Dissertation Focus

In a few weeks time I have to present a paper, outlining my research proposal for my dissertation due next September. As a means of support I have enlisted my girlfriend to come 'observe' me, hopefully this will not backfire! The format is 15-20 minutes presenting your paper in a format of your choice (although handouts and/or PowerPoint are strongly recommended).

I was originally meant to be doing a course in military history here at Leeds but that course was binned, a fate that is symptomatic for military history more broadly in the UK. Nonetheless, this can be compensated for by a military focused dissertation and having acquired the necessary supervisionary expertise I am thankfully able to start one! My topic is on the Great War, more specifically on the British Army and operational strategy and tactics on the Western Front. Yet I am not attempting to conduct a 15,000 word piece of original research (as is normally the case) but am instead going to attempt a historiographical work. Yet the literature on this topic is simply too big to cover adequately for a mere dissertation, so I needed a way to narrow this topic down. This can be done in one of three ways:

Firstly, I could find some way to narrow the time-scale of the historiography in question, for instance, choosing to focus solely on the relevant literature from 1919-1939. I am not a fan of this approach, as any late start date or early end point seems somewhat arbitrary to me. Historiography rarely divides into neat and tidy epochs fit for critical discussion.

Secondly, there is the option of narrowing the focus on to a particular battle of campaign, however most battles have made little significant impact and so in effect I would be limited to probably either the battle of the Somme in 1916, or 3rd Ypres in 1917 (otherwise known as Passchendaele). Cambrai was an option I considered, but there didn't seem to be the required level of historical reading to support it.

The third, and final, option was to consider a relevant historical figure and assess their impact on strategy and tactics of the Great War. As with the former option, this is not as big a choice as might appear as when considering the British Army there is only really the character of Douglas Haig, not even his immediate operational subordinates (like Rawlinson) are significant enough to generate enough historical writing to support a dissertation.

As is perhaps evident, I instinctively dislike the first option, and so was left to grapple with the latter two choices. After delving into sample reading for both topics I plumped for the battle/campaign focus, largely due to my dislike of the endless number of biographical works I would be forced to endure by studying the impact of Haig. This left me with one final decision, Somme or Passchendaele? I went with the Somme, as, for various reasons, it has left a significantly bigger historiographical 'footprint', even if it does seem like a somewhat obvious choice. All that remains is to come up with a snazzy title, one that will woo the crowd of historians I am soon to face. Something along the lines of:

'The Battle of the Somme: An Historiographical Investigation in Operational Strategy and Tactics'

or I could just reverse word the damn thing:

Operational Strategy and Tactics at the Somme: A Historiographical Investigation'

I just don't know!