HIST 213: World History, 600-2000

Paper 2: Interpreting the end of the Cold War

This assignment is an exercise in locating and interpreting different kinds of historical sources. It takes as its subject the end of the Cold war. Commonly situated in the year 1989, this was a complex set of events whose significance was only partially understood by contemporaries and whose legacies continue to be debated by historians today.

You will locate and draw from four different types of sources:

1. A media account of the period;
2. The writings or recorded accounts of a person who actively participated in these events;
3. A peer-reviewed publication of a historian;
4. An account provided on a present-day social media platform.

Finding items in each of these categories requires a different set of research strategies, skills, and resources. For guidance, follow the links to each type of source in the menu on the left.