April 29

IB 30/35

I gave you back your Paper 3 on the Civil Rights Movement today. We watched a video from the US History series that covered U.S. Politics from 1980-2000. While the video was playing, you were supposed to take notes. We also did some exercises related to Paper 1.

Social 30-1

You wrote your Chapter 7 Cold War Exam today. You'll get the results back tomorrow. Please remember that your Unit 2 Final Exam is on Thursday, May 2nd. Please see the study guide here (scroll down to find it).

Social 20-1

We finished our film study of "Gandhi" today. The film study questions (the content questions) are due on Thursday. I have bumped the due date for the Unit 2 Research Project until Monday, May 6th because I forgot to send out the rubrics.

April 26

IB 30/35

I delivered a lecture on the Clinton Administration today, which took most of the class period. I have posted this PowerPoint presentation and the George H.W. Bush presentation on the IB 30/35 wiki in the American Presidents section. We didn't have time to continue with the Clinton documentary today, and we won't on Monday either. If you wish to continue watching it, you can find a link to the PBS American Experience website on the Presidents.

Social 30-1

You were given most of the period to work on your Chapter 8 Key Terms and Questions, which are due on Monday. Some of you used the time that you given very effectively, others not as much. Please remember that you have your Chapter 7 Cold War Exam on Monday, April 29th. you can find the study guide for this exam here (scroll down to find it). The Unit 2 Final Exam is on Thursday, May 2nd, please see the study guide here (scroll down to find it) .

Social 20-1

I returned some homework checked work at the beginning of the class. We continued our film study of "Gandhi" today. We should be able to finish this film off on Monday. Please make sure that you are keeping up with the questions. This is your last weekend to work on your Unit 2 Research Project, which is due on Tuesday, April 30th.

April 25

Social 20-1

You were supposed to hand in your background information on India questions today. We started our film study of "Gandhi" today. I don't think that we'll be able to finish it off tomorrow. In all likelihood, we'll finish this film on Monday. Please remember that your Unit 2 Research Project is due on April 30th.

Social 30-1

We finished watching "Good Night, and Good Luck" today. Your film study questions are due tomorrow. The film study for this is due on Thursday. "Good Night, and Good Luck" contains a few powerful scenes that I will post here on the blog.



This film explores a lot of issues that are relevant to today. You also have to understand the political climate at the time in the United States to fully understand the movie. Many Americans were drawn to communism in the 1930s due to the effects of the Great Depression, especially academics and those in the labour fields. In the movie they made reference to friends and spouses that had attended meetings long ago. The "Red Scare" caused a huge backlash against those sympathetic to communism or the USSR. Remember, during WWII the Soviet Union was an ally, and many people may have attended meetings out of curiosity. The junior Senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy in 1950 charged there were communist sympathizers in the U.S. State Department. Hearings were held, charges were discovered to be unfounded. McCarthy continued accusing communist infiltration in the Democratic Party. McCarthy became the chairman of the House Subcommittee on the investigation of un-American activity (HUAC). On December 2, 1954, McCarthy’s actions were called into question and his accusations were deemed unfounded. On Murrow's show "See it Now", he begins to publicly go after McCarthy. A very public feud develops when McCarthy responds by accusing Murrow of being a communist. Murrow is accused of having been a member of the leftist union Industrial Workers of the World, which Murrow claimed was false.
In this climate of fear and reprisal (which we now refer to as McCarthyism), the CBS crew carries on and their tenacity ultimately strikes a historic blow against McCarthy. Historical footage in the movie also shows the questioning of Annie Lee Moss, a Pentagon communication worker accused of being a communist based on her name appearing on a list seen by an FBI infiltrator of the American Communist Party. In the first half of the film Murrow talks about how McCarthy didn't create the political climate and anti-Communist hysteria sweeping the country, but that he capitalized on it for political gain very effectively. As David Strathairn (playing Murrow in the film says, "We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep in our history and doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes which were, for the moment, unpopular. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of the Republic to abdicate responsibility.") The film is framed by the performance of the speech given by Murrow to the Radio and Television News Directors Association in 1958, in which Murrow harshly admonishes his audience not to squander the potential of television to inform and educate the public. I found this short video on YouTube that spliced together Edward R. Murrow's speech that appears at the beginning of the film and continues at the end of the film. I find that this speech has relevance even today when you talk about the level of discourse in the media.




Your Chapter 7 Test (The Cold War) is on Monday, April 29th, please see the study guide below. Your Unit 2 Final Exam is on Thursday, May 2nd, please see the study guide here.

Chapter 7 Test Study Guide:

It is a multiple choice test with 70-75 multiple choice questions. Please make sure that you have read Chapter 7. Here are some other study tips:

• study "The Origins of the Cold War (ppt)"
• study all notes on the Origins and Causes of the Cold War
• study notes on the Korean War
• study notes on the Cuban Missile Crisis
• study notes on the Vietnam War (see notes package and Vietnam War booklet, and the notes that I sent to you on the Vietnam War)
• make sure that you know all the Cold War Concepts
• know the chronology of events of the Cold War (study the Cold War timeline and the Vietnam War timeline, and the end of the Cold War timeline that I will be giving you in subsequent class)
• know key events that we've emphasized in class (for example: Berlin Airlift, Korean War, Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam War) plus other key events from the timeline
• know major arms reduction agreements (bilateral agreements and multilateral agreements)
• know about the formation of alliances (NATO, Warsaw Pact) and the formation of "spheres of influence"
• anything that I gave you as a handout is testable material and should be reviewed!!
• know how the Cold War ends and its results/consequences

IB 30/35

We finished off the George H.W. Bush Administration today. I will post my PowerPoint lecture on the wiki tonight. We also started to watch part of the Clinton documentary from the American Experience series on "The Presidents". There's a link to these videos on the wiki in the American Presidents section. You'll probably have to watch these videos directly from the PBS website. I will try to lecture on the Clinton Administration tomorrow (if my voice holds out).

April 24

Social 30-1

We started looking at the film "Good Night, and Good Luck" today in class. This film explores McCarthyism in the early 1950s. The film study that I provided you with also has a film review (if you are having a hard time understanding the film so far, it might be a good idea to read this over tonight), and some study questions and some discussion questions. This film definitely has relevance in today's world (which we'll be talking about more tomorrow and in Unit 3 of the course). Hopefully, we'll finish off the film tomorrow, and be able to have a short discussion period of some of the issues the film raises. In all likelihood, the study questions from the film study will be due on Monday. Please remember that you have your Chapter 7 Exam (Cold War Exam) on Monday, April 26th and your Unit 2 Final Exam on Thursday, April 29th. Please see the study guides for both exams here (scroll down to find the study guides).

Social 20-1

I gave you a reading from Pulitzer Prize winning writer Samantha Power today. I would like you to read her article entitled "Never Again-The World's Most Unfulfilled Promise". I will also be sending you a PowerPoint presentation on other genocides that have occurred in the 20th century. We have now moved on to another topic in Unit 2, that being a case study of the Indian independence movement. I gave you a background reading booklet and a case study booklet. You were given the entire class period to complete the "Background and Colonial Period for India" section questions in the case study booklet. These questions will be due tomorrow. We'll begin our film study of "Gandhi" tomorrow.

IB 30/35

We finished off the HBO documentary on Ronald Reagan today, and then we started looking at his successor George H.W. Bush.