w. 50

Ek2 and Sa2:

Now that the papers are turned in, we can move on. For the remainder of this semester we'll be working with source evaluation. We'll go through material together first to discuss source evaluation in connection with history. Then we'll work on an assignment using your sources from your paper. We won't be able to finish the assignment before Christmas, but we'll start it now and finish it after Christmas.

After we've finished with the source evaluation assignment, we'll do a unit on Swedish history. The current plan is that you will have a test over that material. I will return your papers before you take the test, and you'll be able to use that feedback on the test, which will allow you to work with many of the same Knowledge Requirements you worked with in the paper.

Following that we'll start preparing for Berlin and work on the Cold War.

When we talk about the Cold War, we'll spend a lot of time focusing on the political and economic policies of the West (the U.S. and its allies) and the East (the Soviet Union and its allies). The better you understand the differences between market economies and command economies, the easier the material will be. But reality is never as neat (orderly) as theory is. Here's a Planet Money episode that confounds some the of the ideas about market and command economic systems:

http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/11/25/457408717/episode-665-the-pickle-problem

If you're genuinely interested in economics (in starting your own business, in understanding economic issues of all sorts) I highly recommend regularly listening to Planet Money.