International School History - European School History and Human Science

International School History - European Schools - S6 4 hour option - S6 2 hour option

S6 History

Last update - 07 May 2023

Official European School History S6 Syllabus: English, French, German

Summer reading S6 into S7

I highly recommend the IB skills and practice book (left) as a supplement to your Ben Walsh textbook in s7. I have said all I have to say about how to write essays, revise and do document work, so this book will be an excellent reminder throughout s7 on how to do things. In addition, my last chapter in the book will form the basis of the first few weeks of lessons that we will do on the philosophical question of 'what is history?'.

So here are four very different types of book, any of which you could usefully read over the summer and that will leave you well prepared to start the year in September.

	Rethinking History - Keith Jenkins Short but guaranteed to make you think. I love this book as much as most other history teachers seem to hate it.		Cold War - John Lewis Gaddis The only standard 'history' book on my list of four. Controversial but highly readable. We will spend more time on the Cold War that anything else next year.
	In the footsteps of Mr Kurtz - Michela Wrong The sometimes absurd story of what happened to the Congo after independence.		Wild Swans - Jung Chang The best selling book about China ever written? Factual, but personal, it tells the story of three generations of Chinese women through the 20th century.

Some students like to be able to read a single text that covers everything we study. For me the best single volume history of the 20th century is Eric Hobsbawm's Age of Extremes. On Europe since 1945 which is 50% of the final marks on the written exam, the best book is Post-War by Tony Judt.

Film

The single most useful documentary series for the s7 course is the CNN Cold War series. Many of the episodes of the People's Century series are also relevant.