Webpage last updated: November 04, 2024
Each year National History Day selects a theme that is intentionally broad enough so that you can select topics from anywhere in the world and any time period. During the 2024–2025 school year you and all National History Day students will dive into a topic based on the theme, Rights & Responsibilities in History. You will ask questions about time, place and context, cause and effect, change over time, and impact and significance. You must consider not only when and where events happened, but also why they occurred, and what factors contributed to their development. You will describe your topic and then further develop it through analysis, drawing conclusions about how the topic influenced and was influenced by people, ideas, or events.
It’s important that you read NHD’s Theme Narrative (p.3) before choosing a topic. This theme asks students to explore topics relating to “Rights & Responsibilities in History.” According to the NHD Theme Narrative, “It is important to remember that with rights come responsibilities. In the present day, we frequently read and hear discussions about “my rights” or “our rights.” While we all have the right to freedoms such as free speech, we also have a responsibility to use these freedoms in a manner that respects the rights and well-being of others, with an understanding of how that responsibility is necessary for the greater good of all. Thus, the NHD theme for 2025 is focused on both historical rights and responsibilities. NHD projects in 2025 must focus on both as well.” NHD defines rights as “freedoms or privileges that individuals possess as human beings or as citizens of a society” and responsibilities as “expectations of individuals as members of society.” Topics should be carefully selected and developed in ways that best use students’ talents and abilities. Whether a topic is a well-known event in world history or focuses on a little-known individual from a small community, students should be careful to place their topics into historical perspective, examine the significance of their topics in history, and show how their topic clearly relates to the concepts of rights and responsibilities.
After deciding on your research topic, you must investigate historical context, historical significance, and the topic's relationship to the theme by conducting research in libraries, archives, and museums; through oral history interviews; and by visiting historic sites. Also remember to use evidence from your research to explain how your topic has influenced history. In other words, answer the question, "So What?"
Download a copy of this year’s theme book and theme related resources here.
For information:
National History Day®
4511 Knox Road, Suite 205
College Park, Maryland 20740
Phone: (301) 314-9739
Fax: (301) 314-9767
http://www.nhd.org