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History Books


inginair

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Well, I picked up my IB books about 2 weeks ago and looking through them, I found no history book. So, is this the case with everyone else. And, I tend to do better when I study out of an actual book rather than printed papers, which will be replacing our books. So, does anyone have a good guide to use with the syllabus? [Preferably one that can be found on Amazon as I'm not in the US]

admins: /thread my inet. messed up and posted twice

Edited by inginair
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That depends which option your doing (new syllabus, eeek). My school is doing Path B (the old option) and we use a book called "Europe: 1870 - 1991". It's pretty comprehensive, except for a few chapters. We also use "Europe: Dictatorships and Democracies" by Alan Todd. Both very good books.

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Honestly, my class isn't using history books, and I don't plan on buying any books or guides for the IB. What I like about history is that while it's a whole mess of dates and facts, it's also a story. His-story. Okay corny moment over with :D So our teacher lectures in an at least somewhat interesting way. We take notes. We review notes. We write essays. We review at the end of the year. We get good enough marks on the IB. Not the best way to get a 7, but I don't see why you can't get one without the books. =)

Edit: I see no reason you can't get a seven this way if your teacher can actually teach :)

Edited by sweetnsimple786
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I think that largely depends on your teacher's style of teaching. We have three textbooks (One on general European HIstory, one on Russian history and one on Interwar years)but our teacher regularly supplements us with handouts. I'm guessing that's what your teacher will do if you have no textbooks.

If you feel like you need a textbook, I think it won't hurt to ask around and buy one for extra reading. What kind of history are you doing? European?

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I mean my teacher's doing a unit on Russian history pre&post Lenin, but we're doing History Route 2 [History of the Americas]

Actually, for SL, I don't think you guys have any options, other than Route 1 or Route 2, which aren't options, and I doubt you're doing Route 2. Find out for sure, and look up the syllabus for it, which can be found here: http://www.ibsurvival.com/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=121

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  • 1 month later...

I agree that it largely depends on the teacher's style. Our teacher uses the conventional approach, which is read, read, read, read! (I think it's worth mentioning that I take History Route 1). She has all these books of major scholars, like Hugh Kennedy, Reza Aslan, Montgomery Watt, John Esposito, Jonathan Berkey, etc and copies little excerpts from them depending on which portion of the syllabus we're doing. I think it's a pretty good way because you have all these sources and they all confirm one basic idea from a portion of the syllabus, making it really understandable for us.

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  • 3 weeks later...

My history teacher doesn't depend on a specific textbook at all; instead, he gives us numerous handouts, which have ranged from 10-50 (eek!) pages long that most of the class generally don't tend to read. Last year, we had a different history teacher who gave us a university-level book called "A Modern History from the World," dating back to 1815 and covering a lot of the material. However, barely any of us ever really read it, and it's still sitting on my shelf collecting dust at the moment. This year, I bought the History course companion by myself. Although I haven't really had extensive opportunities to properly peruse it (for some reason it excluded our previous topic, World War Two), it's pretty thick for a CC compared to biology and chem, and it seems rather useful.

Overall, history's a pretty open-ended course, and it deals a lot more with analysis instead of being able to spit out facts. Therefore, there aren't as many textbooks made for it as there are for bio and chem, which can be a shame sometimes.

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  • 3 weeks later...

My history teacher's just written an IB history book, it's specifically for paper 1 source analysis but doesn't come out until November 25th. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pearson-Baccalaureate-History-International-Editions/dp/0435994492

I don't know what the books like but he's a really good teacher, and has always been complaining about how rubbish the books we use are, so if this ones not good my class will get a laugh.

Seriously though its great that they are finally making books IB history, this one is only the first in a series.

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  • 5 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

For my school:

Democracies and Dictatorships, Europe and the world 1919-1989 by Allan Todd, Cambridge

- Mainly about Cold War

20th Century History, Course Companion by Various authors, Oxford (IB book)

- General Sense of modern history (sections on World War 1,2 and Cold War)

The Origins of the First and Second World War by Frank McDonough, Cambridge

- As described.

Hope these help.

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My history teacher's just written an IB history book, it's specifically for paper 1 source analysis but doesn't come out until November 25th. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pearson-Baccalaureate-History-International-Editions/dp/0435994492

I don't know what the books like but he's a really good teacher, and has always been complaining about how rubbish the books we use are, so if this ones not good my class will get a laugh.

Seriously though its great that they are finally making books IB history, this one is only the first in a series.

All the history teachers in my school in my school have it, it's insane, it's even in the library, it's odd to think that you know the person who's written it.

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