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"But there is one front and one battle where everyone in the United States - every man, woman, and child - is in action… That front is right here at home, in our daily lives."

- Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1942

Use these lesson plans (created by educators for educators) to explore topics about war and peace with your students in your classroom:

Ladies, Contraband, and Spies - (Grades 10-11) Students view the perspectives of slave women, plantation mistresses, female spies, and Union women during the Civil War.

Mathew Brady Bunch - (Grades 6-12) Students become reporters, analyzing a Civil War photograph, and writing a newspaper article based on their chosen photograph.

Nothing to Fear - (Grades 5-8) Students learn what the World War II experience was like for Japanese Americans living on the West Coast.

Photojournalism - (Grades 5-8) Students explore how and why war has been photographed and also see the bias within the recording/reporting of war.

Civil War through A Child's Eye, The - (Grades 6-8) Students use literature and photographs to view the Civil War from a child's perspective.

What are We Fighting for Over There? - (Grades 10-12) Students create World War I era newspapers with different perspectives on American involvement in the war.

What Do You See? - (Grades 5-12) Students analyze Civil War photographs, and develop links between the Civil War and American industrialization.

George Washington - (Grades 8-12) Students engage in three lessons examining George Washington's leadership. Lesson One focuses on Washington’s wartime experiences.

Is there a title (or two) that you always read to (or with) your students when teaching about the topic of war and peace? Are there invaluable reference books that you use when working with this theme? Staff from The Library of Congress have generously donated favorite titles for the "War and Peace..." theme. We hope you will contribute your favorite titles to our growing bibliography!

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Create your own collaborative lesson plans using material related to this month's theme assembled from The Learning Page Collection Connections:

America from the Great Depression to World War II: Color Photographs from the FSA and OWI, ca. 1935-1945" - (Summary and Teaching Resources) This collection includes color photographs of rural and small-town America. Many photos examine women’s contributions on the home front and various types of military training, munitions and military technology of the period.

Suffering Under a Great Unjustice: Ansel Adams Photographs of Japanese-American Internment at Manzanar - (Summary and Teaching Resources) In this collection, Ansel Adams documents the life of Japanese Americans interned at the Manzanar relocation camps during World War II. Photographs include portraits, views of daily life, agricultural scenes and sports and leisure activities.

After the Day of Infamy: "Man-on-the-Street" Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor - (Summary and Teaching Resources) This collection contains twelve hours of individual opinions recorded after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

America from the Great Depression to World War II: Black and White Photographs from the FSA and OWI, ca. 1935-1945" - (Summary and Teaching Resources) This collection includes black and white photographs of rural and small-town America. Hundreds of images portray World War II from the perspective of the home front, including the evacuation of 110,000 Japanese-Americans to internment camps.

American Leaders Speak: Recordings from World War I and the 1920 Election - (Summary and Teaching Resources) This collection includes fifty-nine sound recordings of speeches by American leaders at the turn of the century. Fifteen of these focus on World War I and present a variety of perspectives and reasons for supporting the war.

Band Music from the Civil War Era - (Summary Only) This collection features over 700 examples of brass band music popular during the Civil War period.

Civil War Maps - (Summary and Teaching Resources) This collection of more than 2,300 items provides students an opportunity to study the Civil War era through cartographic data.

Selected Civil War Photographs - (Summary and Teaching Resources) The 1,118 photographs in this collection featuring encampments, preparations for battle, battlefields and military portraits can be used as a basis for researching the Civil War.

American Revolution and Its Era: Maps and Charts of North America and the West Indies, 1750-1789, The - (Summary and Teaching Resources) This collection includes over two thousand maps created during the era of the American Revolution and features maps of land and sea battles; reconnaissance maps; maps showing cantonments, lines of march, and lines of fire; public information maps.

Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures, The - (Summary and Teaching Resources) This collection contains the first movies made of American troops in wartime and features troops, ships, notable figures, parades, reenactments of battles and other war-time events.

Washington During the Civil War: The Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft, 1861-1865 - (Summary and Teaching Resources) This collection documents life in Civil War era Washington, D.C. as seen through the eyes of Horatio Taft.

Stars and Stripes: The American Soldiers' Newspaper of World War I, 1918-1919 - (Summary and Teaching Resources) Browse issues of this World War I newspaper created to improve morale and provide unity within the American forces.

Civil War Soldier in the Wild Cat Regiment: Selections from the Tilton C. Reynolds Papers - (Summary and Teaching Resources) This collection documents the Civil War experience of Captain Tilton C. Reynolds, a member of the 105th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers through correspondence, photographs, and other materials dating between 1861 and 1865.

World War II Military Situation Maps - (Summary Only) View maps showing troop positions beginning on June 6, 1944 to July 26, 1945.

Newspaper Pictorials: World War I Rotogravures - (Summary and Teaching Resources) The images in this collection track American sentiment about the war in Europe, week by week, before and after the United States became involved.

Frontline Diplomacy: The Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training - (This collection features interviews with some of the most prominent diplomats of the 20th century.)

Civil War Treasures from the New York Historical Society - (Summary and Teaching Resources) The photographs, drawings, posters and letters in this collection document the lives of ordinary citizens who were involved in the Civil War.

Rochambeau Map Collection - (Summary Only) Many of the items in this collection show the importance of cartographic materials in the campaigns of the American Revolution.

September 11, 2001 Documentary Project - (Summary and Teaching Resources) This collection documents eyewitness accounts, expressions of grief and other commentary on the events of September 11, 2001. Included in this presentation are photographs, drawings, audio and video interviews and written narratives.

We'll Sing to Abe Our Song Sheet Music about Lincoln, Emancipation, and the Civil War, from the Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana - (Summary and Teaching Resources) Learn tips for integrating these historic sheet music compositions into Civil War teaching.

These terms may be useful when searching for items related to this theme in the American Memory collections.