On Sunday, April 25, the History Channel premiers America, the Story of Us, a 12-part, series airing over six weeks, "the epic tale of how America was built from the ground up," and focusing on how everyday Americans harnessed technology to advance human progress.

The History Channel describes the program as "...the first television event in nearly 40 years to present a comprehensive telling of America's history. Elaborate, ambitious and cinematic..."

We're hoping the adjectives accurate, thought-provoking, and balanced also come into play.

An early review, History From Unexpected Characters in the New York Times emphasizes that the program is definitely not your typical PBS-style documentary and clarifies the backstory and techniques utilized to create the series. The series is not intended for the scholarly audience, but is an attempt "to rope in viewers whose experience of United States history may be limited to their school history classes," according to the Times.

History Channel provides episode guides for the inaugural programs, Rebels and Revolution. An Articles section links to related essays and videos on topics such as Exploration of North America and Valley Forge. According to episode trailers, historian Danial Walker Howe, journalists Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams, and fashion consultant Tim Gunn (yes, THAT Tim Gunn—of Project Runway, etcetera) are among episode narrators. In fact, businessman Donald Trump kicks off commentary on Jamestown and the tobacco business.

Just for fun, take the Ultimate History Quiz at the History Channel. You have the option of signing up and challenging others and sharing scores. Speed and accuracy both count, and be forewarned: pop culture and world leaders figure prominently—at least in some rounds.

It's one thing to introduce primary sources in the K-12 history classroom; sometimes it's quite another to engage students in exploring them. H.S.I: Historical Scene Investigation, a joint project of the College of William and Mary School of Education, the University of Kentucky School of Education, and the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Program helps you involve your students as historical detectives.

H.S.I offers fourteen open cases (not all of which are complete), collections of primary sources organized around themes such as Constitution Controversies, the Boston Massacre, and School Desegregation.

Provocative questions induce student engagement and inspire critical thinking.
Each case opens with a provocative question. Dropping the Bomb, for example, gives a brief contextual statement about the Manhattan Project and asks "...did Truman decide to drop the bomb, or was the use of the atomic bomb inevitable?" The investigative challenge follows a student path and a teacher path through a four-step instructional model: Becoming a Detective, Investigating the Evidence, Searching for Clues, and Cracking the Case.

Commentary from historians, worksheets guiding student investigation, and descriptive questions are integral to the instructional model. Primary sources are both textual and visual, and documents are presented in their original language and in a modern, adaptive version. (See John Smith's Description of the Powhatans, 1612, for example). Pedagogical resources for working with documents in elementary school as well as in the higher grades appear in the Teachers View of each investigation.

"The Historical Scene Investigation Project (HSI) was designed for social studies teachers who need a strong pedagogical mechanism for bringing primary sources into their classroom," according to project creators. They invite educators who use their materials to comment on how the project meets their needs.

Howard Zinn is perhaps not a historian's historian. Scholarly judgments of his publications frequently challenge his factual foundation as well as the tunnel vision of his ideology.

Zinn is, however, a people's historian, and artists such as Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Morgan Freeman, Viggo Mortensen, and Rosario Dawson spotlighted Zinn's emphasis on social change and the power of protest throughout American history with the documentary The People Speak on The History Channel on December 13, 2009.

Two-minute vignettes of celebrities performing letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans from the program are available at the History Channel. They include actor Michael O'Malley reading the words of a Revolutionary War general, Matt Damon reading and discussing the Declaration of Independence, Jasmine Guy reading the commencement address of Marian Wright Edelman, and Christina Kirk reading Susan B. Anthony's statement at her suffrage trial.

A DVD of the program is scheduled for release shortly, and Amazon is one source for the soundtrack and other Zinn audiovisuals.

Additional video appears at Voices of a People's History, informal readings of more primary source materials from people categorized as rebels, dissenters, and visionaries from our past—and present—with Howard Zinn's comments.

Chapter-by-Chapter free PDFs of A People's History are offered through History is a Weapon website.

Zinn's opus, A People's History of the United States, 1492-Present, has gone through five editions, multiple printings, sold more than two million copies, and has been assigned in thousands of high school and college history classes since first published in 1980. Zinn is quite clear about the bias of the book: "With all its limitations, it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance."

Even historians who don't agree with Zinn's historical perspective acknowledge him as the most influential historian in America. But Daniel Flynn, executive director of Accuracy in Academia says Zinn puts theory first and facts second because he simplistically divides "mankind into two groups—and only two: oppressors and oppressed." Public historian Larry Dewitt decries the lack of balance in Zinn's work, "...we study history to find out what happened in the past and why. For Zinn, and like-minded historians, the discipline of history is merely a tool to be used in the pursuit of political cause."

The eminent Eric Foner wrote in his 1980 New York Times review of A People's History, "The book bears the same relation to traditional texts as a photographic negative does to a print: the areas of darkness and light have been reversed."

Howard Zinn excites history students. He involves them. He provokes discussion, controversy, argument. He encourages them to think about whether and how they have the ability to create direction and change.

Like any material, the effectiveness of teaching with A People's History (or any Zinn publication) depends on how the information is taught. Eric Foner continued in his review to state, "At issue here is not simply a question of 'balance' or of comprehensive coverage; every work of history is selective. What is needed, however, is an integrated account incorporating both Thomas Jefferson and his slaves, Andrew Jackson and the Indians...in a continuing historical process, in which each group's experience is shaped in large measure by its relation to others."

If lessons are rooted in promoting critical thinking skills, examination of multiple perspectives, and cross-checking and evaluating facts, Zinn's narrative offers rich opportunities for point-and-counterpoint discussion, projects, and papers encouraging students to challenge evidence of primary and secondary sources and to draw conclusions.

Teaching a People's History from the Zinn Educational Project offers lesson plans and teaching materials by theme and time period. The site also provides a thorough explanation of Howard Zinn's ideas for Teaching for Change.

And if you'd like to ask Zinn himself a question about his life and his ideas, submit them via email to zep@zinnedproject.org by FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2010, for consideration for an "Ask Howard" hour radio broadcast of Authors on Air.

Teaching materials in both Spanish and English can be difficult to find, and a new bilingual exhibit—inhouse, online, and scheduled to travel—from the Smithsonian Museum of American History explores a little known chapter in the history of Mexican labor. Bittersweet Harvest: The Bracero Program 1942-1964 looks at the largest guest worker program in American history, when an estimated two million Mexican men came to the United States on short-term labor contracts.

The exhibit, according to the Smithsonian, tells a story of both exploitation and opportunity to earn money. Small farmers, large growers, and farm associations in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, and 23 other states hired Mexican braceros to provide manpower during peak harvest and cultivation times.

"This exhibition allows us to explore complex issues of race, class, community and national origin while highlighting the irrefutable contributions by Mexican Americans to American society," said Brent D. Glass, director of the museum.

The presentation is divided into multiple themes including Expectations, Family and Community, and Life in the United States. The Bracero History Archive supplements and complements the online exhibit. Almost 3,000 images, documents, and oral histories comprise the Bracero History Archive, and the public is invited to upload further contributions. Historian Steve Felasquez talks about how he gathered oral histories for the project and of their significance.

On the Archive site, Lesson Plans designed for students grades 6-12 engage students with photos, oral histories, and documents.

The Electronic Schoolhouse/LaEscuela Electronica developed by the New York State Archives represents a major educational outreach to Spanish-language speakers.

The site focuses on using historical records—primary sources—as learning tools in elementary, middle, and secondary education. There's an English site and a Spanish site; and lesson plans, worksheets, and instructional videos are mirrored in both languages.

Primary source materials remain in their original language, organized by categories. The site enables the teacher to build a worksheet and then to edit and adapt that worksheet, selecting what information is needed to accompany the primary source material. Among seven worksheet options, the teacher might select captions, historical background of the primary source, questions, and resources.

Classroom teachers developed the content to correlate with the New York State Learning Standards with the goal of promoting critical thinking skills, reading and writing skills, and understanding historical content and context.