Explain why attempts to bring the First World War to a negotiated peace failed up to December 1917.

Explain why attempts to bring the First World War to a negotiated peace failed up to December 1917.

First World War

PODCAST GUIDELINES

The podcast is worth 50% of the overall module mark.

This document is designed to guide you in producing your podcast, but please note that a podcast briefing session will be scheduled during the semester in which many of the issues covered below will be discussed in more detail.

Specifically, the session will focus on the following:

How and why do historians use podcasts?
What makes a good podcast?
Demo: How to record and edit a podcast

Learning Outcomes
The podcast assignment has two specific learning outcomes that supplement the learning outcomes of the module as a whole:

To develop a range of transferable skills that are valued by employers of arts and humanities graduates, such as project design and management, oral presentation and IT multimedia skills.

To encourage critical thinking about issues of communication, technology and audience.

Podcast Question

Explain why attempts to bring the First World War to a negotiated peace failed up to December 1917.

Your podcast will focus on a major, and ongoing, academic debate on one aspect of the First World War. The topics are all widely written about by historians.

Podcast Content/Structure
The podcast must include a discussion of different academic interpretations of the topic. Although you may use primary sources when preparing your podcast, it is expected that you will focus mainly on secondary sources in order to contextualise and analyse the contours of the debate. In other words, the historiographical dimension should be at the forefront.

You should consider questions such as:

What are the major historiographical debates on the topic?

Which historians have pushed forward the debate, and how have others responded?

When did this debate emerge, and what does this tell us about changing approaches to the First World War (or shifting currents in historical research more broadly)?

What evidence do historians engaging with this debate use to support their arguments, or to oppose the views of others?

Does the debate have implications for how we understand salient issues in the twenty-first century?

In order to effectively engage with the podcast topics, students will need to develop an awareness of the different positions historians have taken on their topic, the primary evidence they have deployed to support those positions, and major recent contributions to the academic literature. It will not be possible to produce a satisfactory podcast without having read a range of different historians’ work on the topic. These contributions form part of an academic ‘conversation’, traditionally carried out on the pages of books and journals and during conferences and seminars, and which in the twenty-first century extends to new media, including blogs and podcasts.

Presentation

Your podcast can be presented in many different ways, although you will most likely simply record an oral presentation that is read from a script.

Your mark will be based solely on the spoken content of your podcast. The presenter must be clearly audible but beyond that, the quality of the sound recording and any use of music, sound effects, etc. will not be taken into account when calculating your mark. You are, nonetheless, encouraged to submit a podcast that sounds professional and makes full use of the medium’s possibilities. You will receive written feedback on the technical aspects of your podcast, which you will be able to use as evidence of your capabilities in this area in future job applications.

Listening to history podcasts is a great way to find inspiration. Here are links to just a few examples, but there are many more you can explore online:

BBC History Extra Magazine: http://www.historyextra.com/podcasts
New Books in History: http://newbooksinhistory.com/
War Studies, King’s College London: https://soundcloud.com/warstudies
Dr Dan Todman: https://www.swwresearch.com/single-post/2018/07/06/Peoples-War-Total-War-Problems-and-Possibilities-in-the-History-of-Britains-Second-World-War
Western Front Association: https://www.westernfrontassociation.com/the-latest-wwi-podcast/
Unknown Warriors, Understanding the First World War: https://www.unknownwarriorspod.co.uk/podcast

For an outline of how historians use podcasts, see the H-Podcast Network: https://networks.h-net.org/h-podcast

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