Please Help - I need help picking a historical topic.

Is there a particular place or time in history that interests you more than another? Europe? Asia? Middle Ages? Renaissance?

It will be easier to research and write if you find your topic interesting.

History is such a wide a exciting area and it would be impossible for me to know which time period would best suit you. Additionally, you have not indicated whether you wish to delve into European history, American history, mathematical history, Middle Eastern history, or some other area.

My best advice would be to find a particular section of time in history which grabs hold of your interest the most and then select one particular section of that time and how it relates or related to a certain city, country or the world as a whole. Once you have begun the process, an opening question will come to you much more easily.
Meanwhile, try this link as a starting point:History Topics Website

Thank you for your help. I am probably most interested in European and American history, so I will probably try and find something in one of them categories.

Perhaps you might concentrate on the history of Great Britain. There is a lot of material available in English. That is handy since translations generally represent only a portion of the material available, and translations can sometimes be problematic. British history is the root stock of American history, and it is important to have studied it to more fully understand American history. American history is a bit over 200 years while British history easily goes back 2,000, a much deeper pool to fish in.

Next you need to refine your focus. You may be interested in a period, or in a historical personage. "Was Richard III or Prince John really as bad as history has painted them?" The development of the English Common Law is one of those fundamental characteristics of the sort of culture we have today in Britain, its Common Wealth and the United States. The evolution of Parliament from its humble origins to the foundation of government might be very interesting. Both of these two topics, of course, are worthy of book length treatment, but you might isolate one small element in 4,000 words. Britain has witnessed many social upheavals, civil wars, and conflicts with the European Powers. All of these periods/events can spawn a host of questions for your project.

You might want to read at least portions of Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples as an overview. The widely available Story of Civilization by the Durant's may be useful. Boswell's biography of Samuel Johnson is a classic that can give you wonderful insights into a narrow period in British history. The Birth of the Modern does a wonderful job of delving into British history from around 1815 through the end of the 19th century. The list of secondary sources is far too large to even list a small portion, all it takes is a quick trip to your local library to find enough material to last several years.

Thank you so much for the help and advice

I wrote a great paper in high school about how prohibition helped solidify the mafia in America. Very interesting to research too, there are some great books out there!

I believe it also helped some small Canadian distilleries become big Canadian distilleries. Perhaps a review of the law of unintended consequences would be a good topic?

I think KetchupLady has a great idea - pick a topic that is not overwhelming in it's scope.

If it has some local flavor that can help too. I went to high school in Oklahoma and I wrote two well recieved papers. One on the Tulsa, Oklahoma race riots of 1921 and the other on the "Trail of Tears" about the Cherokee tribe's relocation from Georgia and North Carolina to Oklahoma.

I wrote a college paper discussing the underrepresentation of American enlisted POW's during the Vietnam War with a side topic of the treatment of American officers during the same period.

How many pages is 4000 words? I love the American Revolutionary period of American history, and have always wondered what this land might look like today had Washington not attacked on Christmas day, across the Delaware.....what would have happened if the colonies had not won their independence?

DEsooner,

There are a lot of variables, but with one inch margins (all around), single spacing and use of Times New Roman (12 pt.), you should get about 700 words to the page. That works out to just a bit under six pages.

If you have done the background research and know your subject that should take about 4 hours to complete the first draft. Depending upon how well you write will effect that time, and the number of subsequent drafts before you have a product good enough to turn-in to your editor/instructor. A very good and experienced writer might be able to do the draft in half that time and only require one or two drafts to completion.

American history. We have many ugly events andoccurences For starters,let's take coal miners attempt to unionize. The US army is called in and about 90 women and children are slaughtered at the hands of the army.

Go reseach it. Write it as news. It will Shake up the citizens!