History

Course summary

History is a wonderful subject for developing the skills of communication and argument. People with qualifications in history follow an enormous variety of career paths in business, journalism, the law, government and academia. Our IB course will appeal to anyone who has an interest in world affairs; anyone with curiosity about the past, and anyone who enjoys research, problem solving and presenting a solution. It offers students the chance to build on the work done at IGCSE and to engage with some entirely new topics, in order to develop a thorough understanding of modern world history. The Standard Level course contains an analysis of three dictatorships: those of Mao, Castro and Stalin; a module on the Cold War and a source-based study of protest movements in the Apartheid South Africa and the Deep South of America, alongside an Internal Assessment on a topic of the student’s own choosing. For the challenging work at Higher Level, we have opted to study the Americas, following modules on the Great Depression, civil rights and the Cold War across North and South America. Students need not have studied history prior to starting this course. The specific skills and knowledge required are developed throughout the course itself.