GCSE History (Edexcel)

202 free revision lessons in 17 units. Open the course or go straight to a lesson.

Medicine in Britain

Thematic study: c1250–present + Historic Environment: Western Front 1914–18

1. Medieval Medicine: Beliefs & Treatments c1250–1500
2. The Black Death & Public Health in Medieval England
3. The Medical Renaissance c1500–1700
4. William Harvey & the Great Plague 1665
5. Jenner, Vaccination & 18th-Century Medicine
6. Germ Theory: Pasteur, Koch & Disease
7. Public Health & Fighting Cholera in the 19th Century
8. Modern Medicine: The NHS & Antibiotics
9. Lung Cancer, Prevention & Modern Challenges
10. Medicine on the Western Front 1914–18

Superpower Relations and the Cold War

Period study: The Cold War 1941–91

1. The Grand Alliance & the Origins of the Cold War
2. The Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan & Berlin Blockade
3. The Arms Race & the Hungarian Uprising 1956
4. The Berlin Wall & the Cuban Missile Crisis
5. The Prague Spring & International Reactions
6. Détente: SALT, Helsinki & the Limits of Peace
7. The Second Cold War: Afghanistan & Reagan’s SDI
8. Gorbachev & the Collapse of the Soviet Union

Anglo-Saxon and Norman England

British depth study: c1060–88

1. Anglo-Saxon Government, Economy & Society
2. The Succession Crisis & Rival Claimants
3. Stamford Bridge & the Battle of Hastings
4. William Establishing Control: Castles & Rewards
5. Anglo-Saxon Resistance & the Harrying of the North
6. The Feudal System & Norman Government
7. The Norman Church, Lanfranc & the Domesday Book
8. The Revolt of the Earls & William’s Legacy

Weimar and Nazi Germany

Modern depth study: 1918–39

1. The Origins of the Weimar Republic 1918–19
2. Early Challenges: Versailles, Spartacists & the Kapp Putsch
3. Crisis of 1923: Hyperinflation & the Ruhr
4. Stresemann & the Golden Age 1924–29
5. Hitler’s Early Career & the Munich Putsch 1923
6. The Growth of Nazi Support 1929–32
7. Hitler Becomes Chancellor 1932–33
8. Creating the Dictatorship: Reichstag Fire to Führer
9. The Nazi Police State, Propaganda & Opposition
10. Life in Nazi Germany: Women, Youth & Persecution

Crime and Punishment in Britain

A thousand years of crime, policing and punishment, with a Whitechapel inner-city case study.

1. Anglo-Saxon crime, communities and the wergild
2. The Norman Conquest and William's Forest Laws
3. The Church, sanctuary and trial by ordeal
4. Early modern crime: heresy, treason and witchcraft
5. The Gunpowder Plot and the start of the Bloody Code
6. Matthew Hopkins and the witch-hunts of 1645–47
7. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century crime: highwaymen, smugglers and protest
8. Robert Peel and the birth of the Metropolitan Police
9. Ending the Bloody Code: Howard, Fry and Pentonville
10. Modern crime: drugs, driving and race crimes
11. Modern policing, the death penalty and the Bentley case
12. Whitechapel 1888: housing, poverty and the inner city
13. Policing Whitechapel: H Division and the beat constable
14. Investigating the Ripper: detection, sources and the press

Migrants in Britain

Vikings to Windrush: a thousand years of arrivals, with a Notting Hill case study.

1. Thinking Like a Migration Historian
2. Vikings, Anglo-Saxons and the Danelaw, c800–c1066
3. Case Study: York under the Vikings
4. Normans, Jews and Medieval Traders, c1066–c1500
5. Early Modern Arrivals, c1500–c1700
6. Industrial Britain: Irish, Empire and Refugees, c1700–c1900
7. Case Study: Liverpool and the Irish in the 19th Century
8. Case Study: Jewish East End and the Aliens Act, c1880–1914
9. Modern Britain: Wars, Empire's End and the Law, c1900–present
10. Case Studies: Bristol Mid-20th Century and Asian Leicester from 1945
11. Notting Hill, c1948–c1970: The Local Context
12. Notting Hill: Caribbean Culture and Self-Help
13. Notting Hill: Riots, Racism and Policing
14. Notting Hill: Black Activism and the Mangrove

Warfare and British Society

From the longbow to the Blitz: how war changed Britain, with a London 1939–45 case study.

1. Medieval warfare: knights, archers and the feudal army c1250–c1500
2. Falkirk 1298 and Agincourt 1415: medieval battles and their leaders
3. Civilians and recruitment in the medieval army
4. Early modern warfare and the New Model Army c1500–c1700
5. Industrial warfare c1700–c1900: weapons, transport and the cavalry’s decline
6. Waterloo 1815 and Balaclava 1854: leadership, technology and reporting
7. Cardwell, professionalisation and the Victorian citizen-soldier
8. The Western Front and the Somme 1916
9. Modern recruitment: conscription, women and the professional army
10. High-tech warfare and the Iraq War 2003
11. London at war 1939: target, port and government capital
12. Bombs over London: Black Saturday, the East End and the V-weapons
13. Living through the Blitz: shelters, disasters and daily life
14. London’s response: government, Royals, propaganda and ‘Dig for Victory’

Early Elizabethan England, 1558–88

Settlement, plots, the Armada and life in the first thirty years of Elizabeth I.

1. Elizabeth's accession in 1558: a difficult inheritance
2. The 1559 religious settlement and the Church of England
3. Challenges to the settlement: Puritans and Catholics
4. Mary, Queen of Scots arrives in England, 1568–69
5. The Revolt of the Northern Earls, 1569–70
6. Catholic plots and Walsingham's spies, 1571–87
7. The road to war with Spain, 1569–87
8. The Spanish Armada, 1588
9. Elizabethan society: education and leisure
10. The 'problem' of the poor
11. Exploration, Drake's circumnavigation and the Virginia colony

Henry VIII and his Ministers, 1509–40

Wolsey, Cromwell, the break with Rome and the dissolution of the monasteries.

1. Young King Henry and the Rise of Wolsey
2. Wolsey's Domestic Policy and the Justice System
3. The Amicable Grant and the Limits of Wolsey's Power
4. Wolsey's Foreign Policy: Peacemaker or Warmonger?
5. The King's Great Matter and Wolsey's Fall
6. Cromwell's Rise to Power, 1529–34
7. The Break with Rome, 1529–34
8. Opposition to the Reformation: More, Fisher and Barton
9. The Dissolution of the Monasteries, 1535–40
10. The Pilgrimage of Grace, 1536
11. Cromwell, Government Reform and the Fall, 1534–40

Richard I and King John, 1189–1216

Crusades, the loss of Normandy, baronial revolt and the road to Magna Carta.

1. Feudal England in 1189: Society, Towns and the Jewish Communities
2. Kingship, Succession and Ruling England in Richard's Absence
3. The Third Crusade: Causes, Acre and Arsuf
4. Jerusalem Lost, Ransom Paid: Richard's Return and Capture
5. John's Accession and the Murder of Prince Arthur
6. The Loss of Normandy: Château Gaillard and 1204
7. Royal Government and Finance under John
8. John versus the Pope: The Interdict and Its Aftermath
9. Worsening Relations: Taxation, Plot of 1212 and Bouvines 1214
10. Runnymede 1215: Magna Carta and the First Barons' War
11. England in 1216: John's Death, Succession and William Marshal as Regent

The American West, c1835–c1895

Plains nations, homesteaders, cowboys, the railroads and the closing of the frontier.

1. The Plains Nations: Beliefs and Way of Life
2. Manifest Destiny and the Pull of the West
3. Mountain Men, the Donner Party and the Mormon Trek
4. The Permanent Indian Frontier and the First Fort Laramie Treaty
5. Lawlessness in the Early West
6. Railroads and the Pacific Railroad Act
7. Homesteaders: The Homestead Act and the Timber Culture Act
8. Establishing Law and Order on the Plains
9. The Cattle Industry and the Cowboy
10. Settler Pressure: Railroads, Cattle, Gold and the Indigenous Plains
11. Indian Wars: Little Crow, Sand Creek and Red Cloud
12. Cattle's End, the Range Wars and Frontier Law and Order
13. Wounded Knee, the Dawes Act and the End of the Frontier

British America, 1713–83: Empire and Revolution

Colonial society, the Great Awakening, taxation, revolution and the loss of an empire.

1. Colonial Society in 1713
2. The Atlantic Economy: Trade, Tobacco and Piracy
3. The Atlantic Slave Trade and Plantation Slavery
4. Resistance and Rebellion: Slavery and the Colonies
5. Smuggling and the Limits of British Authority
6. The Great Awakening and the Enlightenment
7. The French and Indian War, 1754–63
8. After Victory: Frontier and Tax Tensions, 1763–64
9. Growing Opposition: Stamp Act to Boston Tea Party, 1765–73
10. From Congress to Independence, 1774–76
11. The War of Independence, 1775–83
12. Consequences: Slavery, Indigenous Peoples and Loyalists

Conflict in the Middle East, 1945–95

Israel, the Arab states, Suez, the Six Day War, oil shocks and the road to Oslo.

1. Conflicting Interests in the British Mandate, c1920–45
2. The End of the Mandate and the Creation of Israel, 1945–48
3. The Arab-Israeli War, 1948–49
4. Israel after the War, 1949–55
5. Suez 1956 and the Arab Nationalist Surge
6. Road to the Six Day War, 1964–67
7. The Six Day War and Its Aftermath, June 1967
8. Terrorism, the War of Attrition and Yom Kippur, 1967–73
9. Oil, Diplomacy and Camp David, 1973–79
10. The Palestinians and Lebanon, 1974–87
11. The First Intifada and Arafat's Turn, 1987–88
12. Cold War End, the Gulf War and Oslo, 1989–95

Spain and the 'New World', c1490–c1555

Columbus, the conquistadors, the conquest of Mexico and Peru, and the Spanish Empire.

1. Spain in 1490: Crusading Spirit and Foreign Ambitions
2. Columbus's Sponsorship and the First Voyage of 1492
3. Columbus Reaches the Americas: Tainos, Caribs and La Navidad
4. The Treaty of Tordesillas and Rivalry with Portugal
5. Santo Domingo, Smallpox and the Caribbean Settlements
6. Imperial Policy: Trade Monopoly, Slavery and the Missionaries
7. The Conquistadors Begin: Balboa, Cuba and Magellan
8. Cortes and the Conquest of Mexico
9. Cortes as Governor and the Spanish Base at Panama
10. Pizarro and the Conquest of the Incas
11. Viceroys, Encomiendas, Las Casas and the New Laws
12. Silver, the Slave Trade and the Government of Empire

The USA, 1954–75: Conflict at Home and Abroad

Civil rights, Black Power, Kennedy and Johnson, and US involvement in the Vietnam War.

1. Black America in 1954: Segregation, Voting and the NAACP
2. Brown v. Topeka 1954: A Legal Earthquake
3. Montgomery 1955-56: The Boycott That Made King
4. Little Rock and the White Backlash, 1955-60
5. Sit-Ins, Freedom Riders and James Meredith, 1960-62
6. Birmingham, Washington and the Civil Rights Act, 1963-64
7. Selma and the Voting Rights Act, 1965
8. Malcolm X and the Black Muslims, 1952-65
9. Black Power, the Panthers and the 1968 Olympics
10. Riots, Kerner and King's Last Year, 1965-68
11. From Diem to Tonkin: US Steps into Vietnam, 1954-64
12. Search and Destroy: US Tactics, 1964-68
13. Tet, My Lai and the War at Home, 1968-70
14. Vietnamisation, Paris and Why the US Lost, 1969-75

Russia and the Soviet Union, 1917–41

From the October Revolution to Lenin, civil war, Stalin's terror and the Five-Year Plans.

1. Russia in 1917: Empire at Breaking Point
2. The February Revolution
3. The Provisional Government and Dual Power
4. The October Revolution: The Bolshevik Seizure of Power
5. Early Bolshevik Decrees and the Constituent Assembly
6. Brest-Litovsk and the Civil War, 1918–21
7. Red Terror, the Cheka and the Kronstadt Mutiny
8. War Communism, the NEP and Society Under Lenin
9. Stalin's Rise to Power, 1924–28
10. Collectivisation and the Attack on the Kulaks
11. The Five-Year Plans and Soviet Industry
12. The Great Terror, the NKVD and the Show Trials
13. Propaganda, the Cult of Stalin and the 1936 Constitution
14. Life in Stalin's USSR by 1941: Workers, Women and Minorities

Mao's China, 1945–76

Civil war, the People's Republic, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.

1. China in 1945: A Country at the Crossroads
2. Civil War and Communist Victory, 1945-49
3. Establishing Communist Rule and the Korean War, 1949-53
4. Terror, the Three and Five Antis, and the Hundred Flowers, 1951-57
5. Land Reform and Agricultural Cooperation, 1949-57
6. The First Five-Year Plan, 1953-57
7. The Great Leap Forward, 1958-62
8. The Great Famine and Recovery under Liu and Deng, 1959-65
9. Origins of the Cultural Revolution, 1962-66
10. The Red Guards and the Red Terror, 1966-68
11. Restoring Order: PLA, Lin Biao and the End of the Cultural Revolution, 1968-76
12. Communist Control: Propaganda, Censorship and the Cult of Mao
13. Family Life, Women and the Marriage Law
14. Education, Health and Cultural Change

How to revise History

• Retrieval Practice
• Spaced Repetition
• Interleaving
• Dual Coding
• Elaborative Interrogation
• Timeline Construction
• Knowledge Organisers
• Source Analysis Practice
• Argument Planning
• Timed Practice
• Past Paper Practice

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