Who Was Book Club – World War II Edition - FDR, Tuskegee, Hiroshima

Our book club will meet for 8 weeks and discuss Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Tuskegee Airmen, and the bombing of Hiroshima/Nagasaki.  Students will be assigned reading weekly between our meetings and should arrive to class ready to discuss topics from the reading.  We will use these three books as a springboard for discussing World War II on a broader scale.  Students will need to read approximately 5 chapters (equally approximately 50 pages each) each week to prepare for class.  Who Was books are an easy read and are rich with graphs, images, maps, etc.  

The general breakdown for class will be as follows:
Week One:  Overview of WWII
We’ll look at maps, key figures, and timelines.  This will set the stage for us to jump into the books! 

Weeks Two and Three:  Who Was Franklin Delano Roosevelt?   
We’ll be focusing on the book “Who Was Franklin Delano Roosevelt.”  We’ll listen to some of his famous speeches, exam his critical actions during the war, and touch on other aspects of his amazing presidency. 

Weeks Four and Five:  Who Were the Tuskegee Airmen? 
The stories and accomplishments of this amazing group of patriots are, sadly, often untold in American history.  We’ll be discussing segregation in the military, race relations of the 1940’s, and how the contributions of this brave group to the war effort. 

Weeks Six and Seven:  What Was the Bombing of Hiroshima? 
This book covers the bombing of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as the aftermath of the atomic bomb.  We’ll also be discussing the Manhattan Project, Robert Oppenheimer, Einstein, and all the key players in the use of the world’s first atomic bombing.  (We will *not* be viewing graphic photos or videos after the bombing.  It is difficult to find age-appropriate content, so these weeks will largely be focused on the text.)

Week Eight:
How does the world rebuild after this devastating war?  We’ll discuss how Harry Truman transitions America to peacetime when the war ends as well as the forming of the United Nations.

We'll bring World War II to life through these amazing books!  I offer another WWII book club (link to class description: https://outschool.com/classes/who-was-book-club-world-war-ii-edition-XmEPzqAW?sectionUid=17d7ff15-81da-44f9-b51c-ebbea34c7c18&usid=C19DrybH&signup=true&utm_campaign=share_activity_link).  The classes are independent of one another and can be taken in any order. 

Class will include photos/videos to support the reading, veteran testimonials, and news footage.  I have carefully selected the media we will use and will only use footage that I’d deem appropriate for my own children of this age.  Footage following the atomic bombings will *not* be included.  However, please bear in mind, there is no way to cover WWII without any footage or images of war.  

My classes are largely discussion based and require learning engagement and interaction.  As I tell my learners, “Book club is not a spectator’s sport!”  Participants should come ready to share their thoughts and ask questions about the assigned reading during our session.  I require cameras to be on throughout class.  If extenuating circumstances prevent a learner from turning their camera on, please send me a message to discuss it prior to enrolling.   

Please note that I do allow for deviations from the schedule.  Sometimes the group wants to go deeper on one particular aspect of our content, requires more time on a topic to truly grasp it, or gets so engaged in rich conversation that it requires us to adjust our agenda.   

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Thank you for your interest in my classes. If the time slot listed doesn't work for you, I understand. Please submit a scheduling request. With the volume that I receive I cannot reply to each one individually, but I do look for overall trends and utilize that data to guide my scheduling process going forward.