I've been fairly lapse on preparing for my major project, and now with the beginning of the 2008 school year I'm beginning to pay for it. Though I am in need of an idea, I'm not expecting anyone else to come up with one for me. What I am interested in is how other people have come up with their own topics for study; hopefully it'll help inspire me to finding my own subject. Aside from that, I am looking for some comments on a general idea that I'm developing.
I'm thinking of looking in to the relationship between history and communist, socialist and facist regimes. Particularly, I'm interested in examining how the past has been utilized or manipulated by these regimes, both positively and negatively (e.g. censorship of historical events by the Chinese government, such as the Tiananmen Square protests [negative]; the glorification of the Roman Empire by Mussolini [positive]). I could look at Karl Marx as a specific historical personality, but since we're actually studying him in class at the moment, that mightn't be possible.
So, does anyone have any comments or advice they can offer?
EDIT: Here's the result of a quick brainstorming session...
The relationship between art and history;
- How has art aided in the study of history?
- How have artistic movements or art in general been influenced by history?
- How have historical events been portrayed through art?
Changing interpretations of the development of man;
- What theories have been proposed over time (e.g. creationism, evolution etc…)?
- Where and how has archaeological evidence relating to the development of humans been obtained?
The history and development of language;
- When/where did language first appear?
- What techniques have been used to decipher ancient texts?
- Major archaeological finds with regards to language (e.g. Rosetta stone).
The ‘history of the future’;
- How have perspectives and predictions of future developments changed over time (e.g. Alvin Toffler, ‘Future Shock’; Daniel Bell, ‘The End of Ideology)?
- How have predictions been influenced by actual, contemporary events?
- How accurate have predictions been to actual developments?
- How have literary depictions of the future altered over time (e.g. Jules Verne, H.G. Wells etc…)?
I'm thinking of looking in to the relationship between history and communist, socialist and facist regimes. Particularly, I'm interested in examining how the past has been utilized or manipulated by these regimes, both positively and negatively (e.g. censorship of historical events by the Chinese government, such as the Tiananmen Square protests [negative]; the glorification of the Roman Empire by Mussolini [positive]). I could look at Karl Marx as a specific historical personality, but since we're actually studying him in class at the moment, that mightn't be possible.
So, does anyone have any comments or advice they can offer?
EDIT: Here's the result of a quick brainstorming session...
The relationship between art and history;
- How has art aided in the study of history?
- How have artistic movements or art in general been influenced by history?
- How have historical events been portrayed through art?
Changing interpretations of the development of man;
- What theories have been proposed over time (e.g. creationism, evolution etc…)?
- Where and how has archaeological evidence relating to the development of humans been obtained?
The history and development of language;
- When/where did language first appear?
- What techniques have been used to decipher ancient texts?
- Major archaeological finds with regards to language (e.g. Rosetta stone).
The ‘history of the future’;
- How have perspectives and predictions of future developments changed over time (e.g. Alvin Toffler, ‘Future Shock’; Daniel Bell, ‘The End of Ideology)?
- How have predictions been influenced by actual, contemporary events?
- How accurate have predictions been to actual developments?
- How have literary depictions of the future altered over time (e.g. Jules Verne, H.G. Wells etc…)?
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I'm going to start with those general ideas, but then flesh them out with a specific person, event or debate. That way, I can discuss those general ideas around a specific example. I hope that should do it