More really useful documentaries for when you have a bit of spare time

• Korea - 1949-53: HERE
• Death of Stalin: HERE
• Space Race: HERE
• Berlin Wall: HERE
• Cuba: HERE
• MAD: HERE
• Red Spring: HERE

Loads of brilliant documentaries here if you get a bit of spare time:

• Comrades - Relationships 1917-45: LINK
  
• Iron Curtain - 1945-47: LINK
  
• Marshall Plan - 1947-52: HERE
  
• Berlin - 1948-49: HERE
  

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Alexander Solzhenitsyn's classic novel, was published 50 years ago this month. A short, simply-told tale about a prisoner trying to survive the Gulag - the Soviet labour camp system - it is now regarded as one of the most significant books of the 20th Century. Yet according to a recent survey, 48% of Russians today believe that Stalin had a positive influence on their country. Only 22% consider it was negative. 

Has Russia forgotten the horrors of some of its soviet past? Read HERE to find out more.

In 1959 Britain's biggest cinema company, the Rank Organisation, decided to replace its newsreels with a series of short, quirky, topical documentaries that examined all aspects of life in Britain. For the next ten years, Look at Life chronicled - on high-grade 35mm colour film - the changing face of British society, industry and culture.This programme documents the changing role of women in the 1960s.

History Today charts the women's movement which is central to the GCSE History Controlled Assessment. Some good reading around

What were the origins of the Victorian Women's Movement?
What were the key forces in the early 20th century that led to women achieving the vote? (Part 1)
What were the key forces in the early 20th century that led to women achieving the vote? (Part 2)
How did the Women’s Movement develop and change after enfranchisement?
Second Wave Feminism (Part 1)
Second Wave Feminism (Part 2)
Second Wave Feminism as a personal journey. 
About the Authors

A range of excellent podcasts for some extension work here. Provided by the  University of Leeds.

Session 1: Attitudes to early 20th century immigration in the USA
Session 2: The Civil Rights Movement in the USA Part 1
Session 3: The Civil Rights Movement in the USA Part 2
Session 4: The Civil Rights Movement and Non-Violence
Session 5: The Civil Rights Movement and JFK
Session 6: The Civil Rights Movement and Radicalisation Part 1
Session 7: The Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Part 1
Session 8: The Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Part 2

Yesterday's featured document from the U.S. National Archives was President Wilson's address to Congress
calling for a declaration of war against Germany in 1917. Looking at the document got me to look at some of my bookmarks for World War I materials. In that search I came up with four short videos on the origins of WWI. Those videos are embedded below.

The first three videos above came from the channel History is Happening which contains some excellent videos for a wide range of topics in world history. The last video in the list came from All Histories which also
has a great collection of more than 300 history videos.

The BBC offers a virtual tour of a World War I trench that some of my former students showed me a few years back because they enjoyed it. The BBC also has some short films about WWI. There are six films that
show students artifacts and images of a British soldier's life during WWI. The films are sequenced beginning with recruitment continuing on to life in the trenches and ending with information about injuries and shell shock. The BBC also offers an animation of army movements from 1914 through 1918.

Some nice, simple lectures by the Khan Academy looking at the Crises of the Cold War

This  documentary looks at the Mongomery Bus Boycott and assesses the role of the  movement in the Civil Rights movement. Watch by clicking the LINK.

Learn more about Truman and the Cold War from  this PBS documentary. Click the image or HERE to watch.

He was a farmer, a  businessman gone bankrupt, an unknown politician from Missouri who suddenly  found himself president. Of all the men who had held the highest office, Harry  Truman was the least prepared. But he would prove to be a surprise. Facing some  of the biggest crises of the century, Truman would end the war with Germany, use  the atomic bomb against Japan, confront an expanding Soviet Union and wage war  in Korea -- all while the woman he adored, his wife Bess, refused to stay in the White House and play the role of First Lady. The story of the unlikely rise of a  gritty American original.