Week 3 is about developing your understanding of historical argument.

Argument is our key tool in history. Historians construct knowledge about the past by using argument to interpret both priamry and secondary historical sources.This folder contains two videos and a slide show. The first video, by Monty Python, clarifies what argument is. This can be viewed by clicking n this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnTmBjk-M0c

The second video (below), by Arthur Chapman, explores the importance of historical argument for historians.

Argument is a process through which knowledge is produced, it is a means to create a bridge to the past from fragments of primary sources left behind and to contextualise within historical arguments already constructed by historians. In the video by Arthur Chapman, a member of the course team, he emphasises the importance in this process. He highlights the necessity of asking the right questions. For example, avoiding questions which cannot be answered because there may be no surviving archives (we need to support historical arguments with primary and secondary material) or asking a question that is too big and unfocused. A good research question is the key to constructing an argument rather than just telling a narrative story. In the video Arthur Chapman explores what historical argument is and how we can use argument effectively in history.

Watch both videos and the slide show and then consider the historical issue explored in the slide show - 'terror' and 'consent' in Nazi Germany. Once you have watched the slide show post a new journal entry answering this question: 'What can we conclude about how the Nazis ruled Germany from what we know about the Gestapo in Wurzburg?' Make sure you provide arguments in support of your conclusion.

A member of the course team will respond to your journal entry with feedback.