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INTRODUCTION

Viewings:

DEFINING FASCISM IN REAL TIME

Readings:

  • Frankson, Canute. “From Canute Frankson”. Madrid 1937: Letters of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade from the Spanish Civil Ed. Cary Nelson and Jefferson Hendricks. New York/London: Routledge, 2014. 33-35. Print.
  • Katz, “From Hyman Katz”. Madrid 1937: Letters of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade from the Spanish Civil War. Ed. Cary Nelson and Jefferson Hendricks. New York/London: Routledge, 2014. 31-33. Print.
  • Wallace, Henry “Wallace Defines ‘American Fascism’” New York Times, April 9, 1944.

 

Response Questions:

  • For each of these three texts, how does the author define fascism?
  • How does the author translate this definition into a specific course of action?
  • How does this course of action relate to the author’s own identity or community?
  • What is YOUR working definition of fascism?

 

Relevant lesson plans:

Further reading:

  • The Spanish Civil War: A 10-Minute Primer for Students (ALBA)
  • Peter Carroll, The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade: Americans in the Spanish Civil War. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994).
  • Helen Graham: The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford UP: 2005).
  • Adam Spain in Our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939. (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016)
  • Woyshner, (2010). Inquiry teaching with primary source documents: An iterative approach. Social Studies Research and Practice. 5(3), 36-45.

DEFINING FASCISM VISUALLY

Viewings:

 

Readings:

 

Response Questions:

  • How was the visual media used to propose a narrative frame or plotline for the Spanish Civil?
  • What kind of activities can you imagine doing with your students based on visual sources?

 

Relevant lesson plans:

Further reading and viewing:

  • Sebastiaan Faber, Memory Battles of the Spanish Civil War: History, Fiction, Photography (Nashville: Vanderbilt UP, 2018)

WHAT ARE YOUR VALUES?

Viewings:

Readings:

 

Relevant lesson plans:

Response Questions:

  • What themes come up in these clips and texts that connect with choices and dilemmas in your students’ lives?
  • How would you use these clips and texts in your classroom?

 

TO INTERVENE OR NOT TO INTERVENE

Viewing:

 

Readings:

Response Questions:

  • What changes do you recognize in U.S. policy between 1937 and 1949?
  • Based on these documents, how do you account for these changes?
  • How do these documents invoke “American” values as a justification for policy?

Relevant lesson plans:

ANTI-FASCISM AND INTERNATIONAL LAW

Viewings:

Readings:

  1. Allen, “Hostages of Appeasement.” Survey Graphic Nov. 1939: n. 28, p. 679-82. Web.
  2. Nuremberg Testimony. Edited transcript of testimony of William F. Walsh and Maria Claude Vaillant-Couturier, from The Nuremberg War Crimes Trial, 1945-46: A Documentary History, by Michael R. Marrus.
  3. Arendt, (1951). Excerpt from The Origins of Totalitarianism (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1979 [1st ed: 1951]), pp. 276-280.
  4. Wood, (July 7, 1950). “Barsky, 10 Others Imprisoned Apart.” New York Times.

 

Response Questions:

  • What historically specific questions could you have your students consider in response to these texts?
  • What more philosophical, ethical or general questions could you have your students consider in response to this text? E.g. What are the rights of refugees?

 

Relevant lesson plans:

REDEFINING (ANTI-)FASCISM DURING THE COLD WAR

Readings:

  • “Crawford Morgan Testimony.” African Americans in the Spanish Civil War: “This Ain’t Ethiopia, But It’ll Do”. Ed. Danny Duncan Collum and Victor A. Berch. New York: G.K. Hall, 1992. 175-182. Print.
  • Durem, Ray. “Award.” Poems of Protest, Old and New: A Selection of Poetry. By Arnold Kenseth. New York: Macmillan, 1968. N. pag. Print.

Further reading:

 

Historical Content Digital Resources

 

Support for Teaching Controversial Topics

 

 

OTHER READINGS

Contemporary Angles:

Genocide Education: