December: New resources and history in the news
Saturday 19 December 2020
Wow – what a challenging year, not least in the teaching world. Who would have thought this time last year that by the end of 2020 we would have changed our ways of teaching - learning new skills in order to work with our students in a virtual environment?
We hope that this site has been useful to you and your students during this period; we have continued to develop it over the whole year and to make it more student friendly for those of you using student access – please see all of our 2020 blogs to get a full picture of these updates.
New Resources on the site in November
Case studies on Women in the First and Second World Wars
These can be found on the following pages (Women in Britain for First World War and women in the US for Second World War)
We have added substantial new content on Mussolini for Paper 3, European region, Topic 14 so that it now covers two pages:
New content has also been added to Paper 3, European region, Topic 12 Bolshevik consolidation of power, and a new page created for Paper 2, Topic 11 on the Russian Civil War.
Some extra content and ATL have been added on the impact of the decline of the Ottoman Empire on international tensions in the lead up to the First World War as part of Paper 3, Europe region, Topic 13.
And finally we have added new detail and perspectives on the role of China in the Second World War to Paper 3, Asia region, Topic 12:
Marked essays
We have added two marked essays: one to Paper 3, Asia region, Topic 10 and one to Paper 3, Europe region, Topic 14.
In the pipeline...
Next month we will create more case studies for Paper 2, Topic 8 (Vietnam and Algeria) and start Paper 3, Africa region, Topic 7 on the Slave Trade in Africa and the Middle East.
History in the news
As ever, the past month has seen some great articles/podcasts in the news examining new evidence or perspectives on historical topics - such as these on the English Civil War and Mussolini's war in Abysinnia:
Civil war massacre 'cover-up' exposed by historian (BBC News)
Around 160 people may have died when the Royalist stronghold of Shelford was stormed in 1645.
Maaza Mengiste: 'The language of war is always masculine' (the Guardian)
The Ethiopian-born novelist on her book about the female fightback against Mussolini's invasion of her homeland.
This fascinating article is useful for TOK; it links history, science and ethics.
How one woman's 'immortal' cells changed the world - BBC Ideas (www.bbc.co.uk)
In 1951, Henrietta Lacks died of cancer. However, cells taken from her body continued to multiply after her death, helping to save millions of lives.
And the US 2020 election inspired this excellent reflection on the 1800 US election:
The Long View - The Long View of an acrimonious and disputed US election - BBC Sounds (BBC)
Jonathan Freedland presents stories from the past and compares them with current events.
Anniversaries
Anniversaries also lead to interesting articles and reflections in the news. Last month saw the 75th anniversary of the Nuremburg Trials:
Remembering Nuremberg 75 years on (BBC News)
Fergal Keane looks at their legacy and speaks to a Holocaust survivor, a prosecutor and the son of a defendant.
And the 25th anniversary of the death of Yitzak Rabin last month led to documentaries and news articles reflecting on the life of this Israeli Prime Minister and his role in the Oslo Accords:
See you in 2021!