History Personal Statement Example 56

Ever since visiting Berlin in 2015 I have been captivated by world history. Visiting historic places such as Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, The Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie awakened me to the fact that humanity's mind as a whole has not progressed too much from when those monuments were relevant.

This is shown not only through continued dispute between countries like Russia and America similar to the Cold War but also through the African slave trade in Libya displaying a violation of human rights comparable to the Holocaust.

It is extremely valuable to actually travel to different countries and explore their history. For example Sachsenhausen helped me expand my knowledge on the Nazis use of concentration camps which improved my essay writing as I saw what the 200,000 political prisoners, prisoners of war and Jews were subjected to.

This made it easier in my History essays to explain the severity of events and assess the effects they had on people and the world.

By studying History at A-level I have developed my critical thinking skills and now am very capable of understanding the links between people's actions and historical events and using these links to construct my own argument to questions which will be invaluable in a history degree course. During my History GCSE and A level courses I became enthralled learning about 20th Century American history.

The Cold War is one of the most intriguing events during the time period due to how all the events during the time period are interconnected and looking at how close the USA and Soviets came so close to a possible World War III.I love looking at other historians and peoples arguments for questions such as who started the Cold War or whether overall any good came from the Cold War.

To further expand my knowledge,I watched a twenty-four episode television documentary series about the Cold War produced by Pat Mitchell and Jeremy Isaacs which covered events such as the My Lai massacre and the violent crushing of revolts in Eastern Europe such as Hungary.

This allowed me to not only learn about it also helped me see the views of different witnesses who experienced the events of the Cold War which helps me understand the effects the Cold War had on people even more. I also read parts of John Lewis Gaddis's book The Cold War which gave me a much deeper knowledge of the Cold War and provided a completely different perspective on how to view the "War" and the effects of it.

Studying Religion and Philosophy has enabled to deepen my knowledge about topics I do not cover in my history course. It has especially taught me about the history of different religions and the various debates and events that have occurred throughout time trying to answer questions like whether there is a God or whether there are miracles.

Likewise evaluating arguments from philosophers has helped me learn to make my own clear coherent arguments to use for debates in class which is useful when trying to put forward your opinion and answer questions in history.

I am currently completing my Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award. During the expedition in the Breacon Beacons I developed good teamwork and communication skills through tasks such as cooking and being one of my group's navigators. Furthermore my resiliency and independence was shown by powering through when my group was tired or lost, which will be vital for university.

Understanding about the past and how it has shaped the reality that we see today is what makes me very excited about the prospect of reading history at an undergraduate level.