John Locke Essay Competition · 2026 questions
John Locke History Essay Questions
History questions at John Locke are never "what happened". They are about how historians should think, and the judges reward a student who can handle historiography without hiding behind it.
The 2026 questions below are the official set. The 2027 questions are expected in late January 2027 and this page will carry them within 48 hours.
The 2026 History questions, one by one
Quoted verbatim from the John Locke Institute. For each: what the examiners are testing, where strong students lose marks, the argument lines that hold up over 2,000 words, and what to read before you write.
What it is really asking
Two separate questions, and the judges will notice if you answer only one. "Is it long?" asks about the pace of change; "does it bend?" asks whether history has a direction at all.
The trap
Cheerleading for progress or cynicism about it. Either is an opinion; the question wants a method for telling direction from noise.
Lines of argument that can carry 2,000 words
- Take a measurable good (slavery, literacy, violent death rates) and show that the arc bends only when someone bends it. That reconciles King's hope with Parker's original abolitionist sermon.
- The Whig-interpretation problem (Butterfield): the arc looks like it bends because the present writes the story. Test with a reverse case, such as the collapse of Roman literacy or twentieth-century totalitarianism.
- Pinker's data versus its critics: the decline-of-violence thesis is the strongest empirical case for "yes", and the objections to it are the strongest case for "we cannot tell yet".
Read first
- The Whig Interpretation of History, Herbert Butterfield
- The Better Angels of Our Nature, Steven Pinker (and at least one serious critique)
- Of Justice and the Conscience, Theodore Parker, 1853 (the sermon King was quoting)
What the judges reward in History
The official criteria are knowledge and understanding, competent use of evidence, quality of argumentation, originality, structure, writing style and persuasive force. In this category that means:
- 1Engagement with historians by name, on the specific point where they disagree.
- 2Primary sources quoted, with dates, rather than described.
- 3A clear position on the historiographical question hidden inside the prompt.
- 4Counterfactuals kept disciplined: one causal claim, one change, traced carefully.
A published winning essay in this category
"Should we judge those from the past by the standards of today? How will historians in the future judge us?"
Major Shokar · First Prize, History, 2021
The essay spends its first four paragraphs taking the question apart: whether historians judge at all (Berlin, Butterfield, Carr), whether "standards of today" exist, and what presentism means. Only then does it argue, against Croce and Williams, that judging the past through the present is unavoidable and not harmful if done with nuance. It disagrees with named historians on specific pages and it never summarises a book.
Read the essay on the Institute's siteOur analysis of every essay the Institute has published is in Past winning essays, analysed.
How to prepare for the 2027 History questions before they are released
- 1
Read one work of historiography (Carr, Butterfield or Evans) before any narrative history. The judges are testing that layer.
- 2
Build a quotation bank from primary sources with dates and page numbers; the winning essays cite Chateaubriand, the Code Civil and Carr from the text.
- 3
Write the paragraph that disagrees with a named historian first. If you cannot, you have not chosen your question yet.
- 4
For a counterfactual question, write down the single causal claim it depends on and spend a third of the essay defending it.
John Locke Essay Competition prep for History
John Locke Basics
12 group sessions plus 6 hours of 1-on-1 mentorship, from question choice to a submission-ready draft. 38 of our 41 students were shortlisted in 2026.
Questions about the History category
Interpretation. Every John Locke History question hides a historiographical problem: whether historians should judge, how counterfactuals work, what an icon is. The judges reward students who name that problem, engage with historians who disagree about it, and quote primary sources with dates. Narrative accuracy is assumed; it does not score on its own.
The other nine categories
John Locke guides
The complete guide
Eligibility, rules, dates, judging and prizes in one place.
John Locke Essay Competition prep
All four programmes, compared, with the 2026 results and the 2027 timeline.
Deadline and timeline 2027
Every date, confirmed or expected, on one page.
The interview after shortlisting
What the Institute says, what students report, how to prepare.
Past winning essays, analysed
The seven published prize essays, paragraph by paragraph.
Is it prestigious, and worth entering?
What a shortlist, commendation or prize is worth in admissions.
Free essay planner
Question deconstruction, argument map and self-audit sheet.
2027 dates and changes tracker
What is confirmed, what is expected, and every 2026 rule change.
The competition from Dubai and the UAE
How the calendar sits against UAE school terms and exam seasons.