historical stories essay

How to Write a History Essay with Outline, Tips, Examples and More

Before we get into how to write a history essay, let's first understand what makes one good. Different people might have different ideas, but there are some basic rules that can help you do well in your studies. In this guide, we won't get into any fancy theories. Instead, we'll give you straightforward tips to help you with historical writing. So, if you're ready to sharpen your writing skills, let our history essay writing service explore how to craft an exceptional paper.

What is a History Essay?

A history essay is an academic assignment where we explore and analyze historical events from the past. We dig into historical stories, figures, and ideas to understand their importance and how they've shaped our world today. History essay writing involves researching, thinking critically, and presenting arguments based on evidence.

Moreover, history papers foster the development of writing proficiency and the ability to communicate complex ideas effectively. They also encourage students to engage with primary and secondary sources, enhancing their research skills and deepening their understanding of historical methodology.

History Essay Outline

The outline is there to guide you in organizing your thoughts and arguments in your essay about history. With a clear outline, you can explore and explain historical events better. Here's how to make one:

Introduction

• Hook: Start with an attention-grabbing opening sentence or anecdote related to your topic.
• Background Information: Provide context on the historical period, event, or theme you'll be discussing.
• Thesis Statement: Present your main argument or viewpoint, outlining the scope and purpose of your history essay.

Body paragraph 1: Introduction to the Historical Context

• Provide background information on the historical context of your topic.
• Highlight key events, figures, or developments leading up to the main focus of your history essay.

Body paragraphs 2-4 (or more): Main Arguments and Supporting Evidence

• Each paragraph should focus on a specific argument or aspect of your thesis.
• Present evidence from primary and secondary sources to support each argument.
• Analyze the significance of the evidence and its relevance to your history paper thesis.

Counterarguments (optional)

• Address potential counterarguments or alternative perspectives on your topic.
• Refute opposing viewpoints with evidence and logical reasoning.
• Summary of Main Points: Recap the main arguments presented in the body paragraphs.
• Restate Thesis: Reinforce your thesis statement, emphasizing its significance in light of the evidence presented.
• Reflection: Reflect on the broader implications of your arguments for understanding history.
• Closing Thought: End your history paper with a thought-provoking statement that leaves a lasting impression on the reader.

References/bibliography

• List all sources used in your research, formatted according to the citation style required by your instructor (e.g., MLA, APA, Chicago).
• Include both primary and secondary sources, arranged alphabetically by the author's last name.

Notes (if applicable)

• Include footnotes or endnotes to provide additional explanations, citations, or commentary on specific points within your history essay.

History Essay Format

Adhering to a specific format is crucial for clarity, coherence, and academic integrity. Here are the key components of a typical history essay format:

Font and Size

• Use a legible font such as Times New Roman, Arial, or Calibri.
• The recommended font size is usually 12 points. However, check your instructor's guidelines, as they may specify a different size.
• Set 1-inch margins on all sides of the page.
• Double-space the entire essay, including the title, headings, body paragraphs, and references.
• Avoid extra spacing between paragraphs unless specified otherwise.
• Align text to the left margin; avoid justifying the text or using a centered alignment.

Title Page (if required):

• If your instructor requires a title page, include the essay title, your name, the course title, the instructor's name, and the date.
• Center-align this information vertically and horizontally on the page.
• Include a header on each page (excluding the title page if applicable) with your last name and the page number, flush right.
• Some instructors may require a shortened title in the header, usually in all capital letters.
• Center-align the essay title at the top of the first page (if a title page is not required).
• Use standard capitalization (capitalize the first letter of each major word).
• Avoid underlining, italicizing, or bolding the title unless necessary for emphasis.

Paragraph Indentation:

• Indent the first line of each paragraph by 0.5 inches or use the tab key.
• Do not insert extra spaces between paragraphs unless instructed otherwise.

Citations and References:

• Follow the citation style specified by your instructor (e.g., MLA, APA, Chicago).
• Include in-text citations whenever you use information or ideas from external sources.
• Provide a bibliography or list of references at the end of your history essay, formatted according to the citation style guidelines.
• Typically, history essays range from 1000 to 2500 words, but this can vary depending on the assignment.

How to Write a History Essay?

Historical writing can be an exciting journey through time, but it requires careful planning and organization. In this section, we'll break down the process into simple steps to help you craft a compelling and well-structured history paper.

Analyze the Question

Before diving headfirst into writing, take a moment to dissect the essay question. Read it carefully, and then read it again. You want to get to the core of what it's asking. Look out for keywords that indicate what aspects of the topic you need to focus on. If you're unsure about anything, don't hesitate to ask your instructor for clarification. Remember, understanding how to start a history essay is half the battle won!

Now, let's break this step down:

• Read the question carefully and identify keywords or phrases.
• Consider what the question is asking you to do – are you being asked to analyze, compare, contrast, or evaluate?
• Pay attention to any specific instructions or requirements provided in the question.
• Take note of the time period or historical events mentioned in the question – this will give you a clue about the scope of your history essay.

Develop a Strategy

With a clear understanding of the essay question, it's time to map out your approach. Here's how to develop your historical writing strategy:

• Brainstorm ideas : Take a moment to jot down any initial thoughts or ideas that come to mind in response to the history paper question. This can help you generate a list of potential arguments, themes, or points you want to explore in your history essay.
• Create an outline : Once you have a list of ideas, organize them into a logical structure. Start with a clear introduction that introduces your topic and presents your thesis statement – the main argument or point you'll be making in your history essay. Then, outline the key points or arguments you'll be discussing in each paragraph of the body, making sure they relate back to your thesis. Finally, plan a conclusion that summarizes your main points and reinforces your history paper thesis.
• Research : Before diving into writing, gather evidence to support your arguments. Use reputable sources such as books, academic journals, and primary documents to gather historical evidence and examples. Take notes as you research, making sure to record the source of each piece of information for proper citation later on.
• Consider counterarguments : Anticipate potential counterarguments to your history paper thesis and think about how you'll address them in your essay. Acknowledging opposing viewpoints and refuting them strengthens your argument and demonstrates critical thinking.
• Set realistic goals : Be realistic about the scope of your history essay and the time you have available to complete it. Break down your writing process into manageable tasks, such as researching, drafting, and revising, and set deadlines for each stage to stay on track.

Start Your Research

Now that you've grasped the history essay topic and outlined your approach, it's time to dive into research. Here's how to start:

• Ask questions : What do you need to know? What are the key points to explore further? Write down your inquiries to guide your research.
• Explore diverse sources : Look beyond textbooks. Check academic journals, reliable websites, and primary sources like documents or artifacts.
• Consider perspectives : Think about different viewpoints on your topic. How have historians analyzed it? Are there controversies or differing interpretations?
• Take organized notes : Summarize key points, jot down quotes, and record your thoughts and questions. Stay organized using spreadsheets or note-taking apps.
• Evaluate sources : Consider the credibility and bias of each source. Are they peer-reviewed? Do they represent a particular viewpoint?

Establish a Viewpoint

By establishing a clear viewpoint and supporting arguments, you'll lay the foundation for your compelling historical writing:

• Review your research : Reflect on the information gathered. What patterns or themes emerge? Which perspectives resonate with you?
• Formulate a thesis statement : Based on your research, develop a clear and concise thesis that states your argument or interpretation of the topic.
• Consider counterarguments : Anticipate objections to your history paper thesis. Are there alternative viewpoints or evidence that you need to address?
• Craft supporting arguments : Outline the main points that support your thesis. Use evidence from your research to strengthen your arguments.
• Stay flexible : Be open to adjusting your viewpoint as you continue writing and researching. New information may challenge or refine your initial ideas.

Structure Your Essay

Now that you've delved into the depths of researching historical events and established your viewpoint, it's time to craft the skeleton of your essay: its structure. Think of your history essay outline as constructing a sturdy bridge between your ideas and your reader's understanding. How will you lead them from point A to point Z? Will you follow a chronological path through history or perhaps dissect themes that span across time periods?

And don't forget about the importance of your introduction and conclusion—are they framing your narrative effectively, enticing your audience to read your paper, and leaving them with lingering thoughts long after they've turned the final page? So, as you lay the bricks of your history essay's architecture, ask yourself: How can I best lead my audience through the maze of time and thought, leaving them enlightened and enriched on the other side?

Create an Engaging Introduction

Creating an engaging introduction is crucial for capturing your reader's interest right from the start. But how do you do it? Think about what makes your topic fascinating. Is there a surprising fact or a compelling story you can share? Maybe you could ask a thought-provoking question that gets people thinking. Consider why your topic matters—what lessons can we learn from history?

Also, remember to explain what your history essay will be about and why it's worth reading. What will grab your reader's attention and make them want to learn more? How can you make your essay relevant and intriguing right from the beginning?

Develop Coherent Paragraphs

Once you've established your introduction, the next step is to develop coherent paragraphs that effectively communicate your ideas. Each paragraph should focus on one main point or argument, supported by evidence or examples from your research. Start by introducing the main idea in a topic sentence, then provide supporting details or evidence to reinforce your point.

Make sure to use transition words and phrases to guide your reader smoothly from one idea to the next, creating a logical flow throughout your history essay. Additionally, consider the organization of your paragraphs—is there a clear progression of ideas that builds upon each other? Are your paragraphs unified around a central theme or argument?

Conclude Effectively

Concluding your history essay effectively is just as important as starting it off strong. In your conclusion, you want to wrap up your main points while leaving a lasting impression on your reader. Begin by summarizing the key points you've made throughout your history essay, reminding your reader of the main arguments and insights you've presented.

Then, consider the broader significance of your topic—what implications does it have for our understanding of history or for the world today? You might also want to reflect on any unanswered questions or areas for further exploration. Finally, end with a thought-provoking statement or a call to action that encourages your reader to continue thinking about the topic long after they've finished reading.

Reference Your Sources

Referencing your sources is essential for maintaining the integrity of your history essay and giving credit to the scholars and researchers who have contributed to your understanding of the topic. Depending on the citation style required (such as MLA, APA, or Chicago), you'll need to format your references accordingly. Start by compiling a list of all the sources you've consulted, including books, articles, websites, and any other materials used in your research.

Then, as you write your history essay, make sure to properly cite each source whenever you use information or ideas that are not your own. This includes direct quotations, paraphrases, and summaries. Remember to include all necessary information for each source, such as author names, publication dates, and page numbers, as required by your chosen citation style.

Review and Ask for Advice

As you near the completion of your history essay writing, it's crucial to take a step back and review your work with a critical eye. Reflect on the clarity and coherence of your arguments—are they logically organized and effectively supported by evidence? Consider the strength of your introduction and conclusion—do they effectively capture the reader's attention and leave a lasting impression? Take the time to carefully proofread your history essay for any grammatical errors or typos that may detract from your overall message.

Furthermore, seeking advice from peers, mentors, or instructors can provide valuable insights and help identify areas for improvement. Consider sharing your essay with someone whose feedback you trust and respect, and be open to constructive criticism. Ask specific questions about areas you're unsure about or where you feel your history essay may be lacking.

History Essay Example

In this section, we offer an example of a history essay examining the impact of the Industrial Revolution on society. This essay demonstrates how historical analysis and critical thinking are applied in academic writing. By exploring this specific event, you can observe how historical evidence is used to build a cohesive argument and draw meaningful conclusions.

FAQs about History Essay Writing

How to write a history essay introduction, how to write a conclusion for a history essay, how to write a good history essay.

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Writing History: An Introductory Guide to How History Is Produced

What is history.

Most people believe that history is a "collection of facts about the past." This is reinforced through the use of textbooks used in teaching history. They are written as though they are collections of information. In fact, history is NOT a "collection of facts about the past." History consists of making arguments about what happened in the past on the basis of what people recorded (in written documents, cultural artifacts, or oral traditions) at the time. Historians often disagree over what "the facts" are as well as over how they should be interpreted. The problem is complicated for major events that produce "winners" and "losers," since we are more likely to have sources written by the "winners," designed to show why they were heroic in their victories.

History in Your Textbook

Many textbooks acknowledge this in lots of places. For example, in one book, the authors write, "The stories of the conquests of Mexico and Peru are epic tales told by the victors. Glorified by the chronicles of their companions, the conquistadors, or conquerors, especially Hernán Cortés (1485-1547), emerged as heroes larger than life." The authors then continue to describe Cortés ’s actions that ultimately led to the capture of Cuauhtómoc, who ruled the Mexicas after Moctezuma died. From the authors’ perspective, there is no question that Moctezuma died when he was hit by a rock thrown by one of his own subjects. When you read accounts of the incident, however, the situation was so unstable, that it is not clear how Moctezuma died. Note: there is little analysis in this passage. The authors are simply telling the story based upon Spanish versions of what happened. There is no interpretation. There is no explanation of why the Mexicas lost.   Many individuals believe that history is about telling stories, but most historians also want answers to questions like why did the Mexicas lose?

What Are Primary Sources?

To answer these questions, historians turn to primary sources, sources that were written at the time of the event, in this case written from 1519-1521 in Mexico. These would be firsthand accounts. Unfortunately, in the case of the conquest of Mexico, there is only one genuine primary source written from 1519-1521. This primary source consists of the letters Cortés wrote and sent to Spain. Other sources are conventionally used as primary sources, although they were written long after the conquest. One example consists of the account written by Cortés ’s companion, Bernal Díaz del Castillo. Other accounts consist of Mexica and other Nahua stories and traditions about the conquest of Mexico from their point of view.

Making Arguments in the Textbook

Historians then use these sources to make arguments, which could possibly be refuted by different interpretations of the same evidence or the discovery of new sources.  For example, the Bentley and Ziegler textbook make several arguments on page 597 about why the Spaniards won:

"Steel swords, muskets, cannons, and horses offered Cortés and his men some advantage over the forces they met and help to account for the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire".

"Quite apart from military technology, Cortés' expedition benefited from divisions among the indigenous peoples of Mexico."

"With the aid of Doña Marina, the conquistadors forged alliances with peoples who resented domination by the Mexicas, the leaders of the Aztec empire...."

Ideally, under each of these "thesis statements," that is, each of these arguments about why the Mexicas were defeated, the authors will give some examples of information that backs up their "thesis." To write effective history and history essays, in fact to write successfully in any area, you should begin your essay with the "thesis" or argument you want to prove with concrete examples that support your thesis.  Since the Bentley and Ziegler book does not provide any evidence to back up their main arguments, you can easily use the material available here to provide evidence to support your claim that any one of the above arguments is better than the others.  You could also use the evidence to introduce other possibilities:  Mocteuzuma's poor leadership, Cortés' craftiness, or disease.

Become a Critical Reader

To become a critical reader, to empower yourself to "own your own history," you should think carefully about whether the evidence the authors provide does in fact support their theses.  Since the Bentley and Ziegler book provides only conclusions and not much evidence to back up their main points, you may want to explore your class notes on the topic and then examine the primary sources included on the Conquest of Mexico on this web site.

Your Assignment for Writing History with Primary Sources

There are several ways to make this a successful assignment. First, you might take any of the theses presented in the book and use information from primary sources to disprove it—the "trash the book" approach. Or, if your professor has said something in class that you are not sure about, find material to disprove it—the "trash the prof" approach (and, yes, it is really okay if you have the evidence ). Another approach is to include new information that the authors ignored . For example, the authors say nothing about omens. If one analyzes omens in the conquest, will it change the theses or interpretations presented in the textbook? Or, can one really present a Spanish or Mexica perspective?  Another approach is to make your own thesis, i.e., one of the biggest reasons for the conquest was that Moctezuma fundamentally misunderstood Cortés.

When Sources Disagree

If you do work with the Mexican materials, you will encounter the harsh reality of historical research: the sources do not always agree on what happened in a given event. It is up to you, then, to decide who to believe. Most historians would probably believe Cortés’ letters were the most likely to be accurate, but is this statement justified? Cortés was in the heat of battle and while it looked like he might win easy victory in 1519, he did not complete his mission until 1521.  The Cuban Governor, Diego Velázquez wanted his men to capture Cortés and bring him back to Cuba on charges of insubordination.  Was he painting an unusually rosy picture of his situation so that the Spanish King would continue to support him? It is up to you to decide. Have the courage to own your own history! Díaz Del Castillo wrote his account later in his life, when the Spaniards were being attacked for the harsh policies they implemented in Mexico after the conquest.  He also was upset that Cortés' personal secretary published a book that made it appear that only Cortés was responsible for the conquest. There is no question that the idea of the heroic nature of the Spanish actions is clearest in his account. But does this mean he was wrong about what he said happened and why? It is up to you to decide. The Mexica accounts are the most complex since they were originally oral histories told in Nahuatl that were then written down in a newly rendered alphabetic Nahuatl. They include additional Mexica illustrations of their version of what happened, for painting was a traditional way in which the Mexicas wrote history. Think about what the pictures tell us. In fact, a good paper might support a thesis that uses a picture as evidence. Again, how reliable is this material? It is up to you to decide.

One way to think about the primary sources is to ask the questions: (1) when was the source written, (2) who is the intended audience of the source, (3) what are the similarities between the accounts, (4) what are the differences between the accounts, (5) what pieces of information in the accounts will support your thesis, and (6) what information in the sources are totally irrelevant to the thesis or argument you want to make.

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How to Write a History Essay

Last Updated: December 27, 2022 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Emily Listmann, MA . Emily Listmann is a private tutor in San Carlos, California. She has worked as a Social Studies Teacher, Curriculum Coordinator, and an SAT Prep Teacher. She received her MA in Education from the Stanford Graduate School of Education in 2014. There are 8 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 242,810 times.

Writing a history essay requires you to include a lot of details and historical information within a given number of words or required pages. It's important to provide all the needed information, but also to present it in a cohesive, intelligent way. Know how to write a history essay that demonstrates your writing skills and your understanding of the material.

Preparing to Write Your Essay

• The key words will often need to be defined at the start of your essay, and will serve as its boundaries. [2] X Research source
• For example, if the question was "To what extent was the First World War a Total War?", the key terms are "First World War", and "Total War".
• Do this before you begin conducting your research to ensure that your reading is closely focussed to the question and you don't waste time.

• Explain: provide an explanation of why something happened or didn't happen.
• Interpret: analyse information within a larger framework to contextualise it.
• Evaluate: present and support a value-judgement.
• Argue: take a clear position on a debate and justify it. [3] X Research source

• Your thesis statement should clearly address the essay prompt and provide supporting arguments. These supporting arguments will become body paragraphs in your essay, where you’ll elaborate and provide concrete evidence. [4] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source
• Your argument may change or become more nuanced as your write your essay, but having a clear thesis statement which you can refer back to is very helpful.
• For example, your summary could be something like "The First World War was a 'total war' because civilian populations were mobilized both in the battlefield and on the home front".

• Pick out some key quotes that make your argument precisely and persuasively. [5] X Research source
• When writing your plan, you should already be thinking about how your essay will flow, and how each point will connect together.

Doing Your Research

• Primary source material refers to any texts, films, pictures, or any other kind of evidence that was produced in the historical period, or by someone who participated in the events of the period, that you are writing about.
• Secondary material is the work by historians or other writers analysing events in the past. The body of historical work on a period or event is known as the historiography.
• It is not unusual to write a literature review or historiographical essay which does not directly draw on primary material.
• Typically a research essay would need significant primary material.

• Start with the core texts in your reading list or course bibliography. Your teacher will have carefully selected these so you should start there.
• Look in footnotes and bibliographies. When you are reading be sure to pay attention to the footnotes and bibliographies which can guide you to further sources a give you a clear picture of the important texts.
• Use the library. If you have access to a library at your school or college, be sure to make the most of it. Search online catalogues and speak to librarians.
• Access online journal databases. If you are in college it is likely that you will have access to academic journals online. These are an excellent and easy to navigate resources.
• Use online sources with discretion. Try using free scholarly databases, like Google Scholar, which offer quality academic sources, but avoid using the non-trustworthy websites that come up when you simply search your topic online.
• Avoid using crowd-sourced sites like Wikipedia as sources. However, you can look at the sources cited on a Wikipedia page and use them instead, if they seem credible.

• Who is the author? Is it written by an academic with a position at a University? Search for the author online.
• Who is the publisher? Is the book published by an established academic press? Look in the cover to check the publisher, if it is published by a University Press that is a good sign.
• If it's an article, where is published? If you are using an article check that it has been published in an academic journal. [8] X Research source
• If the article is online, what is the URL? Government sources with .gov addresses are good sources, as are .edu sites.

• Ask yourself why the author is making this argument. Evaluate the text by placing it into a broader intellectual context. Is it part of a certain tradition in historiography? Is it a response to a particular idea?
• Consider where there are weaknesses and limitations to the argument. Always keep a critical mindset and try to identify areas where you think the argument is overly stretched or the evidence doesn't match the author's claims. [9] X Research source

• Label all your notes with the page numbers and precise bibliographic information on the source.
• If you have a quote but can't remember where you found it, imagine trying to skip back through everything you have read to find that one line.
• If you use something and don't reference it fully you risk plagiarism. [10] X Research source

Writing the Introduction

• For example you could start by saying "In the First World War new technologies and the mass mobilization of populations meant that the war was not fought solely by standing armies".
• This first sentences introduces the topic of your essay in a broad way which you can start focus to in on more.

• This will lead to an outline of the structure of your essay and your argument.
• Here you will explain the particular approach you have taken to the essay.
• For example, if you are using case studies you should explain this and give a brief overview of which case studies you will be using and why.

Writing the Essay

• Try to include a sentence that concludes each paragraph and links it to the next paragraph.
• When you are organising your essay think of each paragraph as addressing one element of the essay question.
• Keeping a close focus like this will also help you avoid drifting away from the topic of the essay and will encourage you to write in precise and concise prose.
• Don't forget to write in the past tense when referring to something that has already happened.

• Don't drop a quote from a primary source into your prose without introducing it and discussing it, and try to avoid long quotations. Use only the quotes that best illustrate your point.
• If you are referring to a secondary source, you can usually summarise in your own words rather than quoting directly.
• Be sure to fully cite anything you refer to, including if you do not quote it directly.

• Think about the first and last sentence in every paragraph and how they connect to the previous and next paragraph.
• Try to avoid beginning paragraphs with simple phrases that make your essay appear more like a list. For example, limit your use of words like: "Additionally", "Moreover", "Furthermore".
• Give an indication of where your essay is going and how you are building on what you have already said. [15] X Research source

• Briefly outline the implications of your argument and it's significance in relation to the historiography, but avoid grand sweeping statements. [16] X Research source
• A conclusion also provides the opportunity to point to areas beyond the scope of your essay where the research could be developed in the future.

Proofreading and Evaluating Your Essay

• Try to cut down any overly long sentences or run-on sentences. Instead, try to write clear and accurate prose and avoid unnecessary words.
• Concentrate on developing a clear, simple and highly readable prose style first before you think about developing your writing further. [17] X Research source
• Reading your essay out load can help you get a clearer picture of awkward phrasing and overly long sentences. [18] X Research source

• When you read through your essay look at each paragraph and ask yourself, "what point this paragraph is making".
• You might have produced a nice piece of narrative writing, but if you are not directly answering the question it is not going to help your grade.

• A bibliography will typically have primary sources first, followed by secondary sources. [19] X Research source
• Double and triple check that you have included all the necessary references in the text. If you forgot to include a reference you risk being reported for plagiarism.

Sample Essay

Community Q&A

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• ↑ http://www.historytoday.com/robert-pearce/how-write-good-history-essay
• ↑ https://www.hamilton.edu/academics/centers/writing/writing-resources/writing-a-good-history-paper
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/the_writing_process/thesis_statement_tips.html
• ↑ http://history.rutgers.edu/component/content/article?id=106:writing-historical-essays-a-guide-for-undergraduates
• ↑ https://guides.lib.uw.edu/c.php?g=344285&p=2580599
• ↑ http://www.hamilton.edu/documents/writing-center/WritingGoodHistoryPaper.pdf
• ↑ http://www.bowdoin.edu/writing-guides/
• ↑ https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/hppi/publications/Writing-History-Essays.pdf

About This Article

To write a history essay, read the essay question carefully and use source materials to research the topic, taking thorough notes as you go. Next, formulate a thesis statement that summarizes your key argument in 1-2 concise sentences and create a structured outline to help you stay on topic. Open with a strong introduction that introduces your thesis, present your argument, and back it up with sourced material. Then, end with a succinct conclusion that restates and summarizes your position! For more tips on creating a thesis statement, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How to Write a History Essay?

04 August, 2020

10 minutes read

Author:  Tomas White

There are so many types of essays. It can be hard to know where to start. History papers aren’t just limited to history classes. These tasks can be assigned to examine any important historical event or a person. While they’re more common in history classes, you can find this type of assignment in sociology or political science course syllabus, or just get a history essay task for your scholarship. This is Handmadewriting History Essay Guide - let's start!

Purpose  of a History Essay

Wondering how to write a history essay? First of all, it helps to understand its purpose. Secondly, this essay aims to examine the influences that lead to a historical event. Thirdly, it can explore the importance of an individual’s impact on history.

However, the goal isn’t to stay in the past. Specifically, a well-written history essay should discuss the relevance of the event or person to the “now”. After finishing this essay, a reader should have a fuller understanding of the lasting impact of an event or individual.

Need basic essay guidance? Find out what is an essay with this 101 essay guide: What is an Essay?

Elements for Success

Indeed, understanding how to write a history essay is crucial in creating a successful paper. Notably, these essays should never only outline successful historic events or list an individual’s achievements. Instead, they should focus on examining questions beginning with what , how , and why . Here’s a pro tip in how to write a history essay: brainstorm questions. Once you’ve got questions, you have an excellent starting point.

Preparing to Write

Evidently, a typical history essay format requires the writer to provide background on the event or person, examine major influences, and discuss the importance of the forces both then and now. In addition, when preparing to write, it’s helpful to organize the information you need to research into questions. For example:

• Who were the major contributors to this event?
• Who opposed or fought against this event?
• Who gained or lost from this event?
• Who benefits from this event today?
• What factors led up to this event?
• What changes occurred because of this event?
• What lasting impacts occurred locally, nationally, globally due to this event?
• What lessons (if any) were learned?
• Why did this event occur?
• Why did certain populations support it?
• Why did certain populations oppose it?

These questions exist as samples. Therefore, generate questions specific to your topic. Once you have a list of questions, it’s time to evaluate them.

Evaluating the Question

Seasoned writers approach writing history by examining the historic event or individual. Specifically, the goal is to assess the impact then and now. Accordingly, the writer needs to evaluate the importance of the main essay guiding the paper. For example, if the essay’s topic is the rise of American prohibition, a proper question may be “How did societal factors influence the rise of American prohibition during the 1920s? ”

This question is open-ended since it allows for insightful analysis, and limits the research to societal factors. Additionally, work to identify key terms in the question. In the example, key terms would be “societal factors” and “prohibition”.

Summarizing the Argument

The argument should answer the question. Use the thesis statement to clarify the argument and outline how you plan to make your case. In other words. the thesis should be sharp, clear, and multi-faceted. Consider the following tips when summarizing the case:

• The thesis should be a single sentence
• It should include a concise argument and a roadmap
• It’s always okay to revise the thesis as the paper develops
• Conduct a bit of research to ensure you have enough support for the ideas within the paper

Outlining a History Essay Plan

Once you’ve refined your argument, it’s time to outline. Notably, many skip this step to regret it then. Nonetheless, the outline is a map that shows where you need to arrive historically and when. Specifically, taking the time to plan, placing the strongest argument last, and identifying your sources of research is a good use of time. When you’re ready to outline, do the following:

• Consider the necessary background the reader should know in the introduction paragraph
• Define any important terms and vocabulary
• Determine which ideas will need the cited support
• Identify how each idea supports the main argument
• Brainstorm key points to review in the conclusion

Gathering Sources

As a rule, history essays require both primary and secondary sources . Primary resources are those that were created during the historical period being analyzed. Secondary resources are those created by historians and scholars about the topic. It’s a good idea to know if the professor requires a specific number of sources, and what kind he or she prefers. Specifically, most tutors prefer primary over secondary sources.

Where to find sources? Great question! Check out bibliographies included in required class readings. In addition, ask a campus Librarian. Peruse online journal databases; In addition, most colleges provide students with free access. When in doubt, make an appointment and ask the professor for guidance.

Writing the Essay

Now that you have prepared your questions, ideas, and arguments; composed the outline ; and gathered sources – it’s time to write your first draft. In particular, each section of your history essay must serve its purpose. Here is what you should include in essay paragraphs.

Introduction Paragraph

Unsure of how to start a history essay? Well, like most essays, the introduction should include an attention-getter (or hook):

• Relevant fact or statistic
• Rhetorical Question
• Interesting quotation
• Application anecdote if appropriate

Once you’ve captured the reader’s interest, introduce the topic. Similarly, present critical historic context. Namely, it is necessary to introduce any key individuals or events that will be discussed later in the essay. At last, end with a strong thesis which acts as a transition to the first argument.

Body Paragraphs

Indeed, each body paragraph should offer a single idea to support the argument. Then, after writing a strong topic sentence, the topic should be supported with correctly cited research. Consequently, a typical body paragraph is arranged as follows:

• Topic sentence linking to the thesis
• Background of the topic
• Research quotation or paraphrase #1
• Explanation and analysis of research
• Research quotation or paraphrase #2
• Transition to the next paragraph

Equally, the point of body paragraphs is to build the argument. Hence, present the weakest support first and end with the strongest. Admittedly, doing so leaves the reader with the best possible evidence.

Conclusion Paragraph

You’re almost there! Eventually, conclusion paragraphs should review the most important points in the paper. In them, you should prove that you’ve supported the argument proposed in the thesis. When writing a conclusion paragraph keep these tips in mind:

• Keep it simple
• Avoid introducing new information
• Review major points
• Discuss the relevance to today

Problems with writing Your History essay ? Try our Essay Writer Service!

Proofreading Your Essay

Once the draft is ready and polished, it’s time to proceed to final editing. What does this process imply? Specifically, it’s about removing impurities and making the essay look just perfect. Here’s what you need to do to improve the quality of your paper:

• Double check the content. In the first place, it’s recommended to get rid of long sentences, correct vague words. Also, make sure that all your paragrahps contain accurate sentences with transparent meaning. 
• Pay attention to style. To make the process of digesting your essay easier, focus on crafting a paper with readable style, the one that is known to readers. Above all, the main mission here is to facilitate the perception of your essay. So, don’t forget about style accuracy.
• Practice reading the essay. Of course, the best practice before passing the paper is to read it out loud. Hence, this exercise will help you notice fragments that require rewriting or a complete removal.  

History Essay Example

Did you want a history essay example? Take a look at one of our history essay papers. 

Make it Shine

An A-level essay takes planning and revision, but it’s achievable. Firstly, avoid procrastination and start early. Secondly, leave yourself plenty of time to brainstorm, outline, research and write. Finally, follow these five tips to make your history essay shine:

• Write a substantial introduction. Particularly, it’s the first impression the professor will have of the paper.
• State a clear thesis. A strong thesis is easier to support.
• Incorporate evidence critically. If while researching you find opposing arguments, include them and discuss their flaws.
• Cite all the research. Whether direct quotations or paraphrases, citing evidence is crucial to avoiding plagiarism, which can have serious academic consequences.
• Include primary and secondary resources. While primary resources may be harder to find, the professor will expect them—this is, after all, a history essay.

History Essay Sample

Ready to tackle the history essay format? Great! Check out this history essay sample from an upper-level history class. While the essay isn’t perfect, the professor points out its many strengths.

Remember: start early and revise, revise, revise . We can’t revise history, but you can revise your ideas until they’re perfect.

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How to write an introduction for a history essay

Every essay needs to begin with an introductory paragraph. It needs to be the first paragraph the marker reads.

While your introduction paragraph might be the first of the paragraphs you write, this is not the only way to do it.

You can choose to write your introduction after you have written the rest of your essay.

This way, you will know what you have argued, and this might make writing the introduction easier.

Either approach is fine. If you do write your introduction first, ensure that you go back and refine it once you have completed your essay. 

What is an ‘introduction paragraph’?

An introductory paragraph is a single paragraph at the start of your essay that prepares your reader for the argument you are going to make in your body paragraphs .

It should provide all of the necessary historical information about your topic and clearly state your argument so that by the end of the paragraph, the marker knows how you are going to structure the rest of your essay.

In general, you should never use quotes from sources in your introduction.

Introduction paragraph structure

While your introduction paragraph does not have to be as long as your body paragraphs , it does have a specific purpose, which you must fulfil.

A well-written introduction paragraph has the following four-part structure (summarised by the acronym BHES).

B – Background sentences

H – Hypothesis

E – Elaboration sentences

S - Signpost sentence

Each of these elements are explained in further detail, with examples, below:

1. Background sentences

The first two or three sentences of your introduction should provide a general introduction to the historical topic which your essay is about. This is done so that when you state your hypothesis , your reader understands the specific point you are arguing about.

Background sentences explain the important historical period, dates, people, places, events and concepts that will be mentioned later in your essay. This information should be drawn from your background research . 

Example background sentences:

Middle Ages (Year 8 Level)

Castles were an important component of Medieval Britain from the time of the Norman conquest in 1066 until they were phased out in the 15 th and 16 th centuries. Initially introduced as wooden motte and bailey structures on geographical strongpoints, they were rapidly replaced by stone fortresses which incorporated sophisticated defensive designs to improve the defenders’ chances of surviving prolonged sieges.

WWI (Year 9 Level)

The First World War began in 1914 following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The subsequent declarations of war from most of Europe drew other countries into the conflict, including Australia. The Australian Imperial Force joined the war as part of Britain’s armed forces and were dispatched to locations in the Middle East and Western Europe.

Civil Rights (Year 10 Level)

The 1967 Referendum sought to amend the Australian Constitution in order to change the legal standing of the indigenous people in Australia. The fact that 90% of Australians voted in favour of the proposed amendments has been attributed to a series of significant events and people who were dedicated to the referendum’s success.

Ancient Rome (Year 11/12 Level)  

In the late second century BC, the Roman novus homo Gaius Marius became one of the most influential men in the Roman Republic. Marius gained this authority through his victory in the Jugurthine War, with his defeat of Jugurtha in 106 BC, and his triumph over the invading Germanic tribes in 101 BC, when he crushed the Teutones at the Battle of Aquae Sextiae (102 BC) and the Cimbri at the Battle of Vercellae (101 BC). Marius also gained great fame through his election to the consulship seven times.

2. Hypothesis

Once you have provided historical context for your essay in your background sentences, you need to state your hypothesis .

A hypothesis is a single sentence that clearly states the argument that your essay will be proving in your body paragraphs .

A good hypothesis contains both the argument and the reasons in support of your argument. 

Example hypotheses:

Medieval castles were designed with features that nullified the superior numbers of besieging armies but were ultimately made obsolete by the development of gunpowder artillery.

Australian soldiers’ opinion of the First World War changed from naïve enthusiasm to pessimistic realism as a result of the harsh realities of modern industrial warfare.

The success of the 1967 Referendum was a direct result of the efforts of First Nations leaders such as Charles Perkins, Faith Bandler and the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.

Gaius Marius was the most one of the most significant personalities in the 1 st century BC due to his effect on the political, military and social structures of the Roman state.

3. Elaboration sentences

Once you have stated your argument in your hypothesis , you need to provide particular information about how you’re going to prove your argument.

Your elaboration sentences should be one or two sentences that provide specific details about how you’re going to cover the argument in your three body paragraphs.

You might also briefly summarise two or three of your main points.

Finally, explain any important key words, phrases or concepts that you’ve used in your hypothesis, you’ll need to do this in your elaboration sentences.

Example elaboration sentences:

By the height of the Middle Ages, feudal lords were investing significant sums of money by incorporating concentric walls and guard towers to maximise their defensive potential. These developments were so successful that many medieval armies avoided sieges in the late period.

Following Britain's official declaration of war on Germany, young Australian men voluntarily enlisted into the army, which was further encouraged by government propaganda about the moral justifications for the conflict. However, following the initial engagements on the Gallipoli peninsula, enthusiasm declined.

The political activity of key indigenous figures and the formation of activism organisations focused on indigenous resulted in a wider spread of messages to the general Australian public. The generation of powerful images and speeches has been frequently cited by modern historians as crucial to the referendum results.

While Marius is best known for his military reforms, it is the subsequent impacts of this reform on the way other Romans approached the attainment of magistracies and how public expectations of military leaders changed that had the longest impacts on the late republican period.

4. Signpost sentence

The final sentence of your introduction should prepare the reader for the topic of your first body paragraph. The main purpose of this sentence is to provide cohesion between your introductory paragraph and you first body paragraph .

Therefore, a signpost sentence indicates where you will begin proving the argument that you set out in your hypothesis and usually states the importance of the first point that you’re about to make. 

Example signpost sentences:

The early development of castles is best understood when examining their military purpose.

The naïve attitudes of those who volunteered in 1914 can be clearly seen in the personal letters and diaries that they themselves wrote.

The significance of these people is evident when examining the lack of political representation the indigenous people experience in the early half of the 20 th century.

The origin of Marius’ later achievements was his military reform in 107 BC, which occurred when he was first elected as consul.

Putting it all together

Once you have written all four parts of the BHES structure, you should have a completed introduction paragraph. In the examples above, we have shown each part separately. Below you will see the completed paragraphs so that you can appreciate what an introduction should look like.

Example introduction paragraphs: 

Castles were an important component of Medieval Britain from the time of the Norman conquest in 1066 until they were phased out in the 15th and 16th centuries. Initially introduced as wooden motte and bailey structures on geographical strongpoints, they were rapidly replaced by stone fortresses which incorporated sophisticated defensive designs to improve the defenders’ chances of surviving prolonged sieges. Medieval castles were designed with features that nullified the superior numbers of besieging armies, but were ultimately made obsolete by the development of gunpowder artillery. By the height of the Middle Ages, feudal lords were investing significant sums of money by incorporating concentric walls and guard towers to maximise their defensive potential. These developments were so successful that many medieval armies avoided sieges in the late period. The early development of castles is best understood when examining their military purpose.

The First World War began in 1914 following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The subsequent declarations of war from most of Europe drew other countries into the conflict, including Australia. The Australian Imperial Force joined the war as part of Britain’s armed forces and were dispatched to locations in the Middle East and Western Europe. Australian soldiers’ opinion of the First World War changed from naïve enthusiasm to pessimistic realism as a result of the harsh realities of modern industrial warfare. Following Britain's official declaration of war on Germany, young Australian men voluntarily enlisted into the army, which was further encouraged by government propaganda about the moral justifications for the conflict. However, following the initial engagements on the Gallipoli peninsula, enthusiasm declined. The naïve attitudes of those who volunteered in 1914 can be clearly seen in the personal letters and diaries that they themselves wrote.

The 1967 Referendum sought to amend the Australian Constitution in order to change the legal standing of the indigenous people in Australia. The fact that 90% of Australians voted in favour of the proposed amendments has been attributed to a series of significant events and people who were dedicated to the referendum’s success. The success of the 1967 Referendum was a direct result of the efforts of First Nations leaders such as Charles Perkins, Faith Bandler and the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. The political activity of key indigenous figures and the formation of activism organisations focused on indigenous resulted in a wider spread of messages to the general Australian public. The generation of powerful images and speeches has been frequently cited by modern historians as crucial to the referendum results. The significance of these people is evident when examining the lack of political representation the indigenous people experience in the early half of the 20th century.

In the late second century BC, the Roman novus homo Gaius Marius became one of the most influential men in the Roman Republic. Marius gained this authority through his victory in the Jugurthine War, with his defeat of Jugurtha in 106 BC, and his triumph over the invading Germanic tribes in 101 BC, when he crushed the Teutones at the Battle of Aquae Sextiae (102 BC) and the Cimbri at the Battle of Vercellae (101 BC). Marius also gained great fame through his election to the consulship seven times. Gaius Marius was the most one of the most significant personalities in the 1st century BC due to his effect on the political, military and social structures of the Roman state. While Marius is best known for his military reforms, it is the subsequent impacts of this reform on the way other Romans approached the attainment of magistracies and how public expectations of military leaders changed that had the longest impacts on the late republican period. The origin of Marius’ later achievements was his military reform in 107 BC, which occurred when he was first elected as consul.

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How to write historical fiction in 10 steps

by Andrew Noakes

This scenario will be familiar to many historical fiction writers! Research never really stops, even when you’ve started writing. It’s easy to feel frustrated during periods when you spend more time researching than writing, but remember it’s all part of the same process.

Step 3: Strive for accuracy and authenticity

When people start thinking about how to write historical fiction, this is one of the areas that often comes to mind first – and for good reason. Historical fiction readers will primarily buy your book for two reasons: 1) because they’re looking for an absorbing, page-turning story, and 2) because they want to be immersed into a historical world that feels true to the period you’re writing about.

Your readers will expect you to accurately depict the details of every-day life as well as the wider political backdrop of your period. Readers will also have expectations when it comes to the treatment of historical events and real figures of history. Most will tolerate a little creative license as long as you justify it in your historical note, but filling your novel with numerous egregious falsehoods about easily verifiable facts is likely to get you into trouble.

You’ll also need to consider how people spoke and the common social conventions of your period. There’s little worse in a historical novel than a character speaking in modern slang or acting as if they’re in the 21st century.

For detailed guidance on how to achieve accuracy and authenticity in all of these areas and more, download our full guide on accuracy and authenticity in historical fiction.

Accuracy and authenticity in historical fiction

You won’t finish your first historical fiction book overnight. There will be plenty of hurdles along the way. Stick with it!

Step 9: Revise your first draft

You shouldn’t aim for perfection with your first draft. It’s an opportunity to get your ideas down on paper, primarily for your own benefit rather than anyone else’s. Some of it will probably be quite good, but some of it won’t be – and that’s fine. Once it’s finished, it’s time for your first round of revisions.

Ideally, take six weeks off from your manuscript after the first draft is finished. That way, you can start the revision process with fresh eyes. We recommend reading the whole thing through without any editing the first time; just make notes as you go along, recording what works and what doesn’t. When you’re done, review your notes and put together a short editing plan.

The next step is to go through each chapter making the necessary corrections, additions, and deletions. You’ll probably find that changes you make in one place have knock-on effects elsewhere. If so, note down the effects and pinpoint where you need to compensate for them.

Sometimes, all that’s needed is some tweaking. Other times, you might need to start entire sections of your novel from scratch. Either way, when you’re finished you should have a complete second draft. You might want to do an additional round of revisions at this point, or you might be ready to send it to an editor.

Step 10: Hire an editor

Once your manuscript is in reasonable shape, it’s essential to get a professional manuscript assessment. By the time you’ve reached this stage, you’ll know your manuscript inside out, but that proximity might prevent you from spotting errors that would be obvious to someone reading it for the first time. This is where a professional editor comes in.

But editors are more than just a fresh pair of eyes. They’re experts in story-craft, and they’ll help you take your manuscript to the next level by tackling its weaknesses and building on its strengths. They’ll help you turn your story into the best possible version of itself before you submit to agents or self-publish it.

So, those are the essential 10 steps explaining how to write historical fiction! If you ever feel like you’re getting stuck, come back to this guide and get yourself oriented. Remember, writing historical fiction is no easy feat, and it pays to take it one step at a time.

If you want to learn more about how to write historical fiction, check out our guide,  Top tips on writing historical fiction from 64 successful historical novelists , here .

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Home » Student Resources » Historical Essay: What is it?

Historical Essay: What is it?

A history essay starts with an argument or position you first form in your thesis statement, and that you then add to and support with evidence arranged in the body of the essay. Your conclusion then needs to respond directly to your thesis statement.

• Social Sciences

What is a historical essay?

A history essay is not exactly the same as a regular essay. The parts are similar: It has an “ introduction ” which includes your “ thesis statement “, which is then supported by evidence you collect and put together in the “ body ” of the essay. You also need to sum things up in a “ conclusion ” that responds directly to your thesis statement.

While planning, researching, thinking about and writing your history essay, there are a few tips to remember (See tabs above).

History needs time

Historians like you need consider the “chronology” of events in time. In other words, you need to know what time period you are talking about, and you need to  make that clear to your reader . How long ago you are talking about? What came before and after the events you are describing? When was this all happening? What do you call that time period?

The pictures above (by RECITUS.qc.ca) are from a film on how to prepare for an exam by Timelining the different time “periods”.

History needs historical contexts

The “context” for your essay means what else is going on at the time. You should be clear about that in your introduction and keep it in mind throughout the essay. For example, what were the economic, political, social, territorial and cultural changes that were happening? How was the world was changing then? What major events surround the time you are writing?

The pictures above (by RECITUS.qc.ca) are from a film on how to prepare for an exam by Timeline-ing the different time “periods”.

Historians use documents

Try to use different “primary source” original documents from the time period. And when you use “secondary sources” written by other historians that you find in books, newspapers, on websites, etc., make sure you indicate that these are secondary sources. In both cases, make sure the reader understands who wrote those documents, and their point of view.

The above documents (photographs, posters, newspapers) were taken from three excellent websites that offer primary source documents:

• Library and Archives Canada
• McCord Museum, Montreal History Museum
• Google Newspaper Archives

Note that in some cases (like on Exams!) you may be given document files, from which you must get your information and decide on the topics of your essay. Remember to pay attention to headings for these historical documents, and consider closely which parts of the original document has been chosen for you.

Historians think like historians

Historians examine the causes and the consequences of events. This is more precise than just the context; these are the reasons why something happened, and the things that happened afterwards because of it.

Historians also try to determine what has changed and what has stayed the same, and again, they try to explain why.

And like you, they state their opinion. You can do the same in your essay, and you can state why your opinion differs or is the same as other writers.

When you are writing a history essay, try to remember these strategies. Another good source for strategies is The Historial Thinking Project at  http://historicalthinking.ca/

The above image (s) were taken from the McCord online exhibit entitled Urban Life through Two Lenses, specifically from the photographic pairing entitled “ View of the Montreal Habour ” (Public Domain)

• Historical Thinking Project
• McCord Museum

Related How To's

Historical Essay: Conclusion

Historical Essay: The Body

Historical Essay: Introduction

Historical Essay: Thesis Statement

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Exploring Historical Events: Crafting Informative Essays for Readers

Share share tweetin our pursuit of understanding the past, the art of writing essays on historical events stands as a bridge. it connects yesterday’s stories and today’s curious minds. hence, this guide has been crafted with that in mind. it is a sort of expedition into the heart of history itself. this piece seeks to […].

by Andrei Tapalaga | Dec 21, 2023 | Uncategorized

In our pursuit of understanding the past, the art of writing essays on historical events stands as a bridge. It connects yesterday’s stories and today’s curious minds. Hence, this guide has been crafted with that in mind. It is a sort of expedition into the heart of history itself. This piece seeks to equip you with tools and perspectives. They allow you to delve into the depths of historical narratives, breathing life into the details.

This article will unravel the means of writing a history paper. It will also examine cause and effect, tools for research, and storytelling. As you dive into the article, you will explore some resources to use, allowing you to write an excellent piece that surpasses expectations. 

Best Writing Resources for History Writers

If you want to write a piece about a historical event, there are various means of honing your skills. However, everyone needs editing services, as they provide expert help when you most need it. Explore the best essay writing service US , presenting itself as the most helpful resource. Not only will you be able to produce winning papers, but these services are staffed with history and academic writing experts. You can access customized essays, editing efforts, and unlimited support. You can ensure your pieces meet academic standards and engage readers with compelling content. 

However, there are a myriad of resources you should access while you’re writing your history piece. First and among the most valuable tools are comprehensive historical databases and archives. These are a treasure of primary sources and scholarly articles. These are essential for an authentic historical narrative. Don’t forget to use academic journals as well, allowing you to enrich your perspective and depth of understanding. Lastly, utilize online forums and communities for historians and writers. They allow you to gain access to discussion, feedback, and the ability to exchange ideas. 

The Art of Historical Storytelling

A good history essay is about how you tell the story and explore different perspectives. At its core, narrative history is about finding the human element in past events. Hence, you should examine the motivations, emotions, and experiences of those who lived through these times. An excellent historical storyteller can transport readers in time. It allows them to witness significant events unfolding. 

Furthermore, narrative history often involves exploring different perspectives and voices. In particular, it consists of discussing and elaborating on the voices of those who have been marginalized. Doing so can present a more nuanced and inclusive view of the past. 

Researching the Past

 Image Credit: Pexels

The importance of history can be emphasized only by meticulous research. Here are some steps and resources to follow when conducting your research about the past:

·        Finding reliable sources . Primary sources offer insights into the studied period. They include original documents, letters, diaries, and artifacts. Secondary sources, such as books and academic papers, interpret primary data.

·        Source evaluation. This involves assessing the authenticity, bias, and relevance of the source. You must consider the origin of the source, its purpose, and the context. Don’t forget to scrutinize the credentials and biases of secondary source authors.

·        Cross-referencing. By comparing information from multiple sources, you can corroborate facts. You also gain a more accurate picture of the events. This also helps in identifying discrepancies or contradictions in historical accounts. 

·        Use technology. You can access digital archives, online databases, and search tools through technology. However, there is the challenge of discerning credible information from misinformation.

·        Oral histories and interviews. There is nothing better than oral histories and interviews with experts or individuals from the event. These personal narratives can offer perspectives that are not captured in written records. 

Analyzing Historical Cause and Effect

When writing a historical paper, cause and effect is crucial. This analytical approach moves beyond a mere description of events. It dives into a more profound analysis of dynamics. You can write an excellent piece on cause and effect by accessing extensive essay examples. Access college essay writing help to learn more about resources to help you write this piece. Such editing services allow you to dive deep into the analysis. It enables you to format a more impactful research of the events. This is particularly helpful as this analytical approach is complex yet incredibly effective. 

This is the simple yet practical guide you need to write compelling historical essays. We delved into the art of narrative history, the rigorous process of research, and the importance of causes and effects. All these allow you to present a comprehensive view of the past. 

The guide underscores the value of diverse resources. We discuss everything from expert essay-writing services to digital archives. They are all vital to crafting academically robust pieces. Hence, utilize this resource as a reference to creating narratives that vividly bring history to life.

Avid Writer with invaluable knowledge of Humanity!

Upcoming historian with over 30 million views online.

“You make your own life.”

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The Ultimate Guide to Crafting a Winning Historical Essay Body: Tips and Tricks for Success

A historical essay answers a question or addresses a specific topic. The format is like a sandwich: a body cushioned between the introduction and conclusion paragraphs. Each body paragraph is a mini-essay that addresses one topic.  It has its own introduction, body, and conclusion. The body paragraphs should address what is found in the introduction.  

What Is A History Essay

An essay is a short piece of writing that answers a question (“Who are the funniest presidents ”) discusses a subject (“What is Japanese feudalism ”), or addresses a topic (“ Causes and Effects of the Industrial Revolution ”).  A historical essay specifically addresses historical matters.

These essays are used to judge a student’s progress in understanding history. They also are used to teach and analyze a student’s ability to write and express their knowledge.  A person can know their stuff and still have problems expressing their knowledge.  

Skillful communication is an essential tool.  When you write the body of a historical essay remember that both the information and how you express it are both very important .  

The Body: The Filling 

The three parts of the historical essay are the introduction, body, and conclusion.  

A historical essay can be compared to a sandwich . The introduction and conclusion are the two pieces of bread or halves of the roll.  The middle, the filling, is the body of the historical essay.

The introduction and conclusion are both a paragraph each.  The body is made up of multiple paragraphs, each about 100-200 words long.  They are the body paragraphs of the essay.  

The Purpose of the Body Paragraphs 

The body of a historical essay fleshes out the introduction.  

An introduction of a historical essay acquaints the reader with the topic and how the writer will explain it.  It provides a thesis statement, the question you have to answer, or the topic you will explore.  And, it summarizes the basic approach you will take.  

The body fills in the details.  It will provide an answer and the details to back it up.  What are the details of Japanese feudalism?  Who are the funniest presidents?  What are the causes or effects of the industrial revolution?  Why is Taylor Swift so beloved?   

How To Break Down The Body 

Each body paragraph should address one topic or issue.  

It is a good idea to write an outline first.  This will provide you with a basic framework to work off.  But, again, the introduction itself is a useful guide.  What you previewed there should be addressed in the body.  The paragraphs provide a step-by-step discussion of your thesis.

Each paragraph should contain a thorough discussion of the topic covered. This is an essay, not a term paper, so this doesn’t mean you are writing an extensive in-depth discussion.  But, each paragraph should be a mini-essay on that topic . It is quite possible to write a whole essay on it.  

Do not worry if your first draft is a bit wordy or otherwise rough.  You can edit and hone your work.  That is the value of modern-day word processing.  This might not be possible if you have to write an essay for a test.  If so, an outline and notes can still be helpful.  

How Many Paragraphs? 

We learned that each body paragraph is a type of mini-essay.  Let’s consider a historical essay that explores the causes of the Industrial Revolution.  You have done your research, including using this helpful website.  And, you have made a list of the specific causes you need to discuss.

There is no formal requirement on how many paragraphs should be in the body of a historical essay.  A traditional essay often had three to five paragraphs.  Your choice might be influenced by the criteria set forth by your teacher.  But, either way, fewer in-depth paragraphs are ideal. 

Make sure each paragraph truly addresses a different aspect of your thesis.  For instance, one cause of the Industrial Revolution involved inventions.  A general historical essay would probably have one paragraph talking about inventions. Not one paragraph for each invention.  

Okay.  Let’s say we did a historical essay on the causes of the industrial revolution.  You did your research and determined there were four basic causes, which were: the agricultural revolution, technology and inventions, population growth, and global trade.  You would have a body paragraph for each.  You would have four body paragraphs.  

Breakdown Of A Paragraph 

Each paragraph in a historical essay is a type of mini-essay on a specific topic.

This means that each paragraph has its own introduction (topic sentence), body (supporting sentences), and conclusion. The topic sentence provides the focus of the paragraph, its theme, or concern. The supporting sentences provide evidence and explanations. 

A sample topic sentence can be:

An agricultural revolution helped lead to the Industrial Revolution in Britain

Then, you would provide supporting sentences that discussed why they were important.  Supporting sentences provide facts, descriptions, and explanations. They can include quotations, data points, and citations from experts.  Each sentence should be crisp and compact.  

A basic way to do this is to provide a couple of sentences of explanation, backed up by evidence and analysis.  Consider this paragraph on the agricultural revolution:

Improvements in agriculture such as crop rotations and changes in policy such as closing off open fields (enclosure) led to the consolidation of small farms. Not only did new methods result in much more food, but fewer farmers were needed. 

The body paragraph provides details and why the details are important.  It includes specific terms (enclosure) and puts them in a wider historical context .  Other possible sentences can reference specific writings or experts.  Quotations can add color and flavor as well.

And, you complete the paragraph with a conclusion sentence.  This sentence summarizes the topic of the paragraph.  It uses words such as “therefore” or “as a result.” For instance:

Therefore, an excess population of farmers arose, who flocked to the cities creating a labor supply for the industrial revolution.  

The conclusion does not provide new information.  It logically follows from the body sentences.  After writing becomes familiar, a certain natural flow occurs that just “feels right.”  

The R.A.C.E. Method of Writing a Body Paragraph

A helpful acronym when writing a  body paragraph for history is R.A.C.E.:

• Restate the thesis
• Answer the thesis with 1 example
• Cite evidence to support your example
• Explain your example

Let’s see what this looks like in action. You’re writing an essay about the causes of the Industrial Revolution in Britain. Here’s your thesis:

The Industrial Revolution in Britain was caused by a combination of factors, including technological advancements, access to natural resources, and a growing population.

Now let’s write the body paragraph for the first example, technological advances.

Technological advances were a significant cause of the Industrial Revolution in Britain (Restates the question/thesis) . One of the most significant technological advancements was the development of the steam engine (Answers the question) . The steam engine was invented by James Watt in 1775 and was used to power machines in factories and mills (Cites evidence to support the answer). This innovation allowed for increased production and efficiency and played a significant role in the growth of the textile industry (Explains the evidence). Other inventions included the spinning jenny, steam engine and telegraph. Overall, technological advances were a crucial cause of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, leading to increased production, efficiency, and economic growth.

Rinse and Repeat  

The basic format is followed for each paragraph in the body of the essay.  

You do not need to include the exact same details in each paragraph.  Each paragraph, for instance, does not need to have a quotation.  But, the same basic criteria are included.

When you complete your body, did you address what your introduction invited the reader to expect?  Was it done in a crisp and comprehensive fashion?  Very good!  

Time for you to write the conclusion of your historical essay.  But, that is another story

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26 Student Example Essay: New Historicism

The following student essay example of New Historicism is taken from Beginnings and Endings: A Critical Edition .  This is the publication created by students in English 211. This essay discusses Lorrie Moore’s short story, “Terrific Mother.”

When Women Were Never Enough: A New Historical Perspective on Lorrie Moore’s “Terrific Mother”

by Tania Agurto

Motherhood has been a source of discord in recent decades for being a concept that is exclusively associated with women, and it turns out to be for some people or societies a kind of meter that helps to pigeonhole women or rank them depending on whether they have decided or managed to be mothers. Lorrie Moore’s “Terrific Mother” presents us this reality through Adrienne, a woman in her mid-thirties, single, childless, which due to her personal circumstances receives compliments such as, “You would make a terrific mother” (Moore 3). Adrienne attends a gathering of friends and by accident, her friend’s baby she holds falls along with her when the picnic bench toppled on her, and sadly the baby dies, which leads her to make decisions such as seclusion for months and later marriage, as an escape route from her pain and guilt. This is how Adrianne, despite being a woman who breaks with the socially established canons, cannot get out of the vicious circle established for women in those years.

Through the lens of New Historical Criticism, we can appreciate the external influences that shape Moore’s work and at the same time understand the reality experienced by women in the late 1990s. At the end of the nineties the world was already seeing a change concerning the established social model; this could be appreciated in the delay in the age of marriage and childbirth due to prioritizing the pursuit of a professional career, the joining of women to the workforce or simply seeking independence without the need for marriage. These changes were reflected in the increase in the average age of women at the time of marriage, which had risen from 20 – 22 years in the early nineties to 25 years at the end of 1997 (Yarrow). This is how the author manages to bring to the fore the important social events that were happening worldwide through Adrienne, a single and independent woman. Regarding that, Karen Weekes declares that “protagonists in Moore’s short stories cycles are constantly exploring and pushing against the social boundaries that they and others have established” (3).

A characteristic of the social change of the nineties is the recognition and the requirement of women as a multifaceted beings; however, in Text and Contexts Steven Lynn acknowledges that having equal opportunities is good, but it is not fair when the woman is responsible for taking those opportunities while taking care of everything else (223). Weekes also refers to this and points out that “females’ identities are continually formed and reformed, allowing women to fluctuate between stages of development in response to the sociological demands of relationships and maternal nurturing.” However, we can see to this day that, even though things have become the same through the years, the demand has always been greater for women or the reward for the opportunity has been uneven.

Although we know that the historical context will shape the result whatever the work, the author’s background will also do it. Steven Lynn points out “We can hardly understand one person’s life without some sense of the time and place in which he or she lived, and we can hardly understand human history without trying to think about the individual humans who made it” (148). As part of Moore’s life story, she comments that as a child she was very thin and that made her feel fearful of her environment; she even shared that she was afraid to walk over the grates. Once she became an adult that was not an exception since Moore, like Adrianne, broke with the established pattern, but she continued with his fearful personality. Don Lee comments that “her expectations for herself were modest. Entering St. Lawrence, she hadn’t been exactly bursting with ambition.” Later Moore adds, “ I think I probably went to college to fall in love” (“About Lorrie Moore”). The influence of her environment and pre-established social patterns have likely helped her to feel that way concerning her personal abilities and expectations. How did this fearful girl become the successful writer of “Terrific Mother”? It is probably her personality that has helped in a great way since this influences her way of writing which is detailed as follows: “Many of her stories are fairly traditional in structure, but there is always that quickness of movement, that slightly skewed narrative perspective that keeps you alert and a little uneasy —she could pull something anytime, and you don’t want to miss it” (Unlikely Stories). Moore herself catalogs her life as “conventional” and that is what makes her strangely close in her way of writing.

However, despite not feeling too trained or not being completely sure of the path she wanted to follow professionally, she broke all standards and has even been highlighted as one of the best authors of American short stories.  In an article that talks about the rebirth of American short stories Vince Passaro declares, “When volumes like those from Lorrie Moore …a new kind of work stepped out onto the American literary landscape, more psychologically rich and confrontational than that of the minimalists” (“Unlikely Stones”).

The time period in which the story was written tells us a lot about important social changes concerning the visualization of women as defiant beings of the unilaterally established rules. In the late 1990s, it was the Post Feminist movement that was gaining momentum; however, it seems that Adrienne remains to live only First Wave Feminism, since it only leaves the parameter of breaking the scheme, but does not advance further.

The foregoing is explained in her decision to marry Martin, who offers her the option to accompany him to his academic retreat in northern Italy, then in this way “she could be a spouse” (Moore 4). The emotional situation that Adrienne experiences does not allow her to see further and she thinks that this decision will allow her to resume her life; to try to live again because she “is a bushwoman now” (Moore 4). As a consequence of this decision, Adrienne becomes emotionally subjugated to Martin, which makes her dependent on him emotionally and does not help her with her previous mental-emotional situation.

“Terrific Mother” is a complex story in which Lorrie Moore takes us along surprising paths and we can see how the historical context influences the development of this work; however, it should be mentioned that Moore’s background also affects the setting of the stage in this story. Just as she admits to leading a very conventional life, she also leads Adrienne to try to follow the same path, because “Marriage it’s an institution”, which means that at this time in a historical-social environment, surpassed currents of equality, equity, and liberation.

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Critical Worlds Copyright © 2024 by Liza Long is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Navigating Historical Debates: History Argumentative Essay Topics

Dipping your toes into the vast ocean of history is an adventure. Each dive deep into its depths brings a new perspective, a fresh understanding, or a challenging contradiction. As a student of history, you don’t just learn about the past; you argue, debate, and discuss it. That’s where “history argumentative essay topics” come in, giving you the perfect platform to exhibit your persuasive skills while furthering your historical understanding.

Table of content

The Importance of Studying History

History isn’t just a record of ancient days; it’s a vibrant tapestry woven with countless threads, each representing a story, an era, a civilization, or an individual. Understanding history empowers us to make sense of our present, forecast future patterns, and appreciate humanity’s collective journey. Delving into argumentative essays adds depth to this exploration, honing your critical thinking, research understanding, and writing prowess.

The Art of Writing an Argumentative History Essay

In a history argumentative essay, your task goes beyond presenting facts. It would help to form an opinion, defend it with strong evidence, and persuade your reader to view history through your lens. Such essays often explore controversial issues, diverse interpretations, or underrepresented perspectives, making them thrilling.

Remember, an effective argumentative essay balances rigor with creativity. Your arguments should be based on solid research, but your writing style should maintain the reader’s interest. Short sentences, active voice, and transitional words will help ensure your essay is clear, concise, and captivating.

History Argumentative Essay Topics: Your Guide to an Engaging Argument

Picking the right history argumentative essay topics is crucial. Your topic should spark your curiosity, offer ample sources for research, and pose a challenge that motivates you to explore, argue, and persuade. The past is brimming with potential argumentative essay topics, from historical events and famous figures to social movements and cultural trends.

Here are a collection of history argumentative essay topics spanning different eras, regions, and themes to get you started. Use them as they are, or let them inspire you to develop your own.

• The Crusades: Religious Devotion or Political Expediency?
• Was the Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Justifiable?
• The Impact of Colonialism: Development or Exploitation?
• The Role of Women in World War II: Homefront or Battlefield?
• The American Civil War: Slavery or States’ Rights?
• The French Revolution: Fight for Liberty or Reign of Terror?
• The Renaissance: A Cultural Rebirth or a Period of Conflict?
• Martin Luther King Jr. vs. Malcolm X: Who Had a Greater Impact on the Civil Rights Movement?
• The Age of Exploration: Discovery or Destruction?
• The Industrial Revolution: Progress or Plight?
• The Fall of the Roman Empire: Invaders or Internal Decay?
• Was the Cold War Inevitable Post-World War II?
• Christopher Columbus: Hero or Villain?
• The Impact of the Protestant Reformation: Unity or Division?
• The Age of Imperialism: Prosperity or Oppression?
• The Vietnam War: A Necessary Stand or a Futile Endeavor?
• The American Revolution: Liberty or Economic Motives?
• The Russian Revolution: People’s Uprising or Bolshevik Coup?
• The Enlightenment: Philosophical Breakthrough or Social Disruption?
• The Emancipation Proclamation: Sincere or Strategic?
• The Role of Propaganda in Nazi Germany
• Was Alexander the Great Really Great?
• The Partition of India: Religious Freedom or Colonial Divide-and-Rule?
• Did the Suffragette Movement Achieve Its Goals?
• The Cuban Missile Crisis: Near-Apocalypse or Diplomatic Triumph?
• The Influence of the Printing Press: Information Revolution or Religious Turmoil?
• The Crusades: A Pathway to Enlightenment or a Dark Age Misstep?
• The Atomic Age: A New Era or a Dangerous Precedent?
• The Impact of the Ming Dynasty on China’s Global Presence
• The American Westward Expansion: Manifest Destiny or Brutal Displacement?
• The British Raj in India: Beneficial or Destructive?
• The War of 1812: Forgotten War or Critical Conflict?
• The Cultural Revolution in China: Necessary Purge or Disastrous Policy?
• Slavery: The True Cause of the American Civil War?
• The Role of Espionage in the Cold War
• The Contributions of Nikola Tesla: Overlooked or Overrated?
• The Great Depression: Natural Economic Cycle or Result of Poor Policy?
• Was the League of Nations Doomed to Fail?
• The Impact of Napoleon’s Reign on Europe
• The Salem Witch Trials: Mass Hysteria or Religious Extremism?
• The Influence of the Ottoman Empire on Modern Middle East
• Did the Treaty of Versailles Cause World War II?
• The Role of the Catholic Church in Medieval Europe
• Manifest Destiny: Expansionism or Cultural Imperialism?
• The Impact of Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire
• The Spanish Inquisition: Religious Persecution or Political Power Play?
• The Influence of the Harlem Renaissance on African American Culture
• The Ethics of Using Atomic Bombs in WWII
• The Role of Britain in the Creation of Israel
• The Egyptian Revolution of 2011: A Springboard for Democracy?
• The Effect of the Gold Rush on California’s Development
• The Role of Social Media in the Arab Spring
• The Implications of the Scramble for Africa
• The Battle of Stalingrad: Turning Point in World War II?
• The Meiji Restoration: Western Influence or Japanese Initiative?
• The Role of Women in the French Revolution
• The Impact of the Black Death on European Society
• The Effect of the Viking Raids on European History
• The Fall of the Berlin Wall: Inevitable or Surprising?
• The Contributions of the Ancient Greeks to Modern Society
• The Influence of the Catholic Church on the European Age of Discovery
• The Impact of Gunpowder on Medieval Warfare
• The Influence of the Spanish Civil War on WWII
• The Causes and Consequences of the Thirty Years’ War
• The Role of the Railroad in the Expansion of the United States
• The Significance of the Magna Carta in the Modern Legal System
• The Impact of the Silk Road on the Exchange of Cultures
• The Role of the Mafia in Prohibition
• The Effect of Charlemagne’s Reign on Europe
• The Implications of the Columbian Exchange
• The Influence of the Persian Empire on the Modern Middle East
• The Impact of Marco Polo’s Travels on Europe
• The Effect of the French Revolution on European Politics
• The Influence of the Great Schism on Christianity
• The Impact of the Space Race on the Cold War
• The Legacy of the Aztec Empire
• The Effect of the Transatlantic Slave Trade on Africa
• The Role of the Knights Templar in the Crusades
• The Influence of Gutenberg’s Printing Press on the Reformation
• The Impact of the Han Dynasty on China
• The Causes and Effects of the Boxer Rebellion
• The Significance of the Pax Romana
• The Influence of Confucianism on East Asian Cultures
• The Impact of the Opium Wars on China
• The Role of the French Foreign Legion in Colonial France
• The Effect of the Suez Crisis on the Middle East
• The Influence of the Renaissance on Modern Art
• The Impact of the Zulu Nation on South Africa
• The Causes and Consequences of the Irish Potato Famine
• The Role of the Samurai in Feudal Japan
• The Effect of the Hundred Years’ War on England and France
• The Influence of the Roman Republic on Modern Democracies
• The Impact of the US Constitution on the French Revolution
• The Role of the Huns in the Fall of the Roman Empire
• The Causes and Effects of the Haitian Revolution
• The Influence of the Enlightenment on the US Constitution
• The Impact of the Homestead Act on the American West
• The Effect of the Plague of Justinian on the Byzantine Empire
• The Role of the Medici Family in the Italian Renaissance

Remember, the goal is not just to recount history but to form an argument and defend it persuasively. Use reliable sources like scholarly articles, credible news outlets, and respected history websites for your research ( History.com , JSTOR , Fordham University’s Internet History Sourcebooks Project , etc.).

Conclusion: Your Historical Argument Awaits

Choosing from these argumentative history essay topics is just the beginning. You can turn your chosen topic into a compelling essay with thorough research, careful planning, and passionate writing. As you debate the past, you’re not just learning history but contributing to its discussion. Let these argumentative essay topics be your first step toward a thrilling historical discourse.

📎 Related Articles

1. Hot Topic History: A Journey Through Pivotal Moments 2. Engaging 8th Grade Research Paper Topics for Budding Historians 3. Dive Deep into Western Civilization Research Paper Topics 4. Navigating Through the Labyrinth of Ancient History Topics 5. Stirring the Pot: Controversial Topics in History for Research Paper

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• Knowledge Base
• How to write a narrative essay | Example & tips

How to Write a Narrative Essay | Example & Tips

Published on July 24, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.

A narrative essay tells a story. In most cases, this is a story about a personal experience you had. This type of essay , along with the descriptive essay , allows you to get personal and creative, unlike most academic writing .

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Table of contents

What is a narrative essay for, choosing a topic, interactive example of a narrative essay, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about narrative essays.

When assigned a narrative essay, you might find yourself wondering: Why does my teacher want to hear this story? Topics for narrative essays can range from the important to the trivial. Usually the point is not so much the story itself, but the way you tell it.

A narrative essay is a way of testing your ability to tell a story in a clear and interesting way. You’re expected to think about where your story begins and ends, and how to convey it with eye-catching language and a satisfying pace.

These skills are quite different from those needed for formal academic writing. For instance, in a narrative essay the use of the first person (“I”) is encouraged, as is the use of figurative language, dialogue, and suspense.

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Narrative essay assignments vary widely in the amount of direction you’re given about your topic. You may be assigned quite a specific topic or choice of topics to work with.

• Write a story about your first day of school.
• Write a story about your favorite holiday destination.

You may also be given prompts that leave you a much wider choice of topic.

• Write about an experience where you learned something about yourself.
• Write about an achievement you are proud of. What did you accomplish, and how?

In these cases, you might have to think harder to decide what story you want to tell. The best kind of story for a narrative essay is one you can use to talk about a particular theme or lesson, or that takes a surprising turn somewhere along the way.

For example, a trip where everything went according to plan makes for a less interesting story than one where something unexpected happened that you then had to respond to. Choose an experience that might surprise the reader or teach them something.

Narrative essays in college applications

When applying for college , you might be asked to write a narrative essay that expresses something about your personal qualities.

For example, this application prompt from Common App requires you to respond with a narrative essay.

In this context, choose a story that is not only interesting but also expresses the qualities the prompt is looking for—here, resilience and the ability to learn from failure—and frame the story in a way that emphasizes these qualities.

An example of a short narrative essay, responding to the prompt “Write about an experience where you learned something about yourself,” is shown below.

Hover over different parts of the text to see how the structure works.

Since elementary school, I have always favored subjects like science and math over the humanities. My instinct was always to think of these subjects as more solid and serious than classes like English. If there was no right answer, I thought, why bother? But recently I had an experience that taught me my academic interests are more flexible than I had thought: I took my first philosophy class.

Before I entered the classroom, I was skeptical. I waited outside with the other students and wondered what exactly philosophy would involve—I really had no idea. I imagined something pretty abstract: long, stilted conversations pondering the meaning of life. But what I got was something quite different.

A young man in jeans, Mr. Jones—“but you can call me Rob”—was far from the white-haired, buttoned-up old man I had half-expected. And rather than pulling us into pedantic arguments about obscure philosophical points, Rob engaged us on our level. To talk free will, we looked at our own choices. To talk ethics, we looked at dilemmas we had faced ourselves. By the end of class, I’d discovered that questions with no right answer can turn out to be the most interesting ones.

The experience has taught me to look at things a little more “philosophically”—and not just because it was a philosophy class! I learned that if I let go of my preconceptions, I can actually get a lot out of subjects I was previously dismissive of. The class taught me—in more ways than one—to look at things with an open mind.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

• Ad hominem fallacy
• Post hoc fallacy
• Appeal to authority fallacy
• False cause fallacy
• Sunk cost fallacy

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• Choosing Essay Topic
• Write a College Essay
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If you’re not given much guidance on what your narrative essay should be about, consider the context and scope of the assignment. What kind of story is relevant, interesting, and possible to tell within the word count?

The best kind of story for a narrative essay is one you can use to reflect on a particular theme or lesson, or that takes a surprising turn somewhere along the way.

Don’t worry too much if your topic seems unoriginal. The point of a narrative essay is how you tell the story and the point you make with it, not the subject of the story itself.

Narrative essays are usually assigned as writing exercises at high school or in university composition classes. They may also form part of a university application.

When you are prompted to tell a story about your own life or experiences, a narrative essay is usually the right response.

The key difference is that a narrative essay is designed to tell a complete story, while a descriptive essay is meant to convey an intense description of a particular place, object, or concept.

Narrative and descriptive essays both allow you to write more personally and creatively than other kinds of essays , and similar writing skills can apply to both.

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Exploring 250 Essay Topics in Biographies: From Autobiographies to Cultural and Ethnic Stories

Welcome to our comprehensive guide exploring 25 essay topics in various branches of historical inquiry. History is a multidimensional field of study that encompasses a wide range of disciplines, methodologies, and perspectives. In this article, we will delve into different branches of historical research, providing you with thought-provoking essay topics to ignite your curiosity and inspire your academic exploration.

Whether you are a history student, a researcher, or simply an enthusiast seeking to deepen your understanding of the past, these essay topics will offer you a starting point to explore and analyze significant themes and concepts within each field. From the examination of historical schools of thought to the exploration of diverse histories such as gender, culture, and postcolonialism, this collection of essay topics aims to engage with the complexity and richness of historical scholarship.

Historical Schools of Thought

Historical schools of thought refer to different theoretical frameworks and approaches used by historians to interpret and understand the past. These schools of thought offer distinct perspectives on how history should be studied, emphasizing different aspects such as political, social, economic, cultural, or intellectual factors. They provide a foundation for historical analysis and contribute to the ongoing debates and interpretations within the field of history.

Historical Schools of Thought Essay Topics

• The Enlightenment and its impact on modern political thought
• The Renaissance: A rebirth of art, science, and humanism
• The Industrial Revolution and its effects on social and economic thought
• The rise of Marxism and its influence on socialist movements
• The impact of Freudian psychoanalysis on psychology and the study of the mind
• The contributions of ancient Greek philosophers to Western philosophical thought
• The development of existentialism and its impact on philosophy and literature
• The role of the Scientific Revolution in challenging traditional religious beliefs
• The influence of the Bauhaus movement on modern architecture and design
• The feminist movement and its contribution to gender studies and social thought
• The development of the Civil Rights Movement and its impact on racial equality
• The emergence of the Romantic movement and its influence on art and literature
• The impact of the French Revolution on political ideologies and systems
• The rise of nationalism and its effects on the formation of modern nation-states
• The development of the human rights movement and its global impact
• The role of Confucianism in shaping East Asian social and ethical thought
• The Enlightenment and the birth of modern science and the scientific method
• The contributions of African-American intellectuals to the Civil Rights Movement
• The impact of Darwin's theory of evolution on religious and scientific thought
• The emergence of postmodernism and its critique of traditional knowledge systems
• The influence of the Harlem Renaissance on African-American art and literature
• The rise of colonialism and its effects on indigenous cultures and thought
• The philosophical underpinnings of the American Revolution and the founding of the United States
• The development of feminist literary criticism and its impact on literary studies
• The impact of the Enlightenment on educational systems and the spread of knowledge.

Comparative History

Comparative history involves the study and analysis of historical events, processes, or phenomena across different regions, societies, or time periods. By comparing similarities and differences, comparative historians aim to identify patterns, relationships, and causal factors that shape historical developments. This approach allows for a broader understanding of historical phenomena and offers insights into the diversity of human experiences and societies.

Comparative History Essay Topics

• A Comparative Study of Ancient Civilizations: Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Indus Valley
• Comparative Analysis of Ancient Greek and Roman Democracy
• Comparing the Byzantine and Islamic Empires: Religion, Politics, and Culture
• A Comparative Study of Feudalism in Europe and Japan
• The French Revolution and the American Revolution: A Comparative Analysis
• Comparative Examination of Colonialism in Africa and Asia
• The Industrial Revolution in Britain and Germany: A Comparative Perspective
• Comparative Study of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and the Chinese Communist Revolution
• Comparative Analysis of the Civil Rights Movements in the United States and South Africa
• A Comparative Study of the Women's Suffrage Movements in the United States and Britain
• Comparing the Renaissance in Italy and the Northern European Countries
• Comparative Study of Imperialism in the British and Ottoman Empires
• The Cold War: A Comparative Analysis of the United States and Soviet Union
• Comparative Analysis of the Mayan and Inca Civilizations in the Americas
• A Comparative Study of the Age of Exploration: European and Chinese Voyages
• Comparative Analysis of the Mughal Empire in India and the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East
• Comparative Study of the Protestant Reformation and the Counter-Reformation
• A Comparative Analysis of the Russian Revolution and the Iranian Revolution
• Comparative Study of Ancient Law Codes: Hammurabi's Code and the Twelve Tables
• Comparing the Reformation in England and Germany: Henry VIII and Martin Luther
• Comparative Analysis of the Mongol Empires: Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan
• A Comparative Study of the American Civil War and the Spanish Civil War
• Comparative Analysis of the Cultural Revolutions in China and Iran
• Comparative Study of the Indian National Congress and African National Congress
• A Comparative Analysis of the American Great Depression and the Global Financial Crisis of 2008

Oral History

Oral history is a research method that involves gathering and analyzing firsthand accounts and personal narratives of individuals who have lived through particular historical events or periods. It emphasizes the importance of capturing and preserving the voices of those often excluded from written records, providing valuable insights into their experiences, perspectives, and memories. Oral history enhances our understanding of the lived realities of individuals and communities, offering a more nuanced and inclusive historical narrative.

Oral History Essay Topics

• The Importance of Oral History: Preserving Personal and Collective Narratives
• Oral History as a Tool for Indigenous Perspectives and Decolonization
• Ethics and Challenges in Conducting Oral History Interviews
• Oral History and Memory: Examining the Reliability and Subjectivity of Oral Accounts
• Oral History and Social Change: Amplifying Marginalized Voices
• Oral History and Family Narratives: Exploring Intergenerational Transmission of Memory
• Gender and Oral History: Uncovering Women's Experiences and Perspectives
• Oral History and War: Examining the Impact of Conflicts through Personal Testimonies
• Oral History and Migration: Capturing Stories of Displacement and Identity
• Oral History and Oral Traditions: Analyzing Cultural Continuity and Change
• Oral History and Community Engagement: Empowering Local Narratives
• Oral History and Labor Movements: Documenting Worker Experiences and Activism
• Oral History and LGBTQ+ Narratives: Archiving Queer Lives and Histories
• Oral History and Holocaust Studies: Bearing Witness to Survivors' Testimonies
• Indigenous Oral Histories: Resilience, Cultural Identity, and Land Rights
• Oral History and Environmental History: Narratives of Ecological Change
• Oral History and Urban History: Capturing Urban Transformations and Neighborhood Stories
• Oral History and Civil Rights Movements: Amplifying Voices of Activism and Resistance
• Oral History and Aging: Exploring Life Stories and Perspectives on Aging
• Oral History and Disability Studies: Challenging Stereotypes and Promoting Inclusion
• Oral History and Medicine: Exploring Patient Narratives and Healthcare Experiences
• Oral History and Genocide Studies: Preserving Stories of Survival and Loss
• Oral History and Indigenous Language Revitalization: Connecting Language and Culture
• Oral History and Folklore: Uncovering Legends, Myths, and Traditional Knowledge
• Oral History and the Digital Age: Opportunities and Challenges in Archiving and Sharing Stories

Archival Research

Archival research involves the investigation and analysis of primary source materials that are preserved in archives, such as documents, letters, diaries, photographs, maps, and other records. Historians rely on archival research to access and interpret original sources that provide direct evidence of past events and activities. It enables researchers to delve into specific historical contexts, uncover hidden or neglected histories, and construct detailed and accurate narratives based on authentic documentation.

Archival Research Essay Topics

• The Importance of Archival Research in Historical Scholarship
• Exploring the Role of Archival Research in Uncovering Hidden or Neglected Histories
• The Challenges and Opportunities of Conducting Archival Research
• Comparative Analysis of Traditional and Digital Archival Research Methods
• Archival Research and the Preservation of Cultural Heritage
• The Ethics of Access and Use in Archival Research
• Archival Research and the Reconstruction of Historical Narratives
• Archival Research and the Study of Material Culture
• Archival Research in Genealogy and Family History
• Archival Research and the Study of Linguistics and Dialects
• Archival Research and the Documentation of Oral Histories
• Archival Research and the Reconstruction of Historical Landscapes
• Archival Research and the Study of Economic History and Business Records
• Archival Research and the Study of Political History and Government Documents
• Archival Research and the Examination of Social Movements and Activism
• Archival Research and the Study of Gender and Sexuality History
• Archival Research and the Exploration of Colonialism and Post-Colonial Studies
• Archival Research and the Study of Diplomatic Relations and International Affairs
• Archival Research and the Examination of Literary and Artistic Works
• Archival Research and the Study of Science and Technology History
• Archival Research and the Analysis of Environmental History
• Archival Research and the Study of Medical History and Health Records
• Archival Research and the Exploration of Religious and Spiritual Traditions
• Archival Research and the Study of Education History and School Records
• Archival Research and the Investigation of Legal History and Court Records

Quantitative History

Quantitative history employs quantitative methods and statistical analysis to study historical phenomena. It involves the collection and analysis of numerical data, such as demographic records, economic indicators, voting patterns, or crime statistics. By quantifying historical data, historians can identify patterns, trends, and correlations, enabling them to make empirical claims about historical events and processes. Quantitative history complements qualitative approaches and provides a more systematic and quantitative understanding of the past.

Quantitative History Essay Topics

• The Rise of Quantitative History: Methodological Approaches and Contributions
• Quantitative History and Demographic Analysis: Exploring Population Dynamics
• Quantitative Analysis of Economic History: Patterns, Trends, and Growth
• Quantitative Approaches to Social Inequality and Class Structure
• Quantitative History and the Study of Migration and Mobility
• Statistical Analysis of Political History: Voting Patterns and Electoral Behavior
• Quantitative Methods in Studying War and Conflict: Casualties, Strategies, and Outcomes
• Quantitative Approaches to the Study of Disease and Public Health
• Quantitative Analysis of Urbanization and Urban Development
• Quantitative History and the Study of Colonialism and Imperialism
• Quantitative Methods in Exploring Environmental History and Climate Change
• Quantitative Analysis of Technological Change and Innovation
• Quantitative Approaches to the Study of Education and Literacy
• Quantitative History and the Analysis of Cultural and Intellectual Trends
• Quantitative Methods in Studying Long-Term Trends and Historical Cycles
• Quantitative Approaches to the Study of Gender and Women's History
• Quantitative Analysis of Social Networks and Community Dynamics
• Quantitative History and the Exploration of Religious and Spiritual Practices
• Quantitative Methods in Studying Legal History and Crime Patterns
• Quantitative Approaches to the Study of Material Culture and Consumer Behavior
• Quantitative Analysis of Diplomatic Relations and International Relations
• Quantitative History and the Examination of Media and Communication
• Quantitative Methods in Exploring Family and Household Structures
• Quantitative Approaches to the Study of Intellectual Property and Copyright
• Quantitative History and the Analysis of Historical Memory and Commemoration.

Postcolonial History

Postcolonial history examines the legacies, impacts, and consequences of colonialism and imperialism on societies and cultures. It explores the experiences of colonized peoples, their struggles for independence, and the processes of decolonization. Postcolonial historians challenge Eurocentric perspectives, centering marginalized voices, and engaging with issues of power, identity, resistance, cultural hybridity, and the ongoing effects of colonial domination.

Postcolonial History Essay Topics

• Postcolonial History: Defining the Field and Key Concepts
• Decolonization and the Birth of Postcolonial Nations
• The Impact of Colonialism on Indigenous Peoples: Continuities and Disruptions
• Postcolonial Identities: Hybridity, Resistance, and Cultural Expression
• Postcolonial Feminism: Intersectionality and Gender in the Global South
• Nationalism and Anti-Colonial Movements: Case Studies from Africa, Asia, and the Americas
• Economic Legacies of Colonialism: Dependency, Exploitation, and Unequal Development
• Language and Literature in Postcolonial Contexts: Rewriting History and Reclaiming Narratives
• Postcolonialism and Environmental Justice: Ecological Consequences of Colonial Exploitation
• Postcolonial Approaches to Education: Decolonizing Curricula and Pedagogies
• Postcolonial Cities: Urban Space, Power, and Marginalization
• Postcolonial Memory and Commemoration: Remembering and Reckoning with the Colonial Past
• Postcolonialism and Global Health: Colonial Medicine, Biopower, and Health Inequalities
• Postcolonial Legal Systems: Legal Pluralism, Human Rights, and Indigenous Justice
• Postcolonial Borders: Migration, Citizenship, and Identity
• Postcolonial Resistance and Social Movements: Solidarity, Anti-Imperialism, and Liberation
• Postcolonial Media and Popular Culture: Representation, Subversion, and Stereotypes
• Postcolonial Urbanism: Infrastructure, Displacement, and Gentrification
• Postcolonial Tourism: Authenticity, Exoticism, and Power Dynamics
• Postcolonial Intellectuals: Theorizing and Critiquing the Legacy of Empire
• Postcolonial Trauma and Healing: Addressing Historical Wounds and Collective Memory
• Postcolonial Science and Technology: Knowledge Production, Appropriation, and Resistance
• Postcolonial Ecocriticism: Nature, Land, and Environmental Justice
• Postcolonialism and Global Capitalism: Neocolonialism, Dependency, and Resistance
• Postcolonial Perspectives on International Relations: Global South, Diplomacy, and Power Dynamics

Gender History

Gender history explores the ways in which gender has shaped societies, institutions, and individuals throughout history. It examines how gender roles, identities, and power dynamics have influenced social, political, economic, and cultural developments. Gender historians explore issues such as gendered labor, family dynamics, sexuality, masculinity, femininity, and the intersections of gender with other social categories such as race, class, and ethnicity.

Gender History Essay Topics

• Gender History: Exploring the Intersections of Gender, Power, and Identity
• Gendered Perspectives on Historical Methodologies and Approaches
• Gender and the Construction of Sexuality: Challenging Norms and Categories
• Gendered Experiences of Colonialism: Agency, Resistance, and Subjugation
• Gender and the Evolution of Feminism: Waves, Debates, and Transnational Movements
• Gendered Labor and Work: From the Home to the Factory and Beyond
• Masculinity Studies and the Reconstruction of Male Identity
• Gender, Religion, and Spirituality: Roles, Rituals, and Challenges to Patriarchy
• Gender and the Politics of Reproduction: Birth Control, Abortion, and Family Planning
• Gendered Violence and the Struggle for Justice: Historical Perspectives
• Gender and Education: Access, Exclusion, and the Strive for Equality
• Gender and Health: Medicalization, Reproductive Health, and Sexuality
• Transgender History: Narratives of Identity, Activism, and Resistance
• Gender and Resistance Movements: Women's Suffrage, Civil Rights, and LGBTQ+ Activism
• Gender and War: Women's Roles, Military Masculinity, and Post-Conflict Reconstruction
• Gender and Popular Culture: Representations, Stereotypes, and Subversion
• Gender and the Body: Beauty Standards, Body Politics, and Embodiment
• Gendered Spaces: Public/Private Divide, Urbanization, and Domesticity
• Intersectionality and Gender: Race, Class, and Sexuality in Historical Context
• Gender and Technology: Women's Contributions, Technological Shifts, and Digital Divide
• Gender and Resistance to Colonial Rule: Indigenous Perspectives and Movements
• Gendered Perspectives on Immigration and Diaspora: Identity, Assimilation, and Transnationalism
• Gender and Intellectual History: Contributions, Exclusions, and Challenges
• Gender and Sport: Athletics, Competitions, and Breaking Gender Barriers
• Gender and the Law: Legal Rights, Discrimination, and Activism for Equality

Social History

Social history focuses on the everyday lives, experiences, and social structures of ordinary people. It examines aspects such as social classes, labor relations, family dynamics, social institutions, and cultural practices. Social historians aim to understand the lived experiences of individuals and groups within specific historical contexts, shedding light on social relationships, power dynamics, and societal changes over time.

Social History Essay Topics

• Social History: Tracing the Lives and Experiences of Everyday People
• Social Class and Inequality: Exploring Social Stratification in Historical Context
• Family and Kinship: Changing Dynamics and Structures in Social History
• Urbanization and Social Change: Impact on Communities and Everyday Life
• Social Movements and Activism: Grassroots Organizing for Change
• Gender and Sexuality in Social History: Norms, Expectations, and Subversion
• Race and Ethnicity in Social History: Identity, Discrimination, and Intersectionality
• Religion and Society: Influence, Conflict, and Rituals in Social History
• Work and Labor: From Agrarian to Industrial to Post-Industrial Eras
• Education and Intellectual Culture: Access, Systems, and Ideals in Social History
• Health and Medicine in Social History: Public Health, Disease, and Well-being
• Social Networks and Communities: Bonds, Networks, and Social Capital
• Consumption and Consumer Culture: Materialism, Advertising, and Social Change
• Leisure and Recreation: Entertainment, Sports, and Social Identity
• Migration and Mobility: Impacts on Society and Cultural Exchange
• The Family in Social History: Changing Roles, Structures, and Dynamics
• Youth Culture: Rebellion, Identity Formation, and Countercultures
• Crime and Deviance: Social Control, Law Enforcement, and Punishment
• Social Welfare and Assistance: Evolution of Support Systems and Safety Nets
• Social History of Technology: Impact on Daily Life, Communication, and Industry
• Social History and Environmental Perspectives: Human Interactions with Nature
• Social History of Childhood: Child Labor, Education, and Changing Concepts
• Social History of Aging: Elder Care, Retirement, and Intergenerational Relationships
• Housing and the Built Environment: Architecture, Neighborhoods, and Social Cohesion
• Social History of Food and Eating: Dietary Habits, Class, and Cultural Significance

Cultural History

Cultural history investigates the beliefs, values, practices, and cultural expressions of past societies. It examines art, literature, music, rituals, symbols, and popular culture to understand how cultural ideas and practices shape and are shaped by historical contexts. Cultural historians explore the ways in which cultural dynamics intersect with social, political, economic, and intellectual dimensions, contributing to a deeper understanding of human experiences and identities.

Cultural History Essay Topics

• Cultural History: Interpreting and Analyzing the Meaning of Cultural Expressions
• Cultural Encounters and Cross-Cultural Exchanges: Exploring Cultural Interactions and Influences
• Cultural Identity and Nationalism: Constructing and Negotiating Collective Belonging
• Cultural Icons and Symbols: Analyzing the Significance and Evolution of Cultural Representations
• Popular Culture and Everyday Life: Examining Cultural Practices and Consumption Patterns
• Material Culture and Cultural Artifacts: Uncovering the Meanings and Histories of Objects
• Cultural Memory and Commemoration: Remembering and Preserving Collective Histories
• Cultural Movements and Countercultures: Subversion, Resistance, and Social Change
• Cultural Appropriation and Cultural Heritage: Debates and Ethical Considerations
• Cultural Landscapes and Urban Spaces: Tracing the Impact of Culture on Built Environments
• Cultural Performance and Ritual: Exploring the Role of Rituals and Performances in Society
• Cultural Revivals and Cultural Preservation: The Politics of Heritage and Identity
• Gender and Cultural History: Analyzing the Role of Gender in Cultural Practices and Representations
• Ethnicity and Cultural Expression: Examining the Interplay between Culture and Ethnic Identity
• Cultural History of Language and Linguistic Practices: Communication and Cultural Identity
• Cultural Responses to War and Conflict: Art, Literature, and Popular Culture
• Cultural History of Food and Cuisine: Culinary Traditions, Identity, and Globalization
• Cultural Perspectives on Religion and Spirituality: Beliefs, Practices, and Symbolism
• Cultural History of Music and Dance: Sound, Movement, and Cultural Expression
• Cultural Representations in Visual Arts: Paintings, Sculptures, and Photography
• Cultural History of Technology: Technological Innovations and Cultural Transformations
• Cultural History of Fashion: Clothing, Style, and Cultural Significance
• Cultural History of Literature: Analyzing Literary Works as Reflections of Culture and Society
• Cultural Responses to Globalization: Hybridity, Localization, and Transnationalism
• Cultural History of Sports: Sports as Social and Cultural Phenomena

Revisionist History

Revisionist history refers to the reexamination and reinterpretation of historical events, narratives, and perspectives. It involves challenging established interpretations and seeking alternative viewpoints to provide a more nuanced and accurate understanding of the past. Revisionist historians critically analyze traditional accounts of history, question prevailing assumptions, and incorporate new evidence or perspectives that may have been marginalized or overlooked. By revisiting and reevaluating historical narratives, revisionist history contributes to ongoing debates, expands our knowledge, and offers fresh insights into the complexities of the past. It encourages a more comprehensive and inclusive understanding of history by addressing biases, filling gaps in existing knowledge, and shedding light on previously marginalized voices and perspectives.

Revisionist History Essay Topics

• The Concept of Revisionist History: Exploring Its Definition and Purpose
• Revisionist History and the Reinterpretation of Historical Events
• The Role of Revisionist History in Challenging Dominant Narratives
• Revisionist Approaches to Political History: Reassessing Leaders, Movements, and Ideologies
• Revisionist Perspectives on Social History: Reevaluating Power Structures and Marginalized Groups
• Revisionist History and the Reassessment of Historical Figures: Heroes, Villains, and Complicated Legacies
• Revisionist Approaches to Cultural History: Rethinking Art, Literature, and Popular Culture
• Revisionist History and the Reinterpretation of Historical Documents and Sources
• Revisionist Perspectives on Colonial History: Decentering European Narratives
• Revisionist History and the Examination of Gender and Sexuality: Challenging Traditional Assumptions
• Revisionist Approaches to Military History: Rethinking Strategies, Tactics, and Consequences
• Revisionist History and the Reassessment of Economic Systems and Inequalities
• Revisionist Perspectives on Diplomatic History: Rethinking Alliances, Treaties, and Conflicts
• Revisionist History and the Study of Science and Technology: Examining Alternative Narratives
• Revisionist Approaches to Environmental History: Rethinking Human-Environment Interactions
• Revisionist History and the Reevaluation of Indigenous Perspectives and Histories
• Revisionist Perspectives on Medical History: Challenging Biomedical Assumptions and Practices
• Revisionist History and the Examination of Intellectual Movements and Ideas
• Revisionist Approaches to Legal History: Rethinking Laws, Justice, and Rights
• Revisionist History and the Reassessment of Historical Periodizations and Boundaries
• Revisionist Perspectives on Migration and Diaspora: Rethinking Identity, Belonging, and Borders
• Revisionist History and the Examination of Religion and Spirituality: Challenging Established Beliefs
• Revisionist Approaches to Educational History: Rethinking Pedagogies and Knowledge Transmission
• Revisionist History and the Reassessment of Historical Trauma and Memory
• Revisionist Perspectives on Global History: Rethinking Eurocentrism and Multiple Modernities

As we conclude our journey through these 25 essay topics across various branches of historical inquiry, we hope that they have sparked your interest and provided you with a glimpse into the diverse and fascinating realms of historical research. Each field offers its unique perspective, methodologies, and critical questions, inviting scholars and students alike to delve deeper into the complexities of the past.

By exploring historical schools of thought, comparative history, oral history, archival research, quantitative history, postcolonial history, gender history, social history, cultural history, and revisionist history, we have encountered a myriad of lenses through which we can view and interpret the past. These essay topics encourage us to challenge conventional narratives, explore untold stories, and engage with the diverse experiences of individuals, communities, and societies across time.

The study of history is an ever-evolving endeavor, as new evidence, methodologies, and perspectives continually shape our understanding of the past. We encourage you to seize the opportunity to engage with these essay topics, conduct further research, and embark on your own intellectual exploration of the vast tapestry of human history. Through critical analysis, empathy, and an open mind, we can contribute to the ongoing conversations that shape our collective understanding of the past and its significance for the present and future.

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The Forgotten History of Hitler’s Establishment Enablers

By Adam Gopnik

Hitler is so fully imagined a subject—so obsessively present on our televisions and in our bookstores—that to reimagine him seems pointless. As with the Hollywood fascination with Charles Manson , speculative curiosity gives retrospective glamour to evil. Hitler created a world in which women were transported with their children for days in closed train cars and then had to watch those children die alongside them, naked, gasping for breath in a gas chamber. To ask whether the man responsible for this was motivated by reading Oswald Spengler or merely by meeting him seems to attribute too much complexity of purpose to him, not to mention posthumous dignity. Yet allowing the specifics of his ascent to be clouded by disdain is not much better than allowing his memory to be ennobled by mystery.

So the historian Timothy W. Ryback’s choice to make his new book, “ Takeover: Hitler’s Final Rise to Power ” (Knopf), an aggressively specific chronicle of a single year, 1932, seems a wise, even an inspired one. Ryback details, week by week, day by day, and sometimes hour by hour, how a country with a functional, if flawed, democratic machinery handed absolute power over to someone who could never claim a majority in an actual election and whom the entire conservative political class regarded as a chaotic clown with a violent following. Ryback shows how major players thought they could find some ulterior advantage in managing him. Each was sure that, after the passing of a brief storm cloud, so obviously overloaded that it had to expend itself, they would emerge in possession of power. The corporate bosses thought that, if you looked past the strutting and the performative antisemitism, you had someone who would protect your money. Communist ideologues thought that, if you peered deeply enough into the strutting and the performative antisemitism, you could spy the pattern of a popular revolution. The decent right thought that he was too obviously deranged to remain in power long, and the decent left, tempered by earlier fights against different enemies, thought that, if they forcibly stuck to the rule of law, then the law would somehow by itself entrap a lawless leader. In a now familiar paradox, the rational forces stuck to magical thinking, while the irrational ones were more logical, parsing the brute equations of power. And so the storm never passed. In a way, it still has not.

Ryback’s story begins soon after Hitler’s very incomplete victory in the Weimar Republic’s parliamentary elections of July, 1932. Hitler’s party, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (its German initials were N.S.D.A.P.), emerged with thirty-seven per cent of the vote, and two hundred and thirty out of six hundred and eight seats in the Reichstag, the German parliament—substantially ahead of any of its rivals. In the normal course of events, this would have led the aging warrior Paul von Hindenburg, Germany’s President, to appoint Hitler Chancellor. The equivalent of Prime Minister in other parliamentary systems, the Chancellor was meant to answer to his party, to the Reichstag, and to the President, who appointed him and who could remove him. Yet both Hindenburg and the sitting Chancellor, Franz von Papen, had been firm never-Hitler men, and naïvely entreated Hitler to recognize his own unsuitability for the role.

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The N.S.D.A.P. had been in existence since right after the Great War, as one of many völkisch , or populist, groups; its label, by including “national” and “socialist,” was intended to appeal to both right-wing nationalists and left-wing socialists, who were thought to share a common enemy: the élite class of Jewish bankers who, they said, manipulated Germany behind the scenes and had been responsible for the German surrender. The Nazis, as they were called—a put-down made into a popular label, like “Impressionists”—began as one of many fringe and populist antisemitic groups in Germany, including the Thule Society, which was filled with bizarre pre- QAnon conspiracy adepts. Hitler, an Austrian corporal with a toothbrush mustache (when Charlie Chaplin first saw him in newsreels, he assumed Hitler was aping his Little Tramp character), had seized control of the Party in 1921. Then a failed attempt at a putsch in Munich, in 1923, left him in prison, but with many comforts, much respect, and paper and time with which to write his memoir, “Mein Kampf.” He reëmerged as the leader of all the nationalists fighting for election, with an accompanying paramilitary organization, the Sturmabteilung (S.A.), under the direction of the more or less openly homosexual Ernst Röhm, and a press office, under the direction of Joseph Goebbels. (In the American style, the press office recognized the political significance of the era’s new technology and social media, exploiting sound recordings, newsreels, and radio, and even having Hitler campaign by airplane.) Hitler’s plans were deliberately ambiguous, but his purposes were not. Ever since his unsuccessful putsch in Munich, he had, Ryback writes, “been driven by a single ambition: to destroy the political system that he held responsible for the myriad ills plaguing the German people.”

Ryback skips past the underlying mechanics of the July, 1932, election on the way to his real subject—Hitler’s manipulation of the conservative politicians and tycoons who thought that they were manipulating him—but there’s a notable academic literature on what actually happened when Germans voted that summer. The political scientists and historians who study it tell us that the election was a “normal” one, in the sense that the behavior of groups and subgroups proceeded in the usual way, responding more to the perception of political interests than to some convulsions of apocalyptic feeling.

The popular picture of the decline of the Weimar Republic—in which hyperinflation produced mass unemployment, which produced an unstoppable wave of fascism—is far from the truth. The hyperinflation had ended in 1923, and the period right afterward, in the mid-twenties, was, in Germany as elsewhere, golden. The financial crash of 1929 certainly energized the parties of the far left and the far right. Still, the results of the July, 1932, election weren’t obviously catastrophic. The Nazis came out as the largest single party, but both Hitler and Goebbels were bitterly disappointed by their standing. The unemployed actually opposed Hitler and voted en masse for the parties of the left. Hitler won the support of self-employed people, who were in decent economic shape but felt that their lives and livelihoods were threatened; of rural Protestant voters; and of domestic workers (still a sizable group), perhaps because they felt unsafe outside a rigid hierarchy. What was once called the petite bourgeoisie, then, was key to his support—not people feeling the brunt of economic precarity but people feeling the possibility of it. Having nothing to fear but fear itself is having something significant to fear.

It was indeed a “normal” election in that respect, responding not least to the outburst of “normal” politics with which Hitler had littered his program: he had, in the months beforehand, damped down his usual ranting about Jews and bankers and moneyed élites and the rest. He had recorded a widely distributed phonograph album (the era’s equivalent of a podcast) designed to make him seem, well, Chancellor-ish. He emphasized agricultural support and a return to better times, aiming, as Ryback writes, “to bridge divides of class and conscience, socialism and nationalism.” By the strange alchemy of demagoguery, a brief visit to the surface of sanity annulled years and years of crazy.

The Germans were voting, in the absent-minded way of democratic voters everywhere, for easy reassurances, for stability, with classes siding against their historical enemies. They weren’t wild-eyed nationalists voting for a millennial authoritarian regime that would rule forever and restore Germany to glory, and, certainly, they weren’t voting for an apocalyptic nightmare that would leave tens of millions of people dead and the cities of Germany destroyed. They were voting for specific programs that they thought would benefit them, and for a year’s insurance against the people they feared.

Ryback spends most of his time with two pillars of respectable conservative Germany, General Kurt von Schleicher and the right-wing media magnate Alfred Hugenberg. Utterly contemptuous of Hitler as a lazy buffoon—he didn’t wake up until eleven most mornings and spent much of his time watching and talking about movies—the two men still hated the Communists and even the center-left Social Democrats more than they did anyone on the right, and they spent most of 1932 and 1933 scheming to use Hitler as a stalking horse for their own ambitions.

Schleicher is perhaps first among Ryback’s too-clever-for-their-own-good villains, and the book presents a piercingly novelistic picture of him. Though in some ways a classic Prussian militarist, Schleicher, like so many of the German upper classes, was also a cultivated and cosmopolitan bon vivant, whom the well-connected journalist and diarist Bella Fromm called “a man of almost irresistible charm.” He was a character out of a Jean Renoir film, the regretful Junker caught in modern times. He had no illusions about Hitler (“What am I to do with that psychopath?” he said after hearing about his behavior), but, infinitely ambitious, he thought that Hitler’s call for strongman rule might awaken the German people to the need for a real strongman, i.e., Schleicher. Ryback tells us that Schleicher had a strategy he dubbed the Zähmungsprozess , or “taming process,” which was meant to sideline the radicals of the Nazi Party and bring the movement into mainstream politics. He publicly commended Hitler as a “modest, orderly man who only wants what is best” and who would follow the rule of law. He praised Hitler’s paramilitary troops, too, defending them against press reports of street violence. In fact, as Ryback explains, the game plan was to have the Brown Shirts crush the forces of the left—and then to have the regular German Army crush the Brown Shirts.

Schleicher imagined himself a master manipulator of men and causes. He liked to play with a menagerie of glass animal figurines on his desk, leaving the impression that lesser beings were mere toys to be handled. In June of 1932, he prevailed on Hindenburg to give the Chancellorship to Papen, a weak politician widely viewed as Schleicher’s puppet; Papen, in turn, installed Schleicher as minister of defense. Then they dissolved the Reichstag and held those July elections which, predictably, gave the Nazis a big boost.

Ryback spends many mordant pages tracking Schleicher’s whirling-dervish intrigues, as he tried to realize his fantasy of the Zähmungsprozess . Many of these involved schemes shared with the patriotic and staunchly anti-Nazi General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord (familiar to viewers of “Babylon Berlin” as Major General Seegers). Hammerstein was one of the few German officers to fully grasp Hitler’s real nature. At a meeting with Hitler in the spring of 1932, Hammerstein told him bluntly, “Herr Hitler, if you achieve power legally, that would be fine with me. If the circumstances are different, I will use arms.” He later felt reassured when Hindenburg intimated that, if the Nazi paramilitary troops acted, he could order the Army to fire on them.

Yet Hammerstein remained impotent. At various moments, Schleicher, as the minister of defense, entertained what was in effect a plan for imposing martial law with himself in charge and Hammerstein at his side. In retrospect, it was the last hope of protecting the republic from Hitler—but after President Hindenburg rejected it, not out of democratic misgivings but out of suspicion of Schleicher’s purposes, Hammerstein, an essentially tragic figure, was unable to act alone. He suffered from a malady found among decent military men suddenly thrust into positions of political power: his scruples were at odds with his habits of deference to hierarchy. Generals became generals by learning to take orders before they learned how to give them. Hammerstein hated Hitler, but he waited for someone else of impeccable authority to give a clear direction before he would act. (He went on waiting right through the war, as part of the equally impotent military nexus that wanted Hitler dead but, until it was too late, lacked the will to kill him.)

The extra-parliamentary actions that were fleetingly contemplated in the months after the election—a war in the streets, or, more likely, a civil confrontation leading to a military coup—seemed horrific. The trouble, unknowable to the people of the time, is that, since what did happen is the worst thing that has ever happened, any alternative would have been less horrific. One wants to shout to Hammerstein and his cohorts, Go ahead, take over the government! Arrest Hitler and his henchmen, rule for a few years, and then try again. It won’t be as bad as what happens next. But, of course, they cannot hear us. They couldn’t have heard us then.

Ryback’s gift for detail joins with a nice feeling for the black comedy of the period. He makes much sport of the attempts by foreign journalists resident in Germany, particularly the New York Times’ Frederick T. Birchall, to normalize the Nazi ascent—with Birchall continually assuring his readers that Hitler, an out-of-his-depth simpleton, was not the threat he seemed to be, and that the other conservatives were far more potent in their political maneuvering. When Papen made a speech denying that Hitler’s paramilitary forces represented “the German nation,” Birchall wrote that the speech “contained dynamite enough to change completely the political situation in the Reich.” On another occasion, Birchall wrote that “the Hitlerites” were deluded to think they “hold the best cards”; there was every reason to think that “the big cards, the ones that will really decide the game,” were in the hands of people such as Papen, Hindenburg, and, “above all,” Schleicher.

Ryback, focussing on the self-entrapped German conservatives, generally avoids the question that seems most obvious to a contemporary reader: Why was a coalition between the moderate-left Social Democrats and the conservative but far from Nazified Catholic Centrists never even seriously attempted? Given that Hitler had repeatedly vowed to use the democratic process in order to destroy democracy, why did the people committed to democracy let him do it?

Many historians have jousted with this question, but perhaps the most piercing account remains an early one, written less than a decade after the war by the émigré German scholar Lewis Edinger, who had known the leaders of the Social Democrats well and consulted them directly—the ones who had survived, that is—for his study. His conclusion was that they simply “trusted that constitutional processes and the return of reason and fair play would assure the survival of the Weimar Republic and its chief supporters.” The Social Democratic leadership had become a gerontocracy, out of touch with the generational changes beneath them. The top Social Democratic leaders were, on average, two decades older than their Nazi counterparts.

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Worse, the Social Democrats remained in the grip of a long struggle with Bismarckian nationalism, which, however oppressive it might have been, still operated with a broad idea of legitimacy and the rule of law. The institutional procedures of parliamentarianism had always seen the Social Democrats through—why would those procedures not continue to protect them? In a battle between demagoguery and democracy, surely democracy had the advantage. Edinger writes that Karl Kautsky, among the most eminent of the Party’s theorists, believed that after the election Hitler’s supporters would realize he was incapable of fulfilling his promises and drift away.

The Social Democrats may have been hobbled, too, by their commitment to team leadership—which meant that no single charismatic individual represented them. Proceduralists and institutionalists by temperament and training, they were, as Edinger demonstrates, unable to imagine the nature of their adversary. They acceded to Hitler’s ascent with the belief that by respecting the rules themselves they would encourage the other side to play by them as well. Even after Hitler consolidated his power, he was seen to have secured the Chancellorship by constitutional means. Edinger quotes Arnold Brecht, a fellow exiled statesman: “To rise against him on the first night would make the rebels the technical violators of the Constitution that they wanted to defend.”

Meanwhile, the centrist Catholics—whom Hitler shrewdly recognized as his most formidable potential adversaries—were handicapped in any desire to join with the Democratic Socialists by their fear of the Communists. Though the Communists had previously made various alliances of convenience with the Social Democrats, by 1932 they were tightly controlled by Stalin, who had ordered them to depict the Social Democrats as being as great a threat to the working class as Hitler.

And, when a rumor spread that Hitler had once spat out a Communion Host, it only made him more popular among Catholics, since it called attention to his Catholic upbringing. Indeed, most attempts to highlight Hitler’s personal depravities (including his possibly sexual relationship with his niece Geli, which was no secret in the press of the time; her apparent suicide, less than a year before the election, had been a tabloid scandal) made him more popular. In any case, Hitler was skilled at reassuring the Catholic center, promising to be “the strong protector of Christianity as the basis of our common moral order.”

Hitler’s hatred of parliamentary democracy, even more than his hatred of Jews, was central to his identity, Ryback emphasizes. Antisemitism was a regular feature of populist politics in the region: Hitler had learned much of it in his youth from the Vienna mayor Karl Lueger. But Lueger was a genuine populist democrat, who brought universal male suffrage to the city. Hitler’s originality lay elsewhere. “Unlike Hitler’s anti-Semitism, a toxic brew of pseudoscientific readings and malignant mentoring, Hitler’s hatred of the Weimar Republic was the result of personal observation of political processes,” Ryback writes. “He hated the haggling and compromise of coalition politics inherent in multiparty political systems.”

Second only to Schleicher in Ryback’s accounting of Hitler’s establishment enablers is the media magnate Alfred Hugenberg. The owner of the country’s leading film studio and of the national news service, which supplied some sixteen hundred newspapers, he was far from an admirer. He regarded Hitler as manic and unreliable but found him essential for the furtherance of their common program, and was in and out of political alliance with him during the crucial year.

Hugenberg had begun constructing his media empire in the late nineteen-teens, in response to what he saw as the bias against conservatives in much of the German press, and he shared Hitler’s hatred of democracy and of the Jews. But he thought of himself as a much more sophisticated player, and intended to use his control of modern media in pursuit of what he called a Katastrophenpolitik —a “catastrophe politics” of cultural warfare, in which the strategy, Ryback says, was to “flood the public space with inflammatory news stories, half-truths, rumors, and outright lies.” The aim was to polarize the public, and to crater anything like consensus. Hugenberg gave Hitler money as well as publicity, but Hugenberg had his own political ambitions (somewhat undermined by a personal aura described by his nickname, der Hamster) and his own party, and Hitler was furiously jealous of the spotlight. While giving Hitler support in his media—a support sometimes interrupted by impatience—Hugenberg urged him to act rationally and settle for Nazi positions in the cabinet if he could not have the Chancellorship.

What strengthened the Nazis throughout the conspiratorial maneuverings of the period was certainly not any great display of discipline. The Nazi movement was a chaotic mess of struggling in-groups who feared and despised one another. Hitler rightly mistrusted the loyalty even of his chief lieutenant, Gregor Strasser, who fell on the “socialist” side of the National Socialists label. The members of the S.A., the Storm Troopers, meanwhile, were loyal mainly to their own leader, Ernst Röhm, and embarrassed Hitler with their run of sexual scandals. The N.S.D.A.P. was a hive of internal antipathies that could resolve only in violence—a condition that would endure to the last weeks of the war, when, standing amid the ruins of Germany, Hitler was enraged to discover that Heinrich Himmler was trying to negotiate a separate peace with the Western Allies.

The strength of the Nazis lay, rather, in the curiously enclosed and benumbed character of their leader. Hitler was impossible to discourage, not because he ran an efficient machine but because he was immune to the normal human impediments to absolute power: shame, calculation, or even a desire to see a particular political program put in place. Hindenburg, knowing of Hitler’s genuinely courageous military service in the Great War, appealed in their meetings to his patriotism, his love of the Fatherland. But Hitler, an Austrian who did not receive German citizenship until shortly before the 1932 election, did not love the Fatherland. He ran on the hydrogen fuel of pure hatred. He did not want power in order to implement a program; he wanted power in order to realize his pain. A fascinating and once classified document, prepared for the precursor of the C.I.A. , the O.S.S., by the psychoanalyst Walter Langer, used first-person accounts to gauge the scale of Hitler’s narcissism: “It may be of interest to note at this time that of all the titles that Hitler might have chosen for himself he is content with the simple one of ‘Fuehrer.’ To him this title is the greatest of them all. He has spent his life searching for a person worthy of the role but was unable to find one until he discovered himself.” Or, as the acute Hungarian American historian John Lukacs, who spent a lifetime studying Hitler’s psychology, observed, “His hatred for his opponents was both stronger and less abstract than was his love for his people. That was (and remains) a distinguishing mark of the mind of every extreme nationalist.”

In November of 1932, one more Reichstag election was held. Once again, it was a bitter disappointment to Hitler and Goebbels—“a disaster,” as Goebbels declared on Election Night. (An earlier Presidential election had also reaffirmed Hindenburg over the Hitler movement.) The Nazi wave that everyone had expected failed to materialize. The Nazis lost seats, and, once again, they could not crack fifty per cent. The Times explained that the Hitler movement had passed its high-water mark, and that “the country is getting tired of the Nazis.” Everywhere, Ryback says, the cartoonists and editorialists delighted in Hitler’s discomfiture. One cartoonist showed him presiding over a graveyard of swastikas. In December of 1932, having lost three elections in a row, Hitler seemed to be finished.

The subsequent maneuverings are as dispiriting to read about as they are exhausting to follow. Basically, Schleicher conspired to have Papen fired as Chancellor by Hindenburg and replaced by himself. He calculated that he could cleave Gregor Strasser and the more respectable elements of the Nazis from Hitler, form a coalition with them, and leave Hitler on the outside looking in. But Papen, a small man in everything except his taste for revenge, turned on Schleicher in a rage and went directly to Hitler, proposing, despite his earlier never-Hitler views, that they form their own coalition. Schleicher’s plan to spirit Strasser away from Hitler and break the Nazi Party in two then stumbled on the reality that the real base of the Party was fanatically loyal only to its leader—and Strasser, knowing this, refused to leave the Party, even as he conspired with Schleicher to undermine it.

Then, in mid-January, a small regional election in Lipperland took place. Though the results were again disappointing for Hitler and Goebbels—the National Socialist German Workers’ Party still hadn’t surmounted the fifty-per-cent mark—they managed to sell the election as a kind of triumph. At Party meetings, Hitler denounced Strasser. The idea, much beloved by Schleicher and his allies, of breaking a Strasser wing of the Party off from Hitler became obviously impossible.

Hindenburg, in his mid-eighties and growing weak, became fed up with Schleicher’s Machiavellian stratagems and dispensed with him as Chancellor. Papen, dismissed not long before, was received by the President. He promised that he could form a working majority in the Reichstag by simple means: Hindenburg should go ahead and appoint Hitler Chancellor. Hitler, he explained, had made significant “concessions,” and could be controlled. He would want only the Chancellorship, and not more seats in the cabinet. What could go wrong? “You mean to tell me I have the unpleasant task of appointing this Hitler as the next Chancellor?” Hindenburg reportedly asked. He did. The conservative strategists celebrated their victory. “So, we box Hitler in,” Hugenberg said confidently. Papen crowed, “Within two months, we will have pressed Hitler into a corner so tight that he’ll squeak!”

“The big joke on democracy is that it gives its mortal enemies the tools to its own destruction,” Goebbels said as the Nazis rose to power—one of those quotes that sound apocryphal but are not. The ultimate fates of Ryback’s players are varied, and instructive. Schleicher, the conservative who saw right through Hitler’s weakness—who had found a way to entrap him, and then use him against the left—was killed by the S.A. during the Night of the Long Knives, in 1934, when Hitler consolidated his hold over his own movement by murdering his less loyal lieutenants. Strasser and Röhm were murdered then, too. Hitler and Goebbels, of course, died by their own hands in defeat, having left tens of millions of Europeans dead and their country in ruins. But Hugenberg, sidelined during the Third Reich, was exonerated by a denazification court in the years after the war. And Papen, who had ushered Hitler directly into power, was acquitted at Nuremberg ; in the nineteen-fifties, he was awarded the highest honorary order of the Catholic Church.

Does history have patterns or merely circumstances and unique contingencies? Certainly, the Germany of 1932 was a place unto itself. The truth, that some cycles may recur but inexactly, is best captured in that fine aphorism “History does not repeat itself, but it sometimes rhymes.” Appropriately, no historian is exactly sure who said this: widely credited to Mark Twain , it was more likely first said long after his death.

We see through a glass darkly, as patterns of authoritarian ambition seem to flash before our eyes: the demagogue made strong not by conviction but by being numb to normal human encouragements and admonitions; the aging center left; the media lords who want something like what the demagogue wants but in the end are controlled by him; the political maneuverers who think they can outwit the demagogue; the resistance and sudden surrender. Democracy doesn’t die in darkness. It dies in bright midafternoon light, where politicians fall back on familiarities and make faint offers to authoritarians and say a firm and final no—and then wake up a few days later and say, Well, maybe this time, it might all work out, and look at the other side! Precise circumstances never repeat, yet shapes and patterns so often recur. In history, it’s true, the same thing never happens twice. But the same things do. ♦

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Jun 23, 2023

Biographical Essay Examples: Learn How to Tell a Compelling Life Story in Writing

Explore the art of storytelling through captivating biographical essays. Join us on a journey of discovery as we unveil inspiring examples that teach you how to craft compelling life stories. Step into the world of biography writing and learn how to engage readers with fascinating narratives. Get ready to bring extraordinary lives to life on the page!

The art of storytelling has been an integral part of human culture since the dawn of civilization. It is through stories that we learn about the lives of others, understand different perspectives, and gain insight into the human experience. Biographical essays, in particular, provide a unique opportunity to delve into the life story of an individual and share their journey with readers. In this article, we will explore biographical essay examples and learn how to tell a compelling life story in writing.

What Is a Biographical Essay?

A biographical essay is a piece of writing in which you narrate the life story of an individual. It provides an opportunity for you to conduct research and discover fascinating details and perspectives concerning someone. A biographical essay is also a written account of an individual's life, highlighting their achievements, experiences, and personal characteristics. It can be about historical figures, famous personalities, or even ordinary people who have made a significant impact on the world or those around them. Biographical essays are often used in academic settings to provide insight into a person's life and contributions, but they can also be written for personal, professional, or entertainment purposes.

One of the key elements of a compelling biographical essay is a well-crafted narrative. The narrative structure helps to engage readers and keeps them interested in the story being told. A 

A good biographical essay should have a clear beginning, middle, and end, just like any other story. It should have a strong opening that hooks the reader, a well-paced middle that provides details about the person's life, and a satisfying conclusion that ties everything together.

Biographical Essay Writing Tips

Writing a biographical essay requires careful planning, research, and storytelling skills to create a compelling narrative that captures the essence of a person's life. Here are some tips to help you craft an engaging biographical essay:

Choose a Fascinating Subject:

The first step in writing a biographical essay is to choose a subject whose life story is intriguing and resonates with your audience. Whether it's a historical figure, a famous personality, or an ordinary person who has made a difference, ensure that your subject has a compelling life story that is worth exploring and sharing.

Conduct Thorough Research:

Research is the foundation of any biographical essay. Conduct in-depth research on your subject, including their background, achievements, challenges, and contributions. Utilize primary and secondary sources, such as biographies, memoirs, interviews, and historical records, to gather accurate and reliable information. This research will provide the basis for your essay and ensure that your writing is well-informed and credible.

Develop a Clear Outline:

Before you start writing, develop a clear outline that organizes your ideas and provides a structure for your essay. Outline the main sections of your essay , such as the introduction, background information, key events or milestones, challenges faced, achievements, and conclusion. This will help you maintain a coherent and organized flow throughout your essay.

Tell a Story:

A biographical essay is not just a collection of facts, but a compelling story that engages the reader. Use storytelling techniques, such as vivid descriptions, dialogues, and anecdotes, to bring your subject's life to life on the page. Focus on key events or moments that shaped your subject's life and highlight their emotions, motivations, and experiences. This will create a personal connection between the reader and your subject, making your essay more engaging and memorable.

Be Objective and Balanced:

While it's important to be inspired by your subject, strive to maintain objectivity and balance in your writing. Present a well-rounded and nuanced view of your subject, including their strengths, weaknesses, successes, and failures. Avoid bias or exaggeration, and ensure that your essay is based on factual information and credible sources.

Provide Context:

Provide context for your subject's life story by incorporating relevant historical, social, or cultural information. This will help readers understand the background and circumstances in which your subject lived and provide a deeper understanding of their life and achievements. However, be mindful of not overwhelming your essay with excessive background information, and focus on what is relevant to your subject's story.

Edit and Revise:

Like any other form of writing, editing, and revising are crucial in crafting a compelling biographical essay. After completing your first draft, take the time to review and revise your essay for clarity, coherence, and flow. Check for any factual inaccuracies, grammar, or spelling errors, and ensure that your essay follows a logical structure. Consider seeking feedback from peers or mentors to gain different perspectives and improve your essay.

Show Respect and Empathy:

When writing about someone's life, it's important to show respect and empathy towards your subject. Avoid sensationalism or exploitation of their life story and strive to depict them in a dignified and compassionate manner. Acknowledge their achievements, challenges, and contributions with sincerity and respect, and be mindful of their privacy and personal boundaries.

Be Authentic:

Finally, be authentic in your writing. Share your voice and perspective while staying true to the facts and nuances of your subject's life. Bring your unique perspective and insights to the essay, and strive to make it a genuine reflection of your writing style and personal connection with your subject.

In conclusion, writing a biographical essay requires careful research, storytelling skills, and a respectful

Personal Essay

My Journey: Embracing Life's Adventures

Life is an unpredictable adventure, full of twists and turns that shape who we become. Throughout my journey, I have encountered challenges, triumphs, and everything in between. I have learned that

Resilience and perseverance are crucial in overcoming obstacles, and every experience, whether positive or negative, has valuable lessons to offer. I have also realized the importance of cherishing the present moment and embracing new opportunities with an open heart and mind. Life may be uncertain, but I am determined to make the most of it, explore new horizons, and continually grow and evolve along the way.

Essay Examples

"The Untold Story of Nelson Mandela: From Prisoner to President"

This biographical essay tells the life story of Nelson Mandela, a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, political leader, and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. The essay starts with an attention-grabbing opening that introduces the reader to Mandela's imprisonment on Robben Island and the hardships he faced during his time in captivity. It then delves into his early life, education, and activism against apartheid, painting a vivid picture of his journey from prisoner to president. The essay includes anecdotes, quotes, and historical context that provide a well-rounded portrayal of Mandela's life and legacy.

"The Power of Perseverance: The Life of Helen Keller"

This biographical essay tells the remarkable story of Helen Keller, an American author, political activist, and lecturer who was both blind and deaf. The essay begins with an engaging introduction that highlights Keller's disabilities and the challenges she faced from a young age. It then delves into her childhood, her relationship with her teacher Anne Sullivan, and her accomplishments as a writer and social activist. The essay uses vivid descriptions and sensory details to transport the reader into Keller's world and conveys the incredible strength of her character.

"Rising Above Adversity: The Journey of Malala Yousafzai"

This biographical essay tells the inspiring story of Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani activist for female education and women's rights who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban. The essay begins with a gripping prologue that describes the attack on Malala and sets the stage for her remarkable journey. It then traces her early life, her advocacy for girls' education, and the challenges she faced under the Taliban's rule. The essay includes anecdotes, quotes, and personal reflections that provide a compelling portrayal of Malala's courage and resilience in the face of adversity.

Writing Inspiration

Writing a biographical essay can be an inspiring and fulfilling endeavor. As a writer, you have the unique opportunity to delve into the life story of an individual and share their experiences, achievements, and personal characteristics with readers. Here are some sources of inspiration that can help you find compelling stories for your biographical essay.

Historical Figures:

Throughout history, there have been countless individuals who have made significant contributions to society, shaped the course of events, or left a lasting legacy. From political leaders and innovators to artists and activists, the lives of historical figures are often rich with intriguing stories that can make for compelling biographical essays. You can choose to write about well-known figures like Martin Luther King Jr. , Marie Curie , or Leonardo da Vinci , or explore lesser-known figures whose stories deserve to be told.

Famous Personalities:

Celebrities, athletes, musicians, and other famous personalities often have fascinating life stories that can make for compelling biographical essays. These individuals often face unique challenges, overcome obstacles, and achieve remarkable success in their respective fields. Writing about their journey, struggles, and achievements can provide insights into their lives beyond the public persona, and offer readers a glimpse into the realities of fame and fortune.

Ordinary People:

While historical figures and famous personalities may be popular choices for biographical essays, the lives of ordinary people can also be a rich source of inspiration. Everyday individual who have faced adversity, achieved personal milestones, or made a difference in their communities can have compelling life stories that resonate with readers. It could be a family member, a neighbor, a teacher, or someone you have come across in your community whose story has profoundly touched you. Writing about their life can shed light on the power of resilience, determination, and the human spirit.

Personal Experiences:

Another source of inspiration for a biographical essay can be your own experiences. Reflecting on your own life story or the lives of those close to you can provide unique insights and perspectives that can make for a compelling narrative. It could be a story of overcoming challenges, pursuing a passion, or learning from failures and successes. Sharing your personal experiences in a biographical essay can be deeply introspective and provide a genuine connection with your readers.

Researching various topics , events, or historical periods can also lead you to interesting life stories that can inspire your biographical essay. Exploring different eras, cultures, or social movements can uncover fascinating individuals whose stories are worth telling.

Essay Structure

The structure of a biographical essay typically follows a basic essay structure consisting of an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. However, there may be slight variations depending on the purpose of the essay and the specific requirements of the assignment.

Here is a breakdown of the typical structure of a biographical essay:

Introduction

The introduction sets the tone for the essay and should grab the reader's attention. It should provide some background information about the subject of the essay and include a thesis statement that summarizes the main point of the essay.

Body paragraphs

The body of the essay contains the main content and should be organized into several paragraphs. Each paragraph should focus on a different aspect of the subject's life or accomplishments, such as childhood, education , career, or personal relationships. It should provide specific details, anecdotes, and examples to support the thesis statement and provide a clear understanding of the subject's life.

The conclusion ties everything together and should restate the thesis statement differently. It should summarize the key points made in the body paragraphs and leave the reader with a lasting impression. The conclusion may also provide some final thoughts or reflections on the subject's life and legacy.

Famous Personality

Allama Iqbal: A Visionary Poet and Philosopher

Allama Iqbal, also known as Dr. Muhammad Iqbal, was a prominent poet, philosopher, and politician who is regarded as one of the most influential thinkers in the history of modern South Asia. Born on November 9, 1877, in Sialkot, a city in present-day Pakistan, Iqbal grew up in a devout Muslim family and was deeply influenced by the teachings of Islam from a young age.

Iqbal's early education took place in Sialkot, and he later went to Lahore, where he completed his Bachelor's degree from Government College. He then traveled to England to pursue higher education, where he obtained a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Cambridge University and later completed his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Munich University in Germany. During his time in Europe, Iqbal was exposed to various intellectual and philosophical ideas, which would later shape his worldview and contribute to his renowned poetry and philosophical writings.

One of Iqbal's most significant contributions was his poetry, which is known for its rich imagery, deep philosophical insights, and powerful messages of spiritual awakening and social reform. Iqbal's poetry was deeply rooted in his love for Islam and his longing for the revival of Islamic values and principles in the face of colonialism, social injustices, and moral decay.

In his poetry, Iqbal emphasized the importance of self-realization, self-respect, and self-reliance, and called for Muslims to rise above their individual and societal challenges and strive for excellence. He actively participated in the struggle for the rights of Muslims in British India and advocated for the establishment of an independent Muslim state. Iqbal's famous Allahabad Address in 1930, where he proposed the idea of a separate Muslim state in the Indian subcontinent, laid the foundation for the creation of Pakistan as an independent nation for Muslims in 1947.

Despite his remarkable contributions, Iqbal's life was not without challenges. He faced criticism, opposition, and personal setbacks during his lifetime, but his unwavering commitment to his beliefs and his passion for serving humanity remained unshakable

Life Stories

Throughout history, countless individuals have left indelible marks on the world through their remarkable lives. From visionaries and leaders to artists and activists, their stories inspire and captivate us, showcasing the boundless potential of the human spirit. Here are three compelling biographical stories of individuals whose lives have had a lasting impact on society.

Nelson Mandela: The Courageous Anti-Apartheid Activist

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, born on July 18, 1918, in a small village in South Africa, grew up witnessing the oppressive system of apartheid, which enforced racial segregation and discrimination. As a young man, Mandela became a vocal advocate for the rights of Black South Africans and joined the African National Congress (ANC) to fight against apartheid.

Mandela's activism and resistance against the apartheid regime led to his imprisonment for 27 years, during which he became an international symbol of the anti-apartheid movement. Despite the harsh conditions of imprisonment, Mandela remained steadfast in his beliefs and never wavered in his pursuit of justice and equality.

After his release from prison in 1990, Mandela continued his fight against apartheid and worked toward reconciliation and unity among all racial groups in South Africa. In 1994, he became the country's first Black president through the first fully democratic elections, and he served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. Mandela's leadership and unwavering commitment to justice and equality continue to inspire people around the world, making him an iconic figure in the fight against oppression.

Frida Kahlo: The Resilient Mexican Artist

Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderon, known as Frida Kahlo, was born on July 6, 1907, in Mexico City, Mexico. She is widely regarded as one of the most prominent and influential artists of the 20th century, known for her surrealist and vibrant self-portraits that conveyed her physical and emotional pain.

Kahlo's life was marked by immense physical and emotional challenges. At the age of 18, she was involved in a devastating bus accident that left her with severe injuries, including a broken spine and pelvis. She endured numerous surgeries and spent months in bed recovering, during which she turned to painting as a means of expressing her emotions and experiences.

Kahlo's art was deeply personal and often depicted her physical and emotional pain, her Mexican heritage, and her feminist ideologies. Her paintings often featured vivid colors, surreal elements, and symbolic imagery, which earned her international recognition and acclaim.

Despite her physical challenges, Kahlo's resilience and determination to pursue her passion for art never wavered. She continued to paint and create despite her chronic pain and multiple health issues, and her art continues to captivate and inspire audiences around the world to this day.

Malala Yousafzai: The Fearless Education Activist

Malala Yousafzai was born on July 12, 1997, in Mingora, Swat District, Pakistan. From a young age, Malala was a passionate advocate for education and girls' rights in her native Swat Valley, where the Taliban had enforced a ban on girls' education.

At the age of 11, Malala began writing a blog for BBC Urdu under a pseudonym, where she documented her life under Taliban rule and her determination to fight for education. Her activism gained international attention, and she became a prominent voice for girls' education worldwide.

Embarking on the journey of life, we encounter a tapestry of experiences that shape who we are and add depth to our existence. From overcoming obstacles and celebrating growth to embracing new opportunities, we come to appreciate the captivating unpredictability of life's adventures. Each of us holds a unique journey, filled with invaluable lessons and cherished memories that fuel personal development. 

When it comes to writing biographical essays, tools like Jenni.ai can be a game-changer. With its AI-powered features, Jenni.ai offers invaluable assistance in developing strong thesis statements, and helping you produce high-quality articles. By leveraging this, you can save time and energy while producing exceptional work. 

Embrace the art of writing biographical essays, and unlock new avenues of academic and professional success by following the steps outlined in this article and harnessing the power of Jenni.ai. Seize the opportunity to become a skilled essay writer by signing up for Jenni.ai today , and embark on a transformative journey towards achieving your writing goals!

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51 Of The Best Historical Fiction Writing Prompts

You’re looking for historical fiction ideas , and most of the ones you’ve come across are either too detailed and specific or too vague — at least for you. 

History writing prompts should paint enough of a picture to allow you to fill in the gaps as you step into it and look around.

Your own perspective and the connections that form in your mind will take that partial image and complete it. 

We kept that in mind while creating this list of 51 writing prompts for your novel . May each one flood your mind with the possibilities. 

51 Historical Fiction Writing Prompts 

If you’re racking your brain for interesting historical events to write about, check out the following prompts to get those synapses firing. You’ll find everything from civil war writing prompts to famous unsolved mysteries . Dig in and find something to play with. 

1. Changing Sides. A slave sent by his master to fight in the Civil War on behalf of the Confederacy changes sides to fight for an end to slavery, not knowing what it will cost the woman he loves. Meanwhile, she risks her own life to protect a friend. 

2. Mail Order Bride. Your only support dies, and to survive, you answer an ad for a bride in the midwest. You’re not looking forward to being a stranger’s wife, but something in the letter he wrote you calms your reservations.

3 . Circus Fugitive. It’s 1925, and you’ve joined the traveling circus as a clown to hide your identity after being framed for a murder you didn’t commit. A rival performer recognizes you and threatens to expose you but doesn’t. He wants something else.

4. Atlantis Rising. You’re a citizen of ancient Atlantis and one of the few chosen for preservation during the centuries of submersion, thanks to Atlantean technology. You’ll never see your family again. One friend — with secrets — sabotages the plan.

5. Pearl Harbor. You’re one of the pilots in an air fight with Japanese bombers over Pearl Harbor. You spot one going in an unexpected direction and follow it, only to see them kamikaze into the building where the love of your life is working.

6. Equal Rights for All. A friend invites you to a meeting where you decide to join the fight for women’s suffrage and equal rights. Your employer spots you protesting and gives you a choice: distance yourself from the cause or lose your job. 

7. Prodigal Daughter. In the 1970s, you ran away from home to see Woodstock and only now, ten years later, are you heading back home, after a brief but troubling phone conversation with your mother. 

8. The Speakeasy Scandal. It’s 1923, and you’ve just opened your own speakeasy, limiting its patronage to select members of your community. But one of them is a mole for the local sheriff. He ends up dead in the alley, and you’re arrested for it. 

9. Sioux Pioneer. You lose your husband on the Oregon Trail to a wagon mishap and are then abducted by a Sioux tribe. Write a story describing your evolving relationship with the Sioux chief’s (adult) son. 

10. No Place for Black Veterans. You’re an orphan who befriends a returning WWII soldier after seeing how the community rejects him because of his skin color. Your friendship attracts the attention of local Klansmen and a neglectful aunt.

11. Undercover DJ. An undercover American WWII soldier sneaks into a German radio room and delivers a cryptic message in perfect German, hoping to alert other Americans to a devious German plot he’s discovered. 

12. Haunted Hotel. It’s 1930, and you buy a hotel that just happens to be haunted by the ghosts involved in a very public murder in the roaring 20s. Turns out, plenty of people are willing to pay good money to be haunted by glamorous murder victims. 

13. Jack the Seam Ripper. Using an item in your grandmother’s “treasure box,” you go back in time and get a young Jack interested in tailoring and fashion design. But can you really stop him from following his darker impulses when an old lover returns?

14. Poker Face. In 1800s England, the poker stakes are higher than most spectators are willing to risk. You’re the reigning champion until a new challenger hits the scene. Thing is, you’re ready to lose and disappear. But it won’t be that simple.

15. Don’t Forget the Pie. You run a 1940s diner and see all sorts of people, many of whom you only see once. Everyone who tries your pie wants the recipe, but it’s a closely-guarded family secret. One customer offers to work for a month to get it.

16. Dear Jane. Your sweetheart is a Vietnam soldier who just broke up with you in a letter. You do some digging and find out he’s left you for one of his fellow soldiers, whose fiancée is the same best friend who comforted you after the break-up. 

17. Once Upon a Drama. You’re a novelist who wakes up in Victorian England and meets your own characters. While rooting for your favorite two people, you don’t expect to fall for one of them. You definitely don’t expect to tell them about it.

18. Ever Since Summer Camp. Five teens meet at summer camp and bond together in response to a tragedy. Their lives continue to intertwine as they grow up in 1950s California. One of them shares the secret that binds them, and lives fall apart. 

19. The Stolen Child. As part of a time-traveling detective couple, you’re excited about your next assignment in Germantown, Maryland: the kidnapping of Charley Ross — a mystery that remained unsolved. 

20. Darkness in the French Quarter. In the early 1880s, your connections with the New Orleans aristocracy leads you to a beautiful Creole woman, Madame Delphine LaLaurie , who has been torturing and murdering the slaves of her household. 

21. Road Trip! Lewis and Clark plan for the Oregon Trail. They talk about hardships they expect, people they’re leaving behind, and what each one most hopes to gain. Your main character is a jilted lover who hatches a plan to stop the expedition..

22. Special Delivery. He delivers milk. She delivers newspapers. They cross paths when they both witness a mugging in 1920s Chicago and intervene to protect the victim. The supposed “victim” then offers them both a job with a hefty payoff. 

23. Nursing History. You pay someone to help you explore your past and see one of your past lives as a WWII nurse. Your fiancé in that life looks an awful lot like your current boss. You see what you went through together and the child you had. 

24. Lost at Sea. A loved one boards the Titanic on their way back home to you. When the ship goes down, they supposedly end up on one of the few liferafts, but they don’t return with the survivors. A year later, they show up at your door.

25. Million Dollar Fling. Ten years ago, you had a moment with a ship’s captain during a 1950s cruise with a group of wealthy socialites you met at college. You show up at a life-changing job interview in New York and come face-to-face with him again. 

More Related Articles:

63 Of The Best Memoir Writing Prompts To Stoke Your Ideas

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252 Of The Best Writing Prompts For All Writers

26. American Blood. Your family came to the U.S. after government intervention essentially handed rule in your native country to an organized crime network. A former friend is recruited to their ranks and comes to the U.S. for a business deal. 

27. Two for One. You’re waiting in the parlor for your gentleman host, watching the butler pour tea and eyeing a plate of jammy biscuits. You’re here to meet the man your sister wants to marry. So, why does he know everything about you ? 

28. Jazz Runaway. Two new friends cajole you into joining them to check out a new jazz band. It’s 1930s Mississipi, and you know your parents wouldn’t approve of these friends, but they remind you of someone you lost. What you learn changes you. 

29. Voodoo Priestess. It’s June in 1881. You’re walking in a funeral procession while the band plays. In the coffin is your mother, the Voodoo Queen Marie Leveau , and you’re headed to the St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, plot 347. 

30. Is it Jack or Jackie? A woman named Mary Pearsay is arrested for the murder of a woman and her child. After her death, Ripperologists suggest she may have been the real “Jack the Ripper.” Your investigative partner has a weird fixation on her. 

31 . Missing, Presumed Innocent. You’re investigating the case of a young English maidservant who disappeared on January 1st, 1753 and reappeared on the 29th, emaciated and weak. Her story of abduction doesn’t match what investigators find. 

32. The “Mad Monk.” You’ve just met the man who murdered Grigori Rasputin on the 17th of December in 1916, and he’s only too happy to recount the details. He’s not so forthcoming about why he did it, and you’re determined to find out. 

33. Da Vinci’s Muse. The world knows about Leonardo da Vinci but not about the Renaissance woman who inspired him. As one of her descendants, you’re determined to make her known, at the risk of exposing a dark secret. 

34. The Invisible Apprentice. Being William Shakespeare’s apprentice would be great if he weren’t always stealing your ideas and claiming them as his own. So, you write a brilliant satiric play exposing him. He loves it and takes it to the stage. 

35. Death in the Family. You know who really killed JFK, and it wasn’t that patsy Oswald, who’s already dead. Exposing the real killers would put you and your family next on their list. 

36. Nightmares in Heaven. You’re secretly watching Michaelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel. You know he’s been having nightmares, which find their way onto the chapel ceiling — before the Archbishop demands he paint over them. 

37. Candy Creep. The creator of Sweethearts candies sends you a box “anonymously.” The messages on those tiny hearts reveal more than you want to know about him. 

38. Better Half. You’re on a visit to New York in 1977 with your fiancé, and you’re separated when the blackout hits. Write about your adventures as you find your way back to each other — and when you find out where he’s been. 

39. Tactical Magic. It’s 1692, and you’re a witch keeping a low profile in Salem, Massachusetts while trying to protect your sister. She’s just been accused by a group of girls after meeting with the minister’s daughter in the woods. 

40. The Baby Diaries. You found your mother’s hidden diaries detailing her experiences as a young Black woman in the 50s. Now, some of the things she said and did while she lived make sense. You didn’t expect to learn about a half-sister.

41. Forbidden Knowledge. You wake up in the famous library of Alexandria mere hours before it burns, destroying everything. You witness the arson and stealthily pursue those responsible. 

42. Profanely Biblical. At the Nicene Council, Emperor Constantine has booted any bishop who doesn’t agree with his decision on which books belong in the Christian Bible and which should be destroyed. You’re a collector of the latter.

43. Before the Mayflower. On the west coast of Africa, in 1462, you see hundreds of captive men, women, and children being loaded into ships. You ask why and learn the truth as you spot a friend among them. What do you do?

44. The Haitian Revolution. In 1804, Haitians win their independence from French rule. As a Haitian immigrant to the U.S., you openly supported their fight. But when a massacre follows the revolution, you encounter open hostility. 

45. More Than Courage. You’re a student at Harvard when the university admits its first Black student: Beverly Garnett Williams. You share some classes with her, and you witness her courage every day. You also witness people’s reactions. 

46. Illegal Heritage. It’s the Spanish Inquisition, and your family has converted to Christianity from Judaism to survive. That doesn’t stop the local clerics from harassing you — or your pious neighbors from pointing fingers.

47. Crazy in Love. You’re the last person Marilyn Monroe talked to before she was murdered. And you’re determined to expose her killer. But no one believes the “crazy best friend” — including your doctors at the mental hospital.  

48. Model Neighbors. You read your parents’ collected love letters and learn about what they experienced as an interracial couple in the 1960s. They had you before they were forced out of their white neighborhood. 

49. Pirate Queen. You’ve been kidnapped by Blackbeard and instead of killing you, he keeps you as a slave. But you have a brilliant plan to take over the ship and become the new pirate captain of the Queen Mary’s Revenge. 

50. She’s Indisposed. You’re an apothecary in the 1600s, and two star-crossed lovers have asked you to prepare a potion to help one of them fake their death. You create the potion but get it mixed up with a powerful remedy for constipation. 

51. Tele-porta-vision. In 1972, you sit around your English family’s first TV set — a gift from your dad’s new employer. You wake up hours later in the middle of a crop circle nearby, unable to remember how you got there. Dreams tell you more. 

Final Thoughts

Now that you have 51 prompts with cool historical events to write about, which ones make you want to put this aside and start writing? 

And what else will you bring to your story to make it uniquely yours? 

Humor? Romance ? Horror ? Fantasy ? Choose-your-own adventure? 

Pick a prompt , and play with whatever comes to mind. Tell your inner editor to take a nap while you get the words out. This is a time to create. 

Write away. 

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Historical Fiction

Reimagining Real Lives in the Best New Historical Fiction

This trio of new novels shows real people in their natural habitats, drawn with writerly flair.

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By Alida Becker

Alida Becker was an editor at the Book Review for 30 years. She was the first winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for excellence in reviewing.

Florence Nightingale is best known as the saintly “Lady With the Lamp,” patrolling the dark corridors of a British military hospital in Constantinople as she tended to wounded and dying soldiers shipped back from the front lines of the Crimean War. In her latest novel, FLIGHT OF THE WILD SWAN (Bellevue Literary Press, 416 pp., paperback, $18.99), Melissa Pritchard makes Nightingale’s heroism even more intimate — and more interesting — by portraying her not as “some sweet, feminine savior” but as a stubborn, tormented striver who spent her youth and early adulthood struggling to break free from the constraints of Victorian society.

Born into a wealthy family, given more education than most women, Nightingale inhabited a gilded cage most would have found easy to accept. We first meet her in 1827 as a 7-year-old exploring her father’s Derbyshire estate and accompany her in her teens and 20s through European travels, a grand tour of Egypt and years of fending off marriage proposals from a well-connected member of Parliament. Yet Nightingale refuses to settle into the comfortable life her parents have planned for her. At 16, she privately dedicates herself to ending the suffering she sees all around, but it’s only when she’s in her early 30s, after surviving a suicide attempt, that she’s allowed to pursue her medical studies. Granted a yearly allowance, she’s finally “free as any man.”

By spending the first half of the novel acquainting readers with Nightingale’s thwarted ambitions, Pritchard adroitly prepares us for the high drama of her attempt to fulfill them in the combat zone. In addition to the appalling conditions she finds at the crumbling Turkish barracks that’s been turned into a hospital, Nightingale must do battle with incompetent bureaucrats and British medical officers who dismiss her band of nurses as “a garden tea party.” Small wonder that she exhausts herself and her companions; even her friends sometimes view her as a “monster.” However, Nightingale is equally hard on herself. By patching up men so they can return to the carnage, she is, she admits, “as much a murderer as any elite officer in this hellish enterprise.”

The friction between Nightingale and her jealous, unstable older sister provides a crucial undercurrent to the central action of Pritchard’s novel. In THE PAINTER’S DAUGHTERS (Simon & Schuster, 342 pp., $27.99), Emily Howes places the relationship of Peggy and Molly Gainsborough front and center. From the very beginning, it’s clear there’s something wrong with Molly. As Peggy puts it, “Her eyes flick onto mine, but she is not there.” Although one year younger, Peggy resolves to care for her sister by hiding her sporadic bouts of mental illness, terrified Molly will wind up in the “madhouse.” Eventually, the entire household is caught up in this charade, lest scandal threaten Thomas Gainsborough’s artistic career. “However much my father rises,” Peggy explains, “he remains a tradesman.”

Peggy is a sympathetic if painfully naïve narrator, and as the sisters grow older the tension between her protective instincts and her own aspirations erupt in a romantic rivalry that can only end in tragedy. Interspersed with Peggy’s account of her family is another narrative, set a generation earlier, that may explain the shameful mystery surrounding her mother’s background and perhaps even the root cause of Molly’s malady. “You are girls of lineage ,” their mother has insisted, “of heritage you cannot possibly understand.”

The malady that afflicted the Thoreau family was consumption, striking down three generations. The insidious influence of the disease, which we now call tuberculosis, lingers in the background of Helen Humphreys’s FOLLOWED BY THE LARK (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 240 pp., $27), in which she strings together a series of vignettes to form a poetic fictional biography of Henry David Thoreau. There are glimpses of his Transcendentalist circle, but Humphreys prefers to concentrate on friendships with the less well-known figures who join him on treks through woods and fields.

To Thoreau, the premature deaths of his brother and a close friend are agonizing reminders of the fragility of life, as are changes coming to Concord, Mass., and to the country as a whole in the decades before the Civil War. He revisits the site of his old house on Walden Pond: “When he listened for the sound of a bird in the forest, all he heard was the steady beat of the wood chopper’s ax.” The roar of a new train line is also audible everywhere. Earning his living as a surveyor, Thoreau has ample opportunity to gauge alterations to the world he once knew.

Still, nature’s glories can’t be eclipsed, and this is where Humphreys’s narrative is most evocative — particularly in the spring, when Thoreau finds it impossible to document so much new life in his journal. “He used to be frustrated by this,” Humphreys writes, “but now that he was older, he just gave over to it when it happened. He was even a bit relieved when it did happen, when spring became a green furnace that burned through every hour.” In the end, he finds individual words and voices less convincing than “the chorus of nature’s cacophony.”

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Before Baltimore, 35 died after a freighter collapsed Florida’s big bridge

Cynthia Zahnow was eating breakfast in her college’s cafeteria when the pager beeped and announced its message aloud: “Code Red Alpha Zulu.” Something bad had happened.

The 19-year-old — a member of the search-and-rescue team at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla. — ditched the poster board she was supposed to present in class and ran to the boat house. There was as much uncertainty as there was urgency.

But the situation was worse than anyone could have imagined: This was the morning of May 9, 1980, and a freighter had just ripped out a chunk of the Sunshine Skyway. Reportedly spanning 14 miles, it connected St. Pete and Sarasota and was considered Florida’s flagship bridge.

Her job that rainy morning was hoisting bodies recovered from a submerged Greyhound bus onto the search-and-rescue boat. No one on the bus had survived.

“I remember loading the bus driver,” Zahnow told The Washington Post on Tuesday, “and seeing the horror still frozen on his face.”

The tragedy is a dark spot in the history of St. Pete — the Sunshine City in the Sunshine State. Motorists fell 150 feet to their deaths that day. In all, 35 people died.

For many connected to the area, some of whom felt the ground shake on shore those 44 years ago, the Skyway’s collapse was the first thing that came to mind after hearing that a freighter had crashed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday, sending at least eight people hurtling into the water.

Zahnow was among them. Now an oncology professor at Johns Hopkins University, she said she has driven over the Key Bridge countless times. When she woke up and heard the news, her reaction was visceral. Her heart started beating faster.

“It brought back the horror of the day,” she said.

On that May morning, the water under the Skyway was no longer a place where casual divers would snag snow crabs for dinner. It became a place where police divers slipped into a watery graveyard, pulling bodies from submerged vehicles.

Summit Venture, the Liberian-registered freighter that hit the bridge, was about the length of two football fields. The vessel was heading to Tampa to pick up a load of phosphate, The Post reported, at a time when the U.S. Coast Guard said “visibility was zero.”

The Summit Venture struck one of the span’s western columns, knocking out 1,200 feet of the bridge. Six vehicles and the Greyhound bus plummeted into the choppy water, according to the state parks website.

One of them was carrying Wesley MacIntire , a 56-year-old man from nearby Gulfport, who spoke with The Post from his stretcher in the emergency room hours after his pickup truck fell into the water.

He said it was raining so hard he almost decided not to cross the bridge. (At that time, many in the area were scared of the wind and how the bridge’s metal grating grabbed tires. When it opened in 1954, per the Tampa Bay Times, it was the longest unbroken bridge in the United States.)

As he approached the tallest section of the bridge, MacIntire said he began to feel it sway.

“Then when I looked down, I could see the ship and the edge of the bridge was breaking off,” he said. “I couldn’t stop. I just slid and then I hit the ship and dropped into the water.”

He said he held onto bridge debris and called to the freighter for help, which dropped a rope ladder and pulled him aboard.

A doctor at the hospital told The Post that it was a miracle MacIntire survived, sustaining injuries “on the level of a common automobile accident.”

The divers from that day and the ensuing weeks sustained a different kind of trauma.

Robert Raiola was still teaching Michael Betz the ropes: Betz had started as an inspection diver with the Florida Department of Transportation five days before the crash, according to the Times.

Raiola compared it to starting at the New York Fire Department on Sept. 6, 2001, in an interview with the Times years later.

They recounted starting that rainy morning with coffee and breakfast sandwiches at the Bunny Hut. It was going to be a routine inspection of the Skyway that day. But the waitress interrupted to tell them that the bridge had been struck.

They loaded up their 16-foot FDOT Boston Whaler and sped down a dirt road to what was left of the bridge. They found a steel truss hanging over the water pointing down at where they needed to dive, reported the Times.

Betz recounted seeing the Greyhound wheels up, the top of the bus sheered off. Raiola signaled for Betz to wait outside as he swam into where the front window had been. He found people still trapped in their seats, according to the Times.

Realizing this wouldn’t be a rescue mission, they swam up with two bodies each and handed them off to crew members at the surface.

Betz told the Times he decided to hold the bodies by the backs of their shirts. He didn’t want to see their faces.

The National Transportation Safety Board held 10 days of hearings during which 28 people testified and 93 exhibits were entered into the record. An April 1981 report from the NTSB found multiple causes for the crash and collapse: high winds and heavy rain from a line of thunderstorms; a failure to notify mariners of the severe weather; and the lack of a structural pier protection system that could absorb some of the impact.

A new Sunshine Skyway opened in 1987. The standing wreckage from the old bridge became the Skyway Fishing Pier State Park in 1994. At least 40 tons of debris from the old bridge have become artificial reefs throughout the area.

Locals still swap tales about where they were when they heard or felt the bridge collapse.

But one story rises above the rest.

As the bridge started to crumble, Dick Hornbuckle slammed on the brakes, stopping his yellow 1976 Buick Skylark only 14 inches from where the roadway had been seconds ago. He and his three friends crawled out of the car, thankful for their luck.

But he tested his luck again. The 60-year-old scrambled back to his Buick for something that could have cost him his life: his golf clubs.

More than four decades later, those there that day are still haunted in even quiet moments.

Zahnow said the cafeteria staff had set aside food for rescuers, knowing they’d be back late. Sitting down to dinner, she remembers cutting an orange in half and rubbing the citrus on her hands and nails so she could try to eat.

“You just felt like you were covered in death,” she said.

Baltimore bridge collapse

Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed after being hit by a cargo ship , sending at least eight people from a construction crew into the water. Follow live updates and see photos from the scene .

How it happened: The container ship lost power moments before colliding with the bridge, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) said. Video shows the bridge collapse in under 40 seconds. Read everything we know so far about the bridge collapse .

Victims: Rescue efforts are underway as authorities search for six people still missing . The entire crew aboard the 985-foot container ship Dali survived .

Economic impact: The collapse of the bridge, which severed ocean links to the city’s port, adds a fresh headache to already struggling global supply chains .

History: The Key Bridge was built in the 1970s and spans the Patapsco River. Here’s a list of other major bridge collapses in U.S. history .

The history of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge

A cargo ship struck the bridge early Tuesday.

A cargo ship struck Baltimore's historic Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday, causing a partial structural collapse and plunging multiple vehicles from the bridge into the water.

The 1.6-mile bridge on the I-695 beltway crosses the Patapsco River, where Key was inspired to write the words of the U.S. national anthem in 1814, according to the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) .

MORE: Baltimore bridge collapse live updates: Ship lost propulsion, warned of collision, officials say

"the star-spangled banner" and francis scott key.

In September 1814, after a 25-hour bombardment from British forces against U.S. soldiers at Fort McHenry during the War of 1812, Key watched as U.S. soldiers raised the American flag at the fort in defiance of the attacks, according to the National Park Service (NPS).

This sight inspired Key to write “The Defense of Fort M’Henry,” a four-line stanza that “spread like wildfire,” according to the NPS. This would later be retitled "The Star-Spangled Banner” and set to the tune of an existing song, "To Anacreon in Heaven," before, in 1931, it officially became the U.S. national anthem.

At the time, Key was helping negotiate with British forces for the release of Dr. William Beanes, a prominent physician who had been captured prior to the Battle of Baltimore, according to the NPS.

Key, after whom the bridge was named, was also an advisor to Andrew Jackson, served as the district attorney for the District of Columbia from 1833 to 1841, and was a slave owner, according to the NPS.

Construction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge

Construction on the bridge, which was intended to ease traffic and maintenance concerns regarding the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel that serviced the waterway, began in 1972 and finished in March 1977, according to the MDTA, at an estimated cost of $110 million.

According to Preservation Maryland , the Francis Scott Key Bridge was "a significant engineering accomplishment," as it's one of the longest continuous truss bridges in the United States.

Including its connecting approaches, the bridge project is 10.9 miles in length and has an annual traffic volume of 11.3 million vehicles, the MDTA reports.

Information from the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration shows that the Francis Scott Key Bridge met acceptable standards and that the deck, superstructure and substructure were in "satisfactory condition" as of 2023.

Tuesday morning, the container ship Dali, a Singapore-flagged vessel, struck the bridge at about 1:30 a.m., according to MarineTraffic, a maritime tracking company.

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ABC News Live

24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events

Baltimore's Key Bridge is not the first: A look at other bridge collapse events in US history

Parts of the 1.6-mile, four-lane Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, collapsed into the Patapsco River after it was struck by a large cargo ship Tuesday morning.

Local, state and federal crews responded to the collapse and were searching for six construction workers who were on the bridge when the ship struck. Two people were rescued in the initial hours of the search: one unharmed and the other in "very serious condition," said James Wallace, chief of the Baltimore City Fire Department.

The Dali, the container vessel, was chartered by the major shipping company Maersk and was carrying its cargo, according to a statement from the company. It was slated to arrive early April in Sri Lanka, according to MarineTraffic, a global ship tracking service.

The bridge is not the first to have collapsed in the past 100 years. Here's a look at bridge collapses in recent U.S. history.

Live updates: Baltimore's Key Bridge collapses after ship collision; 2 rescued, search continues

1967: Point Pleasant Bridge in West Virginia

The Point Pleasant Bridge, colloquially known as the Silver Bridge for its aluminum paint, collapsed during heavy rush hour traffic on Dec. 15, 1967.

The 2,200-foot suspension bridge carried U.S. Route 35 and spanned the Ohio River, connecting Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Gallipolis, Ohio. Forty-six people died in the collapse, and two of those people were never found.

An investigation found the collapse was caused by a failure of one eyebar chain that had been noted in a preliminary report 10 months earlier.

The collapse led to federal regulations on the inspection of bridges and an increased emphasis on bridge safety through the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1968 , which established a National Bridge Inspection Program.

1980: Sunshine Skyway bridge in Florida

In 1980, the Sunshine Skyway bridge collapsed after it was struck by a ship. Thirty-five motorists and bus passengers were killed.

A 1,200-foot chunk of the bridge, which connected St. Petersburg and Bradenton, collapsed after the massive Summit Venture freighter slammed into one of its central support piers.

When a section of the bridge fell into Tampa Bay, it took a truck, seven cars and a Greyhound bus with it.

The Herald-Tribune, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported the crash happened during an intense thunderstorm , with winds reaching 80 mph and heavy rain. Visibility was near zero, according to local historians who made a documentary film about the collapse.

After the collapse, the freighter remained stuck beneath the bridge, with part of the roadway on its bow. Photos from the time show how one motorist was able to stop his car just inches from where the bridge fell into the water.

1993: Big Bayou Canot Bridge in Alabama

On Sept. 22, 1993, barges pushed by a towboat collided with the Big Bayou Canot Bridge near Mobile, Alabama. Just eight minutes later, an Amtrak passenger train derailed from the bridge. Forty-seven people were killed 103 were injured.

The towboat pushing the barge had made a wrong turn on the Mobile River and entered the Big Bayou Canot. In heavy fog, the towboat's pilot, Willie Odom, struck the bridge, which forced the end of the bridge span out of alignment by about 3 feet and kinked the track.

The accident is the deadliest train wreck in Amtrak's history and in Alabama railway history.

2002: 1-40 bridge collapse in Oklahoma

The I-40 bridge, which spanned the Arkansas River just southeast of Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, collapsed on May 26, 2002, after a freight barge struck a pier supporting the bridge.

The captain of the barge's towboat reportedly lost consciousness, and the barge lost control and crashed into the pier support.

A section of the bridge collapsed, and 14 people were killed.

Victims and families settled a lawsuit with the towboat company, Magnolia Marine Transport Co., in May 2003 for an undisclosed amount.

Crews took about two months to rebuild the bridge − the estimate had been six months − and traffic resumed in July 2002.

2007: Mississippi River bridge in Minnesota

The I-35W Mississippi River bridge, also known as Bridge 940, spanned the Mississippi River just downstream from Minneapolis.

At the time, it was the third-busiest bridge in Minnesota, carrying about 140,000 vehicles a day.

It collapsed into the Mississippi River during the evening rush hour on Aug. 1, 2007, killing 13 people and injuring 145.

Several reports had cited problems with the bridge, and in 2005 it was given a rating of "structurally deficient" and possibly in need of replacement, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Construction had been taking place on the bridge weeks before, including joint work and replacement of lighting, concrete and guard rails.

According to an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, the collapse was probably the result of a design flaw from thin steel gusset plates that helped connect steel beams.

2024: Bridge partially collapses in China

In the early morning of Feb. 22, a part of the bridge over China’s Pearl River in Guangzhou collapsed after a container ship collided with the bridge. Five people died and three were injured.

Four vehicles and one electric motorcycle fell off the bridge after the collision. The dead included a driver of an empty bus, the driver of the motorcycle and three people in trucks that went into the river, according to city officials.

“Improper operations” by the ship’s crew caused the collision, according to officials at the city’s press conference.

The container ship Lianghui 688 collided with the Lixinsha Bridge twice while navigating through the waterway. The city official said the ship hit adjacent bridge piers, leading to the rupture of the bridge deck over the space between the piers.

Based on reports obtained by online news platform Jimu News, the ship measured about 197 feet in length and 59 feet in height and transmitted its final position around 5:29 a.m. on Feb. 22.

Weibing Peng, an expert on bridge construction and collapse incidents from Zhejiang University of Technology analyzed the incident and told Jimu News that the ship first hit one pier on a diagonal course, then swung nearly parallel to the bridge and hit a second pier. The second pier tilted, resulting in the partial collapse of the bridge.

Contributing: Claire Thornton and Dian Zhang, USA TODAY