PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Writing in u.s. History: Shaping the Postwar World
Consider how U.S. foreign policy changed in the aftermath of WWII, and analyze the philosophical, geopolitical, and economic factors that influenced these changes. In this interactive lesson from WGBH, students develop a written argument...
Digital History
Digital History: The Cold War in Developing Countries
In Europe, there was less violence in the half century following World War II then in almost any previous period of modern European history. Yet outside of Europe and North America, violent conflict became commonplace. In the decades...
Smithsonian Institution
National Portrait Gallery: The Presidency and the Cold War
View videos, photograph, and renderings of American presidents and their foreign counterparts in this image-rich examination of the post-World War II environment and the cold war that followed it. Includes a review of key foreign-policy...
Columbia University
Columbia University: Structural Realism After the Cold War [Pdf]
In his article "Structural Realism after the Cold War", Kenneth N. Waltz examines the growth of liberal democracies following World War II and the Cold War and this growth's effects on nation-building in the twentieth century. (37 pages)
Rutgers University
Rutgers Oral History Archive
This archive records the personal experiences of the American men and women who served on the homefront and overseas during World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War. Also offers resources on the men and women who...
Other
Ithaca College: Project Look Sharp: Soviet History Through Posters
[Free Registration/Login Required] Multi-unit curriculum kit on the history of the Soviet Union told in five episodes using Soviet posters as source material. Coverage includes the birth of the Soviet Union, Stalin, the Great Patriotic...
Digital History
Digital History: World War Ii and Japanese American Relocation [Pdf]
This lesson plan is from a unit that covers the period from the Second World War up to the Cold War. It looks at Japanese aggression in China and Indochina prior to and during World War II, the quandary in the United States of whether or...
Digital History
Digital History: The Yalta Conference [Pdf]
This is a very extensive look at the Yalta Conference. Find the problems addressed at the conference, the enumerated possible solutions, the positions each of the Big Three leaders held, and the actual results of the conference. Included...
Digital History
Digital History: War in Europe [Pdf]
This site is from a unit that covers the period from the Second World War up to the Cold War. It looks at the course of the war in Europe, and America's involvement after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It examines the military strategies...
Digital History
Digital History: From Wartime Allies to Cold War Enemies [Pdf]
This timeline traces the devolution of the relationship between the United States and Soviet Union from the end of World War II, where these two countries were allies, albeit suspicious of each other, and almost a year after the end of...
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: The Cold War Erupts
World War II ended in 1945 and the Cold War began immediately. Read about the mistrust Western Europe and the United States felt towards the Soviet Union and Joseph Stalin. Learn how the Soviets expanded their realm of influence and...
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Woodrow Wilson Center: Digital Archive: Cold War Origins
This collection of primary source documents discusses international relations during World War II and the years shortly after. It begins with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed in 1939 and ends with documents from the 1950's. The...
Library of Congress
Loc: America's Story: The Modern Era
For a brief overview of the period after World War II until the present, visit this Library of Congress resource. Learn about the Cold War and the first man to walk on the moon.
Other
St. Martin: Iron Curtain 1945 1947
This article discusses the development of the Soviet Union's Communist buffer zone after World War II and its evolution into the Iron Curtain of the Cold War.
CommonLit
Common Lit: Text Sets: The Cold War
This is a collection of 16 Grade-Leveled texts (6-12) on the topic The Cold War. After America and the Soviet Union fought as allies in World War II, a new "cold" war emerged between the two superpowers characterized not by direct...
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: America's History in the Making: Postwar Tension and Triumph
Comprehensive teaching unit on tensions of the Cold War era: conflicts between domestic prosperity and unfulfilled expectations, ideals of conformity and individualism. Contains video and text materials, web interactives, student...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Us History: 1945 1980: Start of the Cold War the Yalta Conference
Learn how the end of World War II contributed to the rise of the Cold War.
Digital History
Digital History: Postwar America: 1945 1960
Chapter focus on the political, social, and economic events following World War II. Examines both foreign and domestic issues, including the origins of the Cold War and Civil Rights movements.
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: The Election of 1960
Read about the campaign and election of 1960 in which the Democratic candidate, Senator John F. Kennedy, ran against the Repbulican candidate, Vice-President Richard M. Nixon. Find out about the issues, the famous debates, and Kennedy's...
Other
Parallel History Project: Nato and the Warsaw Pact
Provides documentation and further information about the development of NATO and the Warsaw Pact during the Cold War, their mutual threat perceptions and military plans, and their significance for our time.
Other
Nuclearfiles.org: Chronology on Decision to Bomb
This detailed chronology of the events and communication of 1945-1946 shows Truman's role in the process of the decision to drop the world's first atomic bomb used in warfare upon Hiroshima and then the second upon Nagasaki. Also...
Curated OER
Wikipedia: Featured Image: Landsort Lighthouse
Landsort Lighthouse (view from east), Stockholm archipelago's most southern point. During the Cold War and World War II was Landsort a military base for the Swedish coastal artillery.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Primary Source Set: The Atomic Bomb and the Nuclear Age
A collection that uses primary sources to explore the Atomic Bomb and the Nuclear Age it started.
Library of Congress
Loc: Churchill and the Great Republic
An interactive online exhibit about Churchill's life and especially his relationship with the United States.