M06 Historical Hack: Analyzing McCarthyism

Optional Enrichment Activity - Complete this optional activity to learn how to identify evidence from a text, and compile evidence to support a given claim.

Suggested Activities:

• Practice identifying and compiling evidence to support claims. In the blue activity on the page McCarthy as a Demagogue Links to an external site., you will sort the evidence you have identified from the examples on the page, and determine in what ways that evidence supports the claim that McCarthy was a Demagogue. You will also assess the credibility of evidence according to a modern and historical lens. 
  • You could compile evidence in a chart, identifying evidence that McCarthy was a Demagogue, then identify what criteria that evidence meets. 
  • The second part of the question about credibility of the evidence from a historical and modern perspective, you could assess the evidence from either the historical and modern perspective, then decide on the overall credibility. 
• In the second activity, you will be asked to support one of two opposing claims using evidence you found in the given texts. You will also be asked to conclude as to whether or not McCarthy was a demagogue, based on evidence that aligns with the definition of a demagogue. Then you will be asked to find three scholarly sources that agree or disagree with your conclusion.