Historicizing the War on Terror
Article
Historicizing the War on Terror by Mary L. Dudziak
In the aftermath of September 11, American leaders used the metaphor of war to frame a response to terrorism. In this article, Mary L. Dudziak explores whether we have conceptualized September 11 as a break from the past, places the American response in a historical context, and asks us to consider the potential consequences of policies that emanate from our post-September 11 frame of reference
Download the article as a .pdf.
Crossword Puzzle
Download the crossword puzzle as a .pdf.
Lessons
Lessons to help your students understand the topics and issues raised in the article Historicizing the War on Terror by Mary L. Dudziak.
Educators for Social Responsibility
This organization provides free lessons on its Online Teachers Center to teachers who register to use the site, including, “Due Process: Is It Always Due?” This lesson introduces students to basic Constitutional protections of due process and then asks them to consider the balance of these basic protections with issues of national security. The lesson is not designed to produce concrete answer, but to introduce students to the difficulty of balancing two important competing interests. Other available lessons include:
- Understanding, Discussing, and Analyzing War
- Teaching About the Iraq Crisis
- Analyzing the Middle East
- Discussing North Korea
Intervene or Interfere? Exploring Forty Years of United States Intervention in Foreign Affairs
New York Times Learning Network
Students research the motives, actions, and results of U.S. intervention in foreign affairs between the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion and the 2003 invasion of Iraq; they then present their research to class for comparative analysis.
Teachable Moment.org
This web site from the Educators for Social Responsibility of the Metropolitan Area (New York), offers free lesson plans and classroom activities, including
- Civil Liberties and Terrorism: Three Lessons for High School Students
Lesson 1 asks students to first examine particular constitutional rights and consider what what the government should and should not be able to do in the name of fighting terror in light of those rights. - The Torture Issue
This lesson uses a DBQ (Document Based Questions) to examine their beliefs about various points of view on the debate over the use of torture in the war on terror mentioned in the Dudziak article. Please review the student reading section “U.S. Treatment of Prisoners,” for suitability for your students.
Resources
Resources to further explore topics and issues raised in the article Historicizing the War on Terror by Mary L. Dudziak.
Beinart, Peter. Can the Democrats Fight? Washington Post, 12/8/04.
Describes how insistence on human rights as a basis for Cold War engagement can be applied to the current war on terror.
Cold War: From Yalta to Malta (CNN)
This companion Web site includes interactive maps, online archival footage, and information about he key Cold War players.
Cole, David. Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism.
New York:New Press, 2003.
Dudziak, Mary L., ed. September 11 in History: A Watershed Moment?
Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003.
Fisher, Louis. Presidential War Power. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2nd rev. ed., 2004.
Greenberg, Karen J., ed. The Torture Debate in America. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Lieven, Anatol. Bush Spurns Cold War Lessons.
Describes one author’s views on how the war on terrorism resembles the Cold War more than World War I or II.
National Commission on Terrorist Attacks, The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (W.W. Norton & Co., 2004).
Redefining Torture
Justice Talking audio program about the torture debate. Please note, this Web page contains a graphic image that may be unsuitable for students.
Remembering Pearl Harbor
National Geographic’s Web sited devoted to exploring Pearl Harbor.
September 11, 2001
Coverage from the Washington Post.
September 11, 2001, Special Coverage
Coverage of the events of September 11 from the Online Newshour.
Tushnet, Mark, ed. The Constitution in Wartime: Beyond Alarmism and Complacency.
Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005.
University of Michigan War Against Terrorism Website
War Against Terror
CNN coverage of the September 11 attacks and aftermath.
War in Iraq
The New Yorker’s complete coverage of the war in Iraq
Teacher Tips
Teaching tips on topics and strategies.
Creating Strategies and Conditions for Civil Discourse About Controversial Issues
Tips from an online workshop from Annenberg Media’s teaching web site, learner.org, by John Allen Rossi.
War, Terrorism, and Our Classrooms: Teaching in the Aftermath of the September 11 Tragedy
A special issue of the journal, “Rethinking Schools” includes numerous teaching ideas.
