Unit X - Cold War and the Modern West
PPT Review            Text Review

Unit Schedule

Date Due Pages Key Concepts to Master
4/1 943-950
  • The reasons behind the emergence of the U.S. and the USSR as global superpowers after WWII
  • How a divided Germany served to create greater tension between the superpowers
  • The ways in which the Cold War spread beyond Europe in the late 1940's and 1950's
4/7 951-957
  • The differences between the Stalin era and the Khrushchev era in Soviet History
  • What life was like behind the "Iron Curtain" during the cold war, and the role the Soviets played in making it that way
4/20 958-964
  • the reign of Charles DeGualle in France
  • the Economic Recovery of West Germany
  • reasons for the decline of the British Empire
  • working toward greater European unity
4/23 967-973 All of the aspects of the new society that emerged in western Europe and the U.S. after WWII, including:
  • the new class structure
  • the welfare state
  • new consumerism
  • new educational system and student revolt in the 1960's
4/27 977-981
  • the ways the cold war changed in the late 1970's and early 1980's
  • the differences between the Brezhnev and Gorbachev eras
  • the reasons behind the final collapse of the USSR
4/30 981-988
  • The reasons behind and the results of revolutions in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Rumania
  • The forces behind the reunification of Germany
  • The reasons behind the disintegration of Yugoslavia
5/4

Online Assignment is Due

5/5

Unit Test

Helpful Links and Online Assignment

Make sure you follow the directions carefully!!!    Visit at least five of the sites listed below and 1) explain how the topics covered fit into the Cold War at large and 2) list, in your own words, at least 4 key points you learned from visiting the site.  This assignment is due Tuesday, May 4th Click here to send your assignment electronically.

Nikita Khrushchev at CNN: Cold War The Cold War Museum The "Space Race": National Air & Space Museum
Cold War, Hot Nukes Fourteen Days: The Cuban Missile Crisis A Chronology of United Nations History
Berlin Wall Museum Mikhail Gorbachev's Official Site Time 100: Lech Walesa
Fidel Castro at CNN Newsmakers An Interesting Collection of Castro's Speeches The American Experience: Reagan
Nixon's China Game at PBS Dr. Strangelove, a true Cold War Movie Radio Free Europe: Prague Spring

Possible Essay Questions
Discuss the major sources of tension that led to a Cold War starting between the Superpowers.  What were the key events of the early years of this conflict and how did they add to the increasing tension?
What were the main factors that caused Cold War tensions to peak between 1954-1963?  Be sure to discuss specific events and individuals that clearly demonstrate these tensions.
How do evolving conditions in the 1970's and 1980's ultimately lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union and revolution across Eastern Europe in 1989?

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