Connecting Standard

United States History II.30

Analyze the roots of anticommunism in the 1950s and the origins and consequences of McCarthyism

  Play Summary

  The Crucible: Summary and Author Notes from Buffalo & Erie County Public Library

  Plot Summary from Internet Movie Database

Playwright Arthur Miller, 1966

Biography and Other Resources

Arthur Miller Biography from the National Endowment for the Arts

Read Arthur Miller's Why I Wrote The Crucible (The New Yorker, April 21, 1966

Salem Witchcraft Trials (1692) from Famous American Trials, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law


Multimedia Resources

See a 2013 performance of the play from WilliamsTheatre at Williams College posted on YouTube

The Crucible Audiobook on YouTube has an audio version of the entire play.

Trailer from the 1996 film The Crucible starring Daniel Day Lewis, Winona Ryder and Joan Allen

Lesson Plans

Which of You is a Witch? The Salem Witchcraft Trials and the Crucible from National Teacher Training Institute, Channel 13, New York City

Kazan, Miller and the McCarthy Era from American Masters, WGBY, Channel 57, Springfield, Massachusetts

Dramatizing History in Arthur Miller's The Crucible from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Historical Connections

McCarthy-Army Hearings, 1954

Salem Witch Trials
Go to Grade 5.11 on resourcesforhistoryteachers for material on the Salem Witch Trials including a timeline, primary source materials and other resources.

Salem Witch Trials: Facts & History from the blog History of Massachusetts




Army/McCarthy Hearings
Go to United States History II.24 for material on the origins and consequences of McCarthyism