National Archives senior curator Stacey Bredhoff looks at the process involved in compiling the touring National Archives exhibit "Eyewitness," which focuses on eyewitness accounts of events from World War II, the Holocaust, the Vietnam War, and the Civil Rights' Movement's Bloody Sunday March at Selma.
Scholar Jeffrey Matthews explores the life of Alanson B. Houghton, American industrialist, politician, and diplomat (to Germany, 1922-1925, and to Great Britain, 1925-1929). Houghton uses this exploration to examine U.S. foreign policy between World War I and World War II, citing Houghton's criticism of policy under Presidents Harding and Coolidge.
Audio and video options are available.
According to the Apple Learning Interchange site, "The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and the National Park Service present a sobering visit to the Manzanar War Relocation Center. This National Historic Site provides a compelling classroom to relive the experience of Japanese Americans held captive during World War II, as well as the plight of countless nationalities who face discrimination and intolerance still today. This is a tale of the indomitable Issei and Nisei generations. Watchers can learn through the emotional memories of survivors, and the invincible cheers of detainees at baseball games that still echo across the desert valley.
From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website:
"Most discussions of the Vietnam War consider whether or not President John F. Kennedy could or would have withdrawn U.S. troops from the country, thus avoiding a long and bloody conflict. In this lecture, John Prados, a senior fellow of the National Security Archive in Washington, D.C., argues that America's path to Vietnam was set long before Kennedy took office. Near the end of World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt allowed the French to maintain a foothold in Indochina (as Vietnam and its neighbors were then known). By the 1950s, when France began to cast its battle with Vietnamese nationalists as a fight against communism, the United States was already, irrevocably drawn in."
Pulitzer-Prize-winning author and history David M. Kennedy discusses American participation in World War II, looking at its perception as "the Good War" and in what ways the war could be considered a "good war"—particularly in its consequences for the U.S. He details the atmosphere in the U.S., both politically and popularly, following the war.
Professor Eric Foner traces the development of the concept of "freedom" in the U.S., beginning with the nation's founding and continuing up to 2005 (the present day at the time of the lecture). He focuses on race relations and fights by minorities for civil liberties as focus points for the definition of freedom.
Professors John W. Dower and Charles S. Maier contrast previous U.S. foreign policy events and relations with the current situation in Iraq, focusing on the U.S. occupation of Japan following World War II and the Marshall Plan designed to stop the spread of Communism in Western Europe.
The Old Fort Niagara State Historic Site preserves Fort Niagara, founded in 1726. The majority of structures on site date from the 18th and 19th centuries. The fort is strategically located at the mouth of the Niagara River. As a result, it was crucial to deciding American dominance in the Great Lakes Region, as opposed to control by the French or British. Both the British and French controlled either the fort itself or the site of the fort at various points of time. Soldiers lived and trained on site for both World Wars. The fort also shaped the history of the Iroquois. Collections include more than 102,000 artifacts.
The site offers period rooms, student programs, guided tours for students, school overnight programs, school outreach programs, and school distance learning programs. The website offers a virtual tour.
In 1778, General George Washington ordered Fort Mifflin, built in 1777, to hold off the British Navy while the Continental Army traveled to its encampment site at Valley Forge. While the Continental soldiers were eventually forced to abandon the fort, Washington and his troops were able to reach their destination thanks to the soldiers' efforts. Since, the fort has served as a War of 1812 garrison, Civil War prison, and a munitions depot for both World Wars. Today, the fort contains 14 restored structures, the originals of which were built between 1778 and 1815.
The fort offers tours; weapons demonstrations; cannon firings; overnight Scout programs; and educational programs on the U.S. flag, the Revolutionary War, and the Civil War.
Professors Lawrence J. Vale, Thomas Kochan, and J. Phillip Thompson discuss issues related to the destruction of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina and the recovery of New Orleans. Vale looks at past urban disasters and how these cities have changed and recovered; Kochan contrasts Franklin D. Roosevelt's response to Pearl Harbor with Bush's to Katrina; and Thompson looks at racial tension in New Orleans, prior to and after the hurricane.