Coursework: Some Good News

For the last week, I've really struggled with the material for the A Level coursework topic. I even got to the point of thinking 'well, I'm doing the MA soon, maybe I should focus on that?'. The good news, however, is that after speaking to my tutor, I don't have to do the 19th century Balance of Power for my project and can do anything as long as it covers at least 100 years and doesn't overlap too much with the other units of study.

I had two backup plans for alternative topics: the industrial revolution (flashbacks to many many visits to Industrial Museums in Sheffield as a kid) or the history of crime and punishment (linked to the day job and good preparation for the MA). After speaking to my tutor a bit more, I'm angling towards something in the latter area and am currently reading some introductory texts on the topic for ideas. All things being equal, I'm hoping that I should have a couple of ideas to send him of potential topics/questions by Monday

Continuing Coursework

I've spent the day working on the coursework and all I can say is that the 19th Century is baking my brain!!!!!

Having read through the course-pack again, I know that the question that I've chosen on the impact of nationalism on conflict in the period is asking me to briefly discuss the rise of nationalism and then look at its relative influence on the main conflicts in the era, but my brain is still completely fuzzy. I've looked through a few books as well and they are great on what happened but don't discuss nationalism's role explicitly. I'll give it a week and if I dont make any progress, I'll start thinking instead about doing the other question.

Beginning Coursework

It's been a busy time with the day-job with various things so the A Level has been on a backburner. My plan was always to return to it in July to start the coursework, but I've managed to start it two weeks early, which means that I can hopefully finish it before August and have time for a summer break (and the return to work and the start of the MA)

In the ICS scheme of work, you are restricted to writing your coursework on one topic - the changing balance of power in Europe, 1815-1918 - and a choice of two questions: 'to what extent can European conflicts between 1815 be explained by the development of nationalism?' or 'in what ways did the European balance of power change between 1815 and 1920?'. At the outset, I'm edging more towards the former, although neither seems particularly inspiring. I listened to the audio lecture series on The long 19th Century by The Teaching Company and found it all pretty boring - but that may have been because the lecturer sounded like Rick Moranis. I'm hoping I'll find the topic more interesting as I get into it.

My plan is to read through the ICS course material over the next day or so, pick a topic and then get as many books as I can from the library at work on it and try and bash out a draft then get feedback on that from my tutor.