False Equivalency of Blaming “Both Sides”

In light of President Trump's comments about “both sides” being to blame for the violence during the white supremacist, Nazi rally in Charlottesville, VA, this past weekend, Kevin M. Kruse, Princeton history professor and author of White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism, shared examples in his Twitter feed about the use of false equivalencies in history.
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Teacher Organizer Campaign | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

Let’s Transform the Teaching of History

Imagine how we can transform the teaching of history by knitting together our ZEP network and provide them with even more extensive people's history resources. Resources that can help students question, but also can inspire and empower. To realize this vision, we'd like your help.
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People's history books sent to Arizona | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

Teacher Donates People’s History Books to Arizona Schools

Howard Johnson was angry when he read about racist taunts at a basketball game at Red Mountain High School in Mesa, Arizona, in early February. But he was not sure what he could do to help students learn to treat each other with respect until he read about the Howard Zinn book drive in Arkansas.
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Civil War Revisionism Still Shames America

By Manisha Sinha If nothing else, President Trump and the Republicans are making Civil War revisionism great again. In the spring of 2017, North Carolina GOP state Rep. Larry Pittman argued that Abraham Lincoln was “the same sort (of) tyrant” as Adolf Hitler, and was “personally responsible” for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans in an “unnecessary and unconstitutional” war.
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From Oregon to Arkansas: Howard Zinn Book Drive Ties People Together

During the Howard Zinn book drive for Arkansas, we posted this note from Harrisburg, Arkansas high school teacher Morgan Garland: "I only have one copy of Howard Zinn's book and I make copies of each chapter for all of my students." Garland could not afford a class set. A Zinn Education Project Facebook fan, Yarrow from southern Oregon, saw the post and decided to take action.
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Teach Students to Question the President | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

Teach Students to Question the President

On last Sunday’s CBS show “Face the Nation,” senior Trump policy adviser Stephen Miller defended Trump’s travel ban and said, “The powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned.” We need to remind students that this country has been at its best when people have organized to question and challenge presidents.
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Tacking the Headlines: Teaching Humanity and History | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

Tackling the Headlines: Teaching Humanity and History

With each passing day, it's becoming more apparent that Trump's agenda can only be enacted if people are ignorant of the issues underlying his supposed solutions. Having trouble finding and keeping work? Build that wall. Fearful of terrorist attacks? Ban Muslims. Want energy security and infrastructure development? Build that pipeline. The best antidote to Trump's xenophobia, racism, misogyny, and fossil-fuel soaked future is critical thinking.
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We the People, Resist

The environmental activist organization Greenpeace, USA posted a short video using the words of Howard Zinn from You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train. This one-minute history lesson is a timely reminder of the power that resides outside the three branches of the U.S. government.
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Standing with Standing Rock: A Role Play on the Dakota Access Pipeline | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

New Lesson: Standing with Standing Rock

The Zinn Education Project has just posted "Standing with Standing Rock: A Role Play on the Dakota Access Pipeline" by Wolfe-Rocca, her colleague Andrew Duden, and Zinn Education Project co-director Bill Bigelow. The teaching activities help students grasp the issues at stake in the historic struggle of the Standing Rock Sioux for recognition of their treaty rights and for clean water for all.
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New Lesson: Reconstructing the South

In popular culture, the most memorable depiction of Reconstruction was D.W. Griffith's film, Birth of a Nation. Missing from this racist portrait of Reconstruction — and from too many textbooks — was the extraordinary experiment in grassroots multiracial democracy this period represented — land reform, public schools, expanded voting rights, greater equality.
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D.C. Student Protest, 2016 | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

Teaching People’s History Is More Urgent

Dear friends, More than 65,000 teachers are helping students learn the truth, and teach outside the textbook. Their role has become all the more urgent. These teachers are often the only chance students have to learn a different story—one that looks honestly at this country’s long history of exploitation, but one that also features the social movements that have made it more just and equal.
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Tell a different story—donate today! | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

Students Tell a Different Story

Dear friends, Right wing media and politicians understand the importance of what children learn—or don't learn—about history in K-12 classrooms. That's why they went after the Mexican American Studies program in Tucson, Arizona. That's why they attacked the climate change education resolution in Portland, Oregon. They feared the spread of these good examples.
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People's History Trivia Night - Winning Team | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

People’s History Trivia a Roaring Success

On December 2, the Zinn Education Project hosted a packed house for the first-ever People’s History Trivia Night. Scheduled during the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) conference being held in Washington, D.C., this fundraising event brought together people’s history teachers and friends from around the country. It was a lively night of laughing and sharing as everyone enjoyed themselves while learning non-trivial people’s history.
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Pitchfork Magazine on Education and the Election

Pitchfork magazine wrote about the 2016 elections in an article titled, "How to Get Involved in Politics Right Now: Take These Musicians’ Leads." They stressed the importance of teaching people's history, "...we must take seriously the ways in which public school resources represent our history. One easy way to do so it to look at the Zinn Education Project."
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