Anti-Communist Frenzy in 1950s (McCarthyism) Lesson Plan

This is an Anti-Communist Frenzy in 1950s (McCarthyism) Lesson Plan.

National Curriculum Standards:

• Learners will understand the impact across time and place of key historical forces, such as nationalism, imperialism, globalization, leadership, revolution, wars, concepts of rights and responsibilities, and religion.

Specific Objectives:

• To analyze and evaluate the methods of interrogation of the McCarthy Era.

• To interview past historical characters.

Materials:
The worksheet provided here.

Procedure:

After a general lesson on the Cold War, it is important to understand how the Cold War affected Americans for a US History Class. After the Cold War lesson is over, explain briefly how people feared communism. Anyone suspected of being a communist was interrogated or put on a blacklist. 

Then tell the class that they’ll be FBI agents looking for communist spies. You are looking for at least two of them but there could be more. They will interrogate suspects and execute whoever they want. They should follow the instructions given on the worksheet which is self-explanatory. It is preferable that the class work in pairs for this activity.

After they are done, ask them who they thought were the real spies. (Real spies were the Rosenberg’s and Alger Hiss. Give them away at the end after they have shared who they executed). Ask them how they selected their suspects and finally ask them whether the whole process was fair or not. Mention that even though after several decades when archives were released, we found that those three were real spies, the evidence provided at the time was circumstantial.

An editable 9-page Word doc