Clockwise from upper left: Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ronald W. Reagan, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower.

• Franklin D. Roosevelt
  • The New Deal
  • World War II
• Harry Truman
• John F Kennedy
• Suggested EDSITEment websites

EDSITEment Lesson Plans and Reviewed Websites for use with PBS's The Presidents series on the Modern Presidency

Franklin D. Roosevelt

The New Deal

• FDR's Fireside Chats: The Power of Words
  In this lesson which focuses on two of FDR's Fireside Chats, students gain a sense of the dramatic effect of FDR's voice on his audience, see the scope of what he was proposing in these initial speeches, and make an overall analysis of why the Fireside Chats were so successful.
  Related Video Clip: "Above All, Try Something"
• The Social Security Act
  This lesson engages students in the debate over the Social Security Act that engrossed the nation during the 1930s.
  Related Video Clip: "Hard Times"
• African-Americans and the New Deal's Civilian Conservation Corps
  The Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal recovery and relief program provided more than a quarter of a million young black men with jobs during the Depression. By examining primary source documents students analyze the impact of this program on race relations in America and assess the role played by the New Deal in changing them.
  Related Video Clip: "Above All, Try Something"
• Eleanor Roosevelt and the Rise of Social Reform in the 1930s
  This lesson asks students to explore the various roles that Eleanor Roosevelt a key figure in several of the most important social reform movements of the twentieth century took on, among them: First Lady, political activist for civil rights, newspaper columnist and author, and representative to the United Nations.
  Related Video Clip: "Above All, Try Something"

World War II

• Freedom by the Fireside: The Legacy of FDR's "Four Freedoms" Speech
  One of the most famous political speeches on freedom in the twentieth century was delivered by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his 1941 State of the Union message to Congress.This lesson examines some of the nuances and ambiguities inherent in the rhetorical use of "freedom." The objective is to encourage students to glimpse the broad range of hopes and aspirations that are expressed in the call of—and for—freedom.
  Related Video Clip: "The Juggler"
• FDR and the Lend-Lease Act
  This lesson shows students how broadly the Lend-Lease Act of March 1941 empowered the federal government-particularly the President-and asks students to investigate how FDR promoted the program in speeches and then in photographs.
  Related Video Clip: "The Juggler"
• American Diplomacy in World War II
  Curriculum unit overview. This four-lesson curriculum unit examines the nature of what Winston Churchill called the "Grand Alliance" between the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union in opposition to the aggression of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
  Related Video Clip: "America Goes To War"
  • Lesson 1: How "Grand" and "Allied" was the Grand Alliance?
    Related Video Clip: "Allies Wage War"
  • Lesson 2: How to Win a World War
  • Lesson 3: Victory and the New Order in Europe
  • Lesson 4: The New Order for "Greater East Asia"
    Related Video Clip: "Coming to an End"
• The United States and Europe: From Neutrality to War, 1921-1941
  Related Video Clip: "The Juggler"
  • Lesson 1: Postwar Disillusionment and the Quest for Peace, 1921-1929
  • Lesson 2: Legislating Neutrality, 1934-1939
  • Lesson 3: U.S. Neutrality and the War in Europe, 1939-1940
  • Lesson 4: The Great Debate: Internationalists vs. Isolationists
• The Road to Pearl Harbor: The United States and East Asia, 1915-1941
  Related Video Clip: "The Juggler"
  • Lesson 1: The Growth of U.S.-Japanese Hostility, 1915-1932
  • Lesson 2: America and the Sino-Japanese Conflict, 1933-1939
  • Lesson 3: Japan's “Southern Advance” and the March toward War, 1940-1941
  • Lesson 4: The Failure of Diplomacy, September - December 1941
• “The Proper Application of Overwhelming Force”: The United States in World War II
  Related Video Clip: "America Goes To War"
  • Lesson 1: Turning the Tide in the Pacific, 1941-1943
  • Lesson 2: Turning the Tide in Europe, 1942-1944
    Related Video Clip: "Allies Wage War"
  • Lesson 3: Victory in Europe, 1944-1945
    Related Video Clip: "Coming to an End"
  • Lesson 4: Victory in the Pacific, 1943-1945

Harry Truman

• The Origins of the Cold War, 1945-1949
  Curriculum unit overview. Since the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, Soviet leaders had been claiming that communism and capitalism could never peacefully coexist. Agreements regarding the postwar world were reached at Yalta and Potsdam, but the Soviets wasted no time in violating them. Harry Truman believed that the proper means of responding to an international bully was a credible threat of force.
  Related Video Clip: The Truman Doctrine
  • Lesson 1: Sources of Discord, 1945-1946
  • Lesson 2: The Strategy of Containment, 1947-1948
  • Lesson 3: The Formation of the Western Alliance, 1948-1949
    Related Video Clip: American Power

• Witch Hunt or Red Menace? Anticommunism in Postwar America, 1945-1954
  In this curriculum unit students will study the turbulent postwar period examining the various events and ideas that defined it, and considering how much of the anticommunist sentiment of the era was justified, and how much was an overreaction.
  Related Video Clip: Fighting Communism
  • Lesson 1: Soviet Espionage in America
  • Lesson 2: The House Un-American Activities Committee
  • Lesson 3: The Rise and Fall of Joseph McCarthy
• "Police Action": The Korean War, 1950-1953
  This lesson introduces students to the Korean conflict by having them read the most important administration documents related to it.
  Related Video Clip: The Korean War

John F. Kennedy

• "The Missiles of October": The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962
  This lesson will examine how this crisis developed, how the Kennedy administration chose to respond, and how the situation was ultimately resolved

Lyndon B. Johnson

Kennedy/Johnson Domestic Policy: LBJ and the Great Society (forthcoming)

LBJ Foreign Policy and the Dominican Republic (forthcoming)

Gulf of Tonkin (forthcoming)

Civil Rights Movement (forthcoming)

Suggested EDSITEment websites

The American Presidency Project

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/
This resource has consolidated, coded, and organized into a single searchable database the following: The Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Washington — Taft (1789-1913); The Public Papers of the Presidents:Hoover to Bush (1929-1993); The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents:Clinton — G.W. Bush (1993-2008)

American President

http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident/
In depth essays written and reviewed by distinguished scholars on each president and administration. Audio recording of White House tapes and images included.

Mr. President: Profiles of Our Nation's Leaders

http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/students/idealabs/mr_president.html
Profiles of each president written for elementary and middle school students. Images from the Smithsonian collections included.

Presidents of the United States (POTUS)

http://www.ipl.org/div/potus/
Overview of facts about each president and administration.

Presidential Speeches

http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/P/
Annual Messages to Congress and State of the Union Addresses for each president

The Presidential Timeline of the Twentieth Century

http://www.presidentialtimeline.org
A joint effort of twelve Presidential libraries. Case studies, documents, photographs, audio recordings, and video relating to the events of these presidents' lives