Drawing on oral histories and in-depth research, historian Ray Raphael of Humboldt County, CA, has written over 20 books based on real people telling their own stories. His early books dealt with topical and regional matters, including local history, the timber wars, and marijuana cultivation. In the early 1990's, while preparing his United States history courses, he became fascinated by the history of common people during the American Revolution, and since then his focus has been on the Revolution and the nation's founding. His books expose the messy realities behind the creation of our national documents, and they reveal an alternative narrative to stories of heroic individualism that we're taught in school, and that were fostered by an emerging nationalism in the 19th century. Howard Zinn inaugurated his People's History series with Raphael's A People’s History of the American Revolution (2001). A few of his more recent books include, President: How and Why the Founders Created a Chief Executive, Constitutional Myths: What We Get Wrong and How To Get It Right, Founding Myths: Stories That Hide Our Patriotic Past, and The U. S. Constitution: The Citizen’s Annotated Edition. Raphael has also developed a series of interactive lesson plans for the Constituional Source Project in which students participate in historical decision making to help them prepare for civic life. Raphael will speak with the founding director of Community Rights US, Paul Cienfuegos, and host Stephanie Potter. Call in with your questions and comments: 503-231-8187.
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