Designed to accompany Robert Griffith, Major Problems in American History since 1945 (Houghton Mifflin, 1992).  For details, click on About This Site.

ABOUT THIS SITE:  The web sites listed below have been organized to assist undergraduate students to learn more about the history of the the United States since 1945.  They are designed to accompany the textbook, Major Problems in American History since 1945 (Houghton Mifflin, 1992).  Many of these sites are themselves collections of links to other web sites. Most (though by no means all) have been created by librarians, historians, museum curators and other members of the historical community.  Many of the sites link to one another, which may sometimes lend a recursive quality to your search.   Moreover, although the web is growing very rapidly and new information is constantly appearing;  sites also move and sometimes disappear entirely. Because the web is constantly growing and changing, this particular site is perpetually "under construction."  New sites are added, old one's deleted, and broken links repaired.  At this point, the annotations are very impressionistic.  I hope in time to improve them.  If you have contributions, corrections or other comments to offer, please let me know at bgriff@american.edu.

 Having said this, several important warnings are in order:

• Don't confuse the web and  world.  The web is huge and growing every day.  But it represents only a tiny fraction of  human knowledge.  Most of  what is available in our libraries and archives has NOT been digitally formatted; and, for a variety of reasons, is not likely to be in the near future.  Thus, the web can supplement, but not replace traditional libraries and archives.
• Web based materials must be subject to the same rigorous rules used for evaluating printed material.  Indeed, web based materials must be scrutinized even more rigorously.  After all, information that you find in a library has already gone through a rigorous selection process managed by highly trained professional librarians; but literally anyone can post material on the web.  Thus, you will need to evaluate material by asking:  who "published" the material?  when?  how credible is the source?  what bias of point of view shapes the selection and content of the material? etc., etc.
• Navigating the web can be confusing.  Many web links, including those listed below, list the same sites.  Many list one another.  The result is a recursive effect, with many loops doubling back on one another.

Chapter 1: World War II and the Origins of Postwar America

The Franklin D. Roosevelt Library -- includes a variety of resources, including links to other sites.

Franklin D. Roosevelt -- POTUS site maintained by the Internet Public Library.

Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal -- links to many, many web sites, including those dealing with WWII.

FDR and Foreign Affairs -- a link to part of a PBS special, The American Experience

The Franklin D. Memorial Homepage -- maintained by the FDR Memorial, this site also includes many links.

World War II Documents from the Avalon Project (Yale University)

World War II -- an online journal sponsored by historynet.com

World War II on the Web -- an extensive set of links.

Top of Page

Chapter 2:  The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb on Japan

• The Atomic Age at Fifty -- A Time-Life essay, with an especially valuable page of  Links.
• The Atomic Archive -- created by AJ software to accompany its CD ROM, The Atomic Age.
• The Avalon Project : The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- a collection of primary materials maintained by Yale University.
• "Bureau of Atomic Tourism" --it may take a bit to come to terms with a web site dedicated to atomic bomb related sites as tourist attractions; nevertheless, this page includes links to a number of museums and collections that might otherwise be missed.
• The Decision to Use the Bomb -- an excellent collection of documents, linked to the home page of the renown physicist Leo Szilard.
• Documents Relating to U.S. Foreign Policy --Hiroshima  -- an excellent collection of links, part of a larger site on U.S. International Affairs maintained at Mt. Holyoke College.  Thanks to Dustin Pickins for calling this site to our attention.
•  The Enola Gay Exhibit --in 1995, the Smithsonian Institution canceled a proposed exhibition on the atomic bomb and the end of WWII.  This site includes excerpts from the script and the layout of the exhibition. A much smaller, and studiously non controversial, exhibit was mounted in place of the intended exhibition..  For a description of this exhibition, click on Enola Gay.  Some of the principal artifacts intended for the original exhibit, loaned by the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, were subsequently displayed at American University during the summer of 1995.   For more information about the controversy, point your browser to the web site organized by graduate students in library science at the University of  Maryland at College Park,  Enola Gay Perspective.
• The Hiroshima Archive -- Lewis and Clark Web site with extensive links and other sources on the use of the atomic bomb and the controversy over the Enola Gay exhibition.
• The Hiroshima City Home Page  -- includes links to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and other sites.
• The Hiroshima Project -- a huge collection of links, assembled by two European professors.
• The Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum  -- web site maintained by the Nagasaki museum.
• Remembering Nagasaki -- part of a web site created by San Francisco's Exploritorium.
• Yahoo's Atomic Bomb Links -- a list of links to sites dealing with various aspects of the bomb's manufacture and use, and with the ensuing debates.

• Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of US Nuclear Weapons since 1940 -- a 1998 report by the Brookings Institution.
• The Avalon Project : A Decade of American Foreign Policy --basic documents, 1941-49.
• CNN Cold War Special -- this web site was designed to accompany the CNN's  24 part documentary series on the Cold War, which began airing on September 27, 1998. See also, the Discovery Channel's World in Conflict series, which includes documentaries (and lesson plans) on the Korean War, the Rosenberg Case, Eisenhower and the Cold War, and Star Wars.
• The Cold War International History Project (CWIHP) -- see the CWIHP virtual library for many documentary materials relating to the origins of the Cold War.
• Cold War Links -- a long list of cold war sites created by anthropologist Don Price.
• Department of State FOIA Reading Room -- this web site, and others like it, provide electronic access to some recently declassified documents, as well as guides to obtaining access to many others.
• Documents Relating to American Foreign Policy: The Cold War -- an extensive set of documents collected by Professor Vincent Ferraro at Mt. Holyoke College.
• The Harvard Project on Cold War Studies -- established under the aegis of the University's Davis Center for Russian Studies, the Harvard Project features a new journal, a book series and other activities relating to the study of the Cold War.
• The National Security Archive Home Page  -- includes documentary material on early nuclear policy.

Soviet Archives Exhibit -  by the Library of Congress, focuses on Soviet perspectives of the U.S. during the early Cold War.

Chapter 4: Truman, Eisenhower and the Transformation of American Politics, 1945-1960

 
• Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum.
• Harry S. Truman -- POTUS site maintained by the Internet Public Library.
• Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum.
• Dwight D. Eisenhower -- POTUS site maintained by the Internet Public Library.
• The Cold War in Washington State -- a collection of documents and teaching aids prepared by Michael Reese of the University of Washington.
• The Cost of the Cold War -- a report by the Brookings Institution
• FBI Files -- files of FBI reports on "famous people," including Elvis, Lucille Ball, and others; released through the freedom of  information act.  See also the FBI files on Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
• Joseph R. McCarthy -- web site features audio clips of some of McCarthy's most famous speeches.
• The Rosenberg Case -- see the Discovery Channel's television show and lesson plan on the Rosenberg Case.

Chapter 5: American Society in the 1950s

Anti Communism -- a web site established by the Department of History at Hanover College.

The Literature and Culture of the 1950s --an excellent collection of texts and links, part of an English class at the University of Pennsylvania.

The Fifties: A Course Syllabus -- for an honors course on the 1950s at the University of Maryland.

The Fifties: Music, Films and Television, mostly nostalgia.

The Fifties -- the History Channel's web site on the 1950s.

Cars, Consumerism and the Cold War -- an exhibition on the 1950s in Michigan.

Science Fiction Films of the 1950s --four classics, sort of.

Style o Rama -- a site devoted to fashions and styles of the 1950s, with extensive, if uneven, links to other fifties sites.

The Beats -- a web site, with extensive links, on the beats as literary and cultural rebels.  See also, the Beat Generation Archives.

• CIA and Assassinations: The Guatemala 1954 Documents -- declassified documents relating to the U.S. intervention in Guatemala.
• CIA Inspector General's Report on the Bay of Pigs -- the recently declassified report is available on the web site of the National Security Archive.  For the print version, see above.
• A Chronology of Cuban Affairs, 1958-1998 -- a useful, though incomplete, chronology of Cuban-US relations.
• The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962  -- extensive documents on the crisis collected by the National Security Archive.
• Cold War International History Project (CWIHP) -- contains (among other things) a great deal of  newly accessible information on the Missile Crisis.
• CIA Documents -- declassified CIA documents released under the provisions of the Freedom of  Information Act (FOIA).  See also its extensive Links to other government sources.
• Documents Relating to American Foreign Policy: The Cuban Missile Crisis -- collected by Professor Vincent Ferraro.
• Fourteen Days in October -- An outstanding site.  Probably the best for a comprehensive introduction to the Crisis.  It is rivaled only by the Cold War History Project (CWIHP) and the National Security Archive in the amount of material it presents.  It is easily navigable and contains links to other materials on the crisis.

Chapter 7: The New Frontier and the Great Society

 
• The John F. Kennedy Library -- with links to other sites.
• John F. Kennedy Links -- maintained by the Access Indiana Teaching and Learning Center.
• John F. Kennedy -- POTUS site maintained by Internet Public Library.
• The Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum -- with links to other sites.
• Lyndon Baines Johnson -- speeches and other resources, maintained at Hanover College.
• Lyndon Baines Johnson , POTUS site maintained by the Internet Public Library.

Chapter 8: The Struggle for Civil Rights
                    (Links originally compiled by Chris Derickson and Aidan O'Hara)

Gateway sites for African-American History in General :

• "Persistence of the Spirit" project's history links
• Mississippi State University's Historical Text Archive
• UCLA's African American Internet Links
• University of Pennsylvania's "Links of Interest"
• Michigan University's Center for Afro-American & African Studies List of Sites
• The Universal Black Pages Listing of History Sites

• 40th Anniversary of the Integration of Little Rock's Central High School
• Arkansas Democrat/Gazette coverage of the "Central High Crisis"
• Montgomery Bus Boycott Page
• National Civil Rights Museum
• Seattle Times' Photo Tour of the Movement
• Stanford's MLK Papers Project
• Voices of the Civil Rights Movement (follow link to Civil Rights Section)

• Seattle Time's Timeline of Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement
• Virginia Tech's Timeline of the Civil Rights Movement
• Western Michigan's Timeline - Dedicated to Martin Luther King

• Text of MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech
• MLK's "Letter From Birmingham Jail"
• W.E.B. Dubois "Strivings of the Negro People"

Top of Page

Chapter 9: The United States and Vietnam.

• The American Experience: Vietnam -- web site to accompany the PBS series.
• Counterculture, the Sixties, and the War
• Documents Relating to American Foreign Policy: Vietnam -- collected by Professor Vincent Ferraro of  Mt. Holyoke College.
• Kali's Home Page/Vietnam Generation , Inc.
• Kent State University May 4th Collection -- at Kent State University.
• Kent State -- geocities web site, with links, commemorating the killing of four students at Kent State on May 4, 1970.
• Kent State May 4 Incident Studies (Emerson College
• Resources on the War in Vietnam
• Vietnam Generation, Inc. & Sixties Project
• The Vietnam Picture Archive
• The Vietnam War -- web site of Hanover College Department of History.
• The Vietnam War History Page
• More Vietnam Web pages
• The Vietnam War Museum
• Vietnam War Bibliography: WWI I and the First Indochina War, compiled by Professor Edwin Moise. See also his bibliography on U.S. Policy.
• The Wars for Vietnam, 1945-1975 -- Vassar web site with many documents on the war.

Chapter 10: The New Left and the Politics of the 1960s

• The Sixties Project --the web site of a collective of humanities scholars studying the sixties; includes a list serve, L-Sixties.
• The Sixties: The Summer of Love and other Boomer Nostalgia
• The Digger Archives: San Francisco Diggers (1966-1968) . . .And Beyond) -- about the San Francisco collective.
• Free Speech Movement Archives - created and maintained as part of a project on the 1960s at UC-Berkeley.
• Haight-Ashbury in the Sixties: an eclectic collection of information and links on the San Francisco "scene"
• The Newsreel -- about the San Francisco underground film collective (late 1960s, early 1970s)
• People's Park Home Page -- Includes photos from the 1969 struggle and the famous leaflet "Who Owns the Park?".
• "Port Huron Statement" -- Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) founding document, 1962
• The Psychedelic '60s Home Page-- a virtual exhibition of sixties images and other information, created by the the special collections folks at the University of  Virginia Library.
• Woodstock Festival: a geocities site dedicated to the 1969 concert/"happening."

Chapter 11: From the Feminine Mystique to the New Feminism

• American Women's History: A Research Guide -- very useful web site maintained by librarians at Middle Tennessee.
• Documents from the Women's Liberation Movement, 1969-74. -- from the Duke University Scriptorium.
• Feminism and Women's Resources -- includes extensive links to women's studies issues.
• H-Women -- H-Net's web site on women's history.
• National Women's History Project -- see especially its valuable collection of  Links to resources for the study of  women's history.
• Women's Resources Project -- UNC web site includes listing of Women's Studies programs and other links.  See especially links under Women's History.
• Internet Women's History Sourcebook - North America: --maintained at Fordham, this is part of a larger series of guides to sites on history.

Chapter 12: Richard Nixon, Watergate and the Crisis of the "Imperial Presidency"

• Richard M. Nixon Library and Museum
• Richard M. Nixon - POTUS site maintained by the Internet Public Library.
• Watergate -- a part of Malcolm Farnsworth's VCE Politics site, this is arguably the most comprehensive Watergate web site, with extensive links to documents, news reports, and other sites.
• Watergate -- CNN/Time web site on the scandal.
• Watergate The 25th Anniversary -- a very good web site put up by Houston Chronicle Interactive.
• Watergate: The 25th Anniversary - Yahoo's web site, with links to other sites.
• Watergate Documents -- images of original documents,  by the National Archives.
• Watergate -- a look back in light of new documents by U.S. News.
• Watergate: The Washington Post -- Post web site, including timeline, interviews with key players and both contemporary and retrospective articles on Watergate.
• A Resource Guide to Watergate -- prepared by law school students at Seton Hall University.
• The Richard Nixon Audio Site -- audio clips from many of Richard Nixon's most famous speeches, including the "I am not a crook" speech.

• Environmental Organizations Web Directory -- large directory and search engine for environmental organizations.
• LookSmart's Guide to Guides and Directories on the Environment -- links to many sites and meta sites on the environment.
• EPA -- Looksmart's links to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other government bodies.
• History of Science Society -- maintained at the University of Washington, it includes extensive links to other history of science sites.
• Sustainable Development -- Looksmart's links to organizations supporting the goal of sustainable development.
• Science, Technology and Society Links -- STS links maintained at North Carolina State University.
• STS Links -- a large, eclectic collection of links maintained by an individual in England.

Chapter 14: Politics and Society in the Reagan Era and Beyond

• Presidents of the United States( POTUS)  -- a handy reference to presidential administrations maintained by the Internet Public Library(IPO), it includes online biographies, historical documents, lists of cabinet members, notable events and some additional links. See especially the sections on Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton.
• Presidential Libraries:  The National Archives' link to all of the Presidential Libraries.  For the Clinton Administration, see The Clinton-Gore Internet Archive, part of a web site on the presidency maintained by the University of North Carolina.
• The Jimmy Carter Library -- presidential library, with links to the Carter Center.   See especially,  Related Links on Carter and the Carter Presidency.
• The Jimmy Carter Historic Site -- boyhood home, maintained by the National Park Service
• Presidential Debates: History and Transcripts of  Presidential Debates.
• George Bush -- bibliography and links organized by the University of Louisville Library.
• The Ronald Reagan Homepage -- a useful, if extremely uncritical, collection of information about the former president, including many of his most famous speeches.
• Ronald Reagan Links -- 75 links (at last count), some of which are duplicative.
• The Roots of the Reagan Revolution -- an extensive web page with text, references and links, by a Hofstra University student.

Chapter 15: Beyond the Cold War

• Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of US Nuclear Weapons since 1940 -- a 1998 report by the Brookings Institution.
• Cold War International History Project -- the CWIHP web site includes extensive documentation on the Reagan policies and on the End of the Cold War.
• The Contras, Cocaine and Covert Operations -- the National Security Archive has mounted a collection of documents relating to San Jose Mercury series on the U.S., the Nicaraguan contras and the drug trade.
• Documents Relating to American Foreign Policy:  the Reagan Years -- collected by Professor Vincent Ferraro of Mt. Holyoke College.
• The Persian Gulf War -- web page of the Department of History, Hanover College.
• The Ronald Reagan Homepage -- a useful, if extremely uncritical, collection of information about the former president, including many of his most famous speeches.
• Ronald Reagan Links -- 75 links, some of which are duplicative.
• Star Wars -  see the Discovery Channel's show on Star Wars and the accompanying lesson plans.
• Department of State FOIA Reading Room --web site provides access to recently declassified documents, including many relating to U.S. policy in El Salvador.
• CIA FOIA Web site -- declassified CIA documents released under the provisions of the Freedom of  Information Act (FOIA).  See also its extensive Links to other government sources.
• The Whirlwind War -- the U.S. Army's Official History of the Gulf War.
• Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) -- a premier, public policy think tank; see especially its project on the U.S. and the New Global Economy.
• Documents Relating to Global Economic Policy -- collected by Professor Vincent Ferraro of Mt. Holyoke College.
• Free Trade: A Debate -- contrasting views of U.S. trade policy, at "Intellectual Capital" site.
• Foreign Affairs -- web site of the distinguished publication. See especially its unparalleled collection of  Web Links.
• The Foreign Policy Project -- a collection of studies and documents on future U.S. foreign policy, developed under the auspices of the nonprofit Henry L. Stimson Center.  See especially its collection of Foreign Policy/International Relations Web Sites.
• George Bush -- bibliography and links organized by the University of Louisville Library.  Note its links on Desert Storm.
• The George Bush Foreign Policy Project -- organized by the Center for Presidential Studies and the George Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M.
• Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) -- a list of  links to many private organizations concerned with contemporary foreign affairs.