History dissertation

Hi,

I have just started lectures again for this semester and my lecturers have suggested that we start choosing a topic for our dissertation. Therefore, I was wondering if anyone would be willing to share what they have done/are going to do their dissertation on? Particularly with regard to the 19th and 20th century.

Thanks

Reply 1

FadeToBlackout

15

sheryl06

Hi,

I have just started lectures again for this semester and my lecturers have suggested that we start choosing a topic for our dissertation. Therefore, I was wondering if anyone would be willing to share what they have done/are going to do their dissertation on? Particularly with regard to the 19th and 20th century.

Thanks

I'm looking at (Prepare yourself for geekiness!):

"Fire-horses, stags, Portmanteaus and Carpet-bags: The Changing Experience of the Railway, 1825-1851".

Sounds thrilling, doesn't it!

Reply 2

samba

6

'Beware of the Sharks - Strategic Submarine Warfare 1939-1945'

:biggrin:

Reply 3

sheryl06

OP

1

wow your titles sound amazing! I'm really struggling to decide where I want to go with mine.

Reply 4

FadeToBlackout

15

samba

'Beware of the Sharks - Strategic Submarine Warfare 1939-1945'

:biggrin:

Surely "Wolfpack", if your're studying Nazi Germany, is a bit more relevant? :smile:

Reply 5

nbak

I'm assuming this is for a degree? If this is the case, may I suggest you study what subjects you history tutors write about and attempt to add to or develop one of their subjects or, indeed, argue with a recently published paper they've produced.

nbak

Reply 6

Crimson Black

13

'The most notorious Nabob': The Social and Political ramifications of East India Servants returning from Bengal, 1750-1830.

I'm terrified I won't be able to write 10k words. :frown:

Reply 7

Poica

14

Start with an area or topic you know interests you. Jot down some ideas. Some will be crap, some will be great. Whittle down the ideas until you have a ROUGH period and area you're interested in. Read around, discuss with supervisor.

You're asking people who are already a long way down the dissertation road, so it's going to seem scarier than it is. This is your project. Find something that excites you and do it.

Reply 8

QI Elf

17

Sorry to hijack the thread but...

I'm in Upper XI at the moment and have had offers to study History at university. The thing is I alread sort of know what I would like to do my dissertation on.

I find Eva Braun (the mistress of Hitler) insainly interesting (I have NO idea why though, I just do) and would love to do it on her.

Obviously I know it is early days and it would be best to wait until the time comes, BUT does it matter if the dissertation is not particulalry on a wide subject especially as there is not a wealth of information about her. I know I would have to make it the given word limit which I have been lead to belive is around 10,000 words.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Reply 9

OldGit

'The Northern Ireland Protestant collective memory of the Battle of the Somme'

I am hoping to show that Graham and Shirlow etc etc have overplayed the importance of paramilitaries in driving the collective reengagement over the last 40 years.

Reply 10

stainedglass

1

"Mighty Bedlam: the treatment of lunacy in the early eighteenth-century".

It sounds a bit morbid but I found a really useful article that got me interested. That's something I'd suggest if you're a bit unsure where to start; find an article from a journal and have a read to see if anything leaps out at you.

Reply 11

North

How distinctive was Pictish society compared to others in Northern Britain in the sub-Roman period?

Reply 12

wildeyedangel

QI Elf

Sorry to hijack the thread but...

I'm in Upper XI at the moment and have had offers to study History at university. The thing is I alread sort of know what I would like to do my dissertation on.

I find Eva Braun (the mistress of Hitler) insainly interesting (I have NO idea why though, I just do) and would love to do it on her.

Obviously I know it is early days and it would be best to wait until the time comes, BUT does it matter if the dissertation is not particulalry on a wide subject especially as there is not a wealth of information about her. I know I would have to make it the given word limit which I have been lead to belive is around 10,000 words.

Any advice would be appreciated.

When i started doing my history degree i had several ideas for dissertations too, but they don't always work out like that. For one thing you do lots of new areas of history and you might find something else you prefer - i did. More importantly though, my university says that they prefer you to do your dissertation from one ofyour 3rd year modules, and i didn't get the modules i wanted because they were oversubscribed, so think carefully about it. If you have your heart set on Eva Braun then pick a university with a hitler expert. I go to Sheffield University, so there was (until recently) Ian Kershaw for that.

Reply 13

wildeyedangel

stainedglass

"Mighty Bedlam: the treatment of lunacy in the early eighteenth-century".

It sounds a bit morbid but I found a really useful article that got me interested. That's something I'd suggest if you're a bit unsure where to start; find an article from a journal and have a read to see if anything leaps out at you.

i did a 1st year essay on that - well, it was insanity in the early modern period, but you know what i mean. Anyway, it is really interesting. Out of curiousity, which article do you mean?

Reply 14

QI Elf

17

wildeyedangel

When i started doing my history degree i had several ideas for dissertations too, but they don't always work out like that. For one thing you do lots of new areas of history and you might find something else you prefer - i did. More importantly though, my university says that they prefer you to do your dissertation from one ofyour 3rd year modules, and i didn't get the modules i wanted because they were oversubscribed, so think carefully about it. If you have your heart set on Eva Braun then pick a university with a hitler expert. I go to Sheffield University, so there was (until recently) Ian Kershaw for that.

Thanks but I'm now going into my 3rd year at uni and have got my dissertation sorted, it's actually nothing to do with Eva Braun or German history! To have the best chance in achieving my goal of becoming a university lecturer, I've decided to follow a more niche area where little work has been done! Although I would still love to continue German history it will have to remain on the backburner for a while yet! Thanks anyway!

Reply 15

crouchy

Original post by stainedglass

"Mighty Bedlam: the treatment of lunacy in the early eighteenth-century".

It sounds a bit morbid but I found a really useful article that got me interested. That's something I'd suggest if you're a bit unsure where to start; find an article from a journal and have a read to see if anything leaps out at you.

Hiya, I'm thinking about doing my dissertation on something similar and I was wondering if you could let me know what the article was that you found so interesting. That would be very helpful, thanks so much.

Reply 16

etnie_1010

Handed mine in in February; The Ascendancy of the Royal Navy 1756 - 1805

Reply 17

flywithemma

14

Hopefully something to do with the extent to which the cultural and economic consequences of the Danelaw constituted a true 'North South divide'...but idk.

Reply 18

ayesha.chaudhri

2

Did Hitler have good intentions

History dissertation

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