Why the Study of History Is Imperative Today

Posted on December 23, 2015 by Mr Kydd

those-who-dont-study-historyIf you click here you will get to an article by  in the Huffington Post on the importance of history in the modern world. It is well worth a read – I have included an extract below…

“History should teach us compassion. It should teach us not to assume, but to reserve judgement about people whose values and beliefs are different to ours. When it comes to looking back at the experiences of men and women who lived five or six centuries ago, we are forced to confront the barriers to understanding, the pitfalls of interpretation, of twenty-first century thinking against that of the medieval world. ”

Mr Kydd.

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History books of the Year 2015

Posted on December 15, 2015 by Mr Kydd

printingpressIf you click here  you will get to History Today’s review of the top history books from 2015. As they put it themselves, “From Aristotle to El Alamein, via the Silk Road and Charlemagne’s vast empire, ten leading historians tell us about their best books from 2015“.

May I recommend John Robertson’s magnificent Iraq – a History.iraq As Eleanor Robson comments, “the past is irrevocably entangled with the present, as Tony Blair has reluctantly acknowledged through his admission that the 2003 Iraq War laid the roots of ISIS, the Syrian conflict and the international refugee crisis. Far better historians than Blair see the origins of Iraq’s current predicament in Britain’s crypto-imperial Mandate of 1920-32. But John Robertson’s magnificent Iraq: A History (Oneworld) takes a truly long perspective. From the first Sumerian cities over 5,000 years ago, via the great empires of Assyria, Babylonia and Abbasid Baghdad, to the modern Iraqi state, he shows how this complex past has always shaped, and been shaped by, contemporary political concerns.”

Happy Christmas,

Mr Kydd.

 

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Obituary – Christopher Duggan

Posted on December 11, 2015 by Mr Kydd
Christopher Duggan for obit handout provider - Philip Cooke Professor of Italian History and Culture 0141 444 8203 ...

 

All,

If you click here you will get to the Daily Telegraph’s obituary for Christopher Duggan. He worked at the University of Reading from 1987, and was noted for his work on Italian history. Indeed, one of his earlier works, A Concise History of Italy would prove to be an excellent starting point for anyone coverwanting to understand the unique story that that country.

His last work was Fascist Voices: An Intimate History of Mussolini’s Italy  is described thus – Duggan turned to the inner lives of those ordinary people who supported Fascism. Much of the research for the book was carried out in an archive of popular diaries in a small village in Tuscany, which he loved visiting and spoke of with great warmth. 

It is well worth a read.

Mr Kydd.

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Ever thought of classics ?

Posted on December 7, 2015 by Mr Kydd

If you have ever thought of Classics, but believed it was not for you, have a look Professor Mary Beard giving Isaiah Berlin Lecture at the British Academy last month.

If you want to know more, come and see me.

Mr Kydd.

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Examination codes and dates

Posted on December 6, 2015 by Mr Kydd

revisionAll,

Please find your examination dates and paper codes listed below. These will also be posted in the revision tab above.

After school revision will start for Year 11 in January, whist AS and A2 revision will start after the mocks.

Details to follow (I will write to you and your parents).

Mr Kydd

History and politics examination dates and codes 2015 /16

GCSE -OCR

Code Information Examination date
A013/01 Paper One 6 June 2016 AM
A022/01 Paper Two 14 June 2016 PM
A010BD/24 Controlled Assessment
J418 Certification code

A Level –old – legacy – Edexcel

Code Information  
6HI02/E Britain in the later C20

AS re-sit only

 25 May 2016 PM
6HI01/D Option D – A divided world – USA

AS re-sit only

 18 May 2016 PM
6HI03/F –

option D1

 Germany 1900 – 1945 – Kaiser to Fuhrer. 10 June 2016 AM
6HI04 Coursework
AS – 8HI01

A Level – 9HI01

 Certification codes

A Level new- OCR

Code Information  
Y137 The Later Tudors 18 May 2016 PM
Y246 The USA in the C19 25 May 2016 PM
HI05 Certification codes

A Level –politics – AQA

Code Information  
GOV P1 People, politics and participation (AS) 6 June 2016 AM
GOV P2 Governing Modern Britain (AS) 9 June 2016 PM
GOV 3A Politics of the USA 14 June 2016 PM
GOV 4A Governing the USA 16 June 2016 PM
AS – 1151

A Level – 2151

 Certification codes

 

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The Starkey series

Posted on December 1, 2015 by Mr Kydd

Lower Sixth,

We have watched part one of the Starkey series in History Society. Below is a You-tube Channel allowing you to watch all four programmes in 10 minute blocks. They go chronologically through the reign.

You may like to look at part 23. This shows the point I was making today when I gave you your essay feedback. Whilst Robert Cecil failed to manage parliament, Elizabeth, via the Golden Speech, succeeded.

Remember always ask yourself why is the question worded in that way…

Mr Kydd.

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Warp and weft

Posted on December 1, 2015 by Mr Kydd

warpsweftsUpper Sixth,

Following on from today’s lesson, you should have your colour-coded interpretations paragraphs complete for the 2014 paper. Click here for my effort.

Remember the warp is your command of the historical debate, and the weft is the interpretations in the passages.

 

I look forward to your completed papers next week.

Mr Kydd.

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25 maps that explain the English language

Posted on December 1, 2015 by Mr Kydd

196_0Something a bit cross curricular today. If you click here you will get to a website that claims to explain the English language in twenty five maps.

Obviously this is great for you English language students, but as historians we could perhaps reflect on the link to our subject. What do these maps tell us about British (or perhaps English) history ?

Failing that, you may like to look at this map which attempts to show the changing borders of Europe in three minutes. How much of it do you understand ?

 

Mr Kydd.

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Extension materials – Elizabeth I’s war with England’s Catholics

Posted on November 27, 2015 by Mr Kydd
Catholic%202

Edward Campion meets his fate

If you click here you will get to Jessie Childs’ article in History Extra.

In it, she asks explains that given that “England’s Elizabethan Catholics were public enemy number one. Their Masses were banned and their priests were executed”. She continues to ask “what was life like for ‘recusants’ and ‘church papists’ in a hostile Protestant state” ?

Other useful sites to support your work;

Here you can find the more simple S-cool revision site. Useful if you want to secure basic concepts.

Here J.P.Sommerville explores the three phases of Elizabethan Catholicism

Here Elizabethi.org explores why and how the relationship between the monarch and her Catholic subjects worsened

Posted in The Later Tudors | Comments Off on Extension materials – Elizabeth I’s war with England’s Catholics

Obituary – Hans Mommsen

Posted on November 27, 2015 by Mr Kydd

mommsen_3499897bAll,

With our interpretations and evidence posters now complete, next week is going to be very important for us. We are going to plan and write a past paper on the causes of the First World War debate.

As you know, there is another controversy question later in the course. This focuses upon the nature of Nazi government. In particular, the key question asked is was Hitler a weak dictator ? A key figure in this debate was Hans Momsen (who died this month).

As his Daily Telegraph obituary argues, “one of Mommsen’s key themes was that moral responsibility for the evils of the Third Reich could not be laid solely at the door of the Nazi leadership but had to be shared more widely. Starting with Civil Servants in the Third Reich (1966), Mommsen maintained that the crimes of the Nazi period had required the active involvement of many different groups in German society, including business leaders, the aristocracy, the judiciary the civil service and the military, rejecting the traditional view in Germany that they had been the work of a few criminals entirely unrepresentative of German society as a whole“.

Have a read and see what you think.

Mr Kydd.

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