Articles Archives

Pentagon Papers collage | Zinn Education Project

Camouflaging the Vietnam War: How Textbooks Continue to Keep the Pentagon Papers a Secret

By Bill Bigelow

In the Academy Award-winning documentary Hearts and Minds, Daniel Ellsberg, who secretly copied and then released the Pentagon Papers, offers a catalog of presidential lying about the U.S. role in Vietnam: Truman lied. Eisenhower lied. Kennedy lied. Johnson “lied and lied and lied.” Nixon lied.

Ellsberg concludes: “The American public was lied to month by month by each of these five administrations. As I say, it’s a tribute to the American public that their leaders perceived that they had to be lied to; it’s no tribute to us that it was so easy to fool the public.”

In June of 1971, Ellsberg surrendered to federal authorities at Post Office Square in Boston. Forty-two years later, few of the historical secrets that Ellsberg revealed — especially those that focus on the immediate post-World War II origins of U.S. involvement in Vietnam — appear in the school curriculum.

Expanding Intersectional Queer History in the Elementary Grades

Article. By Laura Shelton. Rethinking Schools. 2022.
A 5th- and 6th-grade teacher asks her students to wrestle with what “identity” and “intersectionality” mean.

The Politics of Children’s Literature: What’s Wrong with the Rosa Parks Myth

Article. By Herbert Kohl. Rethinking Schools.
A critical analysis that challenges the myths in children's books about Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Howard Zinn: Interview by Bill Moyers

Article. Interview of Howard Zinn by Bill Moyers. 2009.
Book excerpt of Howard Zinn on The People Speak and a range of topics in U.S. history and contemporary issues.

The Export of Colors

Article. By Manlio Argueta. From Cuzcatlán, Donde bate la mar del sur.
An excerpt from a novel of historical fiction about the impact of an export economy on peasants in El Salvador.

The Green Feather Movement

Article. By Alison Kysia. 2013.
History of a little-known student resistance movement against McCarthyism and censorship.

Teaching Activity by Alison Kysia

Francis Scott Key Opposed “Land of the Free”

Article. By Jefferson Morley. 2012.
"Star-Spangled Banner" songwriter Francis Scott Key opposed abolitionists and free speech in his role as district attorney of the city of Washington.

Bombed out cars by Jo Freeman | Zinn Education Project

‘Is This America?’: Sharecroppers Challenged Mississippi Apartheid, LBJ, and the Nation

By Julian Hipkins III and Deborah Menkart

Fannie Lou Hamer gripped the nation with her televised testimony of being forced from her home and brutally beaten (suffering permanent kidney damage) for attempting to exercise her constitutional right to vote.

“Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, where our lives be threatened daily, because we want to live as decent human beings?” she asked the credentials committee at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

A People’s History of Muslims in the United States (Article) | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

A People’s History of Muslims in the United States: What Textbooks and the Media Miss

By Alison Kysia

When I teach history related to Islam or Muslims in the United States, I begin by asking students what names they associate with these terms. The list is consistent year after year: Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammad, and Muhammad Ali.

All of these individuals have affected U.S. history in significant ways. If we take a step back and look at the messages these figures communicate about Muslims in U.S. history, we see a story dominated by men and by the Nation of Islam. Although important, focusing solely on these stories leaves us with a skewed view of Muslims in U.S. history. Even these examples are a stretch. Most of my students reference 9/11 as the first time they heard of Muslims.

Grenada education poster| Zinn Education Project

Grenada: ‘A Lovely Little War’

By Bill Bigelow

Anti-bullying curricula are the rage these days. But the official history curriculum teachers are provided often celebrates, or at least excuses, bullying among nations. Well, at least when the United States is the bully.

A good example is the U.S. invasion of Grenada — Operation Urgent Fury, as it was called by the Reagan administration — launched on Oct. 25, 1983. Grenada made an unlikely target of U.S. military might. Its main product was not oil but nutmeg. Its naval fleet consisted of about 10 fishing trawlers. Grenada’s population of 110,000 was smaller than Peoria, Illinois. At the time of the invasion, there was not a single stoplight in the entire country. So what put Grenada in the crosshairs of the Reagan administration?

Disguising Imperialism: How Textbooks Get the Cold War Wrong and Dupe Students

Article. By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. If We Knew Our History series.
Too often, when it comes to U.S. Cold War interventions, the official curriculum is sanitized and disjointed, leaving students ill-equipped to make sense out of their nation’s global bullying.

What the Koch Brothers Want Students to Learn About Slavery

By Adam Sanchez

Given that the billionaire Charles Koch has poured millions of dollars into eliminating the minimum wage and paid sick leave for workers, and that in 2015 he had the gall to compare his ultra-conservative mission to the anti-slavery movement, he’s probably the last person you’d want educating young people about slavery. Yet the history-teaching wing of the Koch brothers empire is seeking to promote an alternate narrative to slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction.

On September 20th, If Our Students are Not in the Streets, Let’s Bring the Streets to Our Students

Article. By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. Rethinking Schools Blog, September 2019.
A call to action for teachers to join students, whether in the streets or in classrooms, by using their voices for climate justice.

Teaching Activity by Ursula Wolfe-Rocca

Gaby Lemieux testifying before the school board.

Teachers vs. Climate Change: The Story of Teachers’ Work for Climate Justice in Portland, Oregon

Article. By Bill Bigelow.
The story of how teachers, parents, and students in Portland, Oregon organized to demand that climate change be taught honestly and to pass a climate justice resolution.

Teaching Activity by Bill Bigelow

Two Thumbs Up: Movies and Documentaries to Use (and Avoid) When Teaching Civil Rights

Article from "Understanding and Teaching the Civil Rights Movement" edited by Hasan Kwame Jeffries.
A critical review of films on the Civil Rights Movement and institutionalized racism, with dozens of recommendations of films to watch and those to avoid.

The Climate Crisis Has a History. Teach It.

Article. By Mimi Eisen and Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. 2023.
A rationale for a new timeline of the climate crisis.

The Day of Silence: Queer Kids, Conservative Kids, and the Silences Within and Between Them

Article. By Anna McMaken-Marsh. Rethinking Schools. 2022.
A high school teacher navigates the tensions that arise in conversations with students about the Day of Silence, and how to bridge divides.

Discussion Questions for A People’s History of the United States

Questions and selected activities to accompany A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn.

Teaching Activity by Bill Bigelow

People’s History of Abortion Care in the United States

Article. By Wesley Hogan. 2024.
A collection of primary sources to illustrate the history of abortion care in the United States.

Criminalizing Librarians: Threats and Realities

Article. By Mariame Kaba, design by Cindy Lau, artwork by Erik Ruin, and research support by Noah Berlatsky. 2025. 12 pages.
Walks readers through the history of assaults on librarians and examples of library workers pushing back.

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