Writing British National History In The Twentieth Century (Research Paper Sample)

Referee’s report on the Ph.D. thesis
“Writing British national history in the twentieth century”
By Mary Salinsky
The Research thesis entitled, “Writing British National History in the 20th Century” contains 243 pages and explains in detail the history of Britain taking into account the writings of various historians comparing the versions of the history over a period of 100 years. It discusses the chronological bibliography of the most popular histories of Britain between the years 1900 and 2002.The introduction part gives the general overview of how different historians over a period of 100 years give an account of the history. The chapters that follow; chapter one to nine, gives the history of Britain at the beginning of the 20th century, during the first and the second world war, after the war, and even focuses on the political history and social history. Chapter eight of the thesis discusses how the historians interpreted the territories under Britain, taking into considerations the other three active territories therefore regarding the Great Britain actually as consisting four nations. The last chapter discusses the history of Britain in the millennium through the eyes of two historians Davies and Schama.
The paper possesses strengths as regards the analysis of the writings of various historians regarding the history of Britain. It takes into account the realization of the changing circumstances facing Britain and shaping its history during the 20th century. Different historian’s present at different times in the 20th century interpreted British history differently from the historians of the 19th century. The world revolution which became more dynamic in the 20th century affected all the nations of the world; Britain included. This thesis captures the history of Britain for a period of a hundred years which is not achieved by studying the work of different historian individually as these offers fragmented parts of history.
The paper makes contributions to the field of history by putting together the diverse views of different historians. It analyses the points of view of these historians and gives an opinion of the actual history of Britain using the thoughts from the different writers. The paper also explains the history of Britain over a period of 100 years taking into account the histories written by different historians as the changes in the different factors faced by the nation took place. The paper gives the accounts of writers on the British nation right from its people, the main happenings shaping its history and the influences on these happenings. The paper contributes to the inter-disciplinary study of the Victorian era by analyzing the accounts of the historians who had written the nation’s history during the time. It then concludes on the era having taken into considerations happening long after the era had passed. To a researcher on the Victorian era, different accounts can be compared and an opinion formed on the basis of this paper.
The paper has general weaknesses as regards the scope of the paper having only taken into account the writings of the early historians addressing a general reader and written by a single author. More information would have been obtained if the works of specialized writers in history could have been taken.in most cases, coming together of two or more writers ensures more detailed research, yet these contributions have been left out by the author of the paper. The study also considers only the histories that deal only with the geographical area under Britain. This locks out the work of writers on British history, who have included other geographical areas into account. It is als...