This document addresses the importance of teaching contemporary history. The failure to teach contemporary history leaves students ill equipped to deal with the present and the future, and also ensures that they will have little interest in the history of other times. Because memory is the central organizing principle in peoples minds, the…

In this lesson, high school students read quotes and relate them to events that took place in the 1960s. Provided are the quotes, discussion questions, and suggestions for class activities. (RM)

Realizing that the Cold War is a topic that often is neglected as time runs short at the end of a school year, a group of University of Kansas (Lawrence) educators sought to create effective classroom materials for secondary/community college instructors to teach about the Cold War. The group's main goal was to create a flexible model that…

This student handbook provides an overview of the Klondike Alaska Gold Rush of 1897-98. The unit was designed for junior high school students but can be modified for different grade levels. A vocabulary list and worksheet accompanies the unit, along with a time line and map activity. A group activity requires students to work in teams to get their…

The work of 17 major photographers who documented farm life in America during the 1940s is being presented in an exhibition entitled "Roy Stryker: U.S.A., 1943-1950." Launched at the International Center of Photography, New York, in May 1983, the exhibition will be touring nationally through 1985. Sample photographs are included. (RM)

This curriculum unit is the final volume of a four-part series. Noting that the humanities reveal the values and beliefs that underlie social, political, and economic institutions, the unit contends that the study of other countries and their histories may be greatly enriched by a humanities approach that draws on the fields of literature,…

This unit is one of a series that represents specific moments in history from which students focus on the meanings of landmark events. The events of 1945 are regarded widely as a turning point in 20th century history, a point when the United States unequivocally took its place as a world power, at a time when Americans had a strong but…

Examines the influence of Karl Marx's writings on Adolf Hitler, and asks whether there was a causal nexus between Russian and Nazi atrocities. Uses primary sources as a method for historical comparison. Compares Hitler's writings on antisemitism with those of Marx. (NL)

Compiled by historians, the documents and speeches in this volume span 5 centuries of thought in the United States. These documents represent the full scope of U.S. history, from the earliest settlements, through the western expansion, to the era when the United States became a world power. The book contains materials by Coronado, William Penn,…

This lesson plan for use with high school students presents excerpts from a press conference that President Eisenhower held in 1954 dealing with his domino theory and U.S. foreign policy concerning Indochina. In addition to the excerpts, discussion questions and ideas for student research projects are provided. (RM)

Contends that the electronic generation of documents in modern offices will transform the nature of archives and, therefore, the techniques of historical research. Discusses advantages and disadvantages for historical researchers. Urges historians to express their concerns about these issues to the wider scholarly community. (CFR)

This lesson describes President Woodrow Wilson's struggle with and his ultimate failure at achieving lasting world peace through the League of Nations. The lesson focuses on November 23, 1923, the eve of the fifth anniversary of the Armistice that concluded World War I, when a frail and ill Wilson was ready to deliver a commemorative address by…

Presents instructional materials and suggestions for using primary source documents regarding Admiral Peary's search for the North Pole. Cache notes were brief dispatches left for the press in ice hutches along with provisions and maps. Includes a photocopy of a cache note from Peary's expedition with suggested research topics and activities. (MJP)

This unit begins by examining the problem of rural poverty in China in the 1940s. A variety of solutions attempted by the Chinese government between the mid 1940s and the present all aimed at the improvement of peasant living standards in the countryside. Because 80 percent of China's people are peasants, the Chinese Communist party saw the…

This unit of study focuses on the historic period from 1920 to 1966 when China's Mao Zedong and India's Mohandas Gandhi constructed and applied their social and moral visions to their respective nationalist movements. These leaders developed contrasting methods to achieve social change and to establish the goals set for achieving the ideal…