New York State History Day

For the 2010-2011 school year, National History Day invites students to research topics related to the theme Debate and Diplomacy in History: Successes, Failures, Consequences. Your topic must center on a debate and/or a diplomatic event. A "debate" is commonly described as a discussion involving one or more people with opposing viewpoints. Debates can be loud like an argument or quiet as in a discussion. "Diplomacy" can be one way of behaving within a debate. Diplomacy involves managing opposing viewpoints in a way that that keeps a debate civil and fair. Diplomacy is most often associated with international government relations. When leaders of two nations meet, they use diplomacy in their discussions to show respect for one another and to keep negotiations friendly while working to advance their own viewpoint. While you need only to focus on a debate or a diplomatic event, they are often intertwined. We encourage you to find a topic that includes both debate and diplomacy.

When considering debates and diplomatic events, you also will want to look for the successes, failures and consequences within them. How was the debate successful? In what ways did diplomacy fail? What were the long-term consequences of the debate? Does it still have impact today? These questions (and others) will help you place your debate or diplomatic event in a historical context and help with your analysis.

IMPORTANT!!! You need to remember that your topic must be historical in nature. It will be tempting to cover current events like the debate over global warming, music censorship, or health care. Please, please, please find a topic that is at least 30 years (one generation) old in order to address appropriately its historical context and significance. Topics that are more recent lack historical perspective, which is a critical part of any History Day project.

For more information on the annual theme, please see the National History Day annual theme sheet. Click here to download the 2011 Theme Sheet.

Suggested Topics

New York State History Day staff has put together a list of suggested topics. You can access it here. You don't have to use any of these topics, and I encourage you to pick a person or event in history that isn't all that well known. For example, pick a locally famous person. Go to your local library or museum and find out who the important people are in your town's history. I think you will be surprised to find some great stories in your own backyard. Or, if that doesn't interest you, dig through your social studies book and find a name you don't know. There are plenty of people who made important contributions in history that no one knows about. It is most important that you choose a topic you find fascinating. Don't hesitate to look at areas you are interested in, even if they don't appear to be historic. History can be found in science, sports, transportation, and fashion. History is not all about dead presidents and treaties. Research something you want to know about!

Learning More and Narrowing Your Topic

Let's say that you decide you are drawn to the Civil Rights movement. You start looking for information in your textbook and on the internet. Woah! There is so much information that your head starts spinning! You clearly need to narrow your topic to something you can research and create a project on in a few months. So now you head to your local library and you find a book called Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 by Juan Williams. You find out that many people were involved in the movement over several years. Also, you find that there were several focused efforts in the fight for civil rights. A couple that really interest you are, say, the Birmingham Bus Boycott and the March on Washington. When you read a little more about them, you find that the Civil Rights movement affected and involved millions of people with multiple perspectives from all across the country.OK, so you may not be as interested in the Civil Rights movement as we are. That's ok. The lesson is still an important one. While you are narrowing your topic, it is a good idea to jot down people, places or events that get your attention. Take these ideas to your History Day advisor or teacher. He or she may be able to help you focus in on your best topic. Remember, you need to find an event that fits in well with the theme, has important historical significance, and can be developed into one of the project categories.

Topic Selection Worksheet

We've created a worksheet to help you direct your research. Click the link to download it to your computer: Topic Selection Worksheet.