A-level History resources designed for AQA teachers — built from a decade of expert modern history content, written by a former Pearson/Edexcel examiner, and verified for accuracy before anything goes live.
What makes these resources different
Examiner-verified accuracy
Every historian named is real. Every argument is faithfully represented. Every citation is checked. Nothing is published without Nick Shepley’s personal sign-off. Generic AI tools hallucinate historians and misattribute arguments. These packs don’t.
Built for AQA mark schemes
Resources target AO3 skills directly — the paired comparison tasks are written around what AQA mark schemes reward: contextual evaluation, provenance analysis, and substantiated judgement, not description.
A real library, not a generator
Over a thousand episodes of expert modern history content — covering exactly the periods AQA examines. These resources draw on a decade of research and teaching, not an algorithm.
Available now
Two AO3 Interpretation Packs are ready. The first debate in each is free and open to all. Full packs — covering all major historiographical debates, with comparison tasks and provenance prompts — are available to subscribers.
AQA 1H
Tsarist and Communist Russia, 1855–1964
AO3 Interpretation Pack
- 4 major historiographical debates
- 9 named historians (Conquest, Getty, Khlevniuk, Fitzpatrick, Figes, Service, Lewin, Deutscher, Sebag Montefiore)
- Paired comparison tasks with mark scheme guidance
- Provenance prompts for every debate
First debate free · Full pack for subscribers
Historiography reference pages for this topic:
- The Russian Revolution — Revisionist, libertarian, and post-Soviet schools
- The Stalinist Terror — Intentionalism, structuralism, and archive-based revisionismRevisionism Full Description:Revisionism was framed as the greatest threat to the revolution—the idea that the Communist Party could rot from within and restore capitalism, similar to what the Chinese leadership believed had happened in the Soviet Union. Accusations of revisionism were often vague and applied to any policy that prioritized economic stability, material incentives, or expertise over ideological fervor. Critical Perspective:The concept served as a convenient tool for political purging. It allowed the leadership to frame a factional power struggle as an existential battle for the soul of socialism. By labeling pragmatic leaders as “capitalist roaders,” the state could legitimize the dismantling of the government apparatus and the persecution of veteran revolutionaries.
AQA 2O
Democracy and Nazism: Germany, 1918–1945
AO3 Interpretation Pack
- 5 major historiographical debates
- 12 named historians (Peukert, Evans, James, Trevor-Roper, Broszat, Mommsen, Kershaw, Browning, Goldhagen, Gellately, Mason, Overy, Tooze)
- Paired comparison tasks with mark scheme guidance
- Provenance prompts for every debate
First debate free · Full pack for subscribers
Historiography reference pages for this topic:
- Nazi Germany — Intentionalism, structuralism, and the Hitler question
- The Holocaust — Functionalism, intentionalism, and the Goldhagen debate
- The Fall of Weimar — Economic collapse, elite conspiracy, and mass support
- The Causes of the Second World War — Taylor, Hitler’s programme, and structural approaches
Historiography Reference Library
Explaining History’s 20th Century Interpretations section provides free, detailed reference pages on every major historiographical debate in the AQA specification. Each page covers the central question, main schools of thought, how the debate developed, and where it stands now — with named historians, key texts, and links to relevant AO3 packs.
- The Russian Revolution
- The Stalinist Terror
- Nazi Germany
- The Holocaust
- The Fall of Weimar
- The Causes of the First World War
- The Causes of the Second World War
- The Origins of the Cold War
- Decolonisation
- British Imperial Decline
- Fascism
Full AQA coverage
Option pages are live for every AQA A-level History option. Each page includes a teaching overview, key themes, exam guidance, and historiography. Full interpretation packs will be added option by option, starting with the topics the Explaining History library covers most deeply.
Component 1 — Breadth Studies
| Option | Title | Resources |
|---|---|---|
| 1A | The Age of the Crusades, c1071–1204 | Option guide ✓ |
| 1B | Spain in the Age of Discovery, 1469–1598 | Option guide ✓ |
| 1C | The Tudors: England, 1485–1603 | Option guide ✓ |
| 1D | Stuart Britain and the Crisis of Monarchy, 1603–1702 | Option guide ✓ |
| 1E | Russia in the Age of Absolutism and Enlightenment, 1682–1796 | Option guide ✓ |
| 1F | Industrialisation and the People: Britain, c1783–1885 | Option guide ✓ |
| 1G | Challenge and Transformation: Britain, c1851–1964 | Option guide ✓ |
| 1H | Tsarist and Communist Russia, 1855–1964 | ✓ AO3 Pack available |
| 1J | The British Empire, c1857–1967 | Option guide ✓ |
| 1K | The Making of a Superpower: USA, 1865–1975 | Option guide ✓ |
| 1L | The Quest for Political Stability: Germany, 1871–1991 | Option guide ✓ |
Component 2 — Depth Studies
About these resources
These resources are written by Nick Shepley — former A-level History teacher, author of A-level History textbooks for Pearson/Hodder, and former Pearson/Edexcel examiner. Every interpretation pack is personally reviewed and signed off before publication. The guarantee is simple: you will not find a hallucinated historian or a misrepresented argument in these pages.
The AO3 material is built on the conviction that accurately assembled, topic-mapped historiography is the most useful thing a teacher can have — and the thing generic AI tools do worst. These packs exist because that gap is real and worth filling properly.
Free and subscriber access
Free
- First debate in every AO3 pack — including the full comparison task and provenance prompts
- The historiographical approaches summary table
- All option guide pages
- All Historiography Reference Library pages
Subscribers
- Full AO3 pack — all debates, all historians, all tasks
- Knowledge organisers (coming)
- Graded exemplar answers (coming)
- Practice questions and source packs (coming)
