Just for fun we thought we’d include these commercials from the mid-1960s. Who doesn’t enjoy retro commercials?
Organizing troops and war goods during WWII, 1943
This 10 minute video “Troop Train” shows the amazing coordination needed for carrying out a successful campaign during WWII. Transporting troops and supplies was not just a challenge overseas, but at home too. This would be great to show students the inner workings of the war effort.
Major Causes of the Great Depression
This 26 slide mini-ppt reviews the major causes of the Great Depression. We have posted it on SlideShare for your convenience. You can download it from there, or from our Free Downloads page.
If you would like to see more on the Great Depression and New Deal, please check out our 177 slide PowerPoint on the 1930s.
Major WWII battles chronology lesson
We discussed for many hours how best to organize our latest World History WWII PowerPoint. Do you break it up by theater or chronology? We ultimately decided to do it by year, but would love to hear from teachers who teach it by theater to see how that works.
We created a lesson based on the major battles of the war, having students organize them in chronological order. Here are the questions and answers, let us know what you think!
Anti-imperialism cartoon
There are a wealth of cartoons on the subject of imperialism, both in favor and against. Common images in favor depict the conquered as children who need guidance from a wise parent nation. Anti-imperialism cartoons tend to focus on the atrocities committed against the conquered.
What we liked about this cartoon is that it forces the reader to be faced with the treatment of people in the United States. This cartoon not only speaks to the climate of American imperialist fever at the turn of the 20th century, but it also commentates on the situation for African Americans at home.
We have included questions and answers along with the cartoon.
Cold War Era Propaganda Film, 1949
This 1949 movie is designed to convince Americans the capitalist system is superior to all others in the world. Workers make enough money to buy products, have leisure time, and save money. Labor is the key to making the American way possible for all in the U.S. It is an interesting look at the simplistic ideas of the Cold War Era.
Please note, there is a racist referral to Chinese workers as “coolies” at around the 4 minute mark.
Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo carve up the world
This political cartoon created during WWII shows a bleak future for the world if the Axis Powers were triumphant. Political cartoons provide so many opportunities for dialogue on the given topic. The artist’s bias, as well as the chosen symbols allow students to view the issue from different perspectives not usually evident in photographs or documents.
We have included questions and answers for your classroom use.
USSR attacked by Nazis in 1941, Molotov speech
Reading historical speeches is an interesting exercise. Often times we learn history through second or third parties, usually with their own bias involved in the retelling. Primary source documents are straight from the horses mouth, so to speak. It is important especially for students to be exposed to these firsthand accounts so that they realize how accessible history truly is.
This speech, given by Vyacheslav Molotov on June 22, 1941, was a reaction to the unexpected Nazi attack. The background to the story of course is that the Non-Aggression Pact signed between the two nations in 1939 was merely a convenient stalling tactic for Hitler to avoid a two front war and Stalin to be more readily prepared to fight. Neither nation expected to remain allies, as they both had their sights on the same territory, aside from being bitter enemies for other reasons as well.
In researching for our WWII PowerPoint, we came across a few gems which will be our theme for the next couple of days.
Please click for the speech, as well as some classroom ready questions and answers.
The Westward Movement of the American Pioneer, 1870
This video reenacts the experience of pioneers in 1870, following the Carter family from Illinois to the Midwestern plains. Each family member is described, linking them to the experiences of the other early white settlers in the region. They meet another family on their journey and hang around the fire together, talking and playing the fiddle. Next, they run into cattlemen who believe the Great Plains exist for grazing, not farming. The narrator describes the hard work needed to plant a crop of corn and settle into a sod house, which is built with help from a neighbor. Their new life revolves around planting, tending, and harvesting their crop. The scarcity of resources is described in order to show the deliberacy of each action taken by the family. Music is an important part of the lonely life on the Plains, and it unites neighbors and keeps up the spirits of the family in their hard life.
Although we have not included this video in any of our PowerPoints, if you interested in more about the western experience, please view our Westward Movement and The West: 1865-1900.
Casualties in American wars
The United States has been involved in many entanglements over the years for various reasons, however the result is always the same, the death of young men doing their duty for our nation.
Whether people agree with the reasons for entering or exiting a conflict, all can agree that the loss of life is a tragic event.
This chart is included in a few of our PowerPoint presentations, as a way of illustrating the human cost of wars in general and the Civil War in particular.
We have included some questions that can used with the chart.
