History Extension Question Thread!

[tay.j]

Hey...I've just chosen to do Extension History for next year (at the end of yr 11 now). Our teacher has given us the option of studying Napoleon OR JFK, and was just wondering if anyone could give some insight into these two case studies? Or if their are any outstanding reasons to chose one over the other? Thanks

[carina1157]

Hi Susie,

Our teacher has recommended chronological history extension essays all year, for which my whole class has been receiving reasonably high marks for internally, leading me to believe that this was the way to go about things. Reading some notes from the marking centre and posts in this thread, I've realised the for the HSC this probably isnt the best way to go. Any tips on how to transfer my essay from a chronological structure to a thematic structure?

Thanks so much!

[sudodds]

Hey...I've just chosen to do Extension History for next year (at the end of yr 11 now). Our teacher has given us the option of studying Napoleon OR JFK, and was just wondering if anyone could give some insight into these two case studies? Or if their are any outstanding reasons to chose one over the other? Thanks

Hey tay.j! Unfortunately I didn't study either of those options, so i can't really say much here, however I know a few others have so hold on tight!

Hi Susie,

Our teacher has recommended chronological history extension essays all year, for which my whole class has been receiving reasonably high marks for internally, leading me to believe that this was the way to go about things. Reading some notes from the marking centre and posts in this thread, I've realised the for the HSC this probably isnt the best way to go. Any tips on how to transfer my essay from a chronological structure to a thematic structure?

Thanks so much!

Hey Carina! Yeah, I wouldn't recommend a chronological structure for a few reasons. 1. You're more likely to write a history of historiography, rather than actual historiography, 2. it's not very universal (for example sometimes the ancient historians aren't the best sources to be discussing for a question), 3. it often makes it harder to integrate the the source, and 4. it makes it A LOT harder to incorporate your own voice! Thematic structures are a lot better, and alleviate these problems.

The way to transfer over to writing thematically is to focus on the historiographical ideas and questions, rather than the historians. These ideas and questions are almost always somewhere in the source, so i'd go with these ones, as that way you are integrating the source effectively as well! So, for example, a thematic essay may have this structure (this is a hypothetical, what themes you choose depend on the source);

- Nature and possibility of objectivity within history
- Role of new research/archival technology, and its impact on the discipline of history.
- Role of social history, and its impact on the discipline of history.

Obviously you'd want to mention the key historians (as you usually have to have at least 2 other sources integrated consistently throughout), however you need to shift the focus. Rather than these are the historians, and these are their ideas, it should more so be here are some key historiographical ideas, which are demonstrated by these historians!

Does this make sense? There are a few example essays that I wrote in the notes section if you want to check them out too

Hope this helps!

Susie

[katie,rinos]

Hey...I've just chosen to do Extension History for next year (at the end of yr 11 now). Our teacher has given us the option of studying Napoleon OR JFK, and was just wondering if anyone could give some insight into these two case studies? Or if their are any outstanding reasons to chose one over the other? Thanks

Hey,
I haven’t studied Napoleon so I can’t really tell you much about that case study.  This document gives an overview of Napoleon on page 20 and what areas of the debate that you may study.

I studied JFK this year and I found it really interesting. You study at least three different areas and the topics that I did were Cuba, Kennedy and Khrushkhev and Indochina. For Cuba we looked at the Cuban Missile Crisis, Bay of Pigs and Operation Mongoose. In Kennedy and Khevkhev we focussed on the interpretations of their relationship especially with the Vienna meeting and the Berlin wall. In Indochina, you study JFK’s efforts/action in Vietnam and Laos and some of his policies/decisions that have been argued to lead to the Vietnam war. I think you could also study the topics representations of Kennedy-man & myth, and public & private figure which I think are more on his personal life but I can’t really tell you a lot about those.

You focus on the differing interpretations of three different schools of historians. The Camelot school (Schlesinger &Sorenson) were very close to Kennedy (friend/personal advisor) so they wrote with admiration of his actions and to preserve Kennedys memory in a glowing way. The Revisionist school (Hersh/Reeves) were very critical of Kennedys presidency and worked the uncover the darker aspects of his rule to ‘allow America to reclaim their history’. The post-revisionist historians (Dallek/Freedman) aimed to create a balanced account of Kennedys life.

I thought it was pretty interesting but go for whatever topic you think you will enjoy the most.
Hope this helps

[maddy359]

Hey Susie,

I'm also in the same class as Carina and I'm kinda confused about not structuring the essay chronologically. So with those hypothetical themes that you say relate to the source do you just have a bank of ideas to rely on so you can adapt to the source when you're in the exam?  like how do you prepare these ideas if you may get a really weird question that may be specific to communication? Also, my class all have about 3-4 debates/ideologies do you think that's too many? Sorry just like overall confused and with the exam in a month I just want to get on top of it now.

Thanks so much in advance

[sudodds]

Hey Susie,

I'm also in the same class as Carina and I'm kinda confused about not structuring the essay chronologically. So with those hypothetical themes that you say relate to the source do you just have a bank of ideas to rely on so you can adapt to the source when you're in the exam?  like how do you prepare these ideas if you may get a really weird question that may be specific to communication? Also, my class all have about 3-4 debates/ideologies do you think that's too many? Sorry just like overall confused and with the exam in a month I just want to get on top of it now.

Thanks so much in advance

Hey Maddy! No worries I don't want either of you to stress out btw - you are definitely not the only students in the state to have been taught to write a chronology. However, it is not a E3/4 structure, and that is was we should be aiming for right!

When you say bank of ideas, do you mean themes that I knew prior to coming into the exam that I could relate to the source? Of course! Even if you guys have been studying the course chronologically, i'm sure you have still explored these themes! For example, when studying Von Ranke, i'm sure you touched on objectivity, and the nature of evidence. Or when you postmodernism, you explored subjectivity, the role of context and (perhaps) linguistics. Carr v. Elton debate = relativism v. empiricism, etc. etc. This is because even though you learned it chronologically, all the content still needs to relate to the syllabus!

 What are the historical debates in the case study?
– historical interpretations and perspectives (including recent historiography) of
the issue
– popular interpretations and perspectives of the issue
– changing approaches to the construction of the history of the issue.
• Who are the historians?
– the identity of historians: biographical details, personal values and beliefs,
philosophy of history, approaches to the construction of history, bias
– the context of historians: gender, class, ethnicity, time, place, social and
economic structures/change, political constraints, official and unofficial status.
• What are the purposes of history?
– the aims and purposes of specific historical works
– changing interpretations and perspectives of the aims and purposes of history
– changing interpretations and perspectives of the role of history.
12
HSC History Extension Stage 6 Syllabus
• How has history been constructed and recorded over time?
– changing methods of historians
– how historians work
– forms of historical communication: written, oral, visual, audio-visual, multimedia
– types of history: eg political, social, economic, military, academic, popular,
constitutional, national, local, surveys, area and period studies, biographies,
psychohistories.
• Why have approaches to history changed over time?
– the availability of historical evidence
– the contexts of historians
– changing interpretations and perspectives about approaches to the construction
of history
– changing philosophies of history.

Whats great is the question also has to relate to the syllabus as well! So even if you get a question that seems a bit left field (our one last year was considered quite tricky), you can still relate it back to a lot of these ideas! For example, last year it was on the changing nature of evidence. Seems quite specific, but the changing nature of evidence is going to have a critical affect on historiography is multiple ways, for example;

- changing "nature of evidence" from empiricist perception of only official documents to a more latitudinarian approach (eg. now non-official sources considered). This means we are engaging with more perspectives and areas = empiricism v. relativism debate! Along with this, the inherent bias in the selection and survival of sources means that only certain perspectives in history were seen to be important enough to stand the test of time (eg. rich, white men) which has lead to the prevelance of "Top Down" history. Social historians are attempting to combat this! = top down v. bottom up history!

- changing access to sources - you don't have to have a PHD to access these scarce sources anymore, because with new research and archival technology that allows for reproducing of singular documents/photographs of artefacts, more and more people can engage in the historical process = public v. private history debate!

I've attached one of my essays that I wrote last year as an example. Now this wasn't a full mark essay (marked someone between a high E3 and a low E4, can't 100% remember), but gives a good indication of what I mean by writing thematically rather than chronologically.

In terms of debates, you can never have too many! The more that you know and understand the better However, you don't have to include all of them in a response if you can't I went in with 2.5 (two of our debates overlapped) debates for section II, and I was fine However as I said, always good to go into an exam knowing more than knowing less!!

Hope this helps! Please let me know if you don't understand/have any more questions

Susie

[carina1157]

Hi again,

Just wondering if anyone has a Historicity of Jesus Christ exemplar essay they'd be willing to share?

Thanks!

[Zainbow]

I think the most devastating moment in my year as a HIX student ... was when I remembered to submit my project for the competition the DAY AFTER applications closed. I got full marks for it too! So angry at myself 

Did anyone else forget to submit it? Who, unlike me, was organised and didn't forget?

[sudodds]

Hi again,

Just wondering if anyone has a Historicity of Jesus Christ exemplar essay they'd be willing to share?

Thanks!

I unfortunately don't have any as I didn't study this topic, though I always thought it sounded super interesting! Are you liking it so far?

I think the most devastating moment in my year as a HIX student ... was when I remembered to submit my project for the competition the DAY AFTER applications closed. I got full marks for it too! So angry at myself 

Did anyone else forget to submit it? Who, unlike me, was organised and didn't forget?

Oh no! That sucks I was lucky that my teacher pretty much organised everything for me, so I didn't need to worry about it. Congratulations on an AMAZING result though, full marks that's incredible! Would love to give it a read sometime

Susie

[katie,rinos]

I think the most devastating moment in my year as a HIX student ... was when I remembered to submit my project for the competition the DAY AFTER applications closed. I got full marks for it too! So angry at myself 

Did anyone else forget to submit it? Who, unlike me, was organised and didn't forget?

Oh, that really sucks!  . Kinda the same happened to me. I got first in my class for the project (not 100% though that is an amazing mark  ), and I was really excited to put it in. Except with trials and all the end of school stuff going on, I completely forgot about filling in any paperwork or anything. My teacher been pretty busy as well so she didn't organise anything (it wasn't actually brought up a lot at all). So, it was kinda my fault for not getting everything together or reminding her about it, but it's still pretty annoying.

What was your question for your essay? Would also love to give it a read

[Zainbow]

Hey!
Yeah sure, I've attached my essay here. Keep in mind that this was the first year that HIX ever runs in my school.

Also, the event that I mention in my essay (Ashura), the central theme of my research, happens to be today. So personally I find it interesting why this event is still commemorated after centuries.

Tell me what you think!

[rpallone]

Hello, I was just wondering if anyone has any ideas about contemporary issues or topics I could mention for my question one essay. Bit stuck on the topics i should incorporate into my essay.

[sudodds]

Hello, I was just wondering if anyone has any ideas about contemporary issues or topics I could mention for my question one essay. Bit stuck on the topics i should incorporate into my essay.

Hey, here are a couple that I can think of off the top of my head!

- Big History and Money in History --> 'Big History', the concept created by David Christian is funded by Bill Gates. This has raised issues about money in history, because Bill Gates, who is extremely wealthy and influential, campaigned for school history curriculums in America to be changed to focus on this macro historical theory, as opposed to other methodologies.

- History and Film/TV --> Historical Fiction is one issue, along with accuracy, eg. according to Spielburg 'Schindler's List' is historically accurate because he got two accounts for every event. Dunkirk could be a cool example --> A Dunkirk survivor from Canada watched the film and remarked that it was very much like what he experienced (lack of dialogue could be a reason for this!)

There are of course a lot more than this, but hope this helps in the mean time

Susie

[Jordan Borg]

Hey Susie,
I'm making the conversion from chronological to thematic and I'm not sure how pre-structured or reactive my essay should be. I currently have a few thematic debates (objectivity and truth, purposes of history and historical communication), and within them the historians, but those are about it.

I guess my question is, as an exemplar would you recommend I increase the number of 'themes' I could draw from, or is that not really necessary and that the themes themselves are flexible enough to meet the source or question.

Thanks, Jordan

[sudodds]

Hey Susie,
I'm making the conversion from chronological to thematic and I'm not sure how pre-structured or reactive my essay should be. I currently have a few thematic debates (objectivity and truth, purposes of history and historical communication), and within them the historians, but those are about it.

I guess my question is, as an exemplar would you recommend I increase the number of 'themes' I could draw from, or is that not really necessary and that the themes themselves are flexible enough to meet the source or question.

Thanks, Jordan

100% don't even try to memorise a history extension essay, or create an "adaptable" structure. It's just not possible, because you have to integrate the sources to such a significant extent, making it really easy to spot those who attempted to go in with even a semi-prepared response. I know this is probably not the answer you want, but its the truth aha. That means its really important that you go in with quite a few debates/issues up your sleeve, that relate to the various aspects of the syllabus Though of course most sources can be related to the broader issues like "objectivity" and "purpose" and stuff like that, I still don't believe its a good idea to go into an exam with a predetermined stucture, and you should instead structure your response around the issues presented within the prescribed source

Hope this helps!

Susie