History Extension Major Work Ideas

[sansari]

Hi there!
I'm currently a year 11 student about to go into year 12 and I am undertaking history extension. I just needed help however in choosing a major work topic as i want to choose one now and be a little ahead. So what I had in mind was maybe looking at the different perspectives of a historical figure by historians. I had a few historical figures in mind and was wondering if any of these would be any good -Yasser Arafat, Fidel Castro, Malcolm X or Gamal Abdel Nasser. Any advice or tips would really be great.

Thanks.

[katie,rinos]

Hi there!
I'm currently a year 11 student about to go into year 12 and I am undertaking history extension. I just needed help however in choosing a major work topic as i want to choose one now and be a little ahead. So what I had in mind was maybe looking at the different perspectives of a historical figure by historians. I had a few historical figures in mind and was wondering if any of these would be any good -Yasser Arafat, Fidel Castro, Malcolm X or Gamal Abdel Nasser. Any advice or tips would really be great.

Thanks.

Hey,
Well done on trying to choose a question now (I remember it took me forever).
You can definitely do different perspectives of a historical figure: one of my friends did Joan of Arc.
I would choose a personality that you'd really enjoy and are interested in because you will spend a lot of time researching and writing the essay.
I think your historical figures sound good (although I don't really know a lot about Yasser Arafat or Gamal Abdel Nasser). As long as you have a few differing historians perspectives on them that you can write about then it should be good! Maybe research some of the historians who have written about these figures or go to a library (the uni one's are great) to see how much information is available about them. I know for my topic there was heaps!
Don't worry about having a perfect question now though because it can change over the year (mine changed three different times) and still work out well.

If you haven't already read it, Susie's guide on the major works is really good and might help and I have a few tips here.
Good luck with the start of year 12, history extension and starting your project!

[katie,rinos]

Sorry also just to clarify, if i was to do Malcolm X, i could do the differing perspectives of him by different historians (how many)? and it would be the reason these historians have these perspectives...?

Hey,
You can definitely do the differing perspectives of him by historians. There's not really a set amount of historians that you need to do. I think at the beginning of the year my teacher said to do around 4, although I can't 100% remember and how many you focus on is entirely up to you. For my major, I only did two historians and looked at a debate between them but I looked at them in depth.

I think you would look at why your historians have had these different interpretations about Malcolm X.
For mine, I looked at how their context and use of evidence had affected their interpretation.
Hope this helps