Sample topics for Big Research paper
Below is a list of sample research questions and topics broken into four categories: Power, Belief, Exchange, Arts and Science and Geography. You will have to get Mr. Grande's sign-off on your topic. Be creative and follow your interests--but balance that with being realistic. Please consider using artwork at local art museums, such as the MFA, the Gardner and Harvard’s Fogg museum Extra credit awarded to anyone who visits these museums for research.
As you select a topic, consider:
This is not simply a biography or a story. Make a mature, historical argument about why or how something or someone was important in a specific place during a specific period of time. Explain causes, consequences, changes, or why something is important. The topics highlighted in purple are narrower topics for students concerned about keeping their paper focused.
This is not simply a biography or a story. Make a mature, historical argument about why or how something or someone was important in a specific place during a specific period of time. Explain causes, consequences, changes, or why something is important. The topics highlighted in purple are narrower topics for students concerned about keeping their paper focused.
1. Power: Why or how did someone--or a group--become or stay powerful?
Sample research questions:
Sample topics: China, Japan India
3. Exchange: How does the exchange—of goods, ideas, germs,
technology or people—impact a society?
Sample research questions:
Sample topics: Trade routes and cities
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2. Belief: What impact did a philosophy, belief or religion have?
Sample research questions:
Sample topics:
4. Arts, Technology and Science: How does cultural expression reflect the
values and ideals of a society? How does
technology transform society?
Sample topics: Art and Artists
Technology and science:
FOCUSED FAVORITES:
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Best of History Websites
People with a History: Online LGBT History
Ancient Rome and Greece
Medieval
Glorious Revolution/Constitutionalism
Enlightenment/Scientific Revolution
Asia
Silk Road (good articles)
Art of Asia
Writing and Information
People with a History: Online LGBT History
Ancient Rome and Greece
- Ancient History Sourcebook
- Math, Arts, Sciences, Health, Biology, Music...
- Hellenization (PBS)
- Rome: Republic to Empire
- The Roman Empire (UNRV)
- The Roman Empire (PBS)
- Day in the life: Ancient Rome
- Roman Gladiatorial Games
- Roman Baths and Aqueducts
- Private Life of Romans
- Encyclopedia Roman Rulers
- Portal to Roman studies
- Portal to Greek studies
- Athenian Daily Life
- Alexander the Great (Livius)
- Alexander the Great (Boise State)
- The Romans (Anthony Kamm)
- Rome: Republic to Empire
- Plague and Public Health in Renaissance Europe
- Historical Medical Texts
- Brought to Life: History of Medicine Museum
- Medieval Medical Images
- Cambridge History of Food
Medieval
- Medieval Texts (incl. women/gender)
- Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts
- Matrix (Medieval Women)
- Leonardo Da Vinci: Master Draftsman (MET)
- Turning the Pages: Leonardo's notebooks
- Leonardo Design
- English Renaissance (primary sources)
- Protestant Reformation (Internet Hist. Source)
- Project Witenberg
- Illustrated Works of Shakespeare
- Visual Collection of the Slave Trade
- Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
- Slavery Internet Sourcebook
- Slave Narratives
- Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade (Schomburg collection)
- Slavery, resistance, abolition (Gilder-Lehrman) (see teacher menu)
- Captive Passage (Mariners' Museum)
- 1492: An Ongoing Voyage Exhibit
- Age of Discovery Sourcebook
- Mercantilism/Trade Sourcebook (scroll)
- Spice history, UCLA
- Trade products (spices, food, wool...)
- The Journeys of Ibn Battuta (Saudi Aramco)
- Age of Exploration (Mariners Museum)
- Internet History Sourcebook (scroll down)
- BBC The Story of Africa
- African Voices (Smithsonian)
- Wonders of the African World
- Oxford African American Studies Center
Glorious Revolution/Constitutionalism
Enlightenment/Scientific Revolution
- Scientific Rev. Sourcebook
- Enlightenment Sourcebook
- Francis Bacon
- Thomas Hobbes
- The Galileo Project
- Galileo's notes on Motion (his actual notes!)
- British Museum
- Saudi Aramco Magazine
- Muslim Heritage.com
- BBC Islamic Spain
- Jews and Muslims in Medieval Spain
- Empires of Faith: Islamic Spain
- The Islamic World to 1600
- Vistas (Spanish and Pre-Columbian)
- Colonial Latin America
- Two views of conquest
- Peopleing North America (Asian, African, European)
- MesoAmerica articles by Michael Smith, scholar (click download link at top)
Asia
- The Mongols (online museum Asian Art)
- Mongols in World History (Columbia)
- Mongolian History: Online Resources
- Mongolia: A country Study
- http://www.mongolianculture.com/
- http://www.mongolianculture.com/mhistory.html
- Silk Road
- Asia Society (serach site by topic)
Silk Road (good articles)
Art of Asia
Writing and Information