The American 1950’s: The Literature and Culture of the American 1950’s
http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/home.html
A great way to understand past societies is to look at their popular literature and culture. This website, maintained by Al Filreis, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, offers a large collection of such insightful documents. Listed alphabetically (roughly), the collection draws from many different kinds of sources. The list includes music, court proceedings, newspaper articles, books, scholarly journals, short stories, plays, photographs and many commentaries and historical analyses of the same. This website could be well used in finding supplementary material for lesson plans on 1950’s American society and culture. Search the list either by simply browsing through it, or use the find function on your web browser. There are a lot of great resources to be found on this site!

Cold War: From Yalta to Malta
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/
Cold War: From Yalta to Malta, brought to you by CNN, explores the Cold War experience from many different angles. This website allows the visitor to explore the culture of the time (represented in movies and books), technology (how the space and arms race gave birth to the digital revolution), espionage of the time, and the bomb (and its consequent effects). Included one can find interactive maps, rare video footage, declassified documents, biographies, picture galleries, timelines, interactive activities, book excerpts, and an educator's guide. In the “Educator’s Guide” section on the website is information pertaining to different aspects of the Cold War, like Geography, Chronology, Maps, Cold War Culture, and Other Cold War Sites. This website was created as a companion site to the CNN documentary series of the same name, and would be an effective teaching tool in the classroom.

Fourteen Days in October: The Cuban Missile Crisis
http://library.thinkquest.org/11046/index.html
“The closest the world has come to nuclear war was the Cuban Missle Crisis of October 1962. The Soviets had installed nuclear missiles in Cuba, just 90 miles off the coast of the United States. U.S. armed forces were at their highest state of readiness…This site provides as in-depth account and analysis of the Crisis.”
The Cuban Missile Crisis is both an important and compelling event in the history of the Cold War. This student-developed website is an excellent resource in better understanding the events surrounding this near-disastrous moment in history. The contents of this website are divided into many different sections. The “Crisis Center” is the best place to start and gives a fairly good overview of the events surrounding the crisis. ȁThe Players” section gives an equally good overview of the individuals involved. An excellent selection of primary documents can be found in “The Situation Room,” and the “Recon Room” and “Briefing Room” provide important maps, satellite photos and audio clips. In all, this site offers a deep breadth of information in many different forms and media. The primary resources are the most valuable aspect of this site and greatly enhance the already useful text provided. This site could be incorporated into a classroom assignment and a multiple choice Quiz is even provided to test the inquirer’s knowledge of the Cuban Missile Crisis. (BR)

The Leonard Bernstein Collection: ca. 1920-1989
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/lbhtml/lbhome.html
“The Leonard Bernstein Collection is one of the largest and most varied of the many special collections held by the Library of Congress Music Division…”
In association with the music division of the Library of Congress, The Leonard Bernstein Collection consists of more than 400,000 items such as manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, recordings, and many more various documents. With a small selection of photographs (84) from the 1920s through the 1980s, this site offers a chance to view our country’s changing history through the life of this composer, writer, conductor, and teacher. One area of particular interest is the correspondence section that contains more than 15,500 letters, notes, telegrams, greeting cards, and post cards.

The National Security Archives
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/
“Located on the seventh floor of the George Washington University's Gelman Library in Washington, D.C., the Archive is designed to apply the latest in computerized indexing technology to the massive amount of material already released by the U.S. government on international affairs, make them accessible to researchers and the public, and go beyond that base to build comprehensive collections of documents on specific topics of greatest interest to scholars and the public.”
The project provides digital images, primary documents, audio/visual releases, and well-written, well-researched essays on a wide variety of topics. Students and teachers desiring more information on post-World War II events can access the website and examine materials on such topics as the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, foreign affairs during the Nixon Administration, United States relations with Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq, and select topics in the history of modern nuclear warfare.

Teachers’ Domain: Civil Rights Special Collection
http://www.teachersdomain.org/special/civil/preview
“In 1954, the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education declared segregated schools unconstitutional and sparked a decade of groundbreaking civil rights activism and legislation. Using archival news footage, primary sources, and interview segments filmed for Eyes on the Prize, this collection captures the voices, images, and events of the Civil Rights movement and the ongoing struggle for racial equality in America.”
This free collection of audio/visual and textual resources could be of tremendous value in the classroom. This collection spans decades of the Civil Rights movement and provides timelines, images, background information and video clips. These short (3-5 minutes on average) video clips come from a variety of sources and cover many important aspects of the Civil Rights era. If teachers have Internet access and multi-media capabilities in the classroom, many of these videos could be used in a highly effective manner. With the inherent emotional nature of the topic, seeing video footage and live interviews can bring this topic alive for students and leave a lasting impact upon them. The resources can be accessed via an interactive timeline or by subject categories provided on the opening page. In addition to these resources there are a few lesson plans that help in integrating the website into classroom use. This website is free, but does require a quick and easy registration. This resource is highly recommended as a supplement to any discussion or lesson plan on the Civil Right movement.

Truman and Eisenhower—Korean War 1950-1953
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/korea
“This page is a joint project between the Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Libraries developed to provide access to Korean War materials related to the two administrations occupying the White House during that period.”
The Korean War is sometimes referred to as the Forgotten War, the War before Vietnam, or the Unknown War; however, it had a major impact on the Cold War. Truman and Eisenhower—Korean War 1950-1953 informs browsers of the importance of Korea through primary documents, essays, narratives, oral histories, and images, all of which are easily accessed. The Truman and Eisenhower Presidential Libraries work in combination with the National Archives and Records Administration to bring this material to the public. Moreover, the webpage designers included links to other valid sites. Needless to say, if a browser is looking for a solid, comprehensive site about the Korean War, this is an excellent place to start.