Process of writing history Historians interpretations

Historiography of the Cold War  Three Major Interpretations  Orthodox: Soviets bad, US good  Revisionist: Soviets bad, US takes advantage  Postrevisionist: Both the Soviets and the US take advantage

The Expansion of Schooling  Orthodox: Driven by Marxist Leninist ideology, the Soviets were strong, (evil), aggressive, expansionist; U.S were defensive, rational, and its actions mostly justified; the Cold War would never have taken place in the absence of Stalinist aggression.

Historiography of the Cold War  Revisionist: Driven by the quest for expanding markets, the U.S. exaggerated the threat of the Soviets to pursue its own expansionist ideological and economic goals; despite its rhetoric, the Soviets were weak, cautious, defensive, and had limited policy goals

Historiography of the Cold War Postrevisionist: Both the Soviet and U.S. elites were at fault, both used each other to justify its own policy goals, domestically and abroad. The people of each country suffered as a result of an enormous waste of resources and lives.

Caption writing activity  Pretend you are a historian who has just written a book on the Cold War. In your book you have included images of Cold War propaganda used in the U.S. and Soviet Union. Your job is to write the caption for the image below in a way that reflects the argument in your book. What kind of historian are you, Orthodox, revisionist, or postrevisionist?

Let’s Try One Together

Orthodox  This book cover demonstrates how genuine fears of Communist aggression and nuclear holocaust were so pervasive that they crossed over into popular culture. The Soviets were considered so evil that they sought to destroy, rather than convert, even the most vulnerable of Americans such as African American males, clergymen, and women.

Revisionist  This book cover demonstrates how publishers sought to exploit the exaggerated fears of its readers for profit. Clearly aimed at a male audience, the book depicts African Americans, clergymen, and women as the most vulnerable groups to Soviet aggression, reinforcing hegemonic notions of male dominance in American society.

Postrevisionist  This book cover is an example of the kind of irrational rhetoric employed during the period to excite fears of invasion by the Soviets. Such fears diverted attention away from more immediate domestic issues hinted at in this image such as racial segregation and woman’s rights.

Let’s try one together  Orthodox: Driven by Marxist Leninist ideology, the Soviets were strong, (evil), aggressive, expansionist; U.S were defensive, rational, and its actions mostly justified; the Cold War would never have taken place in the absence of Stalinist aggression.  Revisionist: Driven by the quest for expanding markets, the U.S. exaggerated the threat of the Soviets to pursue its own expansionist ideological and economic goals; despite its rhetoric, the Soviets were weak, cautious, defensive, and had limited policy goals  Postrevisionist: Both the Soviet and U.S. elites were at fault, both used each other to justify its own policy goals, domestically and abroad. The people of each country suffered as a result of an enormous waste of resources.

Try This One

Task #2  Take a look inside the Wineburg book on page 131  Read the documents 8.1, 8.2a, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5, 8.6, 8.7, 8.8 on the Cuban Missile Crisis  As a group write a brief account (8 to 10 sentences) of the Cuban Missile Crisis that reflects your historiographical school (Orthodox, Revisionist, Postrevisionist). Be sure to quote from three sources.