A Peoples History of the United States Book Review

1980 history book by Howard Zinn

A People's History of the Usa

2003 hardcover edition
Author	Howard Zinn
Land	Us
Language	English language
Series	A People'southward History
Subject	American history, American politics, American foreign policy, American economics
Publisher	Harper & Row; HarperCollins
Publication engagement	1980 (1st edition); 2009 (most recent edition)
Media type	Print
Pages	729 pp (2003 edition)
OCLC	50622172
LC Class	E178 .Z75 2003

A People's History of the United States is a 1980 nonfiction book by American historian and political scientist Howard Zinn. In the volume, Zinn presented what he considered to be a unlike side of history from the more traditional "primal nationalist glorification of country".^[1] Zinn portrays a side of American history that can largely be seen as the exploitation and manipulation of the majority by rigged systems that hugely favor a small amass of elite rulers from beyond the orthodox political parties.

A People's History has been assigned every bit reading in many high schools and colleges across the Usa.^[2] It has also resulted in a change in the focus of historical work, which at present includes stories that previously were ignored.^[1] The volume was a runner-up in 1980 for the National Volume Award. It frequently has been revised, with the about contempo edition covering events through 2005. In 2003, Zinn was awarded the Prix des Amis du Monde Diplomatique for the French version of this book Une histoire populaire des États-Unis. ^[3] More than two million copies have been sold.

In a 1998 interview, Zinn said he had prepare "quiet revolution" as his goal for writing A People's History. "Non a revolution in the classical sense of a seizure of ability, but rather from people beginning to take power from within the institutions. In the workplace, the workers would take power to control the atmospheric condition of their lives."^[iv] In 2004, Zinn edited a primary source companion book with Anthony Arnove, entitled Voices of a People's History of the Usa.

A People'south History of the United States has been criticized past various pundits and swain historians. Critics, including professor Chris Beneke and Randall J. Stephens,^[5] assert blatant omissions of important historical episodes, uncritical reliance on biased sources, and failure to examine opposing views.^{[six] [seven]} Conversely, others have defended Zinn and the accurateness and intellectual integrity of his work.^{[8] [nine] [10]}

Overview [edit]

In a letter of the alphabet responding to a 2007 disquisitional review of his A Immature People's History of the United States (a release of the championship for younger readers) in The New York Times Book Review, Zinn wrote:

My history ... describes the inspiring struggle of those who have fought slavery and racism (Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Fannie Lou Hamer, Bob Moses), of the labor organizers who have led strikes for the rights of working people (Large Beak Haywood, Mother Jones, César Chávez), of the socialists and others who have protested state of war and militarism (Eugene V. Debs, Helen Keller, the Rev. Daniel Berrigan, Cindy Sheehan). My hero is non Theodore Roosevelt, who loved war and congratulated a general after a massacre of Filipino villagers at the turn of the century, merely Mark Twain, who denounced the massacre and satirized imperialism.^{[eleven] [12]} I desire young people to understand that ours is a beautiful country, but it has been taken over past men who have no respect for human rights or ramble liberties. Our people are basically decent and caring, and our highest ideals are expressed in the Announcement of Independence, which says that all of us have an equal right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The history of our state, I betoken out in my volume, is a striving, against corporate robber barons and war makers, to brand those ideals a reality—and all of us, of whatever age, can find immense satisfaction in condign part of that.^[thirteen]

Columbus to independence [edit]

Chapter 1, "Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress" covers early Native American civilization in Due north America and the Bahama islands, the enslavement committed past the crew of Christopher Columbus (whom Zinn accused of genocide), and incidents of violent colonization by early settlers. Instead of restating the same history that has been presented for centuries, Zinn states that he prefers to tell history from the perspective of the Arawaks, which many people are not familiar with. He describes the purpose of Columbus' expedition and his brutality towards the natives after his arrival. Not only does he use firsthand account of witnesses to Columbus' presence in the islands, he besides provides statistics of native casualties to present this dissimilar side of history. Topics include the Arawaks, Bartolomé de las Casas, the Aztecs, Hernán Cortés, Pizarro, Powhatan, the Pequot, the Narragansett, Metacom, Rex Philip's War, and the Iroquois.

Chapter ii, "Drawing the Colour Line" addresses the slave trade and servitude of poor white people in the Thirteen Colonies. Zinn writes of the methods by which he says racism was created artificially in order to enforce the economy. He argues that racism is not natural because in that location are recorded instances of camaraderie and cooperation betwixt enslaved Blacks and white servants in escaping from and in opposing their subjugation.

Chapter 3, "Persons of Mean and Vile Status" describes Bacon's Rebellion (1676), the economic weather of the poor in the colonies, and opposition to their poverty. Zinn uses Nathaniel Bacon'south rebellion to assert that "class lines hardened through the colonial period".^[fourteen]

Chapter four, "Tyranny Is Tyranny" covers the move for "leveling" (economic equality) in the colonies and the causes of the American Revolution. Zinn argues that the Founding Fathers agitated for war to distract the people from their own economic bug and to finish popular movements, a strategy that he claims the country's leaders would continue to use in the future.

Affiliate 5, "A Kind of Revolution" covers the war and resistance to participating in war, the effects on the Native American people, and the continued inequalities in the new United States. When the state of veterans of the Revolutionary War was seized for not-payment of taxes, it led to instances of resistance to the government, every bit in the case of Shays' Rebellion. Zinn notes that "Charles Beard warned united states of america that governments—including the government of the United states of america—are not neutral ... they represent the dominant economic interests, and ... their constitutions are intended to serve these interests."^[15]

Independence to the robber barons [edit]

Chapter half dozen, "The Intimately Oppressed" describes resistance to inequalities in the lives of women in the early years of the U.Southward. Zinn tells the stories of women who resisted the status quo, including Polly Bakery, Anne Hutchinson, Mary Dyer, Amelia Bloomer, Catharine Beecher, Emma Willard, Harriot Kezia Hunt, Elizabeth Blackwell, Lucy Rock, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Margaret Fuller, Sarah Grimké, Angelina Grimké, Dorothea Dix, Frances Wright, Lucretia Mott, and Sojourner Truth.

If you look through high school textbooks and uncomplicated school textbooks in American history, you will discover Andrew Jackson the frontiersman, soldier, democrat, man of the people—not Jackson the slaveholder, land speculator, executioner of dissident soldiers, exterminator of Indians.

— Howard Zinn,
A People's History of the Us ^[16]

Affiliate 7, "Equally Long As Grass Grows or Water Runs" discusses 19th century conflicts between the U.Due south. government and Native Americans (such every bit the Seminole Wars) and Indian removal, especially during the administrations of Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren.

Chapter 8, "We Take Nothing past Conquest, Give thanks God" describes the Mexican–American War. Zinn writes that President James Polk agitated for war for the purpose of imperialism. Zinn argues that the state of war was unpopular, but that some newspapers of that era misrepresented the popular sentiment.^[17]

Chapter 9, "Slavery Without Submission, Emancipation Without Freedom" addresses slave rebellions, the abolition movement, the Civil War, and the consequence of these events on African-Americans. Zinn writes that the large-calibration violence of the war was used to end slavery instead of the small-scale violence of the rebellions because the latter may have expanded beyond anti-slavery, resulting in a movement against the capitalist organisation. He writes that the war could limit the freedom granted to African-Americans by assuasive the regime command over how that freedom was gained.

Chapter ten, "The Other Civil War", covers the Anti-Rent movement, the Dorr Rebellion, the Flour Riot of 1837, the New York City typhoon riots, the Molly Maguires, the ascent of labor unions, the Lowell girls movement, and other class struggles centered around the diverse depressions of the 19th century. He describes the corruption of regime power past corporations and the efforts by workers to resist those abuses.^{[eighteen] [19]}

Chapter eleven, "Robber Barons and Rebels" covers the rising of industrial corporations such as the railroads and banks and their transformation into the nation'south dominant institutions, with corruption resulting in both industry and government. Also covered are the popular movements and individuals that opposed corruption, such as the Knights of Labor, Edward Bellamy, the Socialist Labor Party, the Haymarket martyrs, the Homestead strikers, Alexander Berkman, Emma Goldman, Eugene V. Debs, the American Railway Union, the Farmers' Alliance, and the Populist Political party.

The 20th century [edit]

Chapter 12, "The Empire and the People", covers American imperialism during the Spanish–American War and the Philippine–American War, as well as in other lands such as Hawaii, Guam, and Puerto Rico. The Teller Amendment is discussed. Zinn portrays the wars as racist and imperialist and opposed by big segments of the American people.

Chapter 13, "The Socialist Claiming", covers the ascension of socialism and anarchism as popular political ideologies in the Us. Covered in the chapter are the American Federation of Labor (which Zinn argues provided also exclusive of a wedlock for non-white, female, and unskilled workers; Zinn argues in Affiliate 24 that this changes in the 1990s), Industrial Workers of the Globe (IWW), Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, Joe Hill, the Socialist Labor Party, Due west. Due east. B. Du Bois, and the Progressive Party (which Zinn portrays equally driven by fear of radicalism).

Chapter 14, "War Is the Health of the State" covers World War I and the anti-war move that happened during it, which was met with the heavily enforced Espionage Act of 1917. Zinn argues that the The states entered the state of war in order to expand its foreign markets and economical influence.

Chapter 15, "Cocky-Help in Hard Times" covers the authorities'south campaign to destroy the IWW, and the factors leading to the Groovy Low. Zinn states that, despite popular belief, the 1920s were non a fourth dimension of prosperity, and the problems of the Low were only the chronic issues of the poor extended to the residuum of the society. Also covered is the Communist Political party's attempts to assistance the poor during the Depression. He criticizes some aspects of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Bargain: "From the first, the NRA was dominated by large business and served their interests."^[20] Co-ordinate to Zinn, the New Bargain was aimed mainly at stabilizing the economy and "secondly at giving enough help to the lower classes to keep them from turning a rebellion into a real revolution".^[21]

Affiliate 16, "A People'due south State of war?", covers Earth War II, opposition to it, and the effects of the war on the people. Zinn, a veteran of the war himself, notes that "it was the most popular war the US e'er fought",^[22] but states that this back up may have been manufactured through the institutions of American society. He cites various instances of opposition to fighting (in some cases greater than those during World State of war I) as proof. Zinn also argues that the U.s.'s true intention was not fighting against systematic racism, since the U.s.a. had this itself, such as with the Jim Crow laws (leading to opposition to the war from African-Americans). In accordance with American revisionist historian Gar Alperovitz, another argument fabricated past Zinn is that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not necessary, as the U.S. authorities had already known that the Japanese were considering give up beforehand, and it was "most broken-hearted to get the Japanese affair over with before the Russians got in".^[23] Other subjects from WWII covered include Japanese American internment and the bombing of Dresden. The chapter continues into the Cold War, which Zinn writes was used past the U.S. government to increase control over the American people (for instance, eliminating such radical elements as the Communist Political party) and at the same time create a state of permanent war, which immune for the creation of the military machine–industrial complex. Zinn believes this was possible because both conservatives and liberals willingly worked together in the proper name of anti-Communism. As well covered is Us involvement in the Greek Ceremonious War, the Korean War, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the Marshall Plan and the Cuban Revolution.

Chapter 17, "'Or Does Information technology Explode?'" (named later on a line from Langston Hughes'due south verse form "Harlem" from "Montage of a Dream Deferred", referred to equally "Lenox Avenue Landscape" past Zinn), covers the Civil Rights Motion. Zinn argues that the authorities began making reforms against discrimination (although without making key changes) for the sake of irresolute its international image, simply often did not enforce the laws that it passed. Zinn too argues that while irenic tactics may take been required for Southern civil rights activists, militant actions (such as those proposed by Malcolm X) were needed to solve the problems of black ghettos. Besides covered is the involvement of the Communist Party in the movement, the Congress of Racial Equality, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Commission, the Liberty Riders, COINTELPRO, and the Blackness Panther Political party.

Chapter 18, "The Impossible Victory: Vietnam", covers the Vietnam War and resistance to it. Zinn argues that America was fighting a state of war that it could non win, equally the Vietnamese people were in favor of the authorities of Ho Chi Minh and opposed the authorities of Ngo Dinh Diem, thus assuasive them to go along morale loftier. Meanwhile, the American military machine'south morale was very depression, as many soldiers were put off by the atrocities which were fabricated to take part in, such as the My Lai massacre. Zinn also tries to dispel the popular conventionalities that opposition to the war was mainly amongst college students and eye-grade intellectuals, using statistics from the era to show higher opposition from the working course. Zinn argues that the troops themselves as well opposed the state of war, citing desertions and refusals to go to war, as well equally movements such every bit Vietnam Veterans Confronting the War. Also covered is the United states of america invasions of Laos and Cambodia, Amanuensis Orangish, the Pentagon Papers, Ron Kovic, and raids on typhoon boards.

Chapter 19, "Surprises", covers other movements that happened during the 1960s, such every bit second-moving ridge feminism, the prison reform/prison abolition movement, the Native American rights movement, and the counterculture. People and events from the feminist motility covered include Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell, Patricia Robinson, the National Domestic Workers Union, National Organization for Women, Roe 5. Wade, Susan Brownmiller's Against Our Volition, and Our Bodies, Ourselves. People and events from the prison motility covered include George Jackson, the Attica Prison riots, and Jerry Sousa. People and events from the Native American rights movement covered include the National Indian Youth Council, Sid Mills, Akwesasne Notes, Indians of All Tribes, the Kickoff Convocation of American Indian Scholars, Frank James, the American Indian Movement, and the Wounded Genu incident. People and events from the counterculture covered include Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Malvina Reynolds, Jessica Mitford'due south The American Way of Expiry, Jonathan Kozol, George Dennison, and Ivan Illich.

Affiliate 20, "The Seventies: Under Control?", covers political corruption and American disillusion with the regime during the 1970s. Zinn argues that the resignation of President Richard Nixon and the exposure of crimes committed past the CIA and FBI during the decade were done by the government in order to regain support from the American people without making primal changes to the system. Co-ordinate to Zinn, Gerald Ford'southward presidency connected the same bones policies of the Nixon administration. Other topics covered include protests against the Honeywell Corporation, Angela Davis, Committee to Re-elect the President, the Watergate scandal, International Phone and Telegraph'south involvement in the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, the Mayagüez incident, Project MKUltra, the Church Committee, the Pike Commission, the Trilateral Commission'south The Governability of Democracies, and the People's Bi-Centennial.

Chapter 21, "Carter-Reagan-Bush: The Bipartisan Consensus", covers the Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H. West. Bush administrations and their furnishings on both the American people and strange countries. Zinn argues that the Autonomous and Republican parties keep the government essentially the same, maintaining policies favorable for corporations and militant foreign policy whichever political party was in ability. Zinn uses similarities among the three administrations' methods to debate for this. Other topics covered include the Fairness Doctrine, the Indonesian invasion of Due east Timor, Noam Chomsky, global warming, Roy Benavidez, the Trident submarine, the Star Wars program, the Sandinista National Liberation Front, the Iran–Contra affair, the State of war Powers Act, U.S. invasion of Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War, the Invasion of Grenada, Óscar Romero, the El Mozote massacre, the 1986 Bombing of Libya, the collapse of the Soviet Spousal relationship, the The states invasion of Panama, and the Gulf War.

Chapter 22, "The Unreported Resistance", covers several movements that happened during the Carter-Reagan-Bush years that were ignored by much of the mainstream media. Topics covered include the anti-nuclear motion, the Plowshares Movement, the Quango for a Nuclear Weapons Freeze, the Physicians for Social Responsibility, George Kistiakowsky, The Fate of the Earth, Marian Wright Edelman, the Citizens' Clearinghouse for Chancy Wastes, the Three Mile Island accident, the Winooski 44, Abbie Hoffman, Amy Carter, the Piedmont Peace Projection, Anne Braden, César Chávez, the United Farm Workers, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, Teatro Campesino, LGBT social movements, the Stonewall riots, Food Not Bombs, the anti-state of war motion during the Gulf War, David Barsamian, opposition to Columbus Day, Ethnic Thought, Rethinking Schools, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

Chapter 23, "The Coming Revolt of the Guards", covers Zinn'southward theory on a possible future radical movement against inequality in America. Zinn argues that there will somewhen exist a move made upward not only of groups previously involved in radical alter (such as labor organizers, blackness radicals, Native Americans, feminists), but besides members of the heart class who are starting to become discontented with the state of the nation. Zinn expects this motility to use "demonstrations, marches, civil defiance; strikes and boycotts and general strikes; direct activity to redistribute wealth, to reconstruct institutions, to revamp relationships".^[24]

Chapter 24, "The Clinton Presidency", covers the effects of the Bill Clinton administration on the U.S. and the globe. Zinn argues that despite Clinton'south claims that he would bring modify, his presidency kept many things the same. Topics covered include Jocelyn Elders, the Waco siege, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Criminal offence Bill of 1996, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalisation Act of 1996, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, the 1993 bombing of Iraq, Operation Gothic Serpent, the Rwandan genocide, the War in Republic of bosnia and herzegovina, the Globe Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the North American Costless Merchandise Agreement, the 1998 bombing of Afghanistan and Sudan, the impeachment of Bill Clinton, Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed, Stand for Children, Jesse Jackson, the Meg Man March, Mumia Abu-Jamal, John Sweeney, the Service Employees International Union, the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees, the Worker Rights Consortium, the Poor People's Economic Man Rights Campaign, the United nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Spare Modify News, the North American Street Newspaper Association, the National Coalition for the Homeless, anti-globalization, and WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 protest activeness.

Chapter 25, "The 2000 Election and the 'War On Terrorism'", covers the 2000 presidential ballot and the State of war on Terrorism. Zinn argues that attacks on the U.South. by Arab terrorists (such as the September 11, 2001 attacks) are not caused by a hatred for our freedom (equally claimed by President George W. Bush-league), simply by grievances with U.S. foreign policies such equally "stationing of U.Southward. troops in Saudi Arabia ... sanctions against Iraq which ... had resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children; [and] the continued U.Due south. support of Israel's occupation of state claimed by Palestinians."^[25] Other topics covered include Ralph Nader, and the War in Transitional islamic state of afghanistan.

Critical reception [edit]

When A People'southward History of the United States was published in 1980, future Columbia University historian Eric Foner reviewed it in The New York Times:

Professor Zinn writes with an enthusiasm rarely encountered in the leaden prose of academic history, and his text is studded with telling quotations from labor leaders, war resisters and fugitive slaves. There are vivid descriptions of events that are commonly ignored, such as the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 and the brutal suppression of the Philippine independence movement at the turn of this century. Professor Zinn's affiliate on Vietnam—bringing to life in one case once again the free-fire zones, hole-and-corner bombings, massacres and encompass-ups—should exist required reading for a new generation of students now facing conscription. Yet, A People's History reflects a deeply pessimistic vision of the American feel ... Uprisings are either crushed, deflected or co-opted ... Why such movements so often fail to achieve their goals is never adequately explained ... The portrayal of these anonymous Americans, moreover, is strangely circumscribed. Blacks, Indians, women, and laborers appear either equally rebels or as victims. Less dramatic but more typical lives—people struggling to survive with dignity in difficult circumstances—receive little attention. Nor does Professor Zinn stop to explore the ideologies that inspired the various uprisings he details.

Foner continues by remarking that "history from the lesser up, though necessary as a corrective, is as limited in its ain way as history from the top downwards." What is necessary, Foner asserts, is "an integrated account incorporating Thomas Jefferson and his slaves, Andrew Jackson and the Indians, Woodrow Wilson and the Wobblies, in a continuous historical process, in which each group'south experience is shaped in large measure by its relation to others."^[26]

Writing in The New York Times, columnist Bob Herbert wrote:

Mr. Zinn was often taken to task for peeling dorsum the rosy veneer of much of American history to reveal sordid realities that had remained hidden for too long.^[27]

Herbert quotes from Zinn's account of the presidency of Andrew Jackson as an example of what he means.^[27]

Also writing for The New York Times, columnist Michael Powell praised the text'due south affect on changing the perspective of modern histories:

To draw it as a revisionist account is to risk understatement. A conventional historical account held no attraction; he concentrated on what he saw as the genocidal depredations of Christopher Columbus, the blood lust of Theodore Roosevelt and the racial failings of Abraham Lincoln. He also shined an insistent light on the revolutionary struggles of impoverished farmers, feminists, laborers and resisters of slavery and war. Such stories are more often recounted in textbooks today; they were not at the fourth dimension.^[28]

Writing in Dissent, Georgetown Academy history professor Michael Kazin argued that Zinn is likewise focused on class conflict, and wrongly attributes sinister motives to the American political elite. He characterized the book equally an overly simplistic narrative of elite villains and oppressed people, with no effort to understand historical actors in the context of the time in which they lived. Kazin wrote:

The ironic effect of such portraits of rulers is to rob 'the people' of cultural richness and variety, characteristics that might gain the respect and not just the sympathy of contemporary readers. For Zinn, ordinary Americans seem to live simply to fight the rich and haughty and, inevitably, to be fooled by them.^[29]

Kazin argued that A People'due south History fails to explain why the American political-economic model continues to attract millions of minorities, women, workers, and immigrants, or why the socialist and radical political movements Zinn favors have failed to gain widespread support among the American public.^{[annotation 1]}

Writing in The Chronicle of College Pedagogy, Christopher Phelps, associate professor of American studies in the School of American and Canadian Studies at the University of Nottingham wrote:

Professional historians have often viewed Zinn's work with exasperation or condescension, and Zinn was no innocent in the dynamic. I stood confronting the wall for a Zinn talk at the University of Oregon around the time of the 1992 Columbus Quincentenary. Listening to Zinn, one would have thought historians nonetheless considered Samuel Eliot Morison'southward 1955 book on Columbus to be definitive. The crowd lapped information technology up, simply Zinn knew ameliorate. He missed a take chances to explain how the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s have transformed the writing and instruction of history, how his People's History did non spring out of sparse air only was an endeavour to synthesize a widely shared shift in historical sensibilities. Zinn's historical theorizing, conflating objectivity with neutrality and position with bias, was no better. The critics would exist churlish, however, not to acknowledge the moving example Zinn set in the civil-rights and Vietnam movements, and they would be remiss not to note the value of A People's History, along with its limitations. Zinn told tales well, stories that, while familiar to historians, often remained unknown to wider publics. He challenged national pieties and encouraged disquisitional reflection about received wisdom. He understood that America'due south various radicalisms, far from beingness "un-American," take propelled the nation toward more humane and autonomous arrangements. And he sold two-million copies of a work of history in a civilisation that is increasingly unwilling to read and, consequently, unable to imagine its by very well.^[31]

In The New York Times Book Review in a review of A Young People's History Of The United States, volumes 1 and 2, novelist Walter Kirn wrote:

That America is non a better place—that it finds itself almost globally despised, mired in war, self-doubt and random violence—is also a fact, of form, but not i that Zinn'due south brand of history seems equal to. His stick-effigy pageant of backer cupidity can account, in its fashion, for terrorism—as when, in the 2d volume, subtitled "Form Struggle to the War on Terror," he notes that Sept. xi was an assault on "symbols of American wealth and power"—only information technology doesn't address the themes of religious zealotry, technological change and cultural confusion that animate what I was taught in high school to label "electric current events" but that contemporary students may every bit well just phone call "the weirdness." The line from Columbus to Columbine, from the start Independence 24-hour interval to the Internet, and from the Boston Tea Party to Baghdad is a wandering line, not a party line. As for the "new possibilities" it points to, I can't see them clearly.^[seven]

Professors Michael Kazin, Michael Kammen and Mary Grabar condemn the book equally a blackness-and-white story of elite villains and oppressed victims, a story that robs American history of its depth and intricacy and leaves nothing but an empty text simplified to the level of propaganda.^{[29] [32] [33]}

Other editions and related works [edit]

A version of the book titled The Twentieth Century contains only capacity 12–25 ("The Empire and the People" to "The 2000 Election and the 'War on Terrorism'"). Although it was originally meant to exist an expansion of the original book, recent editions of A People's History now incorporate all of the later capacity from it.

In 2004, Zinn and Anthony Arnove published a collection of more than 200 primary source documents titled Voices of a People'southward History of the United states of america, available both as a book and as a CD of dramatic readings. Writer Aaron Sarver notes that although Kazin "savaged" Zinn's A People's History of the United States, "one of the few concessions Kazin fabricated was his approval of Zinn punctuating 'his narrative with hundreds of quotes from slaves and Populists, anonymous wage-earners and ... articulate radicals'".^[34]

Whether Zinn intended it or not, Voices serves as a useful response to Kazin's critique. Every bit Sarver observes, "Voices is a vast album that tells heartbreaking and uplifting stories of American history. Kazin will be hard-pressed to charge Zinn with politicizing the intelligence here; the volume offers only Zinn's sparse introductions to each slice, letting the actors and their words speak for themselves."^[34]

In 2008, Zinn worked with Mike Konopacki and Paul Buhle on creating A People's History of American Empire, a graphic novel that covers diverse celebrated subjects drawn from A People'due south History of the United States as well every bit Zinn's own history of his interest in activism and historic events every bit covered in his autobiography Y'all Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train.

Zinn worked as the editor for a series of books under the A People'south History label. This serial expands upon the issues and celebrated events covered in A People'south History of the U.s. by giving them in-depth coverage, and also covers the history of parts of the earth outside the United States. These books include:^{[ commendation needed ]}

• A People's History of the Supreme Court by Peter Irons with foreword by Zinn ^[35]
• A People'southward History of Sports in the United States by Dave Zirin with an introduction by Howard Zinn
• A People's History of American Empire by Howard Zinn, Mike Konopacki, and Paul Buhle
• The Darker Nations: A People'southward History of the Third World by Vijay Prashad
• A People's History of the American Revolution by Ray Raphael
• A People's History of the Civil State of war by David Williams
• A People'due south History of the Vietnam War by Jonathan Neale
• The Mexican Revolution: A People's History by Adolfo Gilly

Besides, other books were inspired by the series:

• A People's History of Australia from 1788 to the Nowadays edited by Verity Burgmann. A four-volume series that looks at Australian history thematically, not chronologically.
• A People's History of Science: Miners, Midwives, and Low Mechanicks past Clifford D Connor.
• A People's History of the Earth by Chris Harman. Information technology is endorsed by Zinn.
• A People'southward History of Christianity by Diana Butler Bass.
• The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome by Michael Parenti. It is endorsed past Zinn.
• A People's History of Modern Europe by William A. Pelz
• Ludowa historia Polski (A People's History of Poland) past Adam Leszczyński (2020)^[36]
• An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. The third of a series of five books which reconstruct U.S. history from marginalized peoples' perspectives.^[37]

Younger readers' version [edit]

In July 2007 Seven Stories Press released A Young People's History of the United States, an illustrated, ii-volume adaptation of A People's History for young adult readers (ages 10–14). The new version, adapted from the original text past Rebecca Stefoff, is updated through the end of 2006, and includes a new introduction and afterword by Zinn.

In his introduction, Zinn writes, "It seems to me it is incorrect to treat young readers every bit if they are not mature enough to look at their nation'due south policies honestly. I am not worried about disillusioning young people by pointing to the flaws in the traditional heroes." In the afterword, "Rise like lions", he asks immature readers to "Imagine the American people united for the outset time in a movement for fundamental change."

In addition, the New Printing released an updated (2007) version of The Wall Charts for A People'southward History—a two-piece fold-out poster featuring an illustrated timeline of U.S. history, with an explanatory booklet.

Lessons for the classroom [edit]

In 2008, the Zinn Education Project was launched to promote and support the utilize of A People's History of the United states (and other materials) for teaching in heart and high school classrooms beyond the U.South. The goal of the project is to give American students Zinn's version of U.South. history.^[38] With funds from an bearding donor who had been a educatee of Zinn'southward, the project began by distributing 4,000 packets to teachers in all states and territories. The projection at present offers pedagogy guides and bibliographies that can exist freely downloaded.^[39]

Electric current editions [edit]

• Zinn, Howard (2005). A People's History of the United States: 1492–nowadays. Harper Perennial Modern Classics. ISBN0-06-083865-five.
• Zinn, Howard (2003). A People's History of the Us: 1492–present (tertiary ed.). HarperCollins. ISBN0-06-052842-seven.
• Zinn, Howard (1999). A People's History of the United states: 1492–present. HarperCollins. ISBN0-06-019448-0.
• Zinn, Howard (1995). A People's History of the U.s.a.: 1492–nowadays (2d ed.). HarperCollins. ISBN0-06-092643-0.
• Zinn, Howard (1980). A People'due south History of the United states (1st ed.). Harper & Row. ISBN0-06-014803-ix.
• Zinn, Howard (2003). The Twentieth Century. Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-06-053034-0
• Zinn, Howard (2005). Arnove, Anthony (ed.). Voices of a People's History of the The states. Seven Stories Press. ISBNi-58322-628-one.
• A Young People'due south History of the U.s.a., adapted from the original text past Rebecca Stefoff; illustrated, in two volumes; Seven Stories Press, New York, 2007
  • Vol. one: Columbus to the Spanish–American War. ISBN 978-1-58322-759-6
  • Vol. 2: Class Struggle to the War on Terror. ISBN 978-1-58322-760-two
• Teaching Editions
  • A People'due south History of the United states of america: Teaching Edition
  • A People's History of the United states of america, Abridged Education Edition, Updated Edition
  • A People'southward History of the United States: Book 1: American Beginnings to Reconstruction, Teaching Edition
  • A People'south History of the U.s., Vol. 2: The Ceremonious War to the Present, Teaching Edition
• A People's History of the United states of america: The Wall Charts; designed by Howard Zinn and George Kirschner; New Press (2007). ISBN 978-1-56584-171-0

See likewise [edit]

• Lies My Teacher Told Me a 1995 book by sociologist James Loewen
• Open Veins of Latin America, a critical history of Latin America past Eduardo Galeano
• The People Speak (film), the 2009 film produced and narrated by Howard Zinn and inspired by A People's History of the United states of america and Voices of a People's History of the U.s.a.
• A Patriot's History of the U.s.: From Columbus's Keen Discovery to the War on Terror, written as a conservative response to A People'due south History of the United States
• The Untold History of the United states of america, a 2012 documentary series directed, produced, and narrated past Oliver Stone
• Page Smith wrote an eight-volume history with the same championship, whose first book appeared in 1976, four years before Zinn's volume was published
• Nosotros, the People the Drama of America , a Marxist history of the U.s. by Leo Huberman (1932)
• People'due south history

Explanatory notes [edit]

1. ^ While Zinn may have failed to explain this second fact in his volume on why there has never been a widespread radical left in America, he responded to a like point in a lecture he gave at MIT in 2005.^[thirty]

References [edit]

1. ^ ^{a b} Howard Powell (Jan 27, 2010). "Howard Zinn, Historian, Dies at 87". The New York Times. Mr. Zinn, delighted in ... lancing what he considered platitudes, not the least that American history was a heroic march toward democracy ... 'Our nation had gone through an awful lot—the Vietnam War, civil rights, Watergate—yet the textbooks offered the aforementioned fundamental nationalist glorification of state,' Mr. Zinn recalled in an interview with The New York Times. 'I got the sense that people were hungry for a different, more honest take.'
2. ^ Adele Ferguson (October 5, 2005). "Controversy brews over schoolhouse textbook". The Arlington Times. p. A7.
3. ^ Prix des Amis du Monde diplomatique 2003 declaration, Dec i, 2003.
4. ^ Parayre, Catherine (February 18, 1998). "The Censor of the Past: An interview with historian Howard Zinn". Flagpole Magazine. Archived from the original on May 25, 2001. Retrieved February 15, 2006.
5. ^ Chris Beneke and Randall Stephens, "Lies the Debunkers Told Me: How Bad History Books Win Us Over", The Atlantic, 24 July 2012. Retrieved xviii September 2020.
6. ^ Handlin, Oscar (Fall 1980). "Arawaks". The American Scholar. 49 (4): 546–550. JSTOR 41210677.
7. ^ ^{a b} Kirn, Walter (June 17, 2007). "Children's Books". The New York Times.
8. ^ Markowitz, Norman. "In Defense of the Belatedly, Great Howard Zinn". History News Network . Retrieved April 23, 2021.
9. ^ Masciotra, David (July 25, 2018). "In Defense of Howard Zinn". The American Conservative . Retrieved April 23, 2021.
10. ^ Patrick McCarthy, Timothy (July xiii, 2017). "Howard Zinn at 90: Defending the People'southward Historian". The Daily Beast . Retrieved April 23, 2021.
11. ^ "Mark Twain". October 10, 2006. Archived from the original on October x, 2006.
12. ^ "Comments on the Moro Massacre past Marking Twain (March 12, 1906)". Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, College of Urban, Labor and Metropolitan Diplomacy (CULMA), Wayne State Academy. Archived from the original on December 28, 2005.
13. ^ Howard Zinn (July 1, 2007). "Making History". The New York Times . Retrieved November 14, 2010.
14. ^ Zinn, Howard. "A People'southward History of the United States". New York: Perennial Classics, 2003. p. 47 ISBN 0-06-052837-0
15. ^ Zinn, Howard. A People'southward History of the United states. New York: Perennial Classics, 2003. p. 98 ISBN 0-06-052837-0
16. ^ A Radical Treasure by Bob Herbet, The New York Times, January 29, 2010
17. ^ Zinn, Howard (2003). "Chapter 8: We take cipher by conquest, Thank God". A People's History of the United States. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
18. ^ "The great railroad strike, 1877 – Howard Zinn".
19. ^ Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United states. New York: HarperCollins, 1999. pp. 245–251 ISBN 0-06-052837-0
20. ^ Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United states of america. New York: HarperCollins, 1995. p. 383 ISBN 0-06-092643-0
21. ^ Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States. New York: HarperCollins, 1995. p. 384 ISBN 0-06-092643-0
22. ^ Zinn, p. 407
23. ^ Zinn, p. 416
24. ^ Zinn, pp. 639–640
25. ^ Zinn, p. 681
26. ^ Foner, Eric, "Majority Report", New York Times Book Review, March ii, 1980, pp. BR3–BR4.
27. ^ ^{a b} Herbert, Bob (January 30, 2010). "A Radical Treasure". The New York Times . Retrieved November 21, 2018.
28. ^ "Howard Zinn, Historian, Dies at 87" by Howard Powell in The New York Times Jan 30, 2010
29. ^ ^{a b} "Howard Zinn's History Lessons", by Michael Kazin, Dissent, Leap 2004
30. ^ "The Myth of American Exceptionalism"; encounter 1:29:19
31. ^ Phelps, Christopher (Feb 1, 2010). "Howard Zinn, Philosopher" – via The Chronicle of College Instruction.
32. ^ Kammen, Michael (March 23, 1980). "How the Other Half Lived". Washington Post Book World. p. 7. Retrieved August 10, 2011.
33. ^ Grabar, Mary (2020). Debunking Howard Zinn: Exposing the Fake History That Turned a Generation against America. Regnery. p. 352. ISBN978-1621577737.
34. ^ ^{a b} Aaron Sarver, The Secret History", In These Times, 16 September 2005
35. ^ "Tables of Contents for A People's History of the Supreme Court".
36. ^ "Ludowa historia Polski [A People'south History of Poland]". Polish History. February 25, 2021. Retrieved April 26, 2021.
37. ^ "Books". ReVisioning History. July 20, 2015. Retrieved August 13, 2021.
38. ^ Mulcahy, Cara K. (2010). Marginalized Literacies: Critical Literacy in the Language Arts Classroom. IAP. pp. 125–126. ISBN978-1-60752-454-0.
39. ^ The Social Studies Professional. National Council for the Social Studies (204–208): 19–22. 2008. {{cite periodical}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)

External links [edit]

• Webpage for publisher HarperCollins: A People's History of the United States
• The People Speak: Commonwealth is not a spectator sport produced for the History Channel by Zinn and Matt Damon
• Zinn Education Project: Teaching a People's History
• The People Speak, film produced by Howard Zinn and inspired by A People's History of the United States and Voices of a People's History of the Us
• Bringing History to Life | Voices of a People'southward History in the Us
• Readings From A People's History of the Usa
• Readings from Voices of a People's History of the The states
• Online edition of A People's History of the Usa at History Is A Weapon
• A People's History of the United states at Open Library
• Censoring Howard Zinn: Former Indiana Gov. Tried to Remove A People's History from State Schools. Commonwealth Now! 22 July 2013
• Presentation by Zinn on A People's History of the United States, July 24, 1995, C-Bridge
• Presentation past Zinn on A People's History of the United States, Nov 10, 1998, C-SPAN
• Presentation by Zinn on A People'southward History of the United States, October 16, 1999, C-SPAN
• Booknotes interview with Zinn on A People's History of the United States, March 12, 2000, C-Span

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_People%27s_History_of_the_United_States

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