Adams, Mark

Students will look at how the atomic bomb changed the world politically, socially, technologically and economically.

Students will learn about the conditions in Greece and Turkey during the Cold War and learn about Truman's response through the Truman Doctrine

Students will examine "Independence and the Opening of the West" by Thomas Hart Benton. They will analyze its content, use visual thinking strategies and draw conclusions about the art work.

Students will examine motives for dropping the atomic bomb and then evaluate the decisions made.

President Truman recalls many of the successes and problems of the Potsdam Conference and the postwar world in his diary entries and letters to his wife, Bess Wallace Truman. Students are given the opportunity to examine these unique documents and argue about their validity as primary sources while learning about the Potsdam Conference.

The Truman administration was no stranger to the sneers and jeers of political cartoonists. Facing such controversial issues as the desegregation of the armed forces, dropping of the atomic bomb, the cold war, the fair deal, the Republican takeover of Congress, and the 1948 presidential campaign, political and editorial cartoons were commonplace. President Truman, no matter how scathing, always professed a fondness for the cartoons and became an avid collector of them in his post-presidential years.

This activity asks students to review online materials related to the Berlin Airlift and to investigate the site to complete their activities. 

Using the primary sources provided, students will work in groups to evaluate four options available to President Truman to end the war in Japan and to end the Second World War.

Document analysis focused on the Holocaust and the Truman Administration

Poster analysis and production focusing on George Marshall and The Marshall Plan