Coursework

Free Coursework Archive for ‘History Essays’

Why were the Liberals defeated in the general election of 1874?

The primary cause for the defeat in the 1874 elections of the Liberal Party can be attributed to a boomeranging of its own cherished policy, reforms. (more…)

Was Britain’s approach to mass immigration in the period 1945-c.70 a success or a failure?

The question of whether Britain’s approach to mass immigration in the period 1945 – c.1970 was a success or a failure is not as straightforward as it first may seem.  Unpacking the question a little will help.  Firstly, it is important to consider what is meant by Britain?  Should it be taken to mean the government or the people, and which people? (more…)

To what extent are Walter Scott’s novels a product of the Scottish Enlightenment? Discuss with reference to his novel Waverley

‘As if exemplifying the stadialist theory advanced in the seminal work of Adam Ferguson, An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767), and generally maintained in the Scottish Enlightenment, Scott’s novels teach that reason (and democracy and capitalism) will ineluctably and rightfully triumph over feudalism. In one way or another such an inevitable transformation was to give muscle to the Waverley novels to come, and many of the historical novels which would be inspired by Scott’s example’ (Nathan Uglow, 2002) (more…)

‘Consensus is a mirage, an illusion which rapidly fades the closer one gets to it’ (Ben Pimlott). To what extent do you think that Pimlott’s assessment can be applied to the political consensus which emerged in Britain during the war and culminated in Labour’s victory in 1945?

Consensus is the general agreement between individuals and groups, usually taken to mean a meeting of interests between the majority of interested people (Hawkins 1988, p. 101).  (more…)

How did the elderly fare in welfare terms under the English New Poor Law?

The issue of the Poor Laws in England is a subject that has bequeathed much in the way of historical academic literature. (more…)

How have the opportunities for and nature of leisure changed in britain since 1945?

Few would doubt that over the past several decades there has been a revolution in terms of the availability and nature of leisure in Britain. (more…)

How far did Dickens exaggerate the horror of the workhouses in his book “Oliver Twist” in order to up the dramatic tension and thus better the popularity of the novel.

Charles Dickens had already built his reputation as a hard hitting journalist and novel writer whose books were considered to portray an accurate depiction of contemporary real life when Oliver Twist was published. (more…)

Tsarist rule in the years 1856 to 1917 and communist rule to the death of Lenin to the death of Stalin both depended on high degrees of central power and control by the the state. The similarities between the two forms of government were therefore much greater than were the differences. How far do you agree with this judgement?

Both Imperial and Soviet Russia have a long and well documented history of autocratic rule. However, Russian autocracy in its various forms has been far from consistent in either its organisation or outlook. It is this inconsistency in structure and policy which has given rise to differing schools of thought. (more…)

Why did France lose the Franco-prussian war?

Within this essay I aim to attempt to identify some of the key elements within the Franco-Prussian war that led to the crushing French defeat. Some of the key issues to be considered will be the relative armies, strategy and tactics as well as the diplomacy conducted by both sides. (more…)

Why did France lose the Franco-Prussian War?

On 4 September 1870, the French Third Republic officially came into existence. Two days earlier, after 18 years as Emperor, Napoleon II had surrendered to the Prussian army at Sedan. (more…)

Why was there a crusade against out relief in the 1870s and what effect did this have?

The reasons for the crusade against outrelief of the 1870s must be seen in the context of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, the traditional systems of poor relief and charities and attitudes towards poverty and its causes in the nineteenth century, such as those revealed by the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and the Goschen Minute. (more…)

Assess the relationship between crime, poverty and social protest in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Britain experienced massive social, economic and political transformations. (more…)

To what extent did Chartism reflect the aspirations of the working class?

First, though, what is Chartism?  The word is a blanket term to describe a loose confederation of popular movements which, from approximately 1836 to 1848, demanded that England’s political system be reformed into a parliamentary democracy in hopes that a new system of government would improve the legitimately awful economic and social reality of many common working-class persons’ lives. (more…)

Examine the problems facing families living in areas of high unemployment in Britain in the 1930s

The inter-war period is truly one of a double-edged transition.  On the one hand, this period was to see the beginnings of revolution in many social institutions (such as marriage, family and the Church) that the men and women of the late Victorian era would have taken for granted.  (more…)

How did U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East ultimately contribute to the September 11th Terrorist Attacks?

The events of September 11 2001 left Americans wondering what caused the anger and hatred that would inspire such horrific attacks. Relatively quickly, US foreign policy in the Middle East was put forward as a likely contributory factor. (more…)

To what extent were women marginalised by incipient industrialisation in late eighteenth century England?

Katrina Honeyman in her study of Women, Gender and Industrialisation in England asserts that ‘evidence suggests that women’s position in the labour force had been consistently undermined since the sixteenth century when they were found in the lowest paid, least stable and most unrewarding occupations.’  (more…)

How dangerous has the nuclear arms race in South Asia been between China, India and Pakistan?

The nuclear arms race in South Asia has largely avoided political discourse in the West. The protracted demise of the Soviet Union deflected attention away from geopolitical strategies taking place in South Asia towards the end of the twentieth century with the result that a very precarious position has since prevailed in the region whereby three powers each have the mutually assured power to destroy one another. (more…)