Is Steve Austin the founder of texas or the six million dollar man?

March 12, 2012
Seriously. I did not begin my life as an American historian but find myself one. And now I find myself in Texas with a group of my students and I’m inundated with questions. There are other teacers here – including a doctoral student in American Studies...

Whither Weimar?

March 1, 2012
The Weimar Republic is so often seen as a stepping stone to Nazi Germany that we often talke little time and effort to understand it on its own merits. There are so many apocryphal statements that it was “doomed from its foundations” (May 1998 Paper 3...

Single Party States and test taking

February 22, 2012
Based on anecdotal evidence (how many students answer questions on Paper 2) Single Party States is the most popular of the 20th century world history topics. Today, a student asked me if it was possible to simply study one facet of SPS – rise, domestic policies...

The collapse of the USSR and the end of the Cold War

February 8, 2012
When teaching the end of the Cold War it is very easy to give students a summary of the events that led to the collapse of the USSR and the end of the Cold War. Less easy is to coach them on how to use the evidence at their disposal to support an argument. A recent IB...

Year of the Dragon

January 19, 2012
2012 is a year of the dragon, as were 2000, 1988 and the auspicious year 1976. 1976 was a year of turmoil and tremendous change in China. Both Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong died, leaving a power vacuum. After the Gang of Four was defeated, the innocuous Hua Guofeng was...