To facilitate bringing the Seizing Freedom podcast to the classroom, we are sharing teaching ideas for selected episodes, beginning with "A Powerful Black Hand."
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Book — Non-fiction. By Matthew Delmont. 2024. 400 pages.
Accounts from the Black press, Black workers and veterans, and civil rights activists, will help teachers and students tell a fuller, truer, and more historically useful story of World War II.
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Book — Non-fiction. By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas Davies. 2022. 198 pages.
An examination of the events leading up to the 2022 conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the different parties involved, and the risks of escalation and opportunities for peace.
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Members of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) were arrested and erroneously charged with inciting violence at the 1972 Republican National Convention in Miami. They were all later acquitted after a lengthy and much publicized trial.
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The First World War killed roughly 20 million people. Fighting transitioned from mainly human- and animal-powered to fossil fuel-powered technologies and accessing and protecting fossil fuel supplies became part of sustaining a powerful military. The Earth and the environment have suffered ever since.
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Article. Timeline by Bill Bigelow. 2023.
A timeline of the overthrow of democracy in Chile — the fall of Salvador Allende and the rise of Augusto Pinochet.
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Teaching Activity. By Adam Sanchez. Rethinking Schools. 14 pages.
A role play investigating the economic consequences of the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
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Film. Written and directed by Justine Shapiro, B. Z. Goldberg, and Carlos Bolado. 2001. 106 minutes.
This documentary explores the Palestinian-Israeli conflict from the eyes and experiences of Israeli and Palestinian children living in the West Bank.
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Book — Non-fiction. By Howard Zinn, adapted by Rebecca Stefoff with additions by Ed Morales. Translated by Hugo García Manríquez. 2023. 608 pages.
A Spanish translation of the young adult version of the best-selling A People’s History of the United States.
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The Niños Héroes (translated as Boy Heroes or Heroic Cadets) were six military cadets killed in the Battle of Chapultepec, one of the last battles of the U.S. Mexico War.
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Film. Directed by Loretta Alper and Jeremy Earp. Media Education Foundation. 2016. Three versions: 21 min./45 min./84 min.
This film helps students recognize how the media and politicians consistently frame “Palestinian resistance as terrorism and Israeli aggression as self-defense.”
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Film. Directed by Erin Axelman and Sam Eilertsen. Tikkun Olam Productions. 2023. 84 minutes.
Examines young Jews who are fundamentally changing not just their attitudes about Israel, Palestine, and Palestinians, but about their own role in the world, and coming to see themselves as solidarity activists.
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Book — Non-fiction. By Rashid Khalidi. 2020. 320 pages.
Examines the modern history of Palestine as a colonial war waged against an Indigenous population in order to force them to unwillingly relinquish their homelands.
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Book — Fiction. By Nora Lester Murad. Illustrated by Kate Cosgrove. 2022. 223 pages.
A coming of age story that explores identity, place, voice, and belonging through a Palestinian-American girl named Ida.
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Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. Translated by Floralba Vivas. Rethinking Schools.
Handout in Spanish for the U.S. Mexico War Tea Party.
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Not wanting Black coworkers to be given the same positions and pay, a contingent of Philadelphia Transit Company (PTC) workers staged a wildcat strike and withheld their labor.
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Book — Non-fiction. Created by Visualizing Palestine and edited by Jessica Anderson, Aline Batarseh, and Yosra El Gazzar. 2024. 392 pages.
A graphic and student-friendly portrayal of Palestinian social reality in book form.
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Teaching Guide. Edited by Bill Bigelow, Jesse Hagopian, Suzanna Kassouf, Adam Sanchez, and Samia Shoman. 2025.
Provides educators with powerful tools to uncover the history and current context of Palestine-Israel in the classroom.
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Book — Non-fiction. By Phyllis Bennis. 2025. 240 pages.
Answers to commonly asked questions about Palestine and Israel, written in popularly accessible language.
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Dozens of high school and university students in a peaceful protest were killed and injured by the U.S. backed Salvadoran police and National Guard.
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A group of students were suspended at Southwest Texas State University for peacefully protesting the Vietnam War.
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When the Civil Defense Administration attempted to hold a drill simulating a nuclear attack, 27 activists in New York refused to take cover. They handed out pamphlets reading: “We will not obey this order to pretend, to evacuate, to hide... We refuse to cooperate.”
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In and around the city of Adana, approximately 20,000 to 25,000 Armenians were tortured and killed by Ottoman Muslims following political unrest in the region.
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Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin was the only member of Congress to vote against declaring war on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
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Frank S. Emi protested the draft during Japanese American incarceration and was interrogated.
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