Theme and Topics
Chicago Metro History Day
The annual National History Day® contest theme is designed to help you think of a topic from any aspect of local, regional, national, or world history. With this focus, you can begin to ask questions that your research will help you answer, including how your topic is significant in history.
2025 NHD Theme: “Rights & Responsibilities in History”
To celebrate its 50th anniversary, NHD’s theme will be Rights & Responsibilities in History. This year’s theme invites you to consider questions of time and place, cause and effect, change over time, and impact and significance. The key to this theme is addressing BOTH rights AND responsibilities. These are two powerful forces in history, but one does not work without the other.
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.
Explore the Theme
- Theme Narrative (PDF, excerpted from 2025 NHD Theme Book) to start thinking about the theme
- 2025 NHD Theme Book (PDF)
- “Rights & Responsibilities in History” Graphic Organizer (PDF)
- 2025 NHD Theme Overview Video: Rights & Responsibilities in History
- The NHD Theme page has even more resources
- CMHD Topics Guide page
*Please note that there is no contest requirement for CMHD projects to relate to local (Chicago or Illinois) topics. However, your teacher may put restrictions on what topics are acceptable at the classroom level.