Resources about Cuban Missile Crisis for the high school classroom?

August 3, 2010 12:30 PM

I'm looking for high-school-appropriate resources about the Cuban Missile Crisis--particularly ones that highlight Cuban and Soviet perspectives or more of an IR approach. Any thoughts?
posted by lily_bart to Education (4 answers total)

We watched this BBC documentary in my college intro-to-IR course, which really discusses the Cuban and Soviet POVs. Really good, and I think it'd be appropriate, if you can find it.
posted by quadrilaterals at 12:53 PM on August 3, 2010

Allison & Zelikow's Essence of Decision (even just a chapter or two if 300 pages is too much to assign) is fantastic. I assign it for my intro-level US foreign policy course, and it's worked well for me.
posted by brozek at 6:12 PM on August 3, 2010

These two are mostly fun and accessible looks at history:

So, Deborah Wiles just wrote a really great book called Countdown, about a young girl growing up in the 1960's. It has period photographs and documents interspersed, and it's really just a fictional (but slightly autobiographical) account of what it was like to be young and kinda scared while all the adults around you were being weird, and your ex-military uncle is freaking out. Bomb shelters, air raid drills, all that. Although the main character is only 11, I could still see it being used as a glance into American life at the time. Which is not what you asked for, technically. But it's a good overview.

The other thing that pops into mind is the definitely high school appropriate Smart Alecks Guide to American History, which is not only generally awesome but also has a chapter that mainly deals with Bily Joel's We Didn't Start the Fire.
posted by redsparkler at 7:23 PM on August 3, 2010

Primary documents relating to the Cuban Missile Crisis

Declassified Documents about Kennedy and Castro talks
posted by dealing away at 7:49 AM on August 6, 2010