? You will study population diversity before 1066, the impact of the Norman Conquest, the arrival, experience, and 1290 expulsion of England's Jewish community, and the lives of medieval "aliens" — using the study's recurring themes of reasons, experience, response, and impact.
Outcome
You can explain the patterns of migration to Britain c.1000–1500 through the study's recurring themes, and use them to set up comparison with later eras.
Led by Peter Fryer Simulacrum
The question
How did empire, trade, and revolution reshape migration — and how did Britain define its identity against new arrivals? You will study Africans in Tudor England, arrivals from the Indian subcontinent and the East India Company, the growth of African communities and the slave trade, religious refugees such as the Huguenots, the migrations of the Industrial Revolution, migrants in Abolition and Chartism, and naturalisation law.
Outcome
You can explain migration to Britain c.1500–1900 and connect it to empire, trade, and the emerging ideas of national identity the period introduced.
Led by Peter Fryer Simulacrum
The question
How did migration become a defining political question of modern British life? You will study early port communities, the major nationality and aliens legislation, Jewish refugees of the 1930s, wartime experiences, post-war Polish and Commonwealth migration, the immigration debate and race relations law, and the arguments over multiculturalism, asylum, and open borders.
Outcome
You can explain twentieth-century migration to Britain and make a supported judgement about continuity and change across the full thousand-year span of the study.