History Dissertation Topics: Getting Some Intellectual Challenge
Dissertations are tough. And it seems the year after year it’s becoming even more difficult to find a topic that will impress your advisor and committee and get you the PhD you’ve put in so much work towards. You don’t merely want to choose an interesting topic, you want to choose a topic that presents a challenge for you that will showcase your knowledge.
Here are some history dissertation topics that will pose an intellectual challenge:
- Japanese Society and WWII and the Aftermath. Having a look at oral testimonials, autobiographies, diaries, and newspaper reports, what can be deduced about how Japanese society has changed from an Empire to a modern society and what have been the driving factors?
- Changing Western Views of China During the 19th and 20th Centuries. Chinese has a longer history than any country in the western world. Yet many western countries have viewed China as a backward or undeveloped nation up until the last century? Why was this so? And how has this changed?
- European Terrorism of the 1970s. Both the Red Army Faction and Red Brigades signified terrorist acts that shaped how Europe would deal with internal and foreign politics for the next quarter century. How are the terrorist motivations of the 1970s different from today’s?
- Heresy in England in the later middle ages. How did heresy in the later middle ages pave the way for political and royal alliances soon after help national and international affairs of the early 16th century period of colonization?
- Emancipation Proclamation and Lincoln’s Double Standard. The Emancipation Proclamation made slavery illegal and gave freedom to millions of southern Blacks during the height of the American Civil War. The Proclamation, however, may have been set aside by Lincoln had the Southern States presented a feasible desire to end the war and make peace sooner than later. How would this have shaped the slavery issue for the next half-century?
- Deterioration of Native American Population. An expanding United States in the 19th century pushed Native American nations further and further west into reservations that became increasingly small. Today, those reservations are independent nations but have no international bearing or recognition outside of the U.S. What efforts have the U.S. made to make reparations for the near extermination of a native people?
Simply put, history dissertations are credentials for work within the discipline. The best dissertations are the ones that fill a need or a gap and the ones their writers were driven to write. First and foremost, go out and select a great topic that means something larger to you.
