Everyday Life in Eastern Europe  Teaching Strategies  When
teaching the history of Eastern Europe I encourage students to
think about what life must have been like for ordinary people
going about their everyday routines in the East Bloc during the
Cold War, and also to think about what types of conditions are
necessary, in order for governments to be legitimate in the eyes
of their populations. I think that the communist rulers of
Eastern Europe failed to secure legitimacy from their peoples,
in significant part due to their inability to build and maintain
healthy, comfortable, and interesting lifestyles for ordinary
men, women, and youth, and that this failure greatly contributed
to the revolutions of 1989. When teaching I tend to keep my view
to myself, in order to encourage students to explore and
construct their own views using document-based evidence and
independent critical-thinking skills.  The questions found in
the first paragraph of the main introduction to this module and
the briefer questions spec