SAMPLE ESSAY QUESTION:

Disraelian Conservatism, 1846-1880:

“When at last he gained political power in 1874, he was able to implement a series of social reforms to meet the physical needs of the urban poor which he had shown such concern about throughout his political life.”

(Michael Willis, an academic historian, specialising in nineteenth century history/Disraeli -Principles and Policies,1989)

• Once again, the key words within the question should be identified. In this case, “implement...social reforms”, “meet physical needs of the urban poor”, “shown concern” “throughout his political life”.

• You should also consider the author . Do you know anything specific about him/her that could lead to a distorted view of the topic. Is he/she being fair? You can now select the appropriate information from your knowledge of the topic to answer the question, to reach a balanced judgement and thus evaluate the validity of the view presented.

• Having scanned the question you should now plan and write your essay. I suggest that you then adopt the “trial” approach suggested in the answer to part (b) in History Unit HI1

In the INTRODUCTION I suggest you begin by evaluating the interpretation of the historian given in the question, analysing his/her view and then commenting on any bias / distortion that you are aware of. I think that a systematic way of doing this is by applying a simple mathematical formula V=DAC 2 .

V= Validity/Value

D= date written

A= author

C= Circumstances written

C= Content

In evaluating the interpretation, try and include both positive and negative aspects of the author’s interpretation.

You should then challenge this interpretation by offering other historians’ explanations/interpretations of this topic. (These other views may well be distorted themselves and you should consider this ) .

In the MIDDLE, you should now use your knowledge and understanding of the topic to argue for and against these differing interpretations.(ie. defence and prosecution)

In your CONCLUSION, you will now be in a position to reach an overall judgement on the validity of the original quotation , whilst placing it in the context of other explanations of the topic.

You will thus have satisfied all the criteria for producing a quality of response in level 4.