History in Words and Pictures: Real History. Real People. Real Enlightening.

High school American History, eleventh grade. Boring. Few students enjoyed it, except for me. But I was already a history monster, and I sat up and paid attention. Not like those others, shooting spitwads, passing notes and slam books (I always had a page full of retorts and cruel remarks that some thought were hilarious under my name.) Rarely was actual history thought about during those classes, back in 1968 and '69. How frustrating it must have been to teach that! It probably isn't much different today.

But wait! Out on the cyber-horizon-- it's a bird... it's a plane... it's Super-Historian! Yes, kids, that's right. Geeky but enlightening, Super-historian Howard Zinn, who was a history professor back in my high school days, as well as an ant-war activist and marcher in Civil Rights protests right alongside Dr. King, has just what the bored kid needs. Start by watching this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m9T96ZU74R9W3/ref=flash_player_2_preplay

That's right, kids, a graphic adaptation of A People's History of American Empire. Mike Konopacki did the art, historical photos are included, and much of the dialogue is based on lectures shown in the film about Dr. Zinn You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train. This is truly a multi-media package.

First, a warning: this isn't actually the same history that your high-school textbook showed you and your teacher tested you on; it's more of the "underground" version. ""American Empire" says it, though... Ever wonder about those pesky Sandinistas down in Guatamala, that Reagan was so hot about killing? (Remember Iran/Contra? Probably not much. But that was all about helping those who were fighting against the Sandinistas, the side chosen by Reagan and his cohorts to support because those Sandinistas were no doubt Socialists.) Anyway, they took their name from one Augusto Sandino, in the early part of the twentieth century. His story starts on page 212, and by the time you finish it you'll understand exactly what a "banana republic" is... if you make it that far.

But if you start at the beginning, the first story you'll read and see (that's the glory of words-with-pictures! They stick in your head) is about the massacre at Wounded Knee, the final stroke of Manifest Destiny getting the pesky Native Americans out of the way of white folks.

You will learn of the Zoot Suit Riots, as well as the true story of the Rough Riders' charge up San Juan Hill (and I must admit there are occasional discrepencies; Teddy Roosevelt was drawn on horseback. But the Rough Riders' horses were somehow on the next ship and hadn't reached the battle zone yet.) Oh-- and you'll understand a whole lot better the current attitude toward the possibility of American intervention in Iran, because the story of how our CIA overthrew a democratically-elected government there in 1953, then established a long-absent Shah on the Lion Throne... they have every right to not want our "help"!

So dig into this People's History (as opposed to the history texts written by, and approved by, the educational-industrial complex), and learn. --MaryK