August Blog: Site update and an intriguing exhibition
Thursday 17 August 2023
From the exhibition in Berlin: Roads not Taken. Oder: Es hätte auch anders kommen können
(see below)
Back to School
We hope that those of you returning to school in August after the long vacation have had a restful time!
If you are teaching first year IB History students, don't forget that we have an an introductory section for students who are new to the IB programme (Getting started: Students). This gives them an overview of the kinds of skills they will need for the IB History course and advice on how to develop key study (and revision) skills (You can get full access to this site for your students as part of your subscription).
Suggestions for activities that you might consider doing with new classes to introduce them to this subject can be found here:
Several of the themes under our TOK pages would also work well as an introduction to the study of history. These pages reflect on how current issues are linked to historical themes and questions:
Site update
We are continuing to upgrade our site - making the layout of our pages clearer and more attractive. At the same time we are also adding more content and activities.
This month we have worked on the following sections for Paper One and for Paper Two:
Pre IB/IGCSE site
We have also updated our IGCSE 20th Century History site to bring it up to date for those of you doing the Cambridge examinations in 2024.
We hope that this site will also be useful for any of you looking for materials for teaching a pre IB 20th Century History course:
IB History Syllabus Review
The second Curriculum Review report was published last September. You can find it here on MyIB (you may have to log in first to access the report).
We will keep you posted when the next report is published.
Roads Not Taken
Roads not Taken. Oder: Es hätte auch anders kommen können - Deutsches Historisches Museum (Deutsches Historisches Museum (DHM))
Exhibition, Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, 9 December 2022 to 24 November 2024
Entitled 'Roads not Taken. Oder: Es hätte auch anders kommen können' this exhibition in Germany at the Deutches Historisches Museum explores pivotal moments in German history through the 'What if?..' counterfactual lens of history.
The exhibition starts with the key events in 1989 (what would have happened if East Germany had followed the Chinese example of Tiananmen and suppressed the demonstrations?) and works backwards to look at alternative scenarios for such events as the Berlin Airlift, the attempted assassination of Hitler and the outbreak of the First World War.
'It brings actual turning points face to face with what might have happened if it were not for various factors. Along 14 distinctive moments in German history the probabilities of unrealised history – prevented by accidents, averted by misfires or other kinds of shortcomings – are explored: it is that which is known in the philosophy of history as contingency.'
This sounds fascinating. Taking a counterfactual approach to events is always interesting and useful for history students as they have to consider the key ingredients that have led to an event and to understand the context in order to appreciate what could have happened if any of one factor had been different.
The article in the Guardian below has a good summary of this exhibition and also suggests that Britain would benefit from making the same reflections.
What would Britain look like today if we'd chosen to follow the roads not taken? | Martin Kettle (the Guardian)
An exhibition in Berlin explores 14 alternative histories for Germany. What a shame that we don't do the same, says Guardian columnist Martin Kettle
If you are interested in discussing the idea of counter-factual history with your students further - see this page on our TOK section:
What if the Russian Revolution had never happened? (Nov 2017)
On the 2017 Anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, there are many articles on the revolution in the news. This New York Times article considers what might have happened had the Revolution never taken...
Movie of the summer: Oppenheimer
Many of your students will have seen the movie Oppenheimer over the summer. This will provide some good opportunities for discussion. There is of course the issue of the Atomic bomb and the impact of this weapon on the history of the world since the Second World War. But also - given the focus in the movie on Oppenheimer's security clearance hearing in 1954 - there is plenty to discuss about the Red Scare in the US and the impact that this had on ordinary people.
Even as the Oppenheimer Film Rights a Historic Wrong, the Memo That Smeared Him Remains Redacted (The Nation)
The physicist was punished for opposing development of the hydrogen bomb, and for warning about the dangers of nuclear proliferation.