In a January 21, 2021 article, Fast Company asked 'top designers and thought leaders to recommend books that designers should read to expand their thinking beyond the traditional design text." A People's History of the United States kicks off the list.
At the White House Conference on American History, speakers (including President Trump) attacked Howard Zinn, the New York Times 1619 Project, and the Zinn Education Project. As Brett Wilkins reported at Common Dreams, "Educators fired back a series of tweets defending the project and accusing the president of spreading 'McCarthy-like' and 'fascist' ideas."
In an experiment with nearly 700 students from nine Chicago-area schools, Matthew Nelsen (a PhD candidate in Political Science at Northwestern University) gave out readings on the abolitionist movement, the National Farmworkers Association, and the Chinese Exclusion Act. Half of the readings were from the corporate textbook The American Pageant and the other half from A People’s History of the United States. Afterwards, when Nelsen asked students to report on their willingness to participate in political activities (voting, campaigning, or demonstrations), Black and Latino youth reported a greater willingness to participate when they read passages from A People’s History.
In this interview with Jacobin magazine and The Dig podcast, Professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor talks about her foreword to a new edition of Zinn's autobiography, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train.
In light of the death of the President George H. W. Bush on November 30, 2018, we share some of Howard Zinn’s writing about the Bush administration.
By David Detmer
One of Howard Zinn’s harshest, and most influential, critics is Sam Wineburg, the Margaret Jacks Professor of Education at Stanford University, and Director of the Stanford History Education Group.
In the Winter 2012-2013 issue of American Educator, Professor Wineburg published an eight-page essay entitled “Undue Certainty: Where Howard Zinn’s A People’s History Falls Short.” My new book, Zinnophobia: The Battle over History in Education, Politics, and Scholarship (Zero Books, 2018), contains a lengthy, point-by-point rebuttal to the criticisms he advances in that essay.
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.
On March 1, 2017, Arkansas Representative Kim Hendren (R) introduced Bill HB1834 to prohibit any publicly supported schools in Arkansas “from including in its curriculum or course materials any books or other material authored by or concerning Howard Zinn.”
In a Washington Post article on February 9, 2017, Fareed Zakaria compared Steve Bannon and Howard Zinn, concluding that, "In a strange way, Bannon’s dark, dystopian view of U.S. history is closest to that of Howard Zinn, a popular far-left scholar whose 'A People’s History of the United States' is a tale of the many ways in which 99 percent of Americans were crushed by the country’s all-powerful elites. In the Zinn/Bannon worldview, everyday people are simply pawns manipulated by their evil overlords." In response, two letters to the editor of the Washington Post were sent. The authors have given us permission to publish them here.
Spelman College featured several scholars and activists who talked about the huge impact former Spelman professor Howard Zinn had upon their lives.
In the News
People’s History: One of ‘The 14 most important books for designers to read right now’
Posted: January 24, 2021 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: About Howard Zinn, In the News, News Tags: A People's History of the United States
White House Attacks Howard Zinn, the 1619 Project, and the Zinn Education Project
Posted: September 27, 2020 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: About Howard Zinn, In the News, News Tags: Zinn Education Project
A People’s History Inspires Students’ Political Activism
Posted: June 25, 2020 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: In the News, News Tags: A People's History of the United States, Activism, Student Activism
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor on the Life of Howard Zinn
Posted: January 22, 2019 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: About Howard Zinn, In the News
“Bush seemed determined to go to war”: The Legacy of President George H. W. Bush
Posted: December 3, 2018 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: Excerpts, In the News, News
History Distorted: Sam Wineburg’s Critique of Howard Zinn
Posted: September 21, 2018 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: Articles & Interviews, Articles about Howard Zinn, In the News, News
‘Bringing Zinn to Class’: Bostonia Features Zinn Education Project Cofounder and Arkansas Book Drive
Posted: July 14, 2017 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: Articles & Interviews, Articles about Howard Zinn, In the News, News Tags: Boston University, Education, In the News, Zinn Education Project
Arkansas Bill Attempts to Ban Howard Zinn Books
Posted: March 22, 2017 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: Articles & Interviews, Articles about Howard Zinn, In the News, News Tags: Book Ban, Zinn Education Project
Letters Refute Fareed Zakaria’s Claim: ‘Bannon’s view closest to Howard Zinn’
Posted: March 7, 2017 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: Articles & Interviews, Articles about Howard Zinn, In the News, News
Howard Zinn Inspired Spelman Women to Stand Up, Speak Out, and Soar
Posted: March 1, 2016 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: In the News Tags: In the South, Spelman College