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A People's History for the Classroom

By Bill Bigelow

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A People's History for the Classroom helps teachers introduce students to a more accurate, complex, and engaging understanding of U.S. history than is found in traditional textbooks and curricula. It includes a new introductory essay by veteran teacher Bill Bigelow on teaching strategies that align with Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. These exemplary teaching articles and lesson plans -- drawn from an assortment of Rethinking Schools publications -- emphasize the role of working people, women, people of color, and organized social movements in shaping history, and raise important questions about patterns of wealth and power throughout U.S. history.

An understanding of the "people's history of the United States" provides the perspective and analytical tools so important for making sense of — and improving — today's world.

A People's History for the Classroom was produced in cooperation with Teaching for Change, as part of the Zinn Education Project. See www.zinnedproject.org

May, 2008 • Paperback • 120 pages
ISBN: 978-0-942961-39-3

Only $12.95

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Paperback — 120 pages — ISBN# 978-0-942961-39-3


"A people's pedagogy, like a people's history, should alert students to deep currents of justice and equality in U.S. history, and in diverse ways encourage students to try on the personas of people who worked to make this a more democratic society. A people's history and pedagogy ought to allow students to recognize that 'we' were not necessarily the ones stealing land, dropping bombs, or breaking strikes. 'We' were ending slavery, fighting for women's rights, organizing unions, marching against wars, and trying to create a society premised on the Golden Rule."

—from the Introduction to A People's History for the Classroom