Mrs. Ruland's Advanced Placement United States History Class

Post WWII Oral History Project

These questions are a suggested guideline for your interview with parents and grandparents. If any of the above are not available, you may "borrow" someone else's; you could interview a neighbor or family friend of the appropriate age group. These questions are a starting place. Please ask follow-up questions. You are doing the work of a historian, so use your resources to discover about America's recent history.

There are two parts to this project. A syllabus of when the various topics will be discussed is online. You are expected to be prepared to discuss your findings on the appropriate days. There will be a 100 point participation grade based on your reporting of your findings and insights. There will also be a 100 point written report of the lesson learned. I do not want a transcript of your interview (although you can certainly use that for the participation grade). Instead, I want an insightful essay regarding what you have learned from your sources and if this has perhaps affected the manner in which you view the time period.

Simple guidelines - The people who you interview have the absolute right to refuse to answer a question. They also have the right to ask that particular answers not be discussed in class.

1. Are you a baby boomer? Birth year?
2. Describe the community in which you grew up.
3. What was your favorite style of clothing to wear in HS/College?
4. What was the craziest clothes you routinely wore?
5. What music did you listen to in HS?
6. What did your parents say about it?
7. (For Grandparents) What music did my parent listen to? How loud was it? Did you like it? Clothes? Friends?
8. When did your family get TV? Color TV? Cable/Satellite Dish? 8-track? VCR? CD player? Calculator? Computer? Dishwasher? Air Conditioning? Cell phone/Cordless phone?
9. Did you know anyone affected by the McCarthy hearings? (For grandparents)
10. What were your feelings about McCarthy at the time? (For grandparents)
11. What was your first job? How much were you paid? When did you get your first car and what was it?
12. How often did you go to the movies? What were your favorites? Who were the hot actors/actresses?
13. How often did you watch TV or listen to radio programs? What were your favorite shows? Did you watch as a family?
14. What sayings did you use in HS and college?
15. What were you doing when you learned Pearl Harbor? JFK died? RFK? MLK? Challenger? Sept. 11?
16. What were your feelings about school desegregation? About busing to ensure school desegregation? Were you affected?
17. What minority groups had the most prejudice directed toward them?
18. What were your memories/feelings regarding the Washington DC riot after MLK died?
19. Do you remember the duck and cover drills? Burt the turtle?
20. When did you realize that nuclear weapons could destroy us? How did you react?
21. Do you remember the Cuban Missile Crisis?
22. Did you family have a bomb shelter or know someone who did?
23. What was your reaction to Reagan calling the USSR an "evil empire"?
24. What was your reaction to the fall of the Berlin Wall?
25. Were you in danger of being drafted?
26. Did you know someone who was drafted?
27. Did you consider draft options?
28. Did you go to any protests? What kind?
29. Did you burn your draft card? Bra?
30. Did you go to Woodstock, or would you have if you were old enough?
31. Did you have a friend who did drugs?
32. How did you react to Kent State? To the protesters who threw blood on the Pentagon? To reports of the massacre at My Lai? To Mohammed Ali's refusal to serve after being drafted?
33. What do you think of Ollie North today? Of G. Gordon Liddy?
34. How would you describe Nixon as a president? Clinton?
35. How was confidence in government changed after Watergate?
36. Do you think Nixon should have resigned? How did you react to Ford's pardoning of Nixon?
37. What did you think Sputnik was? Were you worried that the US was "behind"?
38. When did you first access the Internet? Email? What was your reaction?
39. Were you driving in 1973 or 1977? How did the Oil Embargo affect you? Did you change the type of car? Do you have any plans to change your car or driving habits with today's rise in gas prices?
40. Who was the first politician that excited you? Why?
41. Did you know anyone who fought in the Korean War? Did you agree with US intervention in Korea?
42. How did the following TV/media events impress/affect you?

1. Watts riots
2. Funeral - JFK, RFK, MLK, Princess Diana, Reagan
3. "Bull" Connor and civil rights protesters in Alabama
4. Riots after Rodney King trial verdict
5. Matthew Shepard beating
6. Vietnam coverage
7. Returning Vietnam POWs
8. Fall of Saigon
9. Armstrong on the moon
10. Apollo 13 (optional)
11. 1^st space shuttle
12. Challenger
13. Columbia
14. Iran hostage crisis
15. Desert storm
16. Tiananmen Square
17. Attack on Marine in Beirut
18. Oklahoma City bombing
19. Columbine
20. AIDS - early coverage
21. University of Texas Sniper/DC Sniper
22. Operation Iraqi Freedom
23. 1980 Hockey Team

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Last updated May 10, 2005

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