November Blog: New resources, new books and Armistice Day
Wednesday 9 November 2022
Armistice Day
We have discussed Armistice Day several times over the years and the opportunity that this gives for History IB students to play a role in explaining to the rest of your school the significance of this event.
There are many different themes that can be explored in discussing the war: this PPT gives some suggestions of content and video clips that could be used in an Assembly:
The video links for the videos in the PPT above are:
We've also used Siegfried Sassoon’s poem Aftermath at several Remembrance Assemblies; students can read it out - or this version by Jeremy Irons is very moving.
(This excerpt comes from Episode 7 of 'The Great War, 1914 to 1918' which deals with the impact the war, including responses to the horror of the war.)
The BBC site also has Assembly resources that can be used:
Armistice Day Resources (BBC)
A collection of content to use with Primary and Secondary pupils to mark Armistice Day.
Site update
Several new pages have been added in the last month.
For Paper 3, Asia, Topic 14:
For Paper 3. The Americas, Topic 17:
And finally, for Paper 2, Topic 12, The Cold War:
History books examining power
These two recent publications by well-known historians cover similar themes exploring the basis of power in authoritarian states
The Story of Russia by Orlando Figes
A very timely book on Russia by Orlando Figes examines how Russian rulers have always used myths to consolidate their power: He takes us on a chronological journey, in the process highlighting the way Putin and his propagandists have filled the vacuum left by the collapse of the Soviet Union with what Figes calls “the debris of Russian history”. Pride, fear and resentment, aggression and defensiveness have coalesced into the toxic present, which offers a retreat into a conservative celebration of communal sacrifice, with little vision of any constructive future. (Guardian)
The Story of Russia by Orlando Figes review: Vladimir Putin and the power of myth-making (the Guardian)
The historian's latest work on Russia is a lucid chronological journey that ably illustrates how narratives from the nation's past have been used to shape its autocratic present
On a similar theme, Ian Kershaw has just published this book on how and why the authoritarian leaders of the past have been able to wield the power that they did.
His case studies include Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Tito, Franco, Adenauer, and Gorbachev - so students doing paper Two, Authoritarian states, may find it interesting to see his conclusions about these leaders 'What was it about these leaders and the times they lived in that allowed them such untrammelled and murderous power].' (Waterstones)