Need a historical question?

Question

Hello,

Im doing a qualification with my school called Extended Project in which you can write a dissertation about pretty much anything you want. I would like to do a historical dissertation as I want to do history at uni and I think this would help my application.

The thing is Im finding it difficult to come up with a good title for my dissertation. Basically the most important thing with the project is that there is argument and debate which can be analysed in order to come up with a good conclusion and answer. This makes it slightly harder to come up with a historical question because it's easy to start just turning it into a descriptive narrative, e.g. this happened, then this and this, which is not what I want to do.

So I was wondering if anybody had any good ideas for a topic. I don't really mind what period of history as Im interested in most periods but as long as its an open question where there are different and available points of view and debate. It can also have a political slant on it and can be relevant today although it doesn't have too, as long as there is an historical theme. The question also wants to be quite specific.

So I wouldn't want something like 'what were the causes of the Second World War' because then it would just be a list of causes that are already known. I need something more open where different arguments can be researched and evaluated.

Thanks for any ideas!

Answer 1

Henry VIII's motivation for marrying six times, evaluating how his priorities and criteria changed as he got older, and examining whether these were purely based on the almost seemingly ever-lasting quest for a son or did the politics of the age and his own standing amongst his foreign counterparts and his people amongst other factors e.g. cultural affect his choices in much more complex ways?



So yeah, I don't really know if it's the best one to do, but it's a topic that would interest me. Sticking to the Tudor theme for a minute, there was a TV program a while back which focused on the very last 6 months of Anne Boleyn's wife and why the lady fell so fast and so far out of favour. It was really interesting to watch and is worth a watch, even if you don't decide to do go with a Tudor theme. It's also one of those things that no-one can really agree on, most experts are still very divided about it.

Answer 2

"Why, by 1807, had it proved impossible to resist the abolition of the slave trade?"

Nice easy one with loads and loads of different arguments. You can even argue against the question!



These are just a few possibilities of the many arguments:



- Opposition of the people/society – literature, politics, bourgeoisie and working classes, etc.

- Books about slavery, licensing act lapse, petitions

- Slave uprisings

- Enlightenment/revolutions/equality/politeness/manners

- Decline in profit

- Imperial competition, ie France (the abolition of slavery would hinder France)

- Loss of war with America (decrease in patriotism and prestige. Largely puritan Britain saw loss as a punishment from God and had to redeem themselves)



This was a year one BA History question, so would look impressive if you did it well :)

Answer 3

For Lomax: America was visited and settled in 562, 573 & 574AD By Madoc brother of King Arthur II of Britain. I won't say 'discovered' as there were no doubt earlier visits.



The question could be "Why is early British history (1500 BC to 600 AD) totally ignored, discredited and dismissed as forgery by academia and the Churches?"



You probably won't get many points for rubbing their noses in it but you can start your research by Googling Alan Wilson, Baram Blackett and Grant Berkley

Answer 4

Why would Japan attack Pearl Harbor, and not somewhere else? Before they did it, attacking Pearl Harbor had been such a far out idea that people wrote science-fiction books about it.



Or you could ask "Why did the Allies invade Normandy, and not any of their other fake plans made to throw off the Germans?" (See the link in the description for other ploy invasion areas)

Answer 5

Was it right to execute deserters in ww1?



This would be good because both sides have very good arguments



Here's an example





One reason for execution would be that soldiers swore to serve the country



One reason against it was that some soldiers may have had mental problems

Answer 6

If Constantinople had not fallen in 1453, would Ameica still have been discovered as early as 1492?