Republican introduces legislation to ban Howard Zinn's books from publicly funded schools

The bill has been referred to the House of Education

Howard Zinn (AP)

A Republican lawmaker has introduced legislation which is looking to ban the works of Howard Zinn from publicly funded schools.

The bill was drafted by Kim Hendren, the member of the Arkansas House of Representatives, and has been referred to the House of Education.

Zinn, who died in 2010, was a historian, activist and writer and penned the best-selling book A People’s History of the United States.

His revisionist account of history focuses on a range of topics including the alleged blood lust of Theodore Roosevelt and the racial failings of Abraham Lincoln.

Mr Hendren is urging public schools not to use the material and the bill he introduced says it will “prohibit a public school district or open-enrolment public charter school from including in its curriculum or course materials for a program of study books or any other material authored by or concerning Howard Zinn”.

The Zinn Education Project said more than 250 teachers in Arkansas had signed up to history lessons from the project’s website.

It also pledged to send free copies of A People’s History of the United States to any teacher that requests it.

This is not the first time there have been attempts to ban Zinn’s books. In 2010 there was a similar move in Indiana and in 2011 his work was removed from schools in Tuscon, Arizona.