IB DP History Class: Biographers — myth-busters or myth-keepers?

This article picked by a teacher with suggested questions is part of the Financial Times free schools access programme. Details/registration here.

Specification Historical Method

Connections with the DP DP History Assessment - Internal Assessment, Section 3: Reflection.

Key terms and ideas Biography, Myth, Legend

Click to read the article below and then answer the questions:

Biographers — myth-busters or myth-keepers?

This article is an excellent way of exploring one genre of historical writing: biography. This is a genre that many students will use for their Internal Assessment or Extended Essay. As part of Section 3 of the Internal Assessment, students need to show awareness of the challenges facing historians and the limitations of historical methods. This article provides many compelling examples of both.

In a comparison of two recent biographies, of Stephen Hawking and Philip Roth, the article explores how difficult it is to write about such high profile individuals. One biographer said of trying to write a biography of Hawking that “It’s almost like writing about Mother Teresa”. However, despite the public adoration, the reality is far more complex. The same biographer says that Hawking was no saint. “Turn back the clock, and what emerges is a real human: petulant, arrogant and callous, as well as warm, witty and brilliant.” 

Both biographers make clear that their subjects are also actively involved in their own myth making. In one insightful anecdote on Roth, his biographer recounts being told “I don’t want you to rehabilitate me. Make me interesting.” Yet this instruction came after Roth had already fired one biographer for being not sympathetic enough.

• In what ways do biographers have to use specific methods for their genre of writing?

• What challenges are faced when trying to write about individuals who already have a huge public profile?

• How do the subjects of biographies make it even harder to write accurate histories of their lives?

Ned Riley, historyrising.net