Data Analysis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Data Analysis - Research Paper Example Central tendency of the number of new cases every year is measured using the mean value. The mean of new cases among all 19 age groups are 6288 new case per year. The range of new cases is 19,477 with minimum number of case equal to 60 and maximum value equal to 19,537 for the ages between 70 and 74. Dispersion is measured by value of standard deviation of the data. Standard deviation is 6621 new case per year. Skewness measures the degree and direction of asymmetry of the data. The value of skewness is .628 indicating the data is positively skewed. The following histogram shows the number of new cases for male and females for the different age groups. It is evident from the graph that 18 age groups for male or female has less than 2500 new cases of cancer every year. The mean and standard deviation are considered the best measure of central tendency and dispersion of the data. Most of the data is included in the range around the mean by the value of the standard deviation.

Movie comment Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 4

Comment - Movie Review Example The film was revealing both racially and regarding gender roles. The film considered not only how a liberal white couple would potentially judge a black son-in law; but how his family might react, how other whites and blacks might react. The question did not concern conflict, it concerned the future problems a mixed race couple might face in 1967. It is reasonable to review this potential problem today, much less 40 years ago. The women in the movie influenced the men, perhaps manipulated them, as a diplomatic back channel. Although the men tried to rationalize their positions, they argued emotionally, including name calling. Although the women felt the hearts should decide, they discussed the situation calmly. These scenarios reveal the real power structure in these homes. Tillie’s outburst assumed John was making a black power statement by marrying a white girl. She was protecting Joey, and commenting generally on the black male persona. The parents concerns symbolized the à ¢â‚¬Å"special problems† the couple would face. If the parents could not accept the relationship, how would the rest of the world? These moments and questions were revealing, not phony.

St Jude Childrens Research Hospital

St Jude Childrens Research Hospital St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital is a not-for-profit hospital located in the heart of Memphis, Tennessee. It is an internationally recognized hospital that pioneered research finding cures and saving children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. It treats patients from all 50 states and around the world, without regard to ability to pay, never requiring families to pay for treatment not covered by insurance (St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 2010). St. Jude remains the first and only pediatric cancer center designated as a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute (St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 2010). It is currently ranked first in Childrens Hospitals for cancer care (U.S. News and World Report, 2010). St Jude Childrens Research Hospital encompasses an extensive and impressive mission, vision, and set of values. The mission of St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital is to advance cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment. Consistent with the vision of our founder Danny Thomas, no child is denied treatment based on race, religion, or a familys ability to pay. (St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 2010) St. Jude has a vision to be a world leader in the treatment and prevention of catastrophic diseases in children (St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 2010). They aim to meet this by providing exceptional patient care and extensive clinical research to better understand the catastrophic diseases of childhood, enhance outcomes of treatment, prevent diseases, minimize deleterious consequences of treatment, and educate healthcare and research professionals on such findings (St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 2010). The overall goal of these tasks is to find a cure and enhance the quality of life for the children they treat. To reach a larger portion of the affected population, they work to expand and share this knowledge to enhance the treatment of children with catastrophic diseases worldwide, working towards a strategy for disease prevention (St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 2010). St. Jude highly values their patients, families, and donors that enable them to act out their Mission. To adequately espouse their Mission and vision, the organization has outlined an explicit set of values and standards to guide their daily actions and decisions. To ensure adherence, ongoing training and evaluation is conducted (St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 2010). The values include: promoting ethical behavior, providing the highest quality of medical and supportive family-centered care, respecting ethical, cultural, religious, and lifestyle differences of all those involved in the hospital, promoting wise spending of every dollar donated back to the care and research for the patients it treats, maintaining a commitment to a culture of excellence, innovation, and creativity in all that they do, having a drive and sense of urgency to succeed, being honest and accountable for actions and decisions, and cultivation of an environment of trust, teamwork, and respect (St. Jude Ch ildrens Research Hospital, 2010). St. Jude does a fantastic job adhering to their Mission, vision, and values as noted through their increased survival rate of all pediatric cancers, high quality care, repeated ranking of the number one hospital for pediatric cancer care, and meeting financial requirements of the establishment with never asking families to pay for treatments that insurance fails to cover. This last portion has remained extremely important to the hospital since first opening as most patients who enter through hospital doors have already maxed out their lifetime insurance caps and lack the funding to continue paying for the seemingly endless hospital bills (St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 2010). To be accepted as a patient at St. Jude, a child must have a diagnosis specific to a current disease in study and be referred by physicians. The patient must be no older than 18 and generally not have received extensive treatment elsewhere. (St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 2010). While the St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital campus is an independent health care system, their top-notch research integrates them with childrens hospitals throughout the world (St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 2010). St. Jude conducts all research and primary studies within their campus but freely shares this research with hospitals throughout the world (St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 2010). Because of this cooperation, there is minimal competitiveness from other facilities but rather a system that works together for the sake of the children suffering from catastrophic diseases. St. Jude is the national coordinating center for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium and the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 2010). On top of the exceptional research and care provided for pediatric cancer, St. Jude is a leader in sickle cell disease research and has become a primary research center for influenza throughout the world (St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 2010). St. Jude is internationally recognized for pioneering the research and treatment of pediatric patients suffering from cancer and other catastrophic diseases (St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 2010). Because of the work St. Jude has done, research protocols have helped to push overall survival rates of childhood cancer from less than 20 percent when the hospital opened, to over 80 percent today (St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 2010). They have treated patients from across the globe that are accepted and respected without regard to ethnicity and cultural differences (St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 2010). St. Jude has impacted the families by providing hope to families with a grim prognosis, lack of financing, and nowhere else to turn. St. Jude is the sole pediatric cancer research center that accepts patients without regard to ability to pay. Families are never asked to pay for treatment not covered by insurance, and no child is denied treatment because of inability to pay. (St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 2010). The American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities (ALSAC) has been the exclusive fund-raising organization of St. Jude since 1957, helping raise funds to build the establishment with founder Danny Thomas and his vision (St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 2010). In the 2009 Fiscal Year, ALSAC raised $682 million through volunteers, corporate partners, and donors to meet the daily St. Jude operating cost of $1.5 million a day (ALSAC/St. Jude Annual Report, 2009). These operating costs include patient care services, research expenditures, education, training, and community services to accommodate staff and administration of the hospital. Patient care services include all care needed for active patie nts. This can include medical care and living expenditures for patients and families. Most patients are treated on an outpatient basis in the St. Jude clinics and are housed at one of the three housing organizations in Memphis affiliated with St. Jude (Target House, Grizzly House, Ronald McDonald House). Once remission is achieved treatment can be transferred to a doctor in the patients home community in collaboration with St. Jude protocols (ALSAC/St. Jude Annual Report, 2009). In addition to ALSAC, St. Jude has over 60 corporate partners including: Target, the NFL, The Memphis Grizzlies, Kay Jewelers, and Chilis, (St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 2010). In addition to their corporate partners, individual donors and organizations help financially support the work of St. Jude (St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 2010). Additional influences on St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital include the American Medical Association and American Nursing Association who serve to guide the doctors and nurses employed by the hospital. The policy and regulation of St. Jude is in accordance with research policies nationwide to ensure the safety of patients with the potential benefit of treatment outweighing the risk. The hospital adheres to set protocols in study and only deviates from them should extensive research prove the deviation to be more beneficial and scientifically supported (St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 2010). The system at St. Jude is highly supported by having the research institute under the same roof as the patients with the scientists actively involved in the patient plan of care. In addition to these regulations, St. Jude has policies in place to prevent infection spread to patients who are immunocompromised. These include not allowing visitors under the age of 12, screening for illness prior to visiting, proper hand-washing education, and not allowing visitors who have recently received the nasal flu vaccine or oral polio vaccine within the past four weeks. These policies ensure the safet y and overall well-being of their patients (St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 2010). The organization of St. Jude Childrens Hospital is based on the vision of founder Danny Thomas to create a hospital treating children with catastrophic diseases so no child has to die in the dawn of life (St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 2010). In partnering with ALSAC, Danny Thomas was able to obtain funding necessary to create this hospital from the ground up and work to create an environment welcoming to all who enter. His vision included a hospital where children didnt feel threatened by care providers, where doctors and researchers ate alongside of patients, a hospital where patients were allowed to continue their childhood while battling catastrophic diseases (St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 2010). According to Henry Mintzberg, an organization can consist of a maximum of six parts including the strategic apex (top management), the middle line (middle managers), the operating core (primary workers), the technostructure (workers who standardize and improve work), the support staff (those who work outside of the primary flow), and the ideology (beliefs, traditions, norms, values, and culture) (Value Based Management, 2010). The following diagram depicts the Mintzberg organizational structure of St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital and is explained below. (Proven Models, 2010) The strategic apex of St. Jude consists of the Boards of Directors and Governors for ALSAC-St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital. The Board is responsible for governing the organizations by establishing policies and objectives, selecting, appointing, supporting, and reviewing the performance of the Chief Executive Officers, insuring the availability of adequate financial resources, approving annual budgets and strategic planning, and accounting for the ethics, compliance, and performance of the organizations (St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 2010). Below them St. Jude has the middle line operations consisting of the Chief Executive Officers, Senior Management Team, and the Executive Committee that directly oversee the operating core. At the heart of the hospital are the operating core of physicians, research and development team, advanced practice nurses, nurses, certified nursing assistants, child life specialists, psychologists, and families who collaborate to provide adequate family-centered care. The Support Staff of St. Jude consist of ALSAC as the primary fundraising organization, the administrative body, the environmental service employees, the cafeteria, the public relations department helping advocate for ALSAC fundraising endeavors, the Target, Grizzly, and Ronald McDonald houses and staff people, the ethical and legal committees, and volunteers who help throughout the hospital. The technostructure of St. Jude consists of the specially named Faculty and Adjunct Faculty that standardize research in collaboration with care provided to patients. It also includes the external advisory boards that help to standardize protocols and ensure they are accessible and clearly stated to be shared worldwide. St. Jude has a surprisingly large technostructure of employees who work to standardize care throughout the hospital with regard to uniqueness of each patient in the research studies. Any deviations from standardized care are backed through the research cond ucted on the St. Jude campus. Because of this, the hospital would be classified as a Machine Bureaucracy that has all components present and strong in their functioning and enactment towards the campus. The nursing role that will specifically be analyzed is the role of the Pediatric Acute Care Nurse Practitioner. Unfortunately, this role is not currently available at St. Jude Childrens Hospital and therefore no specific job description or title is available for the specific role at St. Jude. According to the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP), the Pediatric Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (PNP-AC) would function to provide direct patient care management, perform in-depth physical assessments, interpret lab and diagnostic tests, order mediations, and perform therapeutic treatments for children who are acutely, chronically, and critically ill (NAPNAP, 2005). The PNP-AC would be licensed as a registered nurse in the United States with a graduate degree in nursing through an accredited program, and certified by the Pediatric Nurse Certification Board as a Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Acute Care (PNCB, 2010). To become certified one must meet certain competencies and pass a board examination that meets the National Council of State Boards of Nursing APRN criteria (PNCB, 2010). To maintain certification, one must complete continuing education hours and/or re-certification every three to five years, or as deemed by the organization and state board of nursing (PNCB, 2010). The role of the PNP-AC would fall within the operating core of the hospital. They would work in collaboration with other Physicians and Researchers at St. Jude to create a comprehensive plan of care for the patients. This would keep everyone working towards the same goal and ensure overall patient well-being. They would also work with the nurses, nursing assistants, child life specialists, and other therapists to keep them informed of progress or hardships the patient may encounter, and help them understand the cares that need to be provided to ensure success of treatment protocols. They would also work with unit managers and nursing directors should problems or questions arise. They will be able to consult with the middle line management or technostructure personnel should questions or concerns arise. They would also work with varying support staff members for outreach, dietary consults and education-oriented tasks. This role would directly interact with patients and families throug h their everyday tasks. They may do outreach into the community, and conduct education for consumers and payers on current advances the hospital is making. They would also indirectly work with human resources and the finance department to obtain their paycheck. The role of the PNP-AC is very autonomous in impacting patient care and outcomes. They can diagnose and treat conditions, prescribe medications, obtain necessary consults and interpret results of ordered tests. They would oversee the progress of care and intervene should any alarming findings be made in response to the protocol under study. The role would be strong in the sense that they are an autonomous and an independent member of the healthcare delivery team that is capable of providing a high-level of care to patients. They have strong patient interaction skills and a comprehensive knowledge of care that should be provided by the nurses. They are best able to understand the role of the nurse and delegate appropriate tasks to other members of the healthcare team. The role weaknesses include the chance that they may not be as highly respected as physicians or physician assistants, and the lack of advanced training specifically in pathology and the physiology like physicians and ph ysician assistants often have. Overall, the role of the PNP-AC would be a highly functioning advanced practice role that can provide comprehensive and thorough care to his or her patients and work as a productive member of the healthcare delivery team.

Cry, the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton :: Cry, The Beloved Country Essays

Social Protest Cry the Beloved Country was a book written to bring about change. Through out the book Alan Paton reveal the social injustices of South Africa. This whole book, although a fictional stories, is to protest of the ways of South Africa. Paton brings up the inequity of the natives’ verses the whites; he makes points about education, superiority, and separation. Paton clearly showed that the white man is superiority to the black, he gives numerous examples throughout the novel. The white man had more money, a better job, a nicer house†¦ With James Jarvis, Paton showed that he was superior by making him live on high place, because he was so much superior than the natives that lived below him. At the end of the book James Jarvis (even though he had changed) could not get off his horse to talk to Steven Kumalo. He could have easily gotten off but "such a thing is not lightly done" (307). Paton includes this part in the novel to show that the white man can be amicable with the natives, but they will always have to come out on top. The whites needed to feel like they were on a higher level than the natives. If this country ever wants to be as one the whites are going to have to give up there need for superiority. Many times in the novel Paton showed there was a problem without even saying it. One of the major examples of that would be when he gave the scene of people asking "Have you a room to let?" and the response would always be "no I have no room to let"(85). Paton dosent outright say that its horrible that there is not even enough housing for the natives and they have to cram together in shared houses with no privicy at all. He just tells us the story and the reader recognize that there is a problem. Paton offten leves it up to the reader to figure out the social injustices of South Africa. When Kumalo was talking about his son Absolam he said "he is in prison for the most terrible deed a man can do, He k illed a white man" (144). Here Paton shows, again, how whites were considered to be superior to blacks. It could have been said the worst thing to do is kill a man, but in South Africa’s society it was not the same if a black man was murdered as compared to a white man.

Generally, there are 3 basic principles/processes of project quality management: Essay

Planning for quality involves identifying which quality standards are relevant to the project and how to fulfill those standards. Integrating quality standards into project design is a core portion of quality planning. For an IT project, quality standards include enabling system growth, planning a considerable response time, or making sure that the system produces accurate and consistent information. The core outputs of quality planning are a quality management plan, quality metrics, quality checklists, a process improvement plan, and project document updates. Performing quality assurance Performing quality assurance includes periodical evaluation of the whole project performance to make sure that the project will meet the desired quality standards. The process involves assuming roles of quality in the entire project life cycle. Senior management must take the lead in emphasizing the roles all employees play in quality assurance. The core outputs of this process are organizational process asset, project management, project document, and change requests updates (Kathy, 2008). 1. 1. 1 Performing quality control Performing quality control involves monitoring specific project results to make sure that they adhere to the desired quality requirements while identifying methods to enhance ultimate quality. This process is mostly linked to the technical techniques and tools of quality management, such as quality control charts, statistical sampling, and Pareto charts. The main outputs of quality control include quality control measurements, validated deliverables, change requests, validated changes, organizational process asset updates, project management plan, and project document updates (Kathy, 2008). This research seeks to: Incorporate the best practices in project quality management with quality leadership/ team work within a quality focused company, Evaluate the significance of project quality management for IT products and services, Understand the techniques and tools for quality control, and  Describe how leadership model relate to enhancing quality in information technology projects. 2. 0 Review of Literature In his book on quality control, Juran (2002) stressed the significance of top management commitment to continuous product quality improvement. In 2000, Juran published the fifth edition of his famous book. In both texts, Juran developed and built upon a trilogy involving quality improvement, quality control, and quality planning. Juran emphasized the difference between the manufacturer’s view of quality and the client’s view. He observed that manufacturer’s focused on adherence to requirements, but client’s focused on fitness for use. In this book, Juran developed 10 stages to quality improvement. These include; building awareness of the need and chance for improvement, set goals for improvements, organize to reach the goals, provide training, carry out projects to solve problems, report progress, give recognition, communicate results, keep ratings, and maintain momentum by establishing yearly improvement part of the regular systems and processes of the economy. Crosby (1979) wrote Quality Is Free and is best known for suggesting that firms struggle for zero defects. He stressed that the costs of low quality must include all costs of not doing the work right the first time, such as rework, scrap, wasted man hours and machine hours, customer ill will and wasted sales, and warranty costs. Crosby proposed that the cost of low quality is so misappropriated that firms can profitably spend unlimited amounts of money on enhancing quality. Like Juran, Crosby developed 14 stages for quality improvement; these include making it clear that management is committed to quality, organizing quality control teams with representatives from each section, establishing where current and potential quality problems lie, evaluating the cost of quality and explaining its use as a management tool, raising the quality awareness and personal concern of all employees, take actions to correct problems identified through previous steps, establishing a committee for the zero defects program, training supervisors to actively carry out their part of the quality improvement program, holding a-zero defects day-to allow all employees realize that there has been a change, encouraging individuals to establish improvement goals for themselves and their teams, encouraging employees to communicate to management the barriers they face in achieving their improvement goals, reorganizing and appreciating those who participate, establishing quality councils to communicate on a regular basis, and reworking to emphasize that the quality improvement program never ends. Crosby (1979) initiated the Quality Management Process Maturity Grid. Such a grid can be applied to a firm’s attitude toward product usability. For instance, the initial level in the grid is ignorance, where employees might think they do not have any difficulties with usability. The last level is wisdom, where employees have changed their attitude so that usability defect prevention is a routine part of their activities. Ishikawa (1976) developed the concept of quality circles and pioneered the utilization of cause-and-effect graphics. Ishikawa made notable contributions to quality management, the most important being Ishikawa’s total quality perspective, organization quality control and emphasizes to human based quality, the quality diagram, and the creation and use of his 7 basic quality tools. The tools are: Pareto analysis, stratification, cause and effect diagrams, check sheets, scatter charts, histograms, and process control charts. Ishikawa believed these 7 tools must be known in depth, if not by all, in a firm and used to evaluate problems and create enhancements. Used effectively the tools form a powerful quality kit. Genichi (1998) believed it is good to develop product that is stout and or insensitive to manufacturing process variation, rather than trying to control all variations during manufacturing. To practice this idea, he embarked on the already developed knowledge on design and made it more practical and usable for quality experts. Genichi’s idea was mainly about the routine maximization of process and product prior to actual processing rather than quality control through inspection. Reliability and quality are ensured at the designing stage. Genichi went on to break off-line quality into 3 core levels. These levels include; system design, tolerance design, and parameter design. Foster (2004) identified leadership as being core to the quality improvement process, assuming minimal difference between management and leadership. The role is of a facilitator, and the foundation is-managing by walking, allowing the leader to be in touch with clients, people, and innovation, the three primary sections in the expedition of excellence. Foster believes that, as the leader walks, three main operations are occurring: listening, facilitating, and listening; suggesting caring, able to provide instant help, and transmission of values respectively. Foster, having analyzed key American firms concluded that any smart concept to organizing had to take into account 7 variables, a framework that was designed to include both the software and hardware of a firm.

Conservative, Liberal and Marxist History

History has been understood differently by different people. While some have understood it as the study of the past events, others have defined it as a record of human actions which have occurred in the past. 1 However the variety of definitions, it should be pointed out that history does not constitute everything that happened in the past. Only those past activities which have had a bearing on the present are what may qualify to be worth history. 2 Just as there are many definitions of history, so are there many branches of history.This essay is meant to define and illustrate the importance of three of the braches of history. These include Conservative, Liberal and Marxist History. The essay is organized in two parts. The first part will provide in-depth understanding of the three terms, whereas the second part will show how important each of them is in the study of history. Conservative History is one historical interpretation of history which traces its foundation in the word â₠¬ËœConservatism’. Conservatism literary means preservation of what has always been tradition.It is an ideology which favours status quo and is very reluctant to accept change. Conservatives prefer having things continues as they have been in the past. Any drastic change to tradition is viewed with suspicion. According to this ideology, political and other human institutions have endured through ages because of tradition. For this reason, change should only be accepted very gradually. 3 Having looked at conservatism, it may now be imperative to define Conservative History as that branch of history whose writings are based on maintaining history as has always been written, without altering it.In this vein, this history favours tradition, as no perceptions or any other radical views are not emphasized. Conservative Historians may also write history not to preserve the past, but to remind society of the good olden tradition. The goal in this case, is to see societies revert back to the values of earlier times. Because of its emphasis on the value of tradition, Conservative History has always perpetuated inequalities, absolutist regimes and domination of the poor by the upper class. 4 Liberal History as the word ‘liberal’ suggests, comes from the Latin word ‘liber’ meaning ‘free’.The word therefore, has more to do with freedom or liberty. Liberalism advocates for equality of opportunity for all and allows maximum freedom to individuals while limiting the powers of government. The earliest form of Liberal History was a reaction to the conservative history, which was being considered as static. Liberal History advocated for the freedom of thought for historians as a way of ensuring the progress of humanity. Core to this branch of history is the belief that if historians are to write history which promotes progress, then historians should not be controlled in trying to seek historical truth.The past, present and future are seen as being interconnected and influencing one another. Therefore, it is not necessary to emphasize one when all the three (past, present and future) collectively shape history of humanity. According to liberal historians, it is possible to analyze history progressively rather than look at it as tradition. They totally differ with conservatives who may always want to maintain status quo in areas such as divine rights of kings and hereditary status among many others. They regard traditions as having no value other than hindering social progress.Further, they hold the view that traditions and other social practices should continually be adjusted for the benefit of humanity. In other words, Liberal History constitutes those historical accounts which are highly critical of certain traditions and cultures, referring to them as uncivilized, barbaric and primitive. 6 Marxist History’s origin may be traced to the works of Karl Marx (1818- 1853) who analyzed human history and concl uded that it was all about class struggles. 7 It is also called Radical History.Marx theorized that in every historical era, there is always a dominating class and an oppressed class, as well as a struggle between these classes. According to him, these struggles are perpetuated by the state and economic conditions such as capitalism which produces oppressed classes. He contended that capitalists will destroy engage in brutal competitive struggles with each other, thereby giving an opportunity to the exploited laboring classes to rise up against capitalism and overthrow it so that they replace it with communism.In communism, there would be no classes and economic benefits would be shared equitably. 8 Marxist History is therefore, that interpretation of history on the basis of not only social and political factors but also economic factors. Marxist historians asserted that poverty and diseases of the poor people are as a result of social classes and conditions under which peasants liv ed and worked. 9 The base of man’s problems was to be found in the division of society into classes. Therefore, in order building a society with no exploitation is only dependant on the forceful removal of the capitalist  system.At the centre of radical history is the argument that the historical analysis of man’s progress and development is meaningless unless that analysis puts into consideration the economic and social relations aspect. 10 This is unlike liberal history which only emphasizes the social and political factors in the analysis of man’s development. So far, it is clear that Marxist History differs considerably from the other two branches discussed. For example, whereas liberal history centres on man’s progress, Marxist history is more concerned with changing the world.Marxist historians advocate for a radical transformation of the economic and social conditions by removing capitalist relations. This would have to be done through a violent revolution. An example of radical historians is Paulo Freire who championed the cause of the oppressed in his book, ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’. 11 In this book, he campaigned for the liberation of the poor who had been oppressed by the dominant classes. Having discussed the three branches of history in detail, the essay will now focus on the importance of each of these branches in the study of history.Merely defining the concepts without illustrating their relevance can render futile the need to understand them (branches) in the study of history. It should be noted from the onset that while all the branches discussed may have their faults or inadequacies, they all are very relevant in the study of history. Many a time, historians align themselves with one of the many branches, and this reflects in their works. The importance of Conservative History can never be overemphasized. What is life without tradition?No society would be what it is today without the contribution of past values and traditions. Though arguable, it could be true to assert that the world has evolved into what it is today because of the good values of the past. It is for this reason that caution ought to be taken to ensure that societies and politics remain immune to temptations to change. Conservative history is premised on the old adage that ‘the devil you know is better than the angel you do not know’. The emphasis on maintaining the status quo will definitely result in continuity and stability of societies and institutions.Conservative history gives an impression that things were better in the past than they are now and that there is need to go back to the olden ways. This is especially true in the area of African education. Indigenous education was better compared to the current western education, which promotes nothing but social stratification and unemployment. The entire curriculum is so irrelevant, bookish, with very few practical subjects at selected level s of education12. However, looking into the past, it is vivid that traditional education which was offered ensured a rounded education and comprehensive preparation for real life.There was no such thing as unemployment! Owing to the fact the past was much better off than the present, conservative history plays an invaluable role in enlightening the present generations on the achievements of the past. Its stress on the need to return to the values of the earlier times has always been received positively. In Zambia for example, there are moves to ruralize the school curriculum so that it includes some of the traditional aspects which have direct relevance to societies.13 Further, tribute should be paid to conservative historians for their role in the re-writing of African History which had been greatly tarnished by some liberal historians. The first writers of African history portrayed it in a very negative way. The African ways of life were seen as heathen, barbaric, primitive, backw ard and uncivilized. 14 It had to take conservative African historians to try to erase the fabrications, omissions and stereotypes of colonial historians. By eulogizing the African past, conservative historians have made a huge contribution to the study of history.Like Conservative History, Liberal history plays an important role in the interpretation of history. The notion of the past as a continuation into the present and future is very true and important. It is very true in the sense that society is indeed dynamic. The conditions of the past may not be the same conditions now. Therefore, societies cannot afford to be static in a fast changing world. For example, in the 1970s, Zambia and many other countries were under socialist and dictatorship regimes. It worked so well that time. However, in the 1990s, a wind of change blew, and countries could not afford to remain static.Many socialist governments were toppled and replaced with more democratic and capitalist governments which espoused the principle of liberalization. The role of liberal history in promoting the progress of society cannot be overlooked. Besides, this is the only branch of history which makes it easy to analyze the past in order to understand the present and finally forecast the future. By supporting social progressivism, certain bad elements of tradition can be done away with. Such elements or practices include the divine rights of rulers, hereditary statusand other injustices. 15 In the study of history, this branch helps greatly in the understanding of present events as offshoots of past events. In addition, it is the goal of liberal history to be written from several view points as long as it has man’s freedoms at the centre. 16 This branch is very important because it allows for the different perspectives with people try to explain historical events. Without liberal history, there would only be one universal interpretation of historical facts. It concerns itself with the politi cal and social life of societies.These are very cardinal aspects of history which demand for interpretation. Marxist history has an immense contribution it makes in the study of history. As discussed earlier, this branch fills the void left by liberal history. The latter only addressed the social and political aspects leaving the economic aspect which also contributes to man’s progress in both political and social life. Though radical in nature, this branch provides a working interpretation or hypothesis of the existing social classes and consequent class struggles in man’s history.17 It is therefore, possible to understand the source of the frequent conflicts between workers and owners of the means of production. Conservative and liberal history may not answer the questions of about poverty and diseases from which poor people suffer. Yet, these are very important questions in any study of history. Radical or Marxist history hence, becomes imperative because it provide s answers to these questions. According to this branch, poverty and disease are as a result of the creation of classes based on economic factors.In other words, capitalism which is the main cause of division of societies is the base of man’s problems and exploitation. 18 Another important aspect of Marxist history in the study of history is its role in trying to change the world. This branch of history attempts to cleanse the world of the social ills and inequalities by bringing them out in the open. It therefore, advocates for a radical transformation and liberation of the poor’s economic and social conditions. Careful analysis of Marxist history offers a good explanation for the under-development of Africa.Colonialism which brought with it capitalism, is blamed for the exploitation of African human and material resources. This knowledge is important in the study of African history. It is necessary to learn how African peasants and workers were stripped of their resou rces by the greedy colonial capitalists. Throughout the colonial period (and even now), Africans did not benefit from their resources. 19 Rather, they have always been suppliers of cheap labour to the capitalists. In summary, this essay has defined three of the many branches of history, namely: Conservative Liberal and Marxist.Conservative history bases its writings on the preservation of what has been traditionally followed. It has no room for divergent and radical views other than the status quo. Liberal history on the other hand, emphasizes freedom of thought for historians as a way of promoting historical progress of humanity. It is a reaction to conservative history. Finally, Marxist history is a radical view of history which emphasizes the interpretation of history on the basis of both social and economic factors.The essay has further, illustrated the importance of each of the branches discussed. Conservative history is cardinal to the understanding and appreciation of the pas t traditions and cultures. Liberal history facilitates an understanding of present events and projection of the future through analysis of the past. Economic inequalities and problems in man’s history can be better explained by Marxist history. It is therefore, clear that historical accounts of all the three branches discussed are extremely relevant in the study of history.