News

For Banned Books Week 2017 (Sept. 24-30), we highlight a few of the countless attempts to ban people's history books. In each case, grassroots efforts have succeeded in defeating the book ban.

Bill Bigelow, Rethinking Schools curriculum editor and Zinn Education Project co-director, wrote a letter to the editor of The New York Times in response to their August 26, 2017, article about statues and Columbus. The following letter was published on September 3, 2017.

As the school year gets underway, we share this tool kit to help you bring people’s history to the classroom. Resources include popular lessons, articles, recommended reading, education news, campaigns, and more!

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.

The Summer 2017 issue of Bostonia, the Boston University alumni magazine, features a profile of Zinn Education Project co-founder William Holtzman and the recent book drive undertaken in response to a proposed Zinn book ban in Arkansas.

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.

We saw the sculpture above on Twitter posted by high school teacher Hayley Breden in Denver, Colorado. It was one of more than a dozen inspiring and moving examples of her 11th and 12th graders’ end of the year assignments for an elective course on the Holocaust and other genocides.

We've been excited to hear from teachers about the impact of the using the role play "Reconstructing the South: A Role Play" by Bill Bigelow. Many of the comments provide insights into the "aha's" students have as a result of studying the Reconstruction era and its meaning today.

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.

By Manisha Sinha If nothing else, President Trump and the Republicans are making Civil War revisionism great again. A couple of weeks ago, 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.

For Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (May)—and all year long—we feature 20 Asian Americans and events of note in people’s history. We hope this list serves as an inspiration and starting point for students to do further research.

By Bob Peterson While hundreds of thousands of concerned global citizens march for science and climate justice, a massive corporate-financed disinformation campaign on climate change is flooding our nation’s schools.

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.

By Bill Bigelow Last week nearly 700 Arkansas teachers and school librarians received copies of books by Howard Zinn—thanks to a right wing state representative. Well, not exactly. But here’s the story.

When we made a call for donations to send books to Arkansas teachers, we were touched by the comments donors gave with their contribution. We share these inspiring quotes with you.

We are honored that our lesson, “Hunger on Trial: An Activity on the Irish Potato Famine and Its Meaning for Today” by Bill Bigelow, was used at the 2016 International Great Hunger Commemoration, an annual event sponsored by the Irish government, held in Philadelphia.

We want to hear about your feedback about use of our lessons on Reconstruction. In appreciation for your time, we will send you a free copy of A Short History of Reconstruction.