The Zinn Education Project

March 16, 2010 · Filed under Historical Insights, Literature, Unschooling · Tagged Historical Insights, Literature, Uns

Bus Boycott, Montgomery, AL, February, 1956, courtesy LIFE magazine

I’ve read many articles written by Howard Zinn. I’m ashamed to say that I have never read his entire book, A People’s History of the United States: 1492 to Present, but I plan to. Howard Zinn, who died on January 27,  2010 at age 87, told a different story about America, one that exposed its flaws but also one that celebrated its common people, instead of just its leaders. The Zinn Education Project is a great way to explore his vision and expand your own vision of America.

The Zinn Education Project allows you to discover history by time period or by theme. It contains wonderful resources, including web sites and even posters in addition to books and films. Warning: these resources include things like a poster entitled “Lies My Teacher Told Me About Christopher Columbus”, so don’t go here if you want your American history served up the way I learned it in the 1960s.

But if you want to experience history Howard Zinn’s way, you can register on the site and have access to such topics as

• the real story of the Irish potato famine
• how Rosa Parks fits into the big picture of the fight for civil rights
• what textbooks are like in other countries
• an essay on war, written by Howard Zinn, that contains this insight: “. . . American soldiers killed in war are always a matter of statistics. Individual human beings are missing in the numbers. It is left to the poets and novelists to take us by the shoulders and shake us and ask us to look and listen.”

How many historians acknowledge the role of poets and novelists in bringing us the story of our world? Howard Zinn is special, and so is this site. Enjoy.

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