Period: All US History

All US History

Monumental Myths

Film. Directed by Tom Trinley. 2023. 51 minutes.
Inspired by the book, Lies Across America, this film presents the historic myths and facts about a few iconic monuments in the United States.
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Howard Zinn Speaking at NCSS, 2008 - | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

Why Students Should Study History: Article Excerpts

Article. Howard Zinn interview by Barbara Miner. 1994. Rethinking Schools magazine. I started studying history with one view in mind: to look for answers to the issues and problems I saw in the world about me. By the time I went to college I had worked in a shipyard, had been in the Air Force, had been in a war. I came to history asking questions about war and peace, about wealth and poverty, about racial division.
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Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (Teaching Guide) | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

The New (and Improved?) Textbook Columbus

By Bill Bigelow
Recently, I ran across an old manual that described itself as “An easy step-by-step guide to obtain U.S. Citizenship.” A page of history and government questions begins:
Q: Who discovered America?
A: Christopher Columbus in 1492.

This was the simple, and simplistic, history that I learned in 4th grade in the early 1960s growing up in California — a kind of secular Book of Genesis: In the beginning, there was Columbus; he was good and so are we.

And it stayed the history that most everyone learned until the Columbus quincentenary in 1992 brought together Native Americans, social justice organizations, and educators to demand a more inclusive and critical version of what occurred in 1492 and after.
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The Southern Mystique

Book — Non-fiction. By Howard Zinn. 1964.
In one of his earliest published works, Howard Zinn writes about his experiences teaching and organizing with the Civil Rights Movement in the South.
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The Land That Never Has Been Yet

Podcast. Produced by John Biewen with co-host Chenjerai Kumanyika. 2020. Center for Documentary Studies.
This twelve-part series tells a story of the United States from its beginnings up to the present that questions the traditional narrative about democracy as a foundational value.
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