Independence and the Opening of the West: Thomas Hart Benton
Students will examine "Independence and the Opening of the West" by Thomas Hart Benton. They will analyze its content, use visual thinking strategies and draw conclusions about the art work.
President Truman recalls many of the successes and problems of the Potsdam Conference and the postwar world in his diary entries and letters to his wife, Bess Wallace Truman. Students are given the opportunity to examine these unique documents and argue about their validity as primary sources while learning about the Potsdam Conference.
This lesson will help students understand how Americans felt about WWI before we entered it and understand that it was not necessarily widely supported like WWII.
The lesson incorporates an online exhibition from the National World War I Museum with primary and secondary sources regarding the African American experience in World War I.