1. IB History Paper 1
Anyone who believes you can’t change history has never tried to write his memoirs.
David Ben Gurion
History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.
Winston Churchill

2. Question 1 – Historical Comprehension
2 parts
1st part is 3 marks
2nd part is 2 marks
Spend about 5-10 minutes on this question.
Asks you to identify the significance or implication of a source.
Identify 3/2 distinct significances or implications to get full marks.
Make sure your comments reflect an awareness of all sections of the excerpt.
Make these clear by using words like “First…” “Secondly”
Answer the question as if the reader does not know anything about the topic.
Keep your answers short and to the point.
Try to use vocabulary associated with the period or the topic in order to indicate that you have contextual background knowledge.
When referring to a cartoon or map, make explicit reference to it.
Do not overly rely on quotes from the excerpt – make your point then use two or three word quote to support (optional).
Do not bother bringing in outside knowledge.

3. Q1a: How does FDR use language and tone to engender support in the source?
“On the farms, in the large metropolitan areas, in the smaller cities and in the villages, millions of our citizens cherish the hope that their old standards of living and of thought have not gone forever. Those millions cannot and shall not hope in vain. I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people. Let us all here assembled constitute ourselves prophets of a new order of competence and of courage. This is more than a political campaign; it is a call to arms. Give me your help, not to win votes alone, but to win in this crusade to restore America to its own people.” Extract from a speech by FDR accepting the Democratic nomination for president in 1932.

4. 1b. What is the message of this source?
USA, 14 February 1937

5. Question 2 – Evaluation 4 marks
Spend about minutes on this question
Evaluate one source in terms of its value and limitations by examining the origin, purpose and content.
Treat values and limitations separately in 2 different paragraphs, and explicitly use the words Origin, Purpose, and Content (underlined) in each.
Focus your evaluation of the source’s value and limitations on the source’s provenance:
Origin: What type of source is it? Who created it? When and Where was it created?
Purpose: Why did the person create it; Who did they create it for?
Content: It the language objective or exaggerated? Tone? What are the facts/examples used?
Do not bring in outside information, other than contextual knowledge.
Do not merely state content of the document but ask what the implications of the facts are.
Do not make categorical statements about the value or limitations of a document. You answers must be more specific to the document in question.
Note that a source has no more or less intrinsic value to historians just because it is primary or secondary – always focus on the specific origin and purpose of the source – not whether it is primary or secondary.

6. Question 2 – Evaluation Ask the following questions of a document:
ORIGIN:
Was the source created on the spur of the moment, a routine transaction, or a thoughtful, deliberate process?
Did the recorder have first hand knowledge of the event or did the recorder report what others saw and heard?
Was the information recorded during the event, immediately after, or after some lapse of time? How long of a lapse?
Was the recorder a neutral party or did the recorder have opinions or interests that might have influenced what was recorded?
PURPOSE:
Did the recorder produce the source for personal use, for an individual, or for a larger audience?
Was the source meant to be public or private?
Did the recorder wish to inform or persuade others? Did the recorder have reasons to be dishonest?

7. With reference to its origin, purpose and content, evaluate the values and limitations of the source.
"And then the dispossessed were drawn west--from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico; from Nevada and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out, tractored out. Car-loads, caravans, homeless and hungry; twenty thousand and fifty thousand and a hundred thousand and two hundred thousand. They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless--restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do--to lift, to push, to pick, to cut--anything, any burden to bear, for food. The kids are hungry. We got no place to live. Like ants scurrying for work, for food, and most of all for land.“
1939 book The Grapes of Wrath, author John Steinbeck

8. With reference to its origin, purpose and content, evaluate the values and limitations of the source.
“The depression really began along in the early [nineteen] hundreds when these damned unions began to form. Most of the men employed in large manufacturing plants, including the railroads, joined in with some union so they could compel the companies they worked for to pay them higher wages. Right there, the good feeling was destroyed between the men that did the hiring and the men that worked for them. They commenced to have strikes, stand up strikes and sit down strikes. That wasn't good either for labor or for the owners of the mills, who had millions invested in their buildings and railroads. Both the laboring man and the financier spent their time figuring how they could beat each other instead of having good feeling. The owners began to pay out their money for all kinds of new machinery to do away with having so many men working. Then, you see, there were more men to work than there was work for them to do .. And the bad feeling kept getting worse. And, as I say, no one practices economy today. And people aren't self reliant the way they used to be. There's the damn story in a nutshell.”
An excerpt from American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project,  . The interview with Mr. Frederick Savage was originally titled "A Yankee Roamer Speaks His Mind." 

9. Question 3 – Compare and Contrast
6 points
Spend about 15 minutes on this question and notate the sources.
Devote one paragraph to similarities and one paragraph to differences. (2 each is OK; 3 is ideal.)
Do not introduce your answer or attempt to reach a conclusion, and do not waste time summarizing each source.
The focus is how the sources are similar or different; not why.
The skill being evaluated is *linkage* - do not analyze each document separately, engage in a running commentary. At no time should you discuss one document without relating it to the other.
The points of similarity will usually be rather basic and obvious.
Do not compare the source of the documents
Use phrases such as “Both Source A and B…”, and “Source A supports source B” / “Source A suggest…; however Source B says…”
Use direct quotes but keep them short and focused on the most relevant words or phrases.
If you claim that a certainly similarity or difference exists, make explicit reference to the part of the source(s) in question.
It is not a valid contrast to identify what is simply mentioned in one source but not in the other. (Source A mentions … whereas Source B does not.)

10. Question 4 – Synthesis 9 points Devote about 25 minutes to this.
Treat this question like a mini-essay.
Briefly plan or outline your answer in a grid - group your sources into those that support the idea in the prompt and those that support an alternative argument/other factors in advance before you start writing.
One short introductory sentence is all that is required.
A brief conclusion should answer the question and be consistent with he evidence you have put forth.
Construct an answer to the question and then support your claims through evidence (show off as much of your own knowledge as you can in this question.) and explicit reference to the sources.
Do not use a narrative approach; keep it analytical and focused on the question
Do not just make vague references to the sources. Engage with the material and refer to specific quotes and facts.
It may be wise to read this question first before the others and take a minute to jot down key terms and concepts from your own knowledge before you answer the rest of the questions.