The People Speak

The People Speak is premiering tonight and, though we've already seen it, we are pretty excited. It's on at 8pm Eastern, on the History Channel and it is going to knock socks. Set up the TIVO, email your friends, prepare to see the best thing the History Channel has ever done.

The People Speak has its own site, but don't forget your good friends at History Is A Weapon:

1. A People's History of the United States
   
2. Black Hawk's Surrender Speech, 1832
   
3. Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies
   
4. The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro
   
5. Ain't I A Woman?
   
6. Wall Street Owns The Country
   
7. War Is A Racket
   
8. Letter from a Birmingham Jail
   

Of course, we have much more than that; start exploring and congrats to Arnove and Zinn and everyone who worked on it.
[EDIT]
How excited were we? We added: People Have The Power by Patti Smith, Letter from Palestine by Rachel Corrie, Organizing in Our Communities Post-September 11th by Monami Maulik, "You Have to Fight for Freedom" by Sylvia Woods, 'Be Down with the Brown!' by Elizabeth ("Betita") Martinez, Surviving the Storm: Lessons from Nature by Julia Butterfly Hill, Organizing the Unemployed in the Bronx in the 1930s by Rose Chernin, Why we Fight by Vito Russo, "Who Will Revere the Black Woman?" by Abbey Lincoln, Women, Power, and Revolution by Kathleen Neal Cleaver, Of Woman Born by Adrienne Rich, Stonewall by Martin Duberman, Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne moody, Abortion Is a Woman's Right by Susan Brownmiller, and "Back of the Yards" by Vicky Starr ("Stella Nowicki"). Maybe even one more that we forgot about...

The People Speak

We made some additions to the site, but we have some even more interesting news first. History Is A Weapon is an anonymous site, but one of our participants had the honor of going to the premiere of The People Speak, a new film based on Voices of a People's History by Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove.

It's going to air on The History Channel and, these are words we thought we'd never type on the History Is A Weapon website, there will actually be something worth watching on the History channel. The comments from the History Channel CEO were kind of embarrassing and the director was a little squeamish about the advertisers when it was done, but the film itself is a real piece of work. Combining a Who's Who of progressive movie stars and musicians with documentary footage and Zinn himself speaking, it's a real treat. History teachers, activists, and everyone else should basically set their TIVO for The People Speak. You won't be disappointed. One note, it was definitely weird watching this with the glitterati at Jazz at Lincoln Center, but you know how History Is A Weapon rolls: we're everywhere.

Okay, keep an eye out. You heard it here first.
We made a few new additions on the spurring of said delinquent History Is A Weapon operative, and added Marge Piercy's The Low Road (which was apparently delivered by a magnetic Stacyann Chin in the movie), as well as Nina Simone's Mississippi Goddam. We also corrected a few errors throughout the site and updated the Start Page.
Remember, if you come across any typos on our site, please send us an email letting us know (info in the FAQ). Now go link to us. The more you link to us, the more random people have a shot at realizing that HISTORY IS A WEAPON