An Annotated List of the Most Valuable Online Resources on Postwar Era

Clicking the links below will open a new window; close that window to return to this page.

POSTWAR AMERICA

• The Interstate Highway System and Car Culture
  http://www2.kenyon.edu/people/slomanj/roads.htm#
  A historyof the Interstate Highway System during the 1950s that includes subsections on government policy, billboards, motels, diners, Levittown, and gas stations.
• Levittown: Documents of an Ideal American Suburb
  http://www.uic.edu/~pbhales/Levittown/
  This project includes photographs made by residents and visitors since the late '40s, written reminiscences and texts, and essays, but only a portion of the material is currently available on the Internet.
• Literature and Culture of the American 1950s
  http://www.english.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/home.html
  Extensive primary and secondary source readings on such aspect of life and culture in Cold War America as art, foreign policy, gender, jazz, the movies, and rock ‘n’ roll, as well as biographical material on major and minor figures of the era.
• Project Whistlestop: Harry Truman
  http://whistlestop.org/
  A searchable collection of images and documents from the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library, this site contains personal letters, speeches, photographs, political cartoons, and official documents relating to The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb the recognition of Israel, the Marshall Plan, the Truman Doctrine, the desegregation of the Armed Forces, the 1948 Campaign, the Berlin Airlift, NATO, and the Korean War.

COLD WAR

• The Cold War
  http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/
  CNN's documentary series Web site contains archival footage; biographies, maps, recently declassified documents, and classroom guides.
• Library of Congress’s Soviet Archives Exhibit
  http://metalab.unc.edu/expo/soviet.exhibit/entrance.html#tour
  Documents and translations from the Soviet Archives reveals the inner workings of the Soviet system and Soviet-U.S. relations during the Cold War.
• The Marshall Plan
  http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/marshall/
  This online Library of Congress exhibit provides primary sources, a time line and map, and various assessments, pro- and con-, of the Marshall Plan, on its fiftieth anniversary.
• The National Security Archives at George Washington University
  http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/
  The archives publishes declassified foreign policy documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, including material on Cuba, Guatemala, Iran, and the Soviet Union.
• The Rosenberg Communiques
  http://webreview.com/news/natl/rosenberg/
  Excerpts from 49 declassified Soviet cables dealing with accusations of atomic spying and the case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
• Sound and Video Files from the 1950s
  For audio clips from Senator Joe McCarthy,  see http://webcorp.com/mccarthy/. For scenes from Nixon’s Checkers speech, see http://webcorp.com/video/nixon/nixonvideo.html. Additional sound files are available at http://webcorp.com/test/audioarchive.htm.

Back to Top