To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Secretary of State George Marshall's speech in which he articulated the Marshall Plan, the Library of Congress created an exhibit of documents, photographs, and cartoons in 1997. This website provides those materials as well as three ebooks and an electronic version of Averill Harriman's photo album of Marshall Plan projects in Europe.
Type of Material:
Collection
Recommended Uses:
Use as part of a lesson plan in high school and middle school classes and as baseline in college history courses. Can allow students to view photographic evidence about a key Cold War program after World War II.
Technical Requirements:
Normal Internet Browser. Tested on Explorer, Firefox, and Safari.
Identify Major Learning Goals:
To demonstrate the impact of the Marshall Plan on European people, the sources of opposition to the program, and evidence of the success of the program.
To use photographs and cartoons to allow students to gain new insights into the importance of the Marshall Plan.
Target Student Population:
Undergraduate College or University survey courses
Advanced high school History classes
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
Basic knowledge of US history in the 20th century.
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
Provides a good starting point for study of the marshall plan and its results. Easy to understand. Has a Timeline.
Good photographs in Averill Harriman's photo album and cartoons. Admirable effort to identify sources of European opposition to the program.
Concerns:
Text on newspaper facsimiles is far too small to read, compromising the usefulness of the source.
Very heavily text-based, with little interactivity.
Also, somewhat simplistic, obviously written from the American point of view although it does include some alternative viewpoints.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
Enables students to see a wide variety of perspectives on the Marshall Plan. Its simple layout makes it easy for almost anyone to understand.
Concerns:
Perhaps does not provide sufficient depth to all students to move significantly beyond basic understanding of the program. One could also use some of the pictures on a power point and bypass the website
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
Easy to use.
Good use of photographic evidence, particlarly the Harriman photo album.
Concerns:
Far too text-based and too little interactive features to make the subject engaging for students or for inspiring deeper analysis.
Didn't like having to scroll down to click on the photo or map link and one of the cartoons was missing because of a copyright issue. Why not just use a different political cartoon?
Other Issues and Comments:
Collection appears dated (1997)--could be brought more up-to-date.
Creative Commons:
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