The submission of a presentation will give you the opportunity to do something creative in the course.  The topic will be your choice but will relate to the Cold War.  The format of the presentation will also be up to you.  What we are looking for is some visual comment or story on a topic relating to the Cold War.  You do not actually present the material live, but rather submit something online.  It could be in the form of a poster; a video, a song, a lecture etc.  You can make a powerpoint presentation, however, my experience is that these are often weak.  If you are interested in some other form of media please check with us first.  Bear in mind that this is for a History course so we are expecting that what you present will be historically accurate and of course relevant .  Each presentation should have a point to it: you should be trying to convey a message, a point of view, not simply gathering and presenting information.


Your presentation will be judged on the following:  relevance, being historically accurate and meaningful, and impact (perceived effort, quality).  Along with the visual/auditory piece, you will submit a list of sources that you consulted, including web urls.  If you incorporated photographs you need to note from where you took them.  The rules of plagiarism still apply to this assignment even though it might not be a formal written assignment.

A few suggestions for possible topics might be (but are certainly not restricted to):

Cold War propaganda                        Cold War and Hollywood
Cuban Missile Crisis                            NATO and the Warsaw Pact 
Space and the Cold War                      Hungarian Uprising
Vietnam War 

In most cases you will need to narrow your focus considerably.  It would be more manageable to do a presentation on the Cuban Missile Crisis than the Vietnam War or the Korean War.  The latter two are too broad.  You could choose some a narrower aspect of them, such as Vietnam and the American draft.
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