Website Spotlight: MacArthur

Website URL: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/macarthur/

Introductory Note:

Welcome to one in a series of posts which spotlight quality websites that I use with my U.S. History survey course students at Azusa Pacific University to enrich the regular material in our learning modules.

In this post, I limit myself to those specific aspects of the website which I find fit particularly well within our face-to-face class sessions (each student is required to bring a laptop to class) or as the basis for the students' regularly-assigned written reactions.

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I ask the students to work through most of the following links:

1. Interview transcripts. It is hard to choose only a few from this terrific array of interviews. Enjoy!
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/macarthur/filmmore/reference/interview/index.html

2. Primary Sources. These all can be used in different spots in my U.S. History survey course.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/macarthur/filmmore/reference/primary/index.html

a. The letters "From Mother's Pen" are striking.

Here is her biographical sketch.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/macarthur/peopleevents/pandeAMEX109.html

b. Several of MacArthur's speeches are classics:

Old Soldiers Never Die
The Corps, and the Corps, and the Corps (Duty, Honor, Country)

3. The "Online Poll" of whether President Truman should have fired MacArthur can facilitate some spirited class discussion.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/macarthur/sfeature/versus.html

4. Bataan Death March
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/macarthur/sfeature/bataan_capture.html

5. Maps
The interactive maps are particularly well done. Maps from three different wars (WWI, WWII, and Korea) remind us of MacArthur's lengthy career. The Korean War maps beat anything I have seen elsewhere.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/macarthur/maps/koreaintro.html

6. Bonus March
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/macarthur/peopleevents/pandeAMEX89.html

7. MacArthur's father's role in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/macarthur/peopleevents/pandeAMEX87.html

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Concluding Note:

I hope you will use this blog post in conjunction with both the modules on my Learning Professor wiki and the numerous other posts in my Website Spotlight series.

1. The website spotlighted in this post fits within the following U.S. History survey course modules on the wiki:
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/World+War+II
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/Cold+War

2. The other blog posts in my Website Spotlight series--chronologically displayed by U.S. History survey course module-- can be found on this wiki page:
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/WEBSITE+SPOTLIGHT