Thursday, July 19 | Hardship and Hope: The Great Depression of the 1930s
Reading: Chapter 22, Created Equal
Complete Quiz 7 by midnight on Friday, July 20

Friday, July 20 | Surviving the Dust Bowl
Film: Surviving the Dust Bowl (0:52:31) | watch here
Portfolio Question 1) Thousands of farmers moved to the Southern Plains during the first three decades of the twentieth century. Drawn by rich, affordable land, these ambitious men and women introduced new farming techniques -- taken from the North and East -- in hopes of turning the plains into an agricultural paradise. Then, in 1931, the rain on which the farmers depended suddenly stopped. What happened on the Southern Plains in the 1930s, when the region entered a prolonged drought? Why did it happen? To what extent was technology and human activity to blame? And, why is this story a cautionary tale?

Saturday, July 21 | Global Conflict: World War II, 1937–1945
Reading: Chapter 23, Created Equal
Complete Quiz 8 by midnight on Monday, July 23

Monday, July 23 | Victory in the Pacific
Film: Victory in the Pacific (1:50:09) | watch here
Portfolio Question 2) In 1994, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum planned an exhibit called, "The Crossroads: The End of World War II, the Atomic Bomb, and the Cold War." Scheduled to open in 1995, on the fiftieth anniversary of the atomic bombing of Japan, the exhibit was to showcase the B-29 bomber, Enola Gay, which had dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945. When word of the exhibit became public, however, a heated debate emerged about the bombing and the commemoration of it. Many anti-nuclear activists, historians, and critics of the bombing argued that it had been immoral and unnecessary, since it killed thousands of civilians and occurred only days before the Soviet Union was to enter the war against Japan. From the critics' perspective, an exhibit featuring the Enola Gay was not only distasteful, it was wrong. Given this set of facts, what do you think about the bombing after seeing the film Victory in the Pacific? Admittedly, the film only begins to address the complex series of events that occurred as the war in the Pacific wound down in 1945, but it does provide some crucial historical context. Be sure in answering this question -- was the bombing necessary and justified to end the war -- to include a discussion of the following items: the Battle of Saipan (June 15-July 9, 1944), the “firebombing” of Tokyo (March 9-10, 1945), the Battle of Okinawa (April 1-June 21, 1945), kamikazes, Ketsu-Go, the planned invasion of Kyushu, the Potsdam Declaration, Emperor Hirohito, and the Soviet entrance into the Pacific War.

Tuesday, June 24 | Cold War and Hot War, 1945–1953
Reading: Chapter 24, Created Equal
Complete Quiz 9 by midnight on Wednesday, July 25

Wednesday, July 25 |  Tupperware and the 1950s
Film: Tupperware (0:50:34) | watch here
Portfolio Question 3) In her recent film Tupperware! , director Laurie Kahn-Leavitt examines the post-World War II economy, advances in plastics technology, direct selling techniques, and women's changing roles in the consumer culture of the 1950s. What does she find? Did women enjoy the same job opportunities after the war as they did during the conflict? If so, what did they do, and if not, why not? How did Brownie Wise (and to a lesser extent Earl Tupper) hope to capitalize on the situation American women found themselves in? Do you think Wise was truly interested in empowering women or was home selling simply a way to move more product and enrich her company? And, finally, do you think the film accurately portrayed the dynamics of race and class in the 1950s?

Thursday, July 26 | Domestic Dreams and Atomic Nightmares, 1953–1963
Reading: Chapter 25, Created Equal
Complete Quiz 10 by midnight on Saturday, July 28

Friday, July 27 | The Assassination of John F. Kennedy and the 1960s
Film: Oswald's Ghost (1:22:34) | watch here
Portfolio Question 4) In Oswald's Ghost, director Robert Stone presents a historiographical analysis of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, comparing and contrasting the way that different journalists, government commissions, and historians have explained the event. As you watch the film, please select three of the major interpretations that Stone uncovers and explain how they represented the era in which they were created.

Saturday, July 28 | Vietnam War, Civil Rights, and the Aftermath, 1963–1979
Reading: Chapters 26 and 27, Created Equal
Complete Quiz 11 by midnight on Tuesday, July 31

Monday, July 30 | The Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther King Jr.
Film: Citizen King (1:20:00) | use shsu login | watch here
Portfolio Question 5) In Citizen King, filmmakers Orlando Bagwell and Noland Walker explore the last five years in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life. Opening with King's famous “I Have a Dream” address at the March on Washington in August 1963, they examine his activities in the civil rights and anti-war movements until his assassination in Memphis in April 1968. From your perspective, what is the essential theme of the film? How do Bagwell and Walker seek to explain King's last five years? Please provide specific references from the film to answer this question.

Tuesday, July 31 | The My Lai Massacre
Film: My Lai (1:23:21) | watch here
Portfolio Question 6) On March 16, 1968, American soldiers went into a small village in Vietnam called My Lai and killed approximately 400 unarmed civilians. Two years later the American public found out what had happened at My Lai. The government called it an incident while others called it a massacre. Explain the events that led up to the killings and what happened that day in the village of My Lai. Was there a cover up by the government of the events? How did the story finally go public? What was the public reaction to the outcome of the tragic case?

Wednesday, August 1 | The Cold War Returns—and Ends, 1979–1991
Reading: Chapter 28, Created Equal
Complete Quiz 12 by midnight on Thursday, August 2

Thursday, August 2 | Earth Day and the Modern Environmental Movement
Film: Earth Days (1:53:11) | watch here
Portfolio Question 7) In our second film by Robert Stone, we examine the birth and evolution of the modern environmental movement in America. Please select four of the most important turning points in the movement (as described in the film), describe what they involved, and explain why they were significant.

Portfolio II due in the dropbox by midnight on August 2