GCSE History (AQA)

218 free revision lessons in 16 units. Open the course or go straight to a lesson.

Germany, 1890-1945

Kaiser Germany, the Weimar Republic, the rise of the Nazis and the Third Reich at war.

1. Kaiser Wilhelm and the difficulties of ruling Germany
2. Weltpolitik, the Navy Laws and German society
3. Impact of the First World War on Germany
4. Post-war problems and the Treaty of Versailles
5. Weimar democracy and political unrest, 1919-1923
6. The Stresemann era — recovery and Weimar culture
7. The Depression and the rise of the Nazis, 1928-1932
8. The failure of Weimar democracy and Hitler's appointment
9. Hitler's dictatorship — Reichstag Fire to Fuhrer
10. The Nazi economy — work, rearmament and self-sufficiency
11. Nazi social policy — women, youth, churches
12. Aryan ideas, racial policy and the Final Solution
13. Propaganda, the police state and Nazi culture
14. Opposition, resistance and Germany at war

Russia, 1894-1945

From the last Tsar to Lenin's revolution and Stalin's USSR at war.

1. Russia in 1894: Economy and Society
2. Nicholas II's Autocracy and Opposition
3. The 1905 Revolution and October Manifesto
4. Stolypin, the Dumas and Reform to 1914
5. The First World War and the Fall of the Tsar
6. The Provisional Government's Crisis
7. Lenin, Trotsky and the October Revolution
8. Lenin in Power: Brest-Litovsk, Cheka and Civil War
9. War Communism, Kronstadt and the NEP
10. The Power Struggle to Succeed Lenin
11. Collectivisation and the War on the Kulaks
12. The Five Year Plans and Soviet Society
13. Terror, Purges and the Cult of Stalin
14. The Great Patriotic War, 1941-1945

America, 1920-1973

The Boom, the Depression, the New Deal and post-war civil rights.

1. The Boom: Consumerism, Mass Production and Republican Policy
2. Wall Street Boom and the Inequalities Beneath It
3. Entertainment, Cinema and the Jazz Age
4. The Position of Women: Flappers and Their Limits
5. A Divided Society: Prohibition, Crime, the Klan and the Red Scare
6. From Wall Street Crash to Depression America
7. Hoover's Response and Roosevelt's 1932 Election
8. The First New Deal: Hundred Days and the Alphabet Agencies
9. Effectiveness, Opposition and the Second New Deal
10. The Second World War and American Recovery
11. Post-war Prosperity, Consumerism and the American Dream
12. McCarthyism and the Red Scare of the 1950s
13. Civil Rights: Segregation, Martin Luther King and the 1964 Act
14. The Great Society, Feminism and Roe v Wade

America, 1840-1895

Westward expansion, the Plains Indians, the Civil War and the closing frontier.

1. The Great American Desert and Manifest Destiny
2. Brigham Young and the Mormon Migration
3. Pioneer Farmers, the Journey West and the Miners
4. The Plains Indians' Way of Life
5. Early Government Policy and the Permanent Indian Frontier
6. Fort Laramie 1851 and the Indian Wars 1862-1867
7. North vs South: the Road to the Civil War
8. The Civil War: Impact on Civilians
9. Mountain Meadows and the Mormon Question
10. Reconstruction and the 13th Amendment
11. Carpetbaggers, the Klan and the End of Reconstruction
12. Homesteaders, Railroads and the Closing Frontier
13. Little Bighorn, Wounded Knee and the End of the Frontier

Conflict and Tension: 1918-1939

Versailles, the League of Nations, appeasement and the road to a second world war.

1. The Armistice and the Aims of the Peacemakers
2. The Versailles Settlement: Terms and Diktat
3. Reactions to the Treaty and the Wider Settlement
4. The League of Nations: Structure and Membership
5. The League's 1920s Record: Successes and Failures
6. Diplomacy Outside the League: Locarno and Kellogg-Briand
7. The Collapse of the League: Manchuria and Abyssinia
8. Hitler's Aims and Early Foreign Policy 1933-1934
9. The Saar, Rearmament and the Stresa Front 1935
10. Escalation: Rhineland, Axis and Anti-Comintern
11. Anschluss and the Reasons for Appeasement
12. The Sudeten Crisis and Munich
13. The End of Appeasement: Prague and the Polish Guarantee
14. Nazi-Soviet Pact, Poland and the Outbreak of War

Conflict and Tension: East and West, 1945-1972

The Iron Curtain, Berlin, Cuba, the arms race and the move toward détente.

1. Yalta and Potsdam: Allies Become Rivals
2. The Atom Bomb, Ideologies, and the Iron Curtain
3. Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan
4. Stalin's Response: Cominform, Comecon and Yugoslavia
5. The Berlin Blockade, Airlift and the Birth of NATO
6. Communism in Asia: Mao's China and the Korean War
7. Vietnam Before America: France, the Vietcong and the Cold War
8. The Arms Race and the Space Race
9. The Hungarian Uprising, 1956
10. The U2 Crisis and the Paris Summit
11. The Berlin Wall, 1961
12. The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962
13. Czechoslovakia and the Prague Spring, 1968
14. Détente, SALT 1 and the Nixon-Brezhnev Era

Conflict and Tension: 1894-1918

Alliances, the outbreak of war, stalemate on the Western Front and the road to armistice.

1. Europe in 1894: Empires, Alliances and the Long Fuse
2. The Alliance System and Splendid Isolation
3. Anglo-German Rivalry: Weltpolitik and the Naval Race
4. Crisis Points: Morocco 1905 and 1911, Bosnia 1908-09
5. Sarajevo and the July Crisis
6. The Schlieffen Plan and the Battle of the Marne
7. Trench Warfare on the Western Front
8. Verdun and the Somme, 1916
9. Passchendaele and the Tactical Learning Curve
10. The Wider War: Gallipoli and Other Fronts
11. The War at Sea: Jutland, U-boats and Convoys
12. Russia Out, America In: 1917
13. Spring Offensive, Hundred Days and Armistice

Conflict and Tension in Asia, 1950-1975

Korea, the Vietcong, US escalation, the Tet Offensive and the fall of Saigon.

1. The Origins of the Korean War
2. North Korea Invades, June 1950
3. Inchon and the UN Counter-Offensive
4. China Enters and MacArthur Falls
5. Stalemate, Armistice and the Cost of Korea
6. End of French Rule: Dien Bien Phu and Geneva
7. Diem, the Vietcong and Civil War in the South
8. Domino Theory: Eisenhower and Kennedy in Vietnam
9. Johnson's War: Tonkin and Rolling Thunder
10. Search and Destroy, My Lai and Protest
11. The Tet Offensive, 1968
12. Nixon's War: Vietnamisation and Widening
13. Paris, Saigon and the Price of Conflict

Conflict and Tension: Gulf and Afghanistan, 1990-2009

The Gulf War, 9/11, the war on terror and the invasion of Iraq.

1. Regional Instability After the Iran-Iraq War
2. Western, Russian and Regional Interests in the Gulf
3. The Invasion of Kuwait, August 1990
4. Bush, Thatcher and Building the Coalition
5. Operation Desert Storm and the End of the 1991 War
6. Al-Qaeda: Aims, Beliefs and Bin Laden
7. 11 September 2001: The Attacks That Changed the World
8. The Taliban and Afghanistan as a Rogue State
9. Bush's War on Terror and Operation Enduring Freedom
10. Karzai, Bonn and the Long Resurgence of the Taliban
11. Saddam, WMD and the Road to the 2003 Invasion
12. Invasion, Insurgency and Iraq by 2009

Britain: Health and the People

A thousand years of medicine, surgery and public health from medieval Britain to the NHS.

1. Medieval Medicine: Humours, Galen and the Doctor's World
2. The Church, the Monastery and Islamic Medicine
3. Public Health in the Middle Ages and the Black Death
4. Renaissance Anatomy: Vesalius, Paré and the Challenge to Galen
5. Harvey, Sydenham and Disease Treatment c1600-1750
6. Jenner, Vaccination and the Limits of 18th-Century Prevention
7. Pasteur, Koch and the Germ Theory Revolution
8. A Revolution in Surgery: Anaesthetics and Antiseptics
9. Public Health in the Industrial City: Snow, Chadwick and the Acts
10. Nightingale, Hospitals and the Reform of Nursing
11. From Booth and Rowntree to the Liberal Reforms 1900-1914
12. Penicillin, Modern Surgery and the Wars
13. Beveridge, Bevan and the Birth of the NHS
14. Weighing the Factors: Continuity, Change and Progress c1000-Today

Britain: Power and the People

From Magna Carta to modern protest: how citizens have shaped the British state.

1. The Citizen and the State: A Thematic Toolkit, c1170-Present
2. Magna Carta and the Limits of Kingship, 1215
3. Simon de Montfort and the Birth of Parliament, 1258-1265
4. The Peasants' Revolt, 1381
5. The Pilgrimage of Grace, 1536
6. The English Revolution: Civil War, Regicide and Republic, 1642-1660
7. The American Revolution and 'No Taxation Without Representation', 1763-1783
8. Peterloo, the Great Reform Act and Chartism, 1819-1858
9. Anti-Slavery, Anti-Corn Law, and Reform Campaigners, c1780-1846
10. The Rise of Trade Unions: Tolpuddle to New Unionism, 1834-1889
11. Votes for Women: Suffragists, Suffragettes, and 1918
12. Workers' Rights: General Strike to Thatcher, 1926-1990
13. Minority Rights: Windrush, Brixton and Beyond, 1948-Present
14. Synthesis: Factors Across 850 Years — Cracking the 16-Mark Essay

Britain: Migration, Empires and the People

Vikings to Windrush: a thousand years of arrivals, departures and empire.

1. Vikings, Anglo-Saxons & the Danelaw
2. Cnut, Emma & the North Sea Empire
3. Norman Kingdom & the Angevin Empire
4. The Hundred Years' War & English Identity
5. Medieval Migrants: Hanseatic Merchants, Jews & Lombards
6. Sugar, Slavery & the Caribbean
7. Colonising North America
8. Migrants In & Out: Huguenots, Highland Clearances & Ulster
9. Expansion in India: Company to Crown
10. The Scramble for Africa & the Boer War
11. Irish & Jewish Migration; Movement Within the Empire
12. The End of Empire: Wars, Suez & Independence
13. Windrush, Commonwealth Migration & the Legacy of Empire
14. Britain & Europe: From EEC to Brexit

Elizabethan England, c1568-1603

Court, Parliament, religious threat, the Armada and life in a so-called Golden Age.

1. Elizabeth I: background, character and the royal court
2. Key ministers: Cecil, Walsingham and the Privy Council
3. A female ruler: Parliament, marriage and the succession
4. Authority at the end of the reign and Essex's rebellion (1601)
5. Religious matters: settlement, Catholics and Puritans
6. The Northern Rebellion, excommunication and the missionary threat
7. Mary, Queen of Scots: plots, trial and execution
8. Conflict with Spain and the Spanish Armada (1588)
9. Living standards, fashion and the rise of the gentry
10. Poverty, vagrancy and the Elizabethan Poor Laws
11. English sailors: Hawkins, Drake, Raleigh and exploration
12. The Elizabethan theatre and attitudes towards it
13. The Spanish Armada: Historic Environment 2027
14. Kenilworth Castle: Historic Environment 2028

Norman England, c1066-c1100

Conquest, control, the Domesday Book, the feudal system and the reform of the Church.

1. Edward's Death and the Succession Crisis of 1066
2. Stamford Bridge and Hastings: the Battles of 1066
3. From Hastings to Coronation: William Takes the Throne
4. Resistance and Revolt, 1067-1071
5. The Harrying of the North, 1069-1070
6. Feudalism and the Norman Land Settlement
7. Castles: Instruments of Conquest and Control
8. Norman Government, Justice and the Anglo-Saxon Inheritance
9. The Domesday Book, 1086
10. Daily Life: Towns, Villages and Economic Change
11. Lanfranc and the Reform of the English Church
12. Monasticism, Learning and the Investiture Controversy
13. The Battle of Hastings: Historic Environment 2027
14. The White Tower: Historic Environment 2028

Medieval England: the Reign of Edward I, 1272-1307

Government, law, the wool trade, Welsh castles and the Hammer of the Scots.

1. Edward's Inheritance: From Henry III to a New King
2. Restoring Royal Authority: The Hundred Rolls and Quo Warranto
3. Edward the Lawgiver: The Statutes of Westminster, Gloucester and Mortmain
4. Wool, Banks and the Royal Purse
5. Crime, Courts and Punishment in Edward's England
6. Faith and Learning: The Church, Universities and Roger Bacon
7. The Expulsion of the Jews, 1290
8. Medieval Warfare: Cavalry, Castles and Crossbows
9. Conquering Wales: The Wars of 1277 and 1282-83
10. The Great Cause and the Conquest of Scotland, 1290-1296
11. Wallace, Bruce and the 'Hammer of the Scots', 1297-1307
12. The Battle of Stirling Bridge: Historic Environment 2027
13. Acton Burnell Castle: Historic Environment 2028

Restoration England, 1660-1685

Charles II, plots, plague, fire, the Royal Society and the rise of British sea power.

1. The Road Back to the Throne: Restoration of the Monarchy 1660
2. The Cavalier Parliament and the Religious Settlement
3. The Cabal, Party Politics and Rule Without Parliament
4. Charles II: The King and His Court
5. The Great Plague of 1665
6. The Great Fire of London 1666: Disaster and Reconstruction
7. The Catholic Question: Popish Plot and Rye House Plot
8. The Exclusion Crisis and the Succession
9. Restoration Stage, Coffee Houses and Women in Public Life
10. The Royal Society, Pepys and the New Science
11. Sea Power, the Navigation Acts and the Dutch Wars
12. Empire, Slavery and the End of the Reign 1685
13. The Dutch Raid on the Medway: Historic Environment 2027
14. St Paul's Cathedral: Historic Environment 2028

How to revise History

• Retrieval Practice
• Spaced Repetition
• Interleaving
• Dual Coding
• Elaborative Interrogation
• Knowledge Organisers
• Timed Practice

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