In this lesson, students will be divided into groups and asked to analyze and evaluate editorial cartoons pertaining to late 19th and early 20th century American imperialism. Students are expected to determine the perspective of the artists. After group evaluation, students will present their finding to the entire class.

In this lesson, students will use use editorial cartoons dealing with the anti-Vietnam conflict movement in order to determine aspects of this protest movement. They will consider the causes, forms and effectiveness of protest as depicted in editorial cartoons.

In this lesson, students will examine political cartoons from 1979-1990 and analyze the events and issues leading up to the collapse of the USSR.

In this lesson, students will understand how the relationship between countries change over time in response to both domestic and international pressures. Students will be able to identify and discuss the factors that conTribute to U.S. foreign policy toward the country they have chose for their case study.

A chapter from The American Yawp open source history textbook focusing on, "The Cold War."

In this Teaching with the News lesson, students explore the human, economic, social, and political costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is an extension activity included for advanced students.

In this lesson, students will understand the definition of isolationism as it applies to the U.S. pre-WW II through analysis of political cartoons by Dr. Seuss dealing with isolationism. Students will be able to make their own decisions about whether the U.S. should have stayed out of the war based on his political cartoons.

In this lesson, students will collaboratively analyze the content of editorial cartoons that focus on the rise on Hitler's dominance of Europe. Students will also demonstrate their knowledge of the chronology of WWII in Europe by placing the cartoons in an order that shows a progression of WWII in Europe.

This resources can be viewed as an interactive (using Flash) or as a print timeline with dates and summaries on events relating to U.S. foreign policy. Periods are divided beginning with beginning with pre-1900 and ending with 2000-2002.

Was the Treaty of Versailles, which formally concluded World War I, a legitimate attempt by the victorious powers to prevent further conflict, or did it place an unfair burden on Germany? This lesson helps students respond to the question in an informed manner. Activities involve primary sources, maps, and other supporting documents related to the peace process and its reception by the German public and German politicians.

In this lesson, students review the history of turmoil in Haiti and the issue the U.S. faced in how to assist Haitian refugees during the 1990s. A set of discussion questions is provided. In an associated activity, students will write down their opinion on the issue and then work with a small group to brainstorm possible actions the UN and the U.S. could take regarding the Haitian refugees.

 This inquiry is set up to look at what motivated the United States in its foreign policy in the post-World War II/early Cold War era. The fear of communism not only dominated foreign policy, it also affected domestic policy and actions by the federal government. The lesson is focused on 1945-1960, but could be extended.  Also, this is a question that may fit other periods of US History such as the Red Scare following World War I or even more recent events such as 9/11—replacing terrorism (Islamic terrorism to be more specific) for communism.

Over a three day period students will examine the important foreign policy events since Vietnam.  The compelling question “Did presidents since 1975 succeed in making all Americans safer?” asks students to grapple with the challenges and achievements of six chief executives that led the nation through the unstable years after the Vietnam War.  This inquiry based project would ideally be included at the beginning or at the conclusion of Unit 8: Contemporary America. 

This inquiry asks students to investigate the dispute over free trade. By considering the arguments of professional economists who may use the same data but come to very different conclusions, students examine the “price” of free trade as it relates to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In understanding the arguments for and against free-trade policy in general and applying such concepts to existing policy more specifically, students can gain clarity about this age-old debate and become participants in a contemporary discussion involving international trade.

In 1950, North Korean forces, armed mainly with Soviet weapons, invaded South Korea in an effort to reunite the peninsula under communist rule. This lesson will introduce students to the conflict by having them read the most important administration documents related to it.

In this lesson, students will use political cartoons to become familiar with the purpose of, and controversy surrounding the League of Nations.

Although antiwar organizations existed even before World War I, it was during the interwar period that pacifism became the fastest-growing movement in America. Numerous American politicians, businessmen, journalists, and activists made proposals for multilateral agreements on arms control and collective security. Through an examination of memoirs, photographs, and other primary source documents, students examine the rise of antiwar sentiment in the United States, as well as some of the concrete measures taken during the 1920s to prevent the outbreak of future wars.

The fact that the United States and the Soviet Union successfully cooperated in defeating the Axis Powers did not necessarily mean that the two countries would continue to get along in the postwar world. This lesson will examine the U.S.-Soviet disagreements regarding Germany and Eastern Europe.

The Japanese conquest of Manchuria in 1931 was only the first step in what became a much larger campaign to create a pro-Japanese "buffer state" in North China. This lesson will examine the overall principles which underlay both Japanese and American foreign policy in the mid- to late-1930s.