Contemporary US (1976 to the present)
(18 total)

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In this activity students analyze a timeline and official and unofficial documents that reveal the events of the Iran-Contra Affair. This activity also models the types of questions that can help students analyze foreign policy documents from other events. The activity instructions include suggestions for how to differentiate the activity for…

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Item Type: Teaching Activity
Date: 2010

The first attempt to sell weapons to Iran through Israeli middlemen failed. Reagan then convened a group of advisors, including Secretary of State George Shultz and Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger. Both Shultz and Weinberger, as well as White House Chief of Staff Don Regan, objected to selling weapons directly to Iran, which the U.S. had…

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Item Type: Diary/Letter
Date: 1985

This short article by public health historians David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz reflects on the fortieth anniversary of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, passed in 1970. OSHA is one of the most important pieces of labor legislation ever passed, and as Rosner and Markowitz demonstrate, has had a significant impact on workers' lives. The…

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Item Type: Article/Essay
Date: 2011

This photograph from the Detroit News, December 16, 1978, shows a Vietnamese family arriving in the United States. In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, thousands of refugees fled Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos in search of new lives in the United States. Although often stigmatized as "boat people," the family here clearly arrived by plane; their…

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Item Type: Photograph
Date: 1978

Over the course of four hours on November 30, 1999, Seattle witnessed the results of months of organizing by organized labor. As many as 35,000 people filled a football stadium and took over miles of downtown Seattle streets. The event sent an unmistakable message to its target, the World Trade Organization. The day began with a morning rally, in…

Item Type: Photograph
Date: 1999

The small nation of Laos, along Vietnam's western border, became entangled in the Vietnam War. Laow was invaded by the North Vietnamese Army and covertly bombed by the U.S. After the Communist Pathet Lao emerged victorious in 1975, the country became little more than a protectorate under the de facto control of Vietnam. Long Vang was one of those…

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Item Type: Oral History
Date: Circa 1985

In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, thousands of so-called "boat people" fled Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, often in small overcrowded ships that were barely seaworthy. The story of Linda Thong, while horrific, is not unusual. Refugees often encountered pirates while sailing the dangerous South China Sea. Survivors usually ended up in refugee camps…

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Item Type: Oral History
Date: 1979

The grassroots organization, People for Fair Trade, sought to mobilize a mass turnout to protest the 1999 World Trade Organization (WTO) meetings in Seattle, WA. This flyer, "No Globalization Without Representation" was part of their efforts.

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Item Type: Pamphlet
Date: 1999

Russell Means, who was born on the Ogalala Sioux reservation in South Dakota, became a leader of the American Indian Movement (AIM) in the late 1960s. In often dramatic ways, AIM protested the government and society's treatment of Native Americans. Over the years AIM activists occupied Alcatraz Island, the Mayflower II, Mount Rushmore, the Bureau…

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Item Type: Speech
Date: 1977

William (Willie) Velásquez founded the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (SVREP) in 1974. The son of a butcher from San Antonio, Texas, he spent his adult life as a community organizer and political activist. Inspired by the African-American civil rights movement, he sought to inform and empower Mexican Americans about the…

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Item Type: Article/Essay
Date: 2004