History A level help needed ASAP please!

[shadypines]

Hi, DD is stressing/panicking this eve over her History course work task which she has been given a couple of weeks to do. Basically she doesn't know how to best access online material for the authors given. She says the teacher has indicated the reading could be done online but does not indicate where to look. ?? Is this normal, the internet is a big place?

The authors given are Nora Temple, George Rude (accent on the e) Georges Lefebvre, and William Doyle. She needs to find 2 that have differing opinions. At the moment the college library doesn't seem to be a lot of help for these resources. Is it a case of purchasing from online? Any help greatly appreciated.

A quick Google says these are all authors of books on the French revolution and causes of it. But quite deep for an A level student, I would have thought.
I'd say read the reviews and then pick q with opposing views. It might be easier to buy the books Amazon?) or see if your local library has them than to find articles reducing their points to 5000 words or whatever.
But I'm no expert- hopefully you'll get someone along on here who specializes in the French revolution and be of more practical help.

I imagine that the college will have a subscription to an online text book library via their VLE such as moodle. Someone from college should have shown the students how to access it.

If she hasn't been shown this (and it sounds like she hasn't) I'd encourage her to go and ask at the library for some guidance on how to access the online textbooks.

Thank you both very much that sounds helpful, will do.

She has to do 1000 words so not huge, to my mind that would not indicate having to read and analyse two whole books, just get a summary is what I am thinking. What do others think?

My DS has just done a similar essay and it was really quite a broad overview in 1000 words. It would be hard work to précis 2 books into 1000 words.

I believe your DD needs to contrast the views of two of the historians, then discuss how personal & external factors have influenced their views. She only needs to look at extracts of their work, not entire books. It's crucial that she prepares a strong referencing section, so she needs to keep a proper record of the sources she is using.

Re: accessing material on line, has she tried google scholar? This is the academic version of google and gives access to available online material published by academics. She should get a wealth of stuff for the authors you've mentioned and my even find comparisons along the lines that she's being asked to do. She just needs to remember to reference her sources. Hope that helps.

I had visions of you waltzing through Waterstones in black like a Hogwarts extra!

I think she should go back to her teacher and ask for some help to be pointed in the right direction and clarify exactly what she needs to do.

From my (albeit done years ago) history studies Rude and Lefebvre were around early 19th century and Marxist - which could be argued to colour their view of the evidence. The others are current historians who (may) have a more balanced view. A quick google/wiki shows Doyle is known as a "revisionist" so I would pick him and one of the earlier historians to concentrate on.

remembers writing an essay 25 odd years ago about two historian/philosophers arguing bitterly about political vs economic causes of the 16th century peasant rebellions. Think it was a chap called Porshnev (Marxist) saying the rebellions were due to political suppression and and a chap called Mounier were ultimately because people were hungry.-