Choosing a Topic

It's that time of year. Time to pick the History Day topic you'll be spending at least the next 6 months with. So here are some things to think about as you begin the process.

The Theme
This year's theme is Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History. NHD themes are purposefully broad so that students can find topics they are interested in and make connections with. Topics can be from any time period and any place in History. You do not have to hit all 3 of the theme words but think about all aspects and you might find that the reform you are focusing on was a reaction to a revolution! The distinction among revolutions, reactions, and reforms are often blurry.

Topic Choices
Find a topic you are interested in. You will spending a lot of time researching and if you don't like learning about the Civil War but choose it as a topic you  really won't like it in a couple months! And my guess is that you might not put your full effort into it if you can't stand your topic. If you don't like "traditional" history (wars, presidents, reform movements) History Day give syou the perfect opportuniy to explore the history of other topics. What reforms have been made in an effort to regulate sports? What musicians or artists are considered revolutionary?

Make sure your topic is historically significant. While I'm sure people could argue jeggings (leggings that look like jeans) are revolutionary in fashion, this does not have historical signifcance. Instead, maybe you can do a project on revolutionary change in women's fashion when they stopped wearing corsets. Here are a couple questions to help you decide is a topic is historically significant:
1. Did the topic, event, person have deep consequences or impact on society?
2. Did your topic affect many people?
3. Did the consequences last a long time?

Primary and Secondary Sources
Brainstorm a list of topics you might be interested in and then do some basic research. You want to find out if you can find sources on the topics. Your History Day project will be much easier if you can find a variety of sources- books written by historians, scholarly websites, and access to primary sources (this is a key component. Look for sources from the time of your event or written by someone who was there- more about primary sources in a future blog). This does not mean you have to do in-depth research. Just a basic search at the library or online will help you decide if you can find sources.

We also suggest you choose a topic that is at least 20 years old. Anything earlier is sometimes more a current event topic. Historians often let time pass before they write about a topic. They research the causes, context, connections of a topic and they want some time to pass so they can get real perspective on the consequences and impact of an event. If you are interested in something that recently happened, there are ways to incorporate it into your project. Take the recent revolution in Egypt. That doesn't fit our 20 years suggestion but maybe you can find other examples of democratic revolutions that took place around the world in earlier times. Or trace the roots of the discontent felt by the Egyptians that led to the revolution in the first place. You can research causes and past events and then through your topic demonstrate the connections to today.

Narrow your topic...
Check back next week for a blog about making your topic manageable.