Homework quessies

I have to give a presentation in a few weeks about a topic of my choice. The topic has to be political (obviously) and has to be anything post WWII era. Does anyone have any good ideas for what I can talk about? It can’t be too too complicated because I have to stand in front of the class and talk without any notes, but something that is interesting and that I can merely gloss over.

My other question is about english. I have to write a major essay about a poet, and then I will have to give a presentation on said poet, and help the class analyze a poem of that said poet. I don’t even like poetry, so I’m sunk. I have no idea who to research (Shakespeare is out of the question) and since I’m poetry-dense, I want to look for someone who writes haikus, because I love those (and nothing else). Any ideas? I would like to do an international poet, preferably asian, but I have no idea who to look for.

I’m not very familiar with haikus, but if you want a poet who’s easy to enjoy without much poetry experience, you can try William Blake or Edgar Allen Poe.

Poe!

Go with Poe. Period.

I was thinknig of him…I hope no one has signed up to research him already. We all have to do someone different :S

Poe! :smiley:

Edgar Allan, he rocks. Read The Raven.

If you can, go for Blake. If not, I suggest William McGonagall. He is widely considered THE worst poet in the English language. He tries to conform to classic ideas like meter and rhyme scheme, but then he goes and fucks it all up.

I used to have Poe in my sig. If you can, try Poe, or Jack Frost.

And as for a post WWII political topic, try this one. Mine was on the Communist Revolution in Cuba. If you don’t want to do a report on that, you can do the hippie movement in 1960’s America(which falls into the timeline of the political quagmire known as Vietnam).

You could do it on the containment policy, which is pretty much the reason for all the wars America was in up until the fall of the Soviet Union. Another topic could be the war on terrorism or the war in Iraq. There are plenty of easy sources for those. Another possible topic could be the Cuban Missle Crisis. It is easy to remember the details, there is lots to talk about, and it is a very interesting post-WW2 event. The various French h=government’s would be something that you could talk about. You could start with briefly discssuing the Vicci (spelling?) government and then Fourth and Fifth Republics. If those don’t work, I’ve got plenty of other topics I can suggest.