Why study the cold war?
This unit is important to all students. The unit I have done is on Containment strategies during the Cold War, focusing on key major events that exemplify both strategies employed by the United States. It is important to study this unit because much of what is being taught in this lesson has shaped much of the political thinking that is utilized in foreign policy, diplomacy, and politics today.
The big ideas include the policy of containment itself; which is better? passive or active containment of the Soviet Union. The unit questions students to answer the type of diplomacy that the U.S. should have utilized during the Cold War. It will also feature multiple opportunities for students to argue, debate, and simulate. The primary sources that are worth examining in this unit are George Kenna's Long Telegram, NSC-68, and Nikolai Novikov's Telegram to the Kremlin. These three documents exemplify the two major policies of containment that the U.S. employed against the USSR as well as Novikov's version of what he believes the United States' policy will be. These three documents are especially important to the Cold War as it shaped the many events occurring during this time. It gives students are great opportunity to corroborate and understand fully what these three documents mean. Here, we get multiple perspectives of what the United States foreign policy should be.
However, this unit goes beyond foreign policy to cover domestic problems of the United States. One of the major lessons during this Unit is covering the McCarthy Hearings. Although this unit is based on foreign policy, the reason it covers a domestic issue like the McCarthy Hearings is because it has to due with outside influences from Soviet Russia.
This unit is essential to 11th grade U.S. history and is definitely required for all students to study. It leaves students with a bolstered knowledge in subject knowledge and improves on their abilities to think, read, and write critically. These skills are essential in higher learning (college). Studying this unit will help all students advance their skills in order to succeed in future classrooms.
The big ideas include the policy of containment itself; which is better? passive or active containment of the Soviet Union. The unit questions students to answer the type of diplomacy that the U.S. should have utilized during the Cold War. It will also feature multiple opportunities for students to argue, debate, and simulate. The primary sources that are worth examining in this unit are George Kenna's Long Telegram, NSC-68, and Nikolai Novikov's Telegram to the Kremlin. These three documents exemplify the two major policies of containment that the U.S. employed against the USSR as well as Novikov's version of what he believes the United States' policy will be. These three documents are especially important to the Cold War as it shaped the many events occurring during this time. It gives students are great opportunity to corroborate and understand fully what these three documents mean. Here, we get multiple perspectives of what the United States foreign policy should be.
However, this unit goes beyond foreign policy to cover domestic problems of the United States. One of the major lessons during this Unit is covering the McCarthy Hearings. Although this unit is based on foreign policy, the reason it covers a domestic issue like the McCarthy Hearings is because it has to due with outside influences from Soviet Russia.
This unit is essential to 11th grade U.S. history and is definitely required for all students to study. It leaves students with a bolstered knowledge in subject knowledge and improves on their abilities to think, read, and write critically. These skills are essential in higher learning (college). Studying this unit will help all students advance their skills in order to succeed in future classrooms.