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Vellacott History Prize 2011

whenjokersattack

Just wondering if anyone else on here entered an essay this year? Just received a confirmation email, so pretty excited and all! If anyone wants to chat about their essays, or "interesting" titles or anything...

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Reply 1

pardonmyfrench

I entered with 'Were nationalism and liberalism conflicting or complimentary forces in nineteenth-century Europe?' I got the confirmation email on Wednesday, but I am worried because I had to rush to finish it and (literally) run to catch the postman! There were tons of intersting titles to write on: which did you pick?

Reply 2

pardonmyfrench

Mine was fascinating to do - I love modern history and it was really interesting to learn about political philosophy and imperialism, which I haven't studied before... yours sounds really interesting too - I was thinking of doing one of the really broad topics, like the history of emotion one, but I am not quite smart enough for that, I think! The pre-judging thing would be quite tense - my school is quite small and there was only my friend and I who would have done it. I had no idea about the Robson prize, so I suppose I'm not!

Reply 3

whenjokersattack

Ha, nice. Well I think the deadline's late May, so you still have time to do it if you really wanted to and were super organised. Check it out if you want to: www.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php?pageid=680
Also, Oxford do a Julia Wood essay prize (st. hugh's college I think) which has an open title, so I think it's quite common for people to submit their Peterhouse essay into that one too, doubling their chances and all :wink:

Reply 4

pardonmyfrench

Ah right, thanks.. don't know if I'd have time to write a new essay though because we have very few weeks of teaching left and I've only finished the syllabus in one of my subjects... and all of my exams are in one week of May, so that would leave me with basically 3 days to do the essay again!

Reply 5

Chazzer66

I did the one on 'what if anything do all empires have in common?', took me a few days to say the least! :cyber:

You both applying to Oxbridge for history then??

Reply 6

pardonmyfrench

I'm not sure yet, but I'd apply for either Cambridge for Histrory or Oxford for History and English.

Reply 7

Chazzer66

Yeah, I live in Cambridge at the mo (6th form) and like it here - not sure if I want a change though. Yeah, give it a shot, might as well :h:

Reply 8

LeSacMagique

I applied for the English one, but one of my friends applied for Vellacott - the question was the one on South Africa, because he's all about new imperialism.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 9

WhoKnows?

Original post by whenjokersattack

I did "How and why did a bad neighbour become a witch in early modern Europe?" which I found really fascinating. I was pretty interested on doing the "history of emotion" title, but decided not to, considering how daunting it seemed! I'm sure on yours that the end's v good, even if "rushed". Nice timing though. Mine was slightly tense as my school did a pre-judging thing as more than 2 of us submitted an essay, so really happy I was chosen. And now all my friends are trying for the Robson prize, so feeling pretty chilled that I can just sit back and not worry... (though slightly bad!) You planning on doing another one?

I did this one to! What did you write about and what books did you read?

Reply 10

graceinspace

I did it last year :smile:

Shortlisted for the final few, so I was happy :biggrin:

Good luck everyone submitting this year!

Reply 11

WhoKnows?

Original post by graceinspace

I did it last year :smile:

Shortlisted for the final few, so I was happy :biggrin:

Good luck everyone submitting this year!

Just out of interest I don't suppose you applied or got into Cambridge or Oxford? :smile:

Reply 12

Kellettwm

I also took a crack at the beast... went for "how rational is apocalyptic thought" just for something completely out there.

Needless to say, it took bloody ages but i hope it didn't go too badly. Make sure you lot post back here when results are back, i want to know who won! Good luck with exams :smile:

Reply 13

graceinspace

Original post by WhoKnows?

Just out of interest I don't suppose you applied or got into Cambridge or Oxford? :smile:

I applied for Oxford and got a second interview, but was unfortunately rejected :frown:

But the essay was a talking point for my second one :smile:

Reply 14

Psychotic546

Original post by Kellettwm

That title looked ridiculous :eek:

I did "Did the identity of early modern states depend in any way on their territorial possessions? [Answer with reference to at least two states.]"

Reply 15

ngming

Wrote an essay on whether British flag following trade was an adequate assessment of British Imperialism. hopefully I get commended or something, it wasn't a **** essay but was probably quite unimpressive.

Reply 16

Kellettwm

Anyone any idea when in june we hear...? :smile:

Reply 17

Psychotic546

Original post by Kellettwm

Anyone any idea when in june we hear...? :smile:

By the 3rd.

Reply 18

Chazzer66

Its like Christmas, exams are over and I get to find out how I did! (but I wake up early, go to the tree and find one card saying sorry dude, you cant write for jack) D: