The documents for this week juxtapose two of the big problems Americans faced in the 1970s, environmental degradation and the energy crisis.
Many of the texts are visual, and you need to practice reading these images for meaning beyond the very basics.
What is depicted in the photograph? Was the photograph taken intentionally? For what purpose?
Might it have been staged? What do the answers to these questions tell you about the larger meaning of the photograph?
Your first document is a comic book that General Electric Company wrote and published in 1948 about atomic power. What is the purpose and significance of this?
What context does it supply for our efforts to understand the 1970s?
The next five documents consist of maps and charts detailing the history of energy production and consumption. What can be learned from them?
Do they count as primary sources? Why or why not?
The next twenty documents are photographs depicting causes and consequences of environmental degradation. Which are the most revealing? Why? Which are the least revealing? Why?
The remaining documents are textual:
1. President Richard Nixon's remarks about a national energy policy, Sept. 8, 1973.
2. A Nov. 3, 1973 memorandum of conversation between Henry Kissinger, James Schlesinger, and William Colby about the oil crisis in the Middle East.
3. A letter to President Carter after he was elected president in 1976.
4. Jimmy Carter's proposed energy policy, April 18, 1977.
5. Jimmy Carter's July 15, 1979 "Crisis of Confidence" speech.
6. A 1980 White House memo on the Love Canal crisis.
What do these documents suggest about change over time?
Do these official documents suggest more or less sophisticated thinking about the energy crisis and the environmental problems before the country?
Does there seem to be a partisan difference between the reactions and strategies of the Republican Nixon administration and the Democratic Carter administration?