David Halberstam's The Fifties: "Selling The American Way" - YouTube
1997 History Channel documentary based on David Halberstam's book. Part 3 of 8
16: 1950s Early Cold War
Lessons on the early cold war
I Feel Like Saying A Beatnik Poem 1950's B Movie Style -
Clip from the 1958 teen B movie High School Confidential. This clip features Phillipa Fallon as a beat poetess. Perfect for teachers looking for a "Do Now" lesson introduction to a beatnik lesson, counter culture lesson (when did it start?), or 50s conformity lesson (did everyone conform?)
Herbert Hoover 1960 Republican Convention Address - YouTube
How many of us realize that Herbert Hoover was still alive in 1960? Here's his address at the Republican convention in Chicago in 1960
JFK Library — JFK and the Blue Bomb
The "Blue Bomb" was a pamphlet printed by Civil Rights activists on blue paper before the 1960 presidential election. It was not sponsored by the campaign (although some in the campaign knew about it). This marks efforts to mobilize the African-American vote for Kennedy in 1960
Origins of the Cold War graphic
Delete that 40 slide presentation and save your voice. Give this to students and have them write questions they have all over it. Have Ask them to circle words or phrases they find suspicious (like, for example, "confusion over the war agreements", confusion? really?), then have them divide research and conquer. Add/edit based on their research. To close it up just give them a five minutes "essentials" description of the Cold War. Done with context - this opens the door to doing real history work with them
Doug Engelbart Archive - Doug Engelbart Institute
There are few people whose vision of the future was more accurate than Doug Engelbart. In the early 50s he envisioned personal computers with a graphic interface with which people would use a mouse and a keyboard to not only research and read, but manage their every day life, pay bills, keep shopping lists, get directions. He envisioned hyperlinked knowledge, allowing people to move between multiple sources of information, and add to it in the process
1940s Bike Girls: Stunning Photos of Female Motorcyclists From 1949
Here's a dare to teachers who insist on only presenting students with the narrative canon's "50's housewife conformity" myth - share these pictures with your students. Ask your students how their understanding of the period changes when this evidence contradicts your notes slides.
Chance for Peace, by Dwight Eisenhower, April 16, 1953 (Speech)
Ike speech following the death of Stalin makes an argument for shifting money from the military to infrastructure and food.
The Cold War Primary Source Documents | The American Yawp Reader
Primary source collection
FBI Records: The Vault — Extra-Sensory Perception Part 1 of 1
This primary document serves the purpose of proving a point about the past that few, if any, would believe without it. These documents evidence the FBI's interest in people reported to have extra-sensory perception or the ability to teach the blind to see.
The Lavender Scare: Gay and Lesbian Life in Post-WWII America | Facing History and Ourselves
11 minute video describes the attempts to purge the US military and federal government of gay and lesbian employees
Are you, or have you ever been, a homosexual? - Lessons from History - Secondary Source Reading
Article that traces the role of underground publications in the 1950s
Superman: A Classic Message Restored | DC
DC Comics started to publish public service messages using its characters. In the now-famous Superman comic, he tells students that making fun of someone because of their religion, race or national origin is "un American". It was printed on book covers, then republished recently
One, Incorporated v. Otto K. Olesen, et al. [Civil Case 18764]
This was the first U.S. Supreme Court ruling to deal with homosexuality and the first to address free speech rights with respect to homosexuality. The Supreme Court reversed a lower court ruling that the gay magazine ONE magazine violated obscenity laws, thus upholding constitutional protection for pro-homosexual writing.[1]https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/241/772/441041/
Were Suburbs Good for America?
This 8th grade history lesson is from C3 Teachers and New York State. It does not reference the language from the deed buyers signed when they purchased a home in Levitown - “The tenant agrees not to permit the premises to be used or occupied by any person other than members of the Caucasian race. But the employment and maintenance of other than Caucasian domestic servants shall be permitted.”
Justice Network - Integrating Levittown 1957
This site provides a collection of videos, articles and primary source evidence in the form of documents and film documentaries made in 1957 regarding events related to a black family moving into a suburb in Pennsylvania. This destroys the canon's conformity narrative
50th Anniversary of the Missile Gap Controversy | JFK Library
Two words, "Missile Gap" appear as bullet points on teacher's slides and are described in Cold War lectures and study guides with certainty> Some teachers will teach their students that there was a gap. Others won't take that stand but mention that it was an issue in the 1960 presidential campaign - this transcript of a forum discussion among historians, even if it is merely skimmed, shows the deep complexity of that topic hidden beneath two simple words. Not telling students about this complexity, ignoring it exists, is an act of academic malpractice
Red Nightmare (1962) - YouTube
Jack Webb (Dragnet) plays a Rod Serling-like role as he introduces us to Jerry Donovan – an average guy who shrugs off his inconvenient, civic responsibilities. Jerry “wakes up” in a communist-controlled town, where he's the only American left. This film was produced for the Defense Department by Warner Brothers
Crisis in Levittown, PA - YouTube
Nine minute period film focusing on black families moving into Levittown PA. Many interviews with people living in the town
Levittown - US History Scene
This Man Is the Father of Modern American Suburbia - YouTube
2 1/2 minute Smithsonian video focusing mostly on the need for housing and the process through which they were built
Building Suburbia: Highways and Housing in Postwar America | NEH-Edsitement
As usual, there are at least a dozen lesson in this one lesson from Edsitement. And, as usual, they are all worthy of a teacher's attention to find an effective approach for that 50s suburbia lesson
Nuclear Testing Chronology
Although there are many lessons on the dropping of the Atomic Bombs in World War II, the "Duck and Cover" Civil Defense films and the Cuban Missile Crisis, few students understand the magnitude of the Nuclear Arms race. This chart showing the number of tests of Nuclear powers should be included in every such lesson
The geography of nowhere (1993 edition) | Open Library
This book would have implications for suburbia lessons of the 1950s. Worth checking out for a short reading passage to demonstrate the dark side of suburban living
The People Machine - CHM
Students should know how computer analysis of voting data and advertising were first used in the 1950s
How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future | The New Yorker
Replace a tired-old Kennedy-Nixon Debate lesson with this relevant reading. This shows how computing power was used to analyze data sets for the 1960s presidential campaign
Quiz Show Scandal - Decades TV Network - YouTube
Five minute summary of the Quiz show scandals of the 1950s, could fit well in a 1950s television lesson
Was the Cold War the Biggest Change in Russia’s Relationship with the West? | History Today
IT is better to have students read four historians analyze the Truman Doctrine than to read a textbook or digital textbook description of it
"The Constant Reiteration of Horror and Violence": A Senate Report on Television and Juvenile Delinquency