The art and craft of teaching
This Google Forms Quiz goes through several major events of the Cold War. It should offer an assessment of where students are in their knowledge of the Cold War including key dates, conflicts, social movements, and political developments. The target group for this quiz are 11th and 12th grade high school students.
WWI-era Poster
WWII-era Poster
WWII-era Poster
Background: During WWI and WWII posters were made both by the US government and private advertising agencies commissioned by the government in support of the war effort. The role of women changed dramatically during the course of these two global conflicts as the needs of modern warfare dominated the industrial landscape and millions were sent off to fight in theaters around the world. Women began to fill roles traditionally held by men; first in factories and businesses and then in the services themselves in support roles.
Question 1: What stereotypes appear in these posters and which are being challenged?
Question 2: Who is the intended audience for these posters?
Question 3: Why were these posters made? What can we say about the needs of the war effort and their impact on the American Workforce?
Instructional Goals and Model Answers:
Learners will take their understanding of the time period and evaluate what is being expressed in these posters and photographs. The learner will explain through short answer responses on their perspective of what is happening in these images.
Response 1: In the first poster we see women being reduced to playing dress up and in a child-like manner exclaim that they want to be soldiers. The understanding being that it is ludicrous and unfeminine for a woman to be in the services, but she longs to contribute due to her patriotism. The real subtext here is that men should be enlisting in the war. That it is their duty as both Americans and as men to fight. In failing to do so their masculinity is being called into question. The next two images from WWII show how much has changed when it comes to women in the war effort. We see in the first image the perfect American war family; no longer is it the son’s duty to fight; but the daughter’s duty to enlist and do what she can. In the second image we see what a woman is expected to do; technical support work – using her knowledge to help the war effort – but not be in actual combat.
Response 2: The first poster’s expected audience is definitely for men who have yet to enlist. The overall tone of the poster is that men are needed to fight and if they fail to do so they are less masculine. It could be suggested that a secondary audience is patriotic women who could influence men they know to enlist. In the second poster the audience expands to men, women, and even older generations of parents. Older generations were needed to encourage and support their daughters in the war effort and that it would be a point of pride for a family to have their daughters join the WAC – Women’s Army Corp and other organizations. In the last image college educated women are the target audience. Their knowledge and expertise was needed as the war effort taxed the manpower of every sector of the economy and military organizations.
Response 3: Human resources during both conflicts were pushed to their limit. Modern warfare required millions of people to participate as soldiers, as laborers in factories and assembly plants, and to replace the millions of workers who enlisted. In WWI, especially in the beginning of the conflict, an isolationist America was averse to joining the European powers in their bloody conflicts, yet millions of troops were needed. In WWII human resources were taxed even more in line with the scale of the conflict. Women were needed to fill roles as there simply not enough men to do so. Practicalities of the war effort knocked down many stereotypes of women were considered capable of.
Context: American Progress by John Gast was painted in 1872 and depicts an angelic woman, Columbia – the personification of the United States, moving west across the continent.
Icebreaker Prompt: Analyze this painting. What symbols can be found in this work. What was John Gast, trying to express with this painting? What might it reflect of American Society’s views on expansion for the time?
Response: Columbia is depicted leading a host of white settlers and explorers, while Native Americans and bison flee before her. She holds in her hands a telegraph wire and we see railroads, stage coaches, and wagons trailing in her wake. Perhaps most notably Columbia is seen a being of light which she brings with her from the east while before her is darkness.
From this painting we are lead to believe that American Expansion is an almost holy experience. The angel of American Civilization tames the land and drives away the “savage”. For Americans at the time Manifest Destiny, the expansion west and the development of the land for economic exploitation, was a birthright.
Context: “A Trifle Embarrassed” by Keppler, Udo J. for Puck Magazine from 1898. Print shows Uncle Sam and Columbia standing at the entrance to the “U.S. Foundling Asylum” as a basket of crying children labeled “Puerto Rico, Cuba, Hawaii, [and] Philippine” is presented to them by arms labeled “Manifest Destiny”. Within the walls of the asylum are four children labeled “Texas, New Mexico, Cal. [and] Alaska” playing together.
The caption at the bottom reads: “Uncle Sam: Gosh! I wish they wouldn’t come quite so many in a bunch; but, if I’ve got to take them, I guess I can do as well by them as I’ve done by the others!”
Icebreaker Prompt: Look at this cartoon and come up with a series of questions you have about what you see.
Response:
Context: Union Army General during the Civil War and then 18th President of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant, is seen here as a juggler while standing on a cigar box titled Habana. He is juggling rings with the names of potential U. S. possessions and spheres of influence written on them. Rings include Canada, Mexico, Honduras, Chile, Peru, and Brazil. The large ring on the right has United States of America written on it and includes the rings Alaska, Texas, Washington Territory, Arizona, New Mexico and California.
Icebreaker Prompt: With a partner draw a map or a cartoon that depicts the US sphere of influence. Then discuss how you think all these territories relate to America’s Manifest Destiny.
Response:
How Germany’s borders have changed over the course of the 20th century.
Context:
Germany did not unite into a nation state until much later (1871) than many of its European neighbors. Germans for centuries had settled across much of central and eastern Europe establishing communities in neighboring Poland and Bohemia (present day Czechia) and as far east as the Ukraine and the Baltic states.
Context:
Following WWI the German Empire and its monarchy were dismantled and disposed. Territories were lost to France and Poland in Europe that had significant communities of German people. Poland was given a corridor to the sea and the city of Danzig (Today known as Gdansk) was made a free city by the League of Nations due to its mixed population of German and Polish citizens.
Context:
Following WWII Germany lost its ability to manage its own affairs. In the west Britain, France, and the United States were the occupiers; while the state of Saarland, under French pressure and influence became an independent territory. In the East the Soviet Union became the main occupation force. Due to Soviets taking large portions of Polish territory in the east, much of what was eastern Germany, those areas East of the Oder River, was awared to Poland. The heart of the former German state of Prussia became an exclave of the Russian SSR. Millions of Germans were expelled from these areas and they were forced to move to the new German border.
Context:
Millions of Germans were displaced due to both the destruction of cities and to the seizing of territory and the expulsion of ethnic Germans by the Soviet Union in the east.
Context:
Over the course of the 41 years that Germany was divided into East and West, millions of East Germans fled from their communist government into West Germany. Following the construction of the Inner German Border and the Berlin Wall these numbers were greatly reduced. Those that did manage to escape often chose the divided capital of Berlin as the city was a bastion of Western Democracy surrounded by the communist east. If refugees could make it into West Berlin they could then be moved into Western Germany proper.
Context:
Due to years of economic stagnation and political mismanagement East Germany began to quickly crumble in 1989. A loosening of restrictions of the East German government sparked a series of events that would lead to the free movement of citizens both within the country and more importantly into the West. The Berlin Wall would eventually be opened and then torn down, becoming the precursor to reunification of East and West in 1990.
Questions:
