What to expect from Extension History?

[palebluedot]

Hi everyone! Ive never used this website before so excuse me if im posting this in the wrong place!


Ive completed a term of extension history and im very confused. We have been reading "History and the Historians" By John Warren, which was initially fine, but the historians around the enlightenment period have confused me a little  (its not a very easy read   but i got there eventually

anyway, ive answered the 4 questiones on each historian, but my teacher has not really assisted much with this, we just do class discussions on the historians after we read the chapter on them.

I keep seeing things about 'Historical Debates' ?

Im just confused as to what this subject needs me to do, all i have so far is 4 questions answered on the historians and thats about it

[fantasticbeasts3]

Hi everyone! Ive never used this website before so excuse me if im posting this in the wrong place!


Ive completed a term of extension history and im very confused. We have been reading "History and the Historians" By John Warren, which was initially fine, but the historians around the enlightenment period have confused me a little  (its not a very easy read   but i got there eventually

anyway, ive answered the 4 questiones on each historian, but my teacher has not really assisted much with this, we just do class discussions on the historians after we read the chapter on them.

I keep seeing things about 'Historical Debates' ?

Im just confused as to what this subject needs me to do, all i have so far is 4 questions answered on the historians and thats about it

hey, welcome to the forums!

as a history extension dropout, i can't help you that much, but i'll try my best. i'll give you a quick rundown of the course:

what you're doing now with the historians is for the first part of any "full" history extension exam, which asks you to write an essay (in an hour) about interpretations of history, in response to a source and question. i recommend you check out past hsc papers to see what kind of questions they ask for this first essay, but there's a source which is about 1.5 pages long, and a question, and you use the historians you've learnt in class + reference to the source to form your essay.

what you'll probably do next term after you finish with these historians is a case study, which focuses on the interpretations of this event/person/whatever you're studying in class. the thing you do with the "what is history" (thing you're doing with the historians now) kind of prepares you for this, because there's usually different groups of people that say one thing about the thing you're studying, and groups that say something else. in the exam, there's a section 2, which is for your case study, and you write an essay in response to a much shorter source and question about the interpretations of whatever you've studied.

then there's the major work, which is basically just the case study - but you get to choose whatever topic you like!

remember, history extension is all about historiography - the interpretation of history. that's why you're studying all these historians :-) the class discussions are also quite helpful with different interpretations, because everyone has a different opinion, and opinions can change how history is written about over time (or HOW it is written), if that makes any sense.

i'm not too sure about "historical debates," so i'll leave that for someone else to answer.

hope this helps,
fantasticbeasts

[katie,rinos]

Hey,
Welcome to Atar Notes!! Definitely in the right place!

I also read excerpts from ‘History and the Historians’ and it is hard to read sometimes. Is anything still confusing you about the historians?

During the first term, I only studied the What is History? part and I did 1-2 historians a week. We did the historians in class and then answered the 4 questions and a few others (Who are the historians, What are the purposes of history, How has history been constructed/recorded over time, historian’s interpretation on subject, why have approaches to history changed over time, what impact has the historian had on historiography and criticisms of their approach).

I didn’t didn’t learn anything about historiographical  debates until later on last year, so you should be fine. You also wouldn’t have studied all of the historians yet (e.g for is history fiction, you wouldn’t have studied postmodernism yet). Some of the questions from past exams have basically been historiographical debates (such as to what extent do historians ‘own’ history’ or to what extent can histories be ’neutral’ and ‘objective’). You can also use the debates within your own essays, e.g in an essay about how purposes affects history you could talk about objectivity while linking it to the historians that you have studied in class.  We have a History Extension debate thread here which you can test out/argue some of your opinions of the historiographical debates which I found really helpful throughout my HSC.

Some of the debates that I looked at were:
- Is History science or literature?
- Should History be a narrative?
- Can history be objective?
- Academic history vs popular history
- The democratisation of history: Who can write history?
- Digital revolution... a valid form of history?
- Is history fiction?
- Who owns history?
- Role of popular culture
- Social history (pros and cons)

I also broke down the course here which may be helpful.
Hope this helps! Feel free to ask if you have any other questions