Here is a collection of history essays and revision pieces written for school and university. I'm not preserving them because they're particularly good, or even because they're particularly interesting! Instead, I hope they a) serve as a little insight into the kind of history education on offer in the 2000s, and b) prove to anyone visiting this little corner of the web that you are absolutely capable of taking your own interest in history further.
I read undergraduate history at Cambridge between 2007 and 2010, leaving with a 2:1. You were expected to write an essay of around 2,000 words each week for your supervisor, along with more coursework-like essays throughout the year, reports and prep work. It was intense - I certainly wouldn't want to do it again! - but the focus really seemed to be much more on the quantity rather than quality of output...
SECONDARY SCHOOL + SIXTH FORM
Croesyceiliog Comprehensive
I've got homework essays I wrote on Alexander II and the Austro-Prussian War. I also saved my A-Level coursework on the Great Reform Act.
I scanned in a little history of Croesyceiliog School from the 1970s HERE.
UNIVERSITY
Murray Edwards (née New Hall) College, Cambridge
MICHAELMAS 2007: I studied 'Paper 8: British Economic and Social History 1050 - 1500' and was supervised by Dr Caroline Burt, then head of history at New Hall, and had to hand write all my essays, although I did keep some of my revision notes.
LENT 2008: That term I studied Paper 3: British Political and Constitutional History 1050 - 1509. (I've got some past paper questions for it HERE.) Again, I was supervised at New Hall by Dr Caroline Burt and hand wrote my essays. I did keep some revision notes on Edward I and Edward II.
We also had plenty of HAP (Historical Argument and Practice) sessions which required writing up short reports on topics such as Hobsbawm and Social Banditry and Namier and George III.
EASTER 2008: I was studying paper 13: European History 31BC - 900AD and was supervised by Dr Peter Sarris at Trinity -
★ Account for the rise and demise of Byzantine iconoclasm.
★ Did Justinian ruin the empire he set out to restore?
★ How near did Theoderic the Ostrogoth come to establishing a lasting kingdom in Italy?
★ 'What Constantine had done with Christianity, Julian dreamed of repeating with paganism. They both took young and popular religion and lent it their full support.' (Athanassiadi) If this is true, why did one fail and the other succeed?
★ What is to be learned from the literary sources of relations between Romans and Barbarians in fifth-century Gaul?
★ What were the implications for and effects on the Barbarian and Roman worlds of the rise of the Huns?
★ What were the internal and external challenges facing the Roman Empire in the third century and how successfully did the emperors of the period address them?
That year we also had a 'themes and sources' paper. I chose 'The Body', the topic taught by Dr. Deborah Thom (Robinson) and Dr. Mary Laven (Jesus). I did a presentation entitled 'In what ways did the dead body become an object of controversy in the eighteenth century?' and wrote my so called long essay (3-5,000 words) on Section B: Topic 12 (Advertisements). My question title was: Have advertisements shaped or merely documented society's changing perception of the ideal female body?
MICHAELMAS 2008: Paper 10: British Economic and Social History 1700 - 1914. I was supervised by Dr. Elizabeth Foyster at Clare College. (In addition to the essays below, I kept my revision notes on class and law and order.)
★ How has investigation of the history of masculinity affected understandings of the gendered separation of spheres?
★ In what contexts, and by whom, were the popular ideas of 'class' first articulated, and how widely were they accepted?
★ Is there a case for reasserting the notion that there was an 'Industrial Revolution'?
★ 'The assumption that modern society underwent a long-term process of secularisation is belied by actual patterns of belief and worship.' Discuss with respect to any period of a hundred years between 1700 and 1914.
★ To what extent did leisure activities serve to integrate social groups which were separated from each other at work. Discuss with respect to the nineteenth century.
★ What impact did the growth of empire have on how the British saw themselves? Discuss with reference to the eighteenth century?
★ What was the social function of philanthropy for the upper and middle classes in nineteenth century Britain?
★ Whom did the law protect in the eighteenth century?
LENT 2009: I was supervised for Paper 16: European History 1540 - 1760 by Dr. Mary Laven at Jesus. This was one of my favourite papers! I also wrote for one of the student papers, the Cambridge edition of The Sanctuary that term.
★ How integral was 'magic' to the belief system of early modern Europe?
★ 'Masculinity in Crisis.' Discuss this verdict of male experience during the early modern period?
★ 'The development of Catholic devotional practices after the Council of Trent can best be understood as a reaction against Protestantism.' Discuss.
★ 'The early modern period witnessed the birth of Europe's consumer society.' Discuss.
★ 'The Protestant Reformation succeeded as it did because those who advanced its message were masters of the modes of mass communication.' Discuss.
★ To what extent did 'science' and 'religion' become separated in the early modern period?
★ Why did Early Modern people become increasingly concerned with 'self-fashioning'?
★ Why was punishment of the body so central to the early modern judicial system?
EASTER 2009: Exam term! I had revision supervisions with Richard Partington at Churchill and the deservedly feared Professor Christine Carpenter.
MICHAELMAS 2009: That term I was supervised by Dr. Rosemary Horrox at Fitzwilliam and Dr. Carl Watkins at Magdalene for Paper 13: Death in the Middle Ages c. 1050 - 1500. (Most of my essays for this paper were hand written.) I also volunteered for Linkline, the student nightline, and began on my special subject which involved a long coursework style essay and then exams in the summer. I chose to do Vikings in Continental Europe and Britain c. 800 - c. 950. (Is the settlement of the Danelaw in England a useful model for interpreting Viking settlement elsewhere?)
★ How fundamentally did the Reformation change society's response to the dying and the dead?
★ What constituted a 'good death' in the middle ages?
LENT 2010: Paper 26: The history of the Indian sub-continent from the late eighteenth century to the present day. I was supervised by Dr. Leigh Denault, who was then a PhD student at Churchill. You're given the choice at Cambridge of whether to do papers this year or a dissertation. Taking the papers means more end of year exams, but a dissertation means a lot of dedication throughout the year. I went for the former.
★ 'A typical peasant rebellion writ large' or 'the first war of independence'? Why have the events of 1857-8 been elusive to characterise?
★ 'Liberalisation in India has merely perpetuated old hierarchies and entitlements.' Discuss.
★ Was Indian nationalist thought a 'derivative discourse'?
★ Was Mughal decline inevitable? Discuss the view that Indian society and economy was 'divided but buoyant' in the eighteenth century.
★ Why and how was the status of women significant for early colonial reformers?
★ Why and in what ways did Muslim politics emerge as distinctive after the mutiny of 1857?
EASTER 2010: Exam term! Again! I had revision supervisions with my paper supervisors, and with Dr. Alan Strathern at Churchill for HAP (Historical Argument and Practice), the exam for which makes up a fifth of the degree. I also wrote two revision blogs on Death in the Middle Ages and Gender History.
Migration and Industrialisation - This was a two hour lecture I gave to first year undergrad students during my ill-fated stint as a grad student at the University of South Wales.
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