HistoryQ&A by dot point

Interpreting history: understanding why historians disagree, analysing the basis of an interpretation, evaluating its strengths and limits with your own knowledge, and reaching a supported judgement.

Politics and religion in Britain: the Reformation and its consequences, the wars of religion and the Civil War, the settlement of toleration, and the long interaction of church and state.

The mid-Tudor crisis 1547 to 1558: minority rule under Edward VI, rebellion and faction, religious upheaval, the reign of Mary I, and the historical debate over how far this was a crisis.

Britain and the suffragettes: the campaign for women's suffrage, the suffragists and suffragettes, militancy and the government response, the impact of the First World War, and the winning of the vote.

Nazi Germany 1933 to 1945: the consolidation of dictatorship, the machinery of the police state, propaganda and society, persecution and the Holocaust, and Germany at war.

The French Revolution 1774 to 1795: the crisis of the old regime, the events of 1789, the radicalisation of the Revolution, the Terror, and the Thermidorian reaction.

Analysing historical interpretations: identifying the argument, explaining the basis of an interpretation, evaluating it with own knowledge, and reaching a judgement on how convincing it is.

Evaluating primary sources: assessing provenance, content and tone, weighing value against limitations using own knowledge, and structuring a balanced source evaluation.

The interpretations-from-sources question (Unit 2 and 4): identifying the interpretation in a nominated source, using the other nominated source and own knowledge to test how far it supports or contradicts that interpretation, and reaching a judgement, without turning it into a source-comparison.

The individual study essay: choosing a question, researching across interpretations, building an argument, deploying evidence, and writing a sustained, well-referenced essay.

The period-study essay (Unit 1, AO1): reading the concept in the question, choosing two essays from four, planning an argued line on causation, change, continuity or significance, deploying precise evidence across the period, and reaching a supported judgement.

The synoptic breadth essay (Unit 3, AO1): handling questions that span at least 100 years and two broad themes, planning a synoptic line on change, continuity and significance, selecting evidence from across the whole period, and reaching a sustained judgement.

Germany in transition 1919 to 1991: the Weimar Republic, the rise and rule of the Nazis, occupation and division, and the path to reunification.

Russia in transition 1881 to 1991: the decline of tsarism, the 1917 revolutions, the building of the communist state, Stalinism, and the road to collapse under Gorbachev.

The USA in transition 1890 to 1990: industrial growth and reform, the Depression and New Deal, the world wars, the civil rights movement, and Cold War superpower status.