Popular TV as a Historical Medium

This lesson is designed for high school students and seeks to help students gain an understanding on how popular TV can be used as a primary source. Furthermore, the lesson will also demonstrate to the students how societal discussions often find themselves in popular media. Students will have background on the 1960s including Civil Rights, 2nd Wave Feminism, and the Cold War with an emphasis on the escalation in Vietnam.

Students will be grouped up and given an episode from Star Trek the Original Series to analyze in relation to the context they already have on the 1960s. The class will then come back together to share their findings and have a broader discussion on using TV as historical sources.

Sources

“Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”

“Turnabout Intruder”

“Private Little War”

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