History project

TossL1916

Well lads, anyone able to give me any tips on a history project that would be interesting to do and not too difficult to find sources on?
Main interests would be Irish history, world war 1 and 2, open to ideas aswel.
Thanks.

babynice

Last year mine was about Michael Collins' Squad. The sources were easy to get, one was the Michael Collins biography by Tim Pat Coogan, and there was lots about it in books in the library (can't remember their names :P ).

Fireball07

TossL1916 wrote: »

Well lads, anyone able to give me any tips on a history project that would be interesting to do and not too difficult to find sources on?
Main interests would be Irish history, world war 1 and 2, open to ideas aswel.
Thanks.

You mentioned World War II....I did Tito and the role he and the Partisans played in the 2nd World War. Pretty interesting, only barely mentioned in the course and it wasn't too hard to find sources.

I recommend focusing on single events or characters/organistations.

Other ones I considered were the significance of the Battle of El Alamein, one on Rommel in general, Heydrich (my classmate did do one on him and found sources difficult to find). I'm fairly sure that projects on the guy who assassinated Franz Ferdinand (Gavrilo Princip?...I think that's his name) are fairly common too, it could be interesting.

But if you pick out a significant character that is fairly interesting and famous enough to have a couple of biographies to use as sources, you'll be sorted.

spurious

Find something local.

Jolly Red Giant

TossL1916 wrote: »

Well lads, anyone able to give me any tips on a history project that would be interesting to do and not too difficult to find sources on?
Main interests would be Irish history, world war 1 and 2, open to ideas aswel.
Thanks.

have a look here -

http://leavingcerthistory.net/research-projects/

you might find something useful.

brownacid

Try to get something that is slightly obscure. You shoud remember that the examiners are going to to be reading maybe 100 scripts with similar answers for 4 questions so if you could perk up their interest with a research project that very few other people have done it could go well for you. I did mine the first year that the research project was brought in so that was 2006ish I think, I did it on the cubn missile crisis from teh russian perspective specifically the effects that Krushchevs own actions had in escalating the situation.If i remember corrctly I think i got around 97/98 inthat question which I was very happy with.

Owryan

i done one on "operation market garden" comparing how the british re worked its failure to turn it into some "plucky" last stand derring do .

shygal

TossL1916 wrote: »

Well lads, anyone able to give me any tips on a history project that would be interesting to do and not too difficult to find sources on?
Main interests would be Irish history, world war 1 and 2, open to ideas aswel.
Thanks.

Berlin hosted the olympics during hitlers reign maybe you could find a niche idea within that.I wrote my project on Jesse Owens who destroyed the competition in the olympics.that project is what got me a good grade for the LC because i was crap at history:D

TossL1916

thanks guys, i was thinking of doing the nuremburg trials, if i was to do it what kind of slant could i give it to make it specific and less generalised?
that operation market garden project sounds like an interesting one

spurious

Seriously, every second project is on something to do with the Nazis or Civil Rights in the USA. Is there nothing local you could do?
Local history projects are what the Chief Examiner is always looking for.

brownacid

spurious wrote: »

Seriously, every second project is on something to do with the Nazis or Civil Rights in the USA. Is there nothing local you could do?
Local history projects are what the Chief Examiner is always looking for.

Are you suggesting that with a little over a month left the OP should try to find something local to write about and find a number of relevant sources? I would normally recommend doing a local event if the student has plenty of time left but at tis stage in the game the OP should choose a topic that has plenty of sources which are easily accessible and show it in a different light.

I wouldn't recommend doing the Nuremburg trails if your course covers them already. Im not sure what th historys course covers this year but if the exam has a question on the nurmeburg trials and you have done your project on it you are not permitted to answer that question if i remember corrcetly. Try to do something outside of your course to show the examiner that you actually have an interest in history.

spurious

I didn't see where the OP said he/she was in 6th year.
If they are in 6th year and have left it this late I wouldn't hold out a great deal of hope, whatever topic they choose.

Jolly Red Giant

brownacid wrote: »

Are you suggesting that with a little over a month left the OP should try to find something local to write about and find a number of relevant sources?

There are ample local sources available on the internet - look up local library websites - local historical society websites - History Ireland magazine etc. When you find an interesting topic run a google search and you would be surprised how many links will pop up.

If you click on the link I provided above you will find dozens of possible local history topics and several sources for many of them.

http://leavingcerthistory.net/research-projects/suggested-topics/

thesimpsons

spurious wrote: »

Seriously, every second project is on something to do with the Nazis or Civil Rights in the USA. Is there nothing local you could do?
Local history projects are what the Chief Examiner is always looking for.

+ 1

local and obscure to capture the interest of an examiner. there's only so many different slants you can take on WW1 or WW2, War of Independance/Civil war, etc. any of the History A1s I've come across in the last few yrs were all on local history projects.

Fireball07

thesimpsons wrote: »

+ 1

local and obscure to capture the interest of an examiner. there's only so many different slants you can take on WW1 or WW2, War of Independance/Civil war, etc. any of the History A1s I've come across in the last few yrs were all on local history projects.

I didn't get an A1 but I got an A1 in the project part. And it wasn't on local stuff... so that's not true.

And one of my classmates got an A1 and 100% in the project doing it on Omaha Beach during the Normany Landings.

So maybe local stuff might be more interesting for the examiner but a good project is a good project.

Jolly Red Giant

Fireball07 wrote: »

I didn't get an A1 but I got an A1 in the project part. And it wasn't on local stuff... so that's not true.

And one of my classmates got an A1 and 100% in the project doing it on Omaha Beach during the Normany Landings.

So maybe local stuff might be more interesting for the examiner but a good project is a good project.

All the projects are marked the same - local history projects tend to get higher marks because they can have a narrow focus compared to more generalsied history topics and that can help get higher marks. - they meet the marking criteria easier (i.e. does your extended essay do what you proposed to do in your outline plan).

BritBrit

My dad corrected LC History last year and the only one I remember him telling me about was one on mt Vesuvius in Roman times (eruption in 79 CE). Apparently you're allowed do anything that's historically significant and it doesn't have to be within the date parameters of the history course you're studying. That one really stood out because everyone was doing RSRs on modern history.

mikemac1

Examiners must be sick of reading about Michael Collins' Squad.

OP, you need to do the Massacre at Katyn

Politics, class warfare, betrayal, coverups, propaganda, lies, this had it all
Hell even the executors got executed :eek:

Everything you could want for a story and it's an interesting topic

They even made a film out of it a few years ago

TossL1916

Thanks lads for the suggestions, i,m looking in to sources for a local one at the minute, i,ve loads of time anyway ( because i,m in 5th year ) so no worries.
thanks again

iamanengine

Off topic question for one moment, is the review included in the 1500 word count or is that for the essay alone?

Also i did mine on how Hitlers obsession with capturing Stalingrad and how it effected his decision making thus turning the tide of WW2.

TossL1916

iamanengine wrote: »

Off topic question for one moment, is the review included in the 1500 word count or is that for the essay alone?

Also i did mine on how Hitlers obsession with capturing Stalingrad and how it effected his decision making thus turning the tide of WW2.

Review is included in the 1500, but you should give it a seperate sub-heading at the end

Superbus

BritBrit wrote: »

My dad corrected LC History last year and the only one I remember him telling me about was one on mt Vesuvius in Roman times (eruption in 79 CE). Apparently you're allowed do anything that's historically significant and it doesn't have to be within the date parameters of the history course you're studying. That one really stood out because everyone was doing RSRs on modern history.

Really? That's disappointing. I do Latin and would have been all over a Roman RSR but my history teacher strongly advised against it.

So I did the self-immolation of Jan Palach, obviously.

Jolly Red Giant

mikemac1 wrote: »

Examiners must be sick of reading about Michael Collins' Squad.

OP, you need to do the Massacre at Katyn

Politics, class warfare, betrayal, coverups, propaganda, lies, this had it all
Hell even the executors got executed :eek:

Everything you could want for a story and it's an interesting topic

They even made a film out of it a few years ago

I know a student who did this project last year. :eek:

pmrc

doing an history project on the irish guards involvement in operation market garden,

i have a lot on operation garden but am finding it difficult to find details of the irish guards involvement , i would like it to some one from tippeary as that would keep it local
i have e mailed a few places but i have got no answers yet