In class/homework: Microteach the Cold War

Date assigned
Tuesday, Jan. 8


Assignment
Each person in your group will teach the rest of the group about one conflict in the Cold War:

#1 - Berlin Blockade (1948-49)
#2 - Korean War (1950-53)
#3 - Suez Crisis (1956)
#4 - Berlin Crisis (1961)
#5 - Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)

While researching your conflict, answer the following questions:

- Which countries were involved in your conflict?  What was each country's interest in your conflict?

- What were the root causes of your conflict?

- What happened during the course of your conflict?

- What did this conflict have to do with the big issues in the Cold War (communism vs. capitalism, United States vs. Soviet Union)?

- Were people killed during your conflict?  If so, who was killed, and why?

- How did your conflict end?  Did anyone win?  If so, who won, and what did they win?

Prepare a 1-page handout to give each of your group members for them to follow along with while you teach (you will also turn in a copy of this handout). 

Due date

Be prepared to teach your group about your conflict on Tuesday, January 15.


Resources

Berlin Blockade
http://www.history.com/topics/berlin-blockade
http://www.coldwar.org/articles/40s/berlin_blockade.asp
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/peopleevents/pandeAMEX49.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/airlift/timeline/timeline2.html

Korean War
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/history/us-history/v/korean-war-overview
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/coldwar/korea_hickey_01.shtml
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/peopleevents/pandeAMEX58.html
http://www.history.com/topics/korean-war


Suez Crisis
http://www.history.com/topics/suez-crisis
http://www.economist.com/node/7218678
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/modern/suez_01.shtml
http://www.unac.org/peacekeeping/en/un-peacekeeping/fact-sheets/the-first-missionsuez-crisis-1956/

Berlin Crisis
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/berlin.htm
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2011/fall/berlin.html
http://www.foia.cia.gov/BerlinWall/Essays/BerlinWallOverview.pdf
http://future.state.gov/when/timeline/1946_cold_war/berlin_crisis.html

Cuban Missile Crisis
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/history/us-history/v/cuban-missile-crisis
http://www.history.com/topics/cuban-missile-crisis
http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/Cuban-Missile-Crisis.aspx
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/cubanmissilecrisis

In class: "Fog of War" free write

Date assigned
Thursday, January 3


Assignment
Watch a clip from the documentary "Fog of War" about former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (found here) from 30:11 to 43:14.  Do a free write for 8-10 minutes on the following questions that Robert McNamara asks during the film:

1) In order to end a war, should you kill 100,000 civilians in a single night?

2) What makes it immoral if you lose, but not immoral if you win?


Due date
Thursday, January 3, end of class

Homework: Losing the War

Date assigned
Thursday, January 3


Assignment
Read, highlight/underline, and annotate Lee's Sandlin's essay, "Losing the War," about World War II.  Answer the following questions in no less than 2 typed, double-spaced pages:

1) Sandlin says that the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor "a defining moment" in the lives of Americans in 1941, with the assassination of John F. Kennedy similarly defining the lives of Americans in 1963.  What has been the defining moment of your life as an American?  Ask your parents the same question, and record their answer: what has been the defining moment of their lives as Americans?

2) Consider the way Sandlin portrays American journalism during World War II.  Why did journalists have such a difficult time describing the war accurately and truthfully?

3) What happened at the Battle of Midway?  Why does Sandlin say it should not have been called a battle?

4) Why does Sandlin say the Allies invaded Italy in 1943?

5) What did the US think would happen when they invaded the Japanese island of Okinawa?  What actually happened?

6) Even though the Battle of the Bulge was an Allied victory, Sandlin says that was the moment when many civilians and Allied soldiers "finally lost hope."  Why was this the case?

7) Why weren't Germany and Japan more realistic about their situations?  Why were both countries so committed to fighting to the bitter end even though it was increasingly obvious they were going to lose?

8) Why do World War II veterans (including Sandlin's father) dislike telling war stories?


Due date
Thursday, January 10, beginning of class.

Supplemental challenge: Reading list

Africa
What is the What, by Dave Eggers
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda, by Philip Gourevitch
King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa, by Adam Hochschild

World War I
Johnny Got His Gun, by Dalton Trumbo
The Guns of August, by Barbara Tuchman
Memoirs of an Infantry Officer, by Siegfried Sassoon
A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway

World War II
The Pacific War: 1931-1945, by Saburo Ienaga
The Rape of Nanking, by Iris Chang
Band of Brothers, by Stephen Ambrose
Hiroshima, by John Hersey
D-Day, by Stephen Ambrose
Hiroshima: Why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb, by Ronald Takaki

The Holocaust
The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak
The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945, by Wladyslaw Szpilman
The Complete Maus, by Art Spiegelman
Survival in Auschwitz, by Primo Levi
The Painted Bird, by Jerzy Kosinski

Cold War
The Cold War: A New History, by John Lewis Gaddis

Colonialism/Imperialism/Neo-colonialism
Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change, by Stephen Kinzer
Confessions of an Economic Hitman, by John Perkins

Homework/in class: "Night and Fog"

Date assigned
Thursday, Dec. 13


Assignment
Watch "Night and Fog" (found here).  Type a response to the film - at least 1 page, double-spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font.  If you have a difficult time thinking of something to write about, here are some possible topics:

- What is evil?

- What image in this film shocked you the most?

- How is this film different from other Holocaust films you've seen or books you've read?  How is it similar?

- Is the narrator biased?  Should he be?

- Can this happen again?  If yes, how?  If no, why not?


Due date
Email it to me sometime before midnight on Friday, Dec. 14 at jreinhol@pps.net

Project: Propaganda

The propaganda project instructions can be found here.

Homework: Soviet purges under Stalin

Date assigned
Tuesday, Dec. 4


Assignment
Read Soviet purges under Stalin (found here).  Highlight/underline and annotate the document.


Due date
Thursday, Dec. 6