Lesson Plan
Stanford University

Stanford History Education Group: Cold War

For Teachers 9th - 10th
[Free Registration/Login Required] A comprehensive social studies unit honing in on the Cold War. Students will rely on various resources covering topics like the Cuban Missile Crisis, Truman and MacArthur, and the Korean War, to analyze...
Primary
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Wilson Center Digital Archives: Cold War History

For Students 9th - 10th
Presents a historical survey of the cold war by using documents. Explores the documents through an interactive site as a pathway through history.
Primary
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Wilson Center: Cold War History

For Students 9th - 10th
A large collection of documents from the Cold War era.
Unit Plan
CommonLit

Common Lit: Duck & Cover: School Drills During the Cold War

For Students 5th - 6th Standards
CommonLit.org is a wonderful resource to use in a Language Arts classroom. Each story or article is accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. In addition, students can click on words to see...
Interactive
Made From Media

Made From History: The Cold War: 1945 1991 Timeline

For Students 9th - 10th
This interactive timeline takes learners through the Cold War using images and an animated chronology of events throughout the 50 years.
Primary
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Woodrow Wilson Center: Digital Archive: Economic Cold War

For Students 9th - 10th
This is a loosely related collection of primary source documents that discuss economic issues during the Cold War period. These documents are all varied in topic and geographical coverage, ranging from the 1950s to the 1980s, and coming...
Website
Victoria and Albert Museum

Victoria and Albert Museum: Cold War Modern: Design,1945 70

For Students 9th - 10th
Museum exhibition canvasses the design of the cold war period. The focus of the exhibition is on making the connections between artistic production of the time and the era's prevailing political and social ideas.
Primary
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Woodrow Wilson Center: Digital Archive: Intelligence Operations in the Cold War

For Students 9th - 10th
A collection of primary source documents that discuss intelligence issues during the Cold War. The documents come from archives in many different Soviet bloc countries. They are mainly decision memorandums, descriptions, agreements, and...
Handout
CommonLit

Common Lit: Text Sets: The Cold War

For Students 9th - 10th
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...
Primary
Mount Holyoke College

International Relations: Communist Bloc Expansion in the Early Cold War

For Students 9th - 10th
This Mount Holyoke college site provides the text of Douglas J. Macdonald's "Communist Bloc Expansion in the Early Cold War: Challenging Realism, Refuting Revisionism."
Handout
Columbia University

Columbia University: Structural Realism After the Cold War [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
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)
Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: The Presidency and the Cold War

For Students 9th - 10th
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...
Graphic
Flow of History

Flow of History: The Start of the Cold War (1945 48)

For Students 9th - 10th
The events leading up to the Cold War are profiled. Text plus a graphic flow chart format make the topic visually appealing and of interest to both students and educators.
Interactive
Other

George Bush Presidential Library Foundation: Cold War Dare

For Students 9th - 10th
A Cold War strategy game where you must make critical decisions about how much the United States should support the burgeoning democratic movement in Eastern Europe at the risk of provoking the ire of the Soviet Union. Has three levels...
Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: The Presidency and the Cold War: John F. Kennedy

For Students 9th - 10th
The National Portait Gallery explores the actions of presidents during the Cold War. Here find President Kennedy's decisions during the Berlin Crisis, the building of the Berlin War, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Watch a video of...
Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: The Presidency and the Cold War: Dwight D. Eisenhower

For Students 9th - 10th
This site from the National Portrait Gallery explores presidential actions during the Cold War. Click on Dwight D. Eisenhower to see how the Cold War was developing and being handled during his presidency. Find out about the Communist...
Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: The Presidency and the Cold War: Franklin Roosevelt

For Students 9th - 10th
This extensive site from the National Portrait Gallery explores presidential actions in relation to the Cold War from the Yalta Conference to the presidency of George H.W. Bush. Click on Franklin Roosevelt to find out about the decisions...
Activity
National Archives (UK)

National Archives Exhibit: The Cold War

For Students 9th - 10th
This resource enables the viewer to explore various events and topics of the Cold War through learning games, primary documents, and a tour through an interactive bunker.
Handout
Flow of History

Flow of History: The Height of the Cold War (1957 72)

For Students 9th - 10th
The events surrounding the Cold War at its very height are the focus. Text plus a colored graphic flowchart make the topic visually appealing and of interest to both students and educators.
Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: The Presidency and the Cold War: Harry Truman

For Students 9th - 10th
The National Portrait Gallery explores presidendtial actions in regard to the Cold War. Click on Harry Truman to see what actions and decisions he made during his term of office. Read about his meeting with Joseph Stalin at Potsdam, the...
Activity
Other

Phs: Section 4: Eisenhower's Cold War Policies [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
A chapter from a Glencoe textbook which covers Eisenhower's Cold War actions. Read about his ideas for massive retaliation, the military hardware necessary for the Cold War, the international crises occurring during his presidency, and...
Graphic
Flow of History

Flow of History: The Early Years of the Cold War

For Students 9th - 10th
The early years of the Cold War & how it affected the main players...Germany, USA, Russia, Asia...is profiled. Text plus a colored graphic flowchart make this topic visually appealing and of interest to both students and educators.
Unit Plan
Thinkport Education

Thinkport: Write Now: Case Study: Mc Carthyism and the Cold War

For Students 9th - 10th
Students are tasked with researching and writing an informative article about McCarthy and the Cold War. The overarching concept is focused around how one person was able to influence the political and social arena during the time of the...
Website
Curated OER

Cbc.ca: Comfort and Fear Cold War Canada

For Students 6th - 8th
Following the end of WW11, relations between the Soviet Union and the USA turned hostile and negative. Canada quickly became involved in the Cold War. An overview of this period of spying, propaganda, communist paranoia, and even...

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