30 FOR 30 TOK

History does not describe the past. It constructs arguments about the past, from evidence shaped by power, interpreted through frameworks shaped by the present. This book examines what that means for the knowledge history claims to produce.

30 For 30 TOK: IB History is the ninth book in the 30 For 30 TOK series, which pairs thirty IB diploma subjects with thirty searching questions about the nature of the knowledge it produces. This volume focuses on the IB History course, asking questions about evidence, interpretation, causation, and the ethics of historical judgement that the discipline raises but does not always have time to address directly.

From the reliability of primary sources to the epistemological status of counterfactual history, from the relationship between collective memory and academic knowledge to the question of whether moral judgement of the past is anachronism or obligation, the thirty questions in this book press on what historical knowledge actually is and how it is produced. Sample responses model what rigorous, nuanced historical thinking looks like in practice.

Designed for IB History students, teachers, TOK educators, and anyone who has ever wondered why the same event can be told so differently by different people with equal sincerity.