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
