Source Based Questions: Study All Sources

Very often, students encounter a question which says, "Study all sources. To what extent do the sources tell/show us that ... ?" This part normally has the highest weightage of all source based questions. In fact, it's not uncommon for "study all sources" questions to be worth up to 30% of the total allocation to source based questions. As such, it is important to nail the question. Here are some tips to answer such a question.

• Remember to use all sources. This sounds obvious, but you will be surprised at the number of people that only use one or two sources!
• This is a "to what extent" question. It is highly unlikely that all the sources will help to show the assertion! It is also unlikely that none of the sources will help to show the assertion. What is much more likely is that around half of the sources will help to show the assertion, while the other half will give evidence against the assertion.
• State clearly which sources support the assertion. This must be done unequivocally (without any room for doubt), e.g. "Source A supports the assertion as..." or "Source B does not support the assertion as..."
• Besides stating clearly which sources support/do not support the assertion, remember to explain why. When explaining why, you should obtain the key idea from the source. Furthermore, directly quote words/phrases from the source (if it is a text source) or describe the source (if it is a picture).
• In order to score full marks, it helps to comment on the reliability of at least one source. If the source is very reliable, it will certainly count as strong evidence in supporting the assertion given in the question. Think of it as a "star witness". On the other hand, unreliable sources are like shoddy witnesses. That said, there is no need to comment on the reliability of every source - that would take away valuable time from the other questions. I emphasize again that commenting on the reliability of the source should be done only if you have the time. You may gain one mark from a valid comment, but if you lose three marks from being unable to finish the paper, it would not be worth it.
• Last but not least, give a conclusion. Your conclusion should clearly answer "to what extent". Note that in answering "to what extent", you should not simply count the number of sources that agree or disagree with the assertion. A common mistake is to say, for example, "The sources show that Hitler's economic policies were bad to a large extent, because three sources say that they were bad and one source says they were good." Instead, give a more reasoned analysis. For example, provided this is supported by the evidence, you can say that "Hitler's economic policies were good for the Aryans (white people) but bad for the Jews and other minorities." Then illustrate how the sources which show good effects of Hitler's economic policies show that Aryans benefited, while sources which show negative effects tend to focus on minorities. Alternatively, you can say that "Hitler's economic policies were good when he first came to power but bad when the war started...". Then support your claim in a similar fashion. In short, it is often worthwhile to see whether the assertion is true in certain ways, but false in other ways. That could give you top marks for source based questions.

Enough of plain talk. Let's take a look at an actual example, which I've come up with below. The photo is taken from TIME, which in turn took it from a private collection. But for the purposes of this question, let's just assume its provenance was a Nazi propaganda newspaper. To make sure this article isn't too long, I've only illustrated what to do for one source (though it will be easy to generalize to questions involving multiple sources). 

Q: To what extent do all sources show that Hitler was a well-liked leader?

Source B: Photograph of Hitler from a propaganda newspaper in 1937.

Suggested answer (my comments in italics):

The sources show to a small/large extent (choose small or large, depending on what the other sources say. But it's not important for our purposes today).

...

Source B supports the assertion because it shows that Hitler was adored by a considerable number of Germans. (main point of the picture) The photo shows hundreds of Germans eager to meet him and giving him the Hitler salute. (use details from the source). One might therefore think that he received a significant amount of support from the population.

However, one must not be took quick to draw too strong an inference from Source B because it was published in a propaganda newspaper. The crowds could have been arranged by the Nazi government, and even if it were not pre-arranged, the crowds might only contain the most fanatic of Nazi supporters. (comment on reliability)

...

A Broken World

Some Grade 9 (Sec 2, 14 year olds) students in Clay Burell's world history class at Korea International School created this multimedia wiki textbook covering world history from World War I to World War II and the beginnings of the Cold War. It was created in June 2007.

http://brokenworld.wikispaces.com/A+Broken+World

BBC Bitesize Revision Guide

The BBC has a useful revision guide on History. Do take note their revision guide is based on the British syllabus, which has some differences with Singapore. Most of the material is relevant but at a later date, what is not in the Singapore syllabus will not be pointed out. If in any doubt, check with the syllabus, your textbook, or your History teacher.

This site covers most of Chapter 1, 2, and 6. Do note that Chapter 1 is included in the Singapore syllabus but is non-examinable.
This site covers most of Chapter 8 & 9. (This is covered in Sec 4 Express/Sec 5 Normal)

Chapter 6 - Hitler's Actions & Foreign Policy (Part 2)

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this, click here for Part I.

Hitler's actions and foreign policy were a major cause of the collapse of peace in Europe. If you read your textbook, the following are the main points:

- to make the German military stronger (rearmament; this has been covered in a previous post)
- to gain lebensraum (extra land for Germany) by being aggressive to her neighbours
- to fight Communism (this is actually linked to the second point)



The first part of the video deals with rearmament, then it gradually moves on to Hitler's aggressive foreign policy and then appeasement.

Try answering the questions below after watching the video:

Basic Questions (For weaker students)
- What were some of the ways Germany rearmed?
- What were some important dates and places in Hitler's aggressive foreign policy?
- What is appeasement? How did the Allies appease Hitler?

Standard Questions (For stronger students)
- Below are two factors which contributed to the collapse of peace:
1) Hitler's actions and foreign policy (rearmament, Hitler's foreign policy)
2) Appeasement

What were the roles of each factor in contributing to the collapse of peace? Which factor do you think was more important and why?

Chapter 6: Hitler's actions & foreign policy (Part 1)

Hitler's actions and foreign policy:

Shortly after Hitler came to power in 1933, he rearmed Germany. (Rearmament is the building up of a country's military force.) He also pursued an aggressive foreign policy in order to gain "Lebensraum" (land for Germany).

Video on rearmament



During the video, think about the following:
- In what ways did Hitler rearm Germany?
- How would this lead to the collapse of peace in Europe?

After the video, read the textbook for specific facts and figures on the above. For example, the textbook says that Hitler built up the German army from 100,000 in 1933 to 550,000 in 1935.

---------------

Another of Hitler's actions was the remilitarization (some books call it "reoccupation") of the Rhineland. The Rhineland is in the west of Germany, close to France. You can see the map here.
Germany was not allowed to station troops there due to the Treaty of Versailles. By stationing his troops there, Hitler was sending a bold message that he was prepared to violate the Treaty of Versailles, and perhaps even invade France some day.



This is a rather long video. When watching it, besides thinking about how it led to the collapse of peace, can you think of reasons why the remilitarization of the Rhineland was so popular with the Germans?


Try this worksheet on Hitler's actions & foreign policy

Now, go on to Part 2 of this series.

Chapter 6: Failure of the League of Nations

This video shows how the League of Nations failed to respond to aggression. In 1935, Italy invaded Abyssinia, but the League could not respond effectively.



The video stops after 2 plus minutes but the soundtrack continues playing. You can either stop the video or just continue listening to the music.

When watching the video, think of the following points:
1. Why could the League not respond to aggressive countries such as Italy?
2. How did this lead to the failure of the League?
3. There are three reasons for the League of Nation's failure in the 1930s. Besides the failure to control aggressive countries, its member nations cared more for themselves and the League, and it could not get countries to disarm. Which do you think was the most important reason for the League's failure and why?

Chapter 2, Treaty of Versailles; Chapter 4, Rise of Hitler; Chapter 6, Appeasement

This video is about:
1) the terms and conditions of the Treaty of Versailles. (0:01 to 1:00) Chapter 2
2) the rise of Hitler (1:01 to 2:00) Chapter 4
3) the causes of the collapse of peace and start of war in Europe (2:00 onwards) Chapter 6



When watching the video, think about the following issues:

Treaty of Versailles
- What were the main terms?
- Do you think the Treaty of Versailles was too harsh?

Rise of Hitler
- Which reason do you think was the most important for Hitler's rise?

Causes of War
- What is appeasement?
- Do you think appeasement was a sensible policy?