ClassFlow
Class Flow: Pictures of 1950's Culture
[Free Registration/Login Required] This flipchart is an activity examining pictures of 1950's life and culture. Students are to examine different advertisements of the 1950's, movie posters and pictures. Students will record observations...
ClassFlow
Class Flow: 1950s vs. 1920s
[Free Registration/Login Required] This is an interactive Venn Diagram activity that allows students to compare and contrast the era of the 1950s with the era of the 1920s.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Us History: 1945 1980: Anticommunism in the 1950s
Learn about the Rosenberg trial, HUAC, and Joseph McCarthy.
Success Link
Success Link: Witches' Brew: Mixing the 1950s and 1690s in a Crucible
Use this lesson plan as an introduction to a study of the play, The Crucible,to help students discover the link between the supposed topic of the play and the political situation in the United States when the play was written.
Museum of Modern Art
Mo Ma: Abstract Expressionist New York
Blockbuster exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art underscores the relationship between New York City and the explosion of creative activity among the artists who lived there in the postwar period. Learn why New York became the center of...
Other
Cpsu: J. Edgar Hoover Huac Testimony
Read the testimony of J. Edgar Hoover before the House Un-American Activities Committee where he explains the destructive nature of Communists in the United States.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Huac and Hollywood
This video and support materials detail the Hollywood blacklist and House Un-American Activities Committee, chronicling the fear of Communism and resulting blacklist based on political ideology. The video is from the American Masters...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Huac: Backlash and Implications
These videos and support materials explore the intense division experienced by those who testified before and blacklisted by HUAC during the Cold War, focusing on the testimony of Elia Kazan. The videos are from American Masters None...
San Diego State University
San Diego State University: Internal Security Act of 1950 (Mc Carran Act) [Pdf]
The McCarran Act was passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate in the words of the act "to protect the United States against certain un-American and subversive activities by requiring registration of Communist...
British Library
British Library: 20th Century Teaching Resources: Sylvia Plath's the Bell Jar
These activities will provide students with an introduction to Plath that will inform their study of "The Bell Jar". They will examine the perspectives offered by two of Plath's short autobiographical prose pieces, and will also explore...
University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania: The Hollywood Blacklist
This site describes what went on in Hollywood during the Red Scare of the 1950s when many actors and directors were asked to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee about possible communist activity in Hollywood.
University of Pennsylvania
The American 50s: Mc Carran Act or Internal Security Act of 1950
Although brief, this article explains the McCarran Act and how it intertwined with the House Un-American Activities Committee in its anti-Communist hysteria.
The History Cat
The History Cat: Red Scare America
Describes the events that took place during the McCarthy Era and actions of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Ordinary Americans feared being identified as a Communist sympathizer and libraries removed books from their shelves...
Other
Modern Times: Huac and the Censorship Changes
This site looks over the influence the HUAC had on Hollywood during the Red Scare of the 1950s.
Other
Paul Yee: 'Dead Man's Gold and Other Stories' Teaching Guide [Pdf]
This teaching guide provided by Paul Yee for his book of short stories, "Tales from Gold Mountain", provides a summary of the book, discussion questions and classroom activities. The book explores the experiences of Chinese immigrants to...
Other
Bringing History Home: Segregation History
This 3rd grade unit introduces children to the history of segregation, from the end of the Civil War in 1865 through the 1940s. Its content bridges the period between slavery and the peak of the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and...
Department of Defense
Do Dea: Ap Us History: Unit 8: An Age of Confidence and Anxiety
This extensive learning module examines the United States' response to the global uncertainty and instability that followed World War II and the ways that marginalized groups challenged discrimination, and the counter-responses to their...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: 1968: A Time of Change
Explore how the events and cultural and political changes that occurred in 1968 came to represent the upheaval and dramatic changes in American life during the 1960s.
Other
Behind the Scenes: The Mc Carran Internal Security Act
Read about the origins and impact of the McCarran Internal Security Act which President Harry Truman called "the greatest danger to freedom of speech, press and assembly, since the Alien and Sedition Laws of 1798." Find out how a fear of...
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: Mc Carthyism
Read about the dangers of paranoia when exercised by people of power. The witch-hunting of the McCarthy era made rash and false accusations against supposed Communist sympathizers that affected many lives.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Fbi Stories: A Byte Out of History: The Alger Hiss Story
An account from the FBI about the Alger Hiss case in which he was convicted of perjury after the accusation of his being a Soviet agent.