I have just heard that I have been successful in getting onto this year's intake for the First World War Studies MA at Birmingham, starting in September.

Is anyone else on the course?

Any tips & suggestions from those who have already graduated would also be appreciated!

Regards
Brian

Well done, Brian. I am sure you are going to enjoy it.

Congratulations, you will have a great time and it will probably change your whole way of thinking about the war.

Any tips?

Be prepared to buy at least one new bookcase.
Be prepared to not pick up a novel or any other non-course reading material for the next two years.
Read and re-read the Bourne guide to writing.

On a more serious note
Use the library, it is a great resource.
Decide early on what your dissertation will be on.
When you read something interesting, take a note of the reference as it will save hours later when you write your essays/dissertation.

Have a great time.
Regards
TonyE

Old Boy from the first MA course.

Congratulations. I ma interested in this course although not ready to apply yet, perhaps this coming September. I am sure other Forum users woudl be interested to hear how you get on. Good Luck and best wishes

Nigel

Chris, Tony & Nigel

Many thanks for your best wishes & congratulations - I look forward to getting inside Douglas Haig's mind!


Just the one ?? - I now have a legitimate reason to buy lots of books !

Brian

Hi,
once the course has been going for a few months an update on how you are getting on/ enjoying it would be great. I am so interested in this course that I have currently embarked on a one year Honours level course at Dundee University. Although the course is on Scottish medieval history which is very relevant to me as a Scottish history teacher, the main reason I have taken the course is to get my brain working again in preparation for the WW1 studies course at Birmingham in a year or three.

Len

Len

Of course, I would be happy to.

At present - as the course start is still 7 months away - all I have so far is the Preliminary Reading list which comprises 24 books on the "Official" list and a further 10 recommended by one of the founding students. You are not expected to have read all/any of them but I managed to pick the following up from Amazon/Amazon Marketplace for fairly reasonable prices:

"Swordbearers" - Correlli Barnett

"Fire Power: The British Army - Weapons and Theories of War, 1904-1945" - Shelford Bidwell

"The Missing of the Somme" - Geoff Dyer

"Goodbye to All That" - Robert Graves

"The Haig Diaries: War Diaries and Letters - 1914-1918: The Diaries of Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig" - Sir Douglas Haig (edited by Gary Sheffield & John Bourne)

"All Quiet on the Western Front" - Erich Maria Remarque

"Smoke and the Fire: Myths and Anti-myths of War, 1861-1945" - John Terraine

"The Killing Ground: the British Army, the Western Front and the Emergence of Modern Warfare, 1900-1918" - Tim Travers

"How the War Was Won: Factors That Led to Victory in World War One" - Tim Travers

"Death's Men: Soldiers of the Great War" - Denis Winter

Apart from attending a couple of the Day Schools organised by the Centre - one recently on "Battlefield Archaeology and the Great War" and one in June to be based on the works of Peter Simkins - it will mean a lot of reading!

Regards
Brian

Hi Brian,
thanks for the reply. Some well known books there. One or two I have even read already. Hope you have a very rewarding period of study.

Len

All good books those.

Can I particularly recommend "Firepower" as that will give you an excellent insight into how and why artillery developed so rapidly during the war. Both of Travers books are important and of course the Haig Diaries give a useful background. "Death's Men" is Winter's best book, he produced some very poor stuff later.

Can I also add one to the list that is important, and that is "Kitchener's Army" by Peter Simkins. It is a superb piece of scholarship and reading that will really bring home the difficulties of building a citizen's army in a very short time.

Enjoy!
Regards
TonyE

Tony

Thanks. "Kitchener's Army" is, of course, on the reading list - just one I haven't bought yet. For anyone who is interested, the Preliminary Reading List for the 2008-2009 course year is here (second item on the menu).

Regards
Brian

Hey, I have none of these though my shelves are groaning!

Perhaps I buy tat, I don't know. I doubt it.

Anyone else in this situation?

Martin

Congratulations Brian! I am very jealous, I had been eyeing the Centre for First World War Studies for a while but without a lotto win I wasn't going to get there from Australia. I'm starting my PhD on Friday *gasp*

I think you should read Command on the Western Front by Prior and Wilson.

Any ideas on a specific topic?

Meleah

Martin

I too had far too many WW1 books already - but none off the Reading List as it turned out. That is actually a large part of the attraction of this course to me though - the opportunity to read & learn about a subject that continues to obsess me but in a much more structured way and in so doing, come out with a better understanding of the War and the way it was fought. Not to mention being able to do this in the company of like-minded individuals!

Brian

Meleah

Thank you! "Command on the Western Front" is also on the Reading List - but still to be bought.

I have some ideas for my dissertation but nothing firm yet. What is your PhD going to be on?

Regards
Brian

Hi Brian
Hope you enjoy the course and that we get a chance to meet at a Day School or some such.
I always credit John Bourne as being the person who got me interested in the Great War as an undergraduate 25+ years ago and Pete Simkins as one of three people who took me under their collective Great War wing at the IWM. The Centre for FWW Studies is a great achievement by John and I hope you enjoy studying there.
Bryn

Bryn

Thanks. I had the pleasure of hearing your talk at the WFA Regional Seminar in Milton Keynes last October - and I am also the owner of one of your "highly collectible" (so I am told) signed "Cambrai 1917" books!

Regards
Brian

Brian

Do you want an unsigned one as well (very cheap!)? Just in case someone misinformed you ...

Best wishes and good luck with the course. Contact me if I can be of any help.

Bryn

I'm going to have a look at the series of battles for Mouquet Farm in Aug-Sept 1916 and see what happens. There are some interesting questions there about command and obedience that I think will turn into an interesting thesis. My honours dissertation was on weapons development and application in 1918 so I'll have to reverse a few years. I'd be interested to hear what you're thinking about ideas-wise! And of course, if I can help with anything from here, let me know.

Good luck with Command on the Western Front. If you find more than one copy let me know, I'm still looking for my copy! Have just been in Canberra for 6 weeks and despite having lugged 11kg of military history books back with me, it wasn't to be found. Nor Bryn's book, either!

Meleah

Meleah

I will send you a PM.

Regards
Brian

Its so good to know from what everyone has said that I have made the right decision in binning the day job and appyling to Birmingham, now waiting to hear back to see if I start in September.

I have just filled one bookcase I made now it looks as if I shall be keeping B & Q in business over the summer making another one or two!!

Anyone know of any short courses in aerial phot interpretation etc as a former civil engineer/topo surveyor maps and aerial phots are a bit of interest.

Anyone else starting sept?

John

John

Good luck with the application - and get that bookcase ready - the preliminary reading list only has 34 books to read !

Brian