The People Speak is a beautiful and moving film inspired by Howard Zinn’s books A People’s History of the United States–first published in 1980 and one of the bestselling history books in the United States–and Voices of a People’s History of the United States, the primary-source companion to A People’s History of the United States, edited with Anthony Arnove. The film features the actual words (in letters, songs, poems, speeches, and manifestoes) of rebels, dissenters, and vis Read more…
March 13th, 2010 on 7:47 pm
If Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” is your type of history, this is a must have for your collection. The primary sources are good and the performances are powerful. Teachers might like this as a companion to teaching the use of primary source documents. Zinn gives the right amount of context to the pieces so that they make sense. This review is based on the program that aired on The History Channel.
March 13th, 2010 on 8:58 pm
(This is based on the version that aired on History — this DVD is that plus more). This is a fantastic approach to U.S. history — the words of real people who struggled to make their lives (and ours) better; read by a fantastic line-up of actors. These are the voices that are too often left out of U.S. history. If you like Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, you’ll like this. If you don’t know that book, check out this movie (watch it with others!) and then go read the book.