101 Changemakers: Rebels and Radicals Who Changed US History

Another book for the radar, this time written for our youth. The title says it all, including some well-known and not-so-well-known Asian Americans such as Fred Korematsu, Grace Lee Boggs, Bhairavi Desai, and Lam Duong.

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101 Changemakers: Rebels and Radicals Who Changed US History

Edited by Michelle Bollinger and Dao X. Tran
Published by Haymarket Books

ISBN: 978-1608461561
October 16, 2012

Hardcover
210 pages
for grade level 5 and up

From the Publisher

In the great tradition of Howard Zinn, 101 Changemakers offers a “peoples’ history” version of the individuals who have shaped our country for middle school students. In the place of founding fathers, presidents, and titans of industry, are profiles of those who courageously fought for social justice in America: Tecumseh, Harriet Tubman, Mark Twain, César Chávez, Rachel Carson, Harvey Milk, Henry Wallace, and many more. 101 Changemakers aims to provide young students with new ways of understanding how history is written and made.

From the Preface
“The increasing corporate control of education has deeply affected social science curriculum. Students are taught that our “heroes” are the “great” presidents or the “captains of industry.” At the same time, thorough representations of the victims and survivors of Indian removal, the impact of the growth of industry on US workers, and the effects of environmental devastation are often absent.
. . .
Children do learn in school about a handful of advocates for social change. But their stories are often sanitized or oversimplified in a way that makes them seem much less threatening and definitely less interesting. For example, most students today often learn about Helen Keller as a courageous young woman who overcame her disabilities. But few know about her antiwar activism or her staunch advocacy for women’s and workers’ rights. Many students learn about Martin Luther King Jr. in a way that fails to include his views on the war in Vietnam or that outright misrepresents the relationship between his politics and those of Malcolm X. And of course, many more are taught little or nothing about Malcolm X, because radical figures are often sidelined from the curriculum. We aimed to provide more for the young readers and activists of today. Through these brief, accessible, and dynamic profiles of various “changemakers” throughout US history, students can learn about the power that ordinary people have.”

Editor Bios
Michele Bollinger is a high school social studies teacher in Washington, DC, where she has been an activist since 1997. She is a member of the Washington Teachers’ Union, AFT Local 6. She is also the proud mama of Sasha, 8, and Jacob, 4.

Dao X. Tran was born in Vietnam and grew up in Philadelphia, where she was an activist since her youth. She is currently an editor based in the Bronx, New York, focusing on the Domestic Worker Oral History Project. When not reading for work and pleasure, she enjoys time with her daughter Quyen, a changemaker of a different sort.

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