Website Spotlight: The War

Website URL: http://www.pbs.org/thewar/

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 (I also use this particular website extensively in an upper-division course covering World War II) 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 the following links:

A. AT HOME

1. War Production
http://www.pbs.org/thewar/at_home_war_production.htm

2. Communication

a. News and Censorship
http://www.pbs.org/thewar/at_home_communication_news_censorship.htm

Fireside Chats

b. Letters and Diaries
http://www.pbs.org/thewar/at_home_communication_letters_diaries.htm

Good material about V-Mail

c. Propaganda
http://www.pbs.org/thewar/at_home_communication_propaganda.htm

3. Family
http://www.pbs.org/thewar/at_home_family.htm

Rosie the Riveter
War Rationing and Stamps

4. Civil Rights

a. Japanese Americans
http://www.pbs.org/thewar/at_home_civil_rights_japanese_american.htm

b. African-Americans and Mexican-Americans
http://www.pbs.org/thewar/at_home_civil_rights_minorities.htm

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B. AT WAR

1. Life in the Infantry
http://www.pbs.org/thewar/at_war_infantry.htm

Use the right-hand sidebar to click through the personal recollections.

2. Face of Battle

a. Training
http://www.pbs.org/thewar/at_war_battle_training.htm

b. Combat
http://www.pbs.org/thewar/at_war_battle_combat.htm

Sidebar: Role of Medics

c. Aftermath
http://www.pbs.org/thewar/at_war_battle_aftermath.htm

Where American war dead are buried

Sidebar: Daniel Inouye: Even a decorated soldier in uniform experienced racial prejudice back home.

3. Timeline (by year: 1939-1945)
http://www.pbs.org/thewar/at_war_timeline_1939.htm

Good photos as you click through each year.

4. Fighting for Democracy

a. Japanese Americans
http://www.pbs.org/thewar/at_war_democracy_japanese_american.htm

b. African Americans
http://www.pbs.org/thewar/at_war_democracy_african_american.htm

Daniel Inouye: Transfusions of African-American blood saved his life.

c. Latino and Native Americans
http://www.pbs.org/thewar/at_war_democracy_latino.htm

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C. BATTLES

Access these excellent compilations from the Search menu page:
http://www.pbs.org/thewar/search.php

Pearl Harbor
The Philippines (Bataan)
Guadalcanal
North Africa
Sicily and invasion of Italy
The Air War
Tarawa
Italy (Monte Cassino)
Italy (Anzio)
D-Day (June 6, 1944)
Normandy
Saipan
Philippine Sea (Marianas Turkey Shoot)
Northern Italy (442nd/100th RCT)
Holland (Operation Market Garden)
Peleliu
Hurtgen Forest
Vosges Mountains (The Lost Battalion)
Philippines (Leyte Gulf)
Battle of the Bulge
Iwo Jima
Firebombing (Germany and Japan)
Okinawa

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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 module on the wiki:
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/World+War+II

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 

Website Spotlight: WWII: Behind Closed Doors

Website URL: http://www.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/

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 (I also use this particular website extensively in an upper-division course covering World War II) 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 the following links:

Episode 1 - Unlikely Friends
http://www.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/episode-1/index.html

Stalin's Pact with Hitler
Terror in Eastern Poland
Stalin Ignores Warnings
Operation Barbarossa
Stalin Allies with the West
The Battle for Moscow
A Problem with Poland
Setback — A Defeat at Kharkov
Molotov Presses for a Second Front

Episode 2 - Cracks in the Alliance
http://www.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/episode-2/index.html

Hitler Attacks / Churchill Negotiates
The Battle of Stalingrad
Stalin – A Hero in the West
The Battle of Kursk
The “Big Three” Finally Meet
The Red Army Re-enters Poland
Warsaw Resistance Fighters Rise Up
A Conference in Quebec

Episode 3 - Dividing the World
http://www.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/episode-3/index.html

Churchill’s Secret Proposal
A Grand Deception in Poland
The Red Army Captures Budapest
The “Big Three’s” Final Meeting
Europe War Ends, Tensions Mount
The Potsdam Conference
A Devastating New Weapon
Stalin Persecutes His Comrades
The Cold War

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Maps:
http://www.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/maps/index.html

Stalin Stands Alone
Struggle for Poland
Prelude to the Cold War
Supplying the Allies
The Conferences

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In-Depth:

1. Uneasy Allies
http://www.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/in-depth/uneasy-allies.html

Three Allies, Three Sets of Objectives
Negotiations at the Allied Conferences
The Inevitable Postwar Tensions

2. The Conferences
http://www.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/in-depth/the-conferences.html

Atlantic
Casablanca
Quebec, 1943
Cairo
Teheran
Yalta
Potsdam

3. Supplying the Allies
http://www.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/in-depth/the-conferences.html

The U.S. Lend-Lease Program

4. Struggle for Poland
http://www.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/in-depth/struggle-poland.html

5. Stalin’s Spies and Secret Police
http://www.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/in-depth/stalins-spies.html

6. Stalin Stands Alone
http://www.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/in-depth/stalin-stands.html

Germany Invades Soviet Union
Siege of Leningrad
Battle of Stalingrad

7. Prelude to the Cold War
http://www.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/in-depth/prelude-coldwar.html

8. Katyn Massacre
http://www.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/in-depth/katyn-massacre.html

9. Governments in Exile
http://www.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/in-depth/govt-exile.html

10. Fighting with the Allies
http://www.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/in-depth/fighting-allies.html

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Timeline:
http://www.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/timeline/index.html

Integrates Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt, World Events, World War II events.

Use the vertical scroll bar to move through the timeline.

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Biographies:
http://www.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/biographies/index.html

Stalin
Churchill
Hopkins
Marshall
Molotov
Zhukov

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Snapshot Lesson: [This one is good]:

Supporting the Allies: The Lend–Lease Act

http://www.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/education/snapshot-lessons/lendleaseact.html

http://www.historians.org/projects/GIRoundtable/Lend_Lease/LendLease1.htm

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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 module on the wiki:
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/World+War+II

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 

Website Spotlight: Benjamin Franklin (PBS)

 

Website URL: http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/ 

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.

++++++++++

Begin with this:

~Ben A to Z (Ben's Interests and Achievements)
http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/az.html

Then work through each of the following links:

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CITIZEN BEN:
http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l2_citizen.html

1. Networker
http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_citizen_networker.html

2. Firefighter
http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_citizen_firefighter.html

3. Founding Father
http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_citizen_founding.html

4. Abolitionist
http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_citizen_abolitionist.html

5. Insurance Ben-efactor
http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_citizen_insurance.html

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WIT AND WISDOM:
http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l2_wit.html

1. Name That Ben: [be sure to click on "Silence Dogood" and read Ben's first Silence Dogood letter]
http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_wit_name.html

2. Read All About It [click on "Apology for Printers"]
http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_wit_read.html

3. Master Marketer
http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_wit_master.html

4. Franklin Funnies
http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_wit_franklin.html

5. Self-Improvement
http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_wit_self.html

~Take Ben's Virtue Quiz
http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/exp_virtue.html

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INQUIRING MIND:
http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l2_inquiringmind.html

1. Glass Armonica [click on "Hear a Mozart composition"]
http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_inquiring_glass.html

2. Health
http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_inquiring_medical.html

3. Weather Wise
http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_inquiring_weather.html

4. It's The Little Things [Ben's Various Inventions]
http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_inquiring_little.html

5. Mesmer
http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_inquiring_mesmer.html

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WORLD OF INFLUENCE:
http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l2_world.html

1. Celebrity
http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_world_celebrity.html

2. Agriculture
http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_world_agriculture.html

3. Man of Letters
http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_world_letters.html

4. France
http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_world_france.html

5. Spies
http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_world_spies.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/Colonial+Era
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/Road+to+Revolution
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/Revolution
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/Constitution

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 

Website Spotlight: Africans in America

Website URL: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html

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.

++++++++++

We can access the rich material in this website by four time periods:

• Part 1: 1450-1750
• Part 2: 1750-1805
• Part 3: 1791-1831
• Part 4: 1831-1865

I find that Part 4 works well for my slavery module. Here is how it is laid out on the site.

+++

Part 4: Judgment Day (1831-1865)

I. Narrative:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/narrative.html

Introduction
Map: From Coast to Coast
Antebellum Slavery (see below for my specific assignment)
Abolitionism
Fugitive Slaves and Northern Racism (see below for my specific assignment)
Westward Expansion
The Civil War

II. Resource Bank:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/index.html

People and Events
Historical Documents
Modern Voices (comments by historians)

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With my class, I focused on two specific sections from Part 4, asking the students to work through the following links:

1. ANTEBELLUM SLAVERY

Introductory Narrative
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4narr1.html

Conditions of Antebellum Slavery
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2956.html

Fanny Kemble and Pierce Butler
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p1569.html

Butler Island
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2920.html

The Weeping Time
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2918.html

H. E. Hayward and slave nurse Louisa
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h3140.html

Slave quarters on St. Georges Island
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h1540.html

James Horton on antebellum slavery
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4i3104.html

Nell Irvan Painter on soul murder and slavery
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4i3084.html

William Scarborough on antebellum slavery
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4i3101.html

Margaret Washington on Butler Island and slave life
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4i2968.html

+++

2. FUGITIVE SLAVES AND NORTHERN RACISM

Introductory Narrative
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4narr3.html

The Underground Railroad
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2944.html

Race-based legislation in the North
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2957.html

Harriet Jacobs
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2923.html

Harriet Tubman
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p1535.html

Slave narratives and Uncle Tom's Cabin
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2958.html

Anthony Burns captured
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2915.html

David Blight on slave narratives and Uncle Tom's Cabin
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4i2986.html

Margaret Washington on Harriet Jacobs
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4i3089.html

~~For reviews of the Africans in America website:

History Matters (The U.S. Survey Course on the Web)
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4921/
TeachingHistory.org (National History Education Clearinghouse)
http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/website-reviews/14637

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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 module on the wiki:
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/Slavery

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 

Website Spotlight: The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century

Website URL: http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/

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.

++++++++++

I ask the students to work through the following links:

I. Trenches

The Trenches: Symbol of Stalemate
http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/chapters/ch1_trench.html

The Trenches: What they were really like
http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/historian/hist_fussell_03_trenches.html

American Troops in the Trenches [David Kennedy]
http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/historian/hist_kennedy_03_troops.html

II. Maps 
Check out the animation built into the maps
http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/maps/

Europe in 1914
http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/maps/index.html

Outbreak of War
http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/maps/maps_outbreak.html

Gallipoli
http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/maps/maps_gallipoli.html

The Western Front in 1918
http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/maps/maps_western.html

III. Effects of the Great War

"Then and now: the Shaping of the 21st Century"
http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/thenandnow/

The Great War Today [Jay Winter]
http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/historian/hist_winter_23_today.html

The Lusitania [Jay Winter]
http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/historian/hist_winter_12_lusitania.html

Gallipoli: A Turkish Perspective
http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/historian/hist_tuncoku_01_gallipoli.html

Gallipoli: An Australian Perspective
http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/historian/hist_wilson_04_gallipoli.html

Gallipoli: An Intelligence Screw-up
http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/historian/hist_winter_07_gallipoli.html

Voices of the War: Gallipoli and Armenian Genocide
http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/chapters/ch2_voices2.html

++++++++++

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 module on the wiki:
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/World+War+I

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 

Website Spotlight: Lewis and Clark

Website URL: http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/

The following parts of this website are those I use in class:

The Corps
http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/inside/idx_corp.html

To Equip an Expedition
http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/inside/idx_equ.html

Circa 1803
http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/inside/idx_cir.html

Native Americans: Introduction
http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/native/index.html

The Journals
http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/archive/idx_jou.html

Sacagawea
http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/living/idx_4.html

York's Experience
http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/living/idx_5.html

Into the Unknown:

Introduction
http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/into/index.html

Play Game
http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/into/idx_game.html

Interactive Trail Map
http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/trailmap/index.html


Kudos and Website review:

Lewis and Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery (PBS Ken Burns)
http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/website-reviews/22867

Best of History Web Sites: http://www.besthistorysites.net/

Website Spotlight: Conquistadors

Website URL: http://www.pbs.org/conquistadors/

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.

++++++++++

Click on Cortes.
http://www.pbs.org/conquistadors/cortes/cortes_flat.html

To explore the Cortes segment of this website, click on each of the nine icons in the left sidebar.

Within each of the nine categories outlined below, click on each of the three subheads listed at the top of the screen.

1. Aztec Empire: [1517-1519: First Contact]
A Fragile State
Hernan Cortes
Yucatan Expedition

2. Cortes Expedition: [February 1519, Cortes defies the Governor]
Expedition force
Malinche
Cortes route

3. Montezuma's Messengers [April 20, 1519: A Display of Force]
Royal greeting
Montezuma II
Human sacrifice

4. From Explore to Conquer: [Cortes burns his boats]
Stunned Aztecs
Lust for gold
Queztalcalatl

5. Spaniards in Tenochtitlan: [November 1519: The most beautiful thing in the world]
Tenochtitlan
Spanish eyewitnesses
Montezuma's speech

6. Cortes Seizes Power [November 1519: Montezuma arrested]
Spanish horror
Aztec people
Marketplace

7. War Breaks Out [June 1520: Massacre at Tenochtitlan]
Massacre eyewitness
Montezuma's death
Noche Triste

8. Siege of Tenochtitlan [December 1520: Siege, Starvation, & Smallpox]
Cortes letter
The great rash
Siege eyewitnesses

9. Fall of the Aztecs [The Last Stand: An Aztec Iliad]
Fall eyewitness
Aztec lament
Cortes fate

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Learn more about the Aztecs:
http://www.pbs.org/opb/conquistadors/mexico/mexico.htm

A. Montezuma and the Aztecs
Aztec Life and Times>>[more--7 pages]
The Aztec Empire>>[more]--4 pages

B. Cortes and the Spanish
The Promise of the New World>>[ more--3 pages]
Cortes the Conquistador>>[more--3 pages]

C. Legacy of the Conquest
Two Worlds Meet>>[more--6 pages]
Cortes' Legacy>>[more--6 pages]

++++++++++++++++

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 module on the wiki:
 http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/Exploration

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