June: Site update
Sunday 21 June 2020
Given the ferment of today's world, this quote acts as a reminder of the relevance of history:
The past is alive, dynamic, controversial and hugely relevant in today’s world. It is about justice and injustice, innovation and continuity, freedom and repression. It is about race and religion, ideas and beliefs, about travel, exploration and discovery, about medicine, sex and death, about architecture and art, literature and music. To be a historian is to be insatiably curious and ready to question, to challenge and to learn. It is these qualities which define our community.
Anna Whitelock, Director of the London Centre for Public History and Heritage and Head of the History Department at Royal Holloway, University of London
Site update
We have been able to do lots of work on the site inbetween zoom lessons with students!
The Section on the First World War for paper 3, European region, has been significantly revamped and more content added:
We have also added more help pages for distance learning - looking at other activities that you can do in zoom classes and how to set timed assessments and exams using exam.net. In fact we have now added a specific section on the site for Distance Learning:
Distance learning
This section of our site has developed in response to the new challenges which have emerged for teaching during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Examples of graded student work have also been uploaded for the following topics:
5. Europe and the First World War: Graded student essays
9a. Second World War and the Americas: Graded student essays
Authoritarian States: Graded student essays
9a. Japan 1920 to 1990: Graded student essays
6. PS3: Full source papers Case Study 2
We have also uploaded another A grade Extended Essay:
EE Sample 4: US intervention in Lebanon 1958
To what extent did President Eisenhower launch Operation Blue Bat, on 15th July 1958, to contain the threat posed by communism in the region?
Recursos en español
We are continuing to add to our resources in Spanish and have now completed the case study of the First World War for paper 2, Topic 11
Estudio de caso: La Primera Guerra Mundial
La Primera Guerra Mundial es un estudio de caso interregional. Es también un ejemplo de un conflicto en el que los teatros de guerra: tierra, mar y aire, las nuevas tecnologías y el alcance de la movilización...
History in the news
The current debate over the role of statues has provided an important opportunity for students to discuss how we remember the past. We have explored this further in our last TOK page:
What does it mean to tear down a statue? (June 2020)
“When is it possible to ignore or laugh at statues or symbols, and when does it become hard to do so?” Amit Chaudhuri
In addition to the articles we have linked to on the TOK page, there are many more that could inspire debate amongst students covering a range of other countries and examples of controverisal statues:
Belgium 'wakes up' to its bloody colonial past (BBC News)
Campaigners want statues of King Leopold II, who killed millions in Central Africa, to be removed.
Statues, Politics and The Past | History Today (www.historytoday.com)
What purpose do statues serve? This question came to the fore when former prime minister Theresa May announced plans in June 2019 for a memorial in London’s Waterloo station commemorating the arrival to Britain in 1948 of the first of the Windrush generation. The Windrush Foundation criticised the plans, pointing out that the government had not consulted members of the Caribbean community in the UK before publicising them.
The 100 Year anniversary of the Treaty of Trianon has also given rise to some very interesting articles as to the continuing relevance of this treaty in today's Hungary:
The 100-year wound that Hungary cannot forget (BBC News)
Hungary lost two-thirds of its territory in the 1920 Trianon treaty and now aims to revive its past.
Book Reviews
Finally, a couple of recently published books have caught our eye re potential summer/lockdown reading:
Mussolini's War by John Gooch review â fascist dreams of the 1930s and 40s (the Guardian)
A meticulous, skilful account of the Duceâ's erratic and ultimately disastrous attempt to make Italy a great power
The Napoleonic Wars by Alexander Mikaberidze book review (TLS)
Book review - History | The Napoleonic Wars: A global history by Alexander Mikaberidze, reviewed by Brendan Simms - The TLS. Alexander Mikaberidze reminds us in his engrossing and authoritative new “global history”, this conflict may have been centred on Europe, but it reached into almost every corner of the globe, including North and South America, Africa and Asia, and almost every sea and ocean, including the Baltic, the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean and even the Great Lakes.