June: Site update and competing narratives
Friday 25 June 2021
What is new on the site?
This is the latest page to be added to Topic 10: The Emergence of Americas in global affairs:
In addition there is a new graded sample for Paper 3, Topic 12:
2. Consolidation of the Soviet State
Evaluate the role of terror and coercion in the consolidation of the Soviet state between 1917 and 1924.This essay was written by a final year IB student and it reached the top of the top mark band.
History in the news: competing narratives
'Don’t shy away from competing narratives - seek them out, lay them side by side and challenge your students to immerse themselves in both'
Parallel Histories
The issue of how (and even if) to teach the Israeli/Palestinian conflict has been very much in the news in the last couple of months. In the UK, textbooks have been withdrawn after accusations that they were one-sided:
'Serious concerns': UK education row as Israel-Palestine textbooks pulled (the Guardian)
Fears children not being educated on conflict amid claims of bias in content of history textbooks
However, it is clear that teaching this topic is vital for students to understand the context of this ongoing conflict, and the organisation Parallel Histories has tried to create teaching resources which cover both ‘narratives’. An excellent way to get students to consider different interpretations of history:
Another piece of history in the news that caught our eye is this article on the execution of the Rosenbergs. As well as giving a background to the controversy that existed at the time around these executions, it clarifies the role of both Rosa and Ethel Rosenberg in terms of spying (Rosa was not a spy and Ethel was, but not with regard to Atomic secrets) and it also reveals the story of their sons after the executions.
The article is based on the new book on this subject: Ethel Rosenberg: A Cold War Tragedy
The Rosenbergs were executed for spying in 1953. Can their sons reveal the truth? (the Guardian)
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were sent to the electric chair for being Soviet spies, but their sons have spent decades trying to clear their mother's name. Are they close to a breakthrough?
Podcasts
'The Imperial War Museum in London has a new podcast series; 'Series of Conflict’ with programmes on the Yugolsav Wars, the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War.
Conflict of Interest (Imperial War Museums)
A brand new podcast series from the IWM Institute. Over seven episodes, we unpack some of the world's most complicated recent conflicts, from the Northern Ireland "Troubles" to the Iraq War. A celebrity guest asks the simple questions about the biggest conflicts of our time: What is a proxy war? Who are the key players in Yemen? Why is there conflict in Syria?
The following podcast series is linked to the Amazon mini-series, The Underground Railroad and it discusses, with historians, slave resistance and rebellions
Escape: The Underground Railroad Podcast
Each week, our hosts invite a different historian to focus on a story of a rebellion or escape and demonstrate that enslaved communities never gave up in their search for freedom and human rights.
Documentaries
'The Rape of Recy Taylor' is a documentary available on Amazon Prime and is a great resource for students studying Civil Rights as it covers the role of women in the Civil Rights movement:
Watch The Rape of Recy Taylor | Prime Video (www.amazon.co.uk)
A documentary about a 24-year old black mother and sharecropper who was gang raped by six white men in 1944 Alabama. She spoke up at the time and identified her rapists. The NAACP sent Rosa Parks, their chief investigator (and civil rights activist) to look into the case. Her representation and the community's rallied support triggered an unprecedented outcry for justice
Recent Books
We mentioned above the newly published Ethel Rosenberg: A Cold War Tragedy.
Another interesting book, published in 2019, gives an interesting perspective on Hitler's foreign policy arguing that it was not focused on the defeat of Communism and the USSR but rather Anglo-US capitalism
Hitler: Only the world was enough by Brendan Simms
