Looking for help preparing class presentation (not "please write my paper for me!")

Shadowfire

Alright, quick background - I'm back in school for the first time in 11 years. It's been interesting the last 5 weeks, but I have some big stuff coming up. Specifically, I'm in a modern history class that deals with the last 110ish years of history, focusing on war and genocide (hence the title Peace & Turmoil in the Modern World). We have to choose a presentation about some particular period of conflict someplace in the world, and give it to the class. The presentation needs to be around 40 minutes.

So far, the class has been an extraordinary amount of homework, but it's also been very interesting, and I'm enjoying the teacher. Since history is something I've always been interested in, I don't think I'll have a problem actually figuring out what I want to say.

Ahh, but how to find it, and how to say it? Basically, what I'm looking for is help finding sources. The period I chose is pre-9/11 Afghanistan, specifically around 1970-2000. It seemed to be a very interesting time, with the country electing it's first president (who was assassinated later), the attempted Soviet invasion, our covert intervention, and the rise of the Taliban.

I know the background of much of the history, but I don't know where the hell to find sources! There are some resources available from our online library (particularly, newspapers and encyclopedias), but I'm looking for some other ideas. What areas should I look? What websites? Who should I talk to?

Also, as I said, I've been out of school for some time, and the thought of doing a presentation right now scares the shit out of me. How should I prepare for presenting a 40 minute presentation to a class of 20? Any tips on how to make me not want to crap my pants?

tl;dr 40 minute presentation on pre-9/11 Afghanistan - where should I look for sources, how do I prepare for public speaking?

Drez

I think if you are looking for recent political/social history for a particular region, you're going to find most of your data in periodicals and journals. Other than that, I would recommend skimming recent global-historical texts for information on Afghanistan. Biographies might even be of assistance.

Last, I would recommend going to a brick and mortar library and speaking to a librarian at the information desk (one of the older gents or ladies, not the 16-18 year old alphabetizing "pages" that run around (I used to work at a library). They might be able to help.

If you go to your college/university library, they might even be of greater help than a public library.

If all else fails, speak to your teacher if he or she is approachable. Tell him or her that you are interested in such and such subject but are having trouble locating sources and was wondering if he or she had any suggestions.

JustPlainPavek

You should definitely read these books if you haven't yet already:
Ghost Wars - Steve Coll — this should be like your bible. Read it, check his footnotes, read the sources he's used.
Taliban - Ahmed Rashid — best history of their formation I know of.
The Main Enemy - Milt Bearden
Jihad - Gilles Kepel — not exclusively focused on Afghanistan, but good for examining some of the history of the Islamist movements that fed into and emerged from the anti-Soviet jihad period.
The Bear Went Over the Mountain will give you some more of the Soviet perspective of things.
Charlie Wilson's War is in the news these days with the movie but I found it a little flashy; ultimately it tells you more about Charlie Wilson than the war itself, but combined with other sources it could be useful. I haven't seen the movie, but if you want to spice up your presentation with some audiovisual, you might see if you could find a clip or something from it.

The author Barnett Rubin is one of the top Afghanistan scholars in the US. His The Fragmentation of Afghanistan has been on my to-read pile for a while now. Anything he's written is likely to be valuable. He blogs occasionally here.

Other Afghanistan blogs: Afghanistanica, Afghanistan Conflict Monitor. Obviously these are going to be focused on what's happening now more than the past history, but it may still be worth reading.

JustPlainPavek

Also, if you're looking for journals / periodicals on the subject, and there are likely going to be tons, talk to the people at the library desk about using JSTOR (what I used in college for most of my papers), Project Muse (haven't used much, but another database of journal articles), or Lexis Nexis (more geared towards newspapers and newsmagazines) or some similar service. You school should have accounts that you can search these things for free with, and they will probably have archives going back to the period in question so you can get some contemporary sources if you're looking for that level of research. A lot of US journalists covered the mujahadeen during the anti-Soviet period, back when they were our guys, so there should be some coverage there if you dig around a bit.

JustPlainPavek

All the bibliography you could ever possibly want, and more.

Shadowfire

JustPlainPavek wrote: »

All the bibliography you could ever possibly want, and more.

You are all that is man (unless you not male, in which case change that word as you wish). I picked up Ghost Wars today, and my teacher seemed very happy with the choice (I'm sure he's read it). Only had a chance to read the first 30ish pages, but even with that little bit, it is fascinating.

I saw the previews for Charlie Wilson's War, but there was a History Channel special called The Real Story of Charlie Wilson's War that I plan to pick up... it was also very interesting. I'll probably use part of it for the presentation as well. As interesting as it is to see Tom Hanks play a womanizing, alcoholic politician who is secretly funding a war on the other side of the world, it might be more interesting to see the actual politician talk about what was going on. ;-)

Thanks for all of the ideas. This gives me a great place to start off.