March 5, 2017

Arkansas legislature considering banning Howard Zinn books from schools

Boing Boing - The Arkansas legislature is considering a bill that would prohibit "any books or other material authored by or concerning Howard Zinn" in its schools, on the grounds that Howard Zinn says means things about America, like, "It has the kinds of censoring, undemocratic state governments that ban all books by and discussions of critics of America and its actions."

Cowardly legislatures have been attempting to ban Zinn for years: in 2010, Indiana tried it; in 2011, Tuscon succeeded, getting A People's History yanked from the city's Mexican American studies curriculum.

The nonprofit Zinn Education Project is offering free copies of A People's History, along with classroom materials, to all Arkansas teachers.

3 comments:

Tom Puckett said...

I keep hearing about this book; find it here:

http://www.historyisaweapon.com/zinnapeopleshistory.html

https://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-United-States/dp/0062397346/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488810336&sr=8-1&keywords=zinn+history

Thanks, Tom

Anonymous said...

This may backfire for Alabama. The only reason I ever read "Catcher in the Rye" was because it had been banned. Imagine if lots of Alabama school kids read Zinn, because his books are being banned. Kids are like that.

Matt said...

When you think about it there's probably no sweeter news to an author's ears than, "They're burning your book in the Land of Goshen." Or, somewhere.