A People's History of the United StatesFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A People's History of the United States

2003 hardcover edition

AuthorHoward Zinn

CountryUnited States

LanguageEnglish

SeriesA People's History

SubjectAmerican history, American politics, American foreign

policy,American economics

PublisherHarper & Row; HarperCollins

Publication

date

1980 (1st edition); 2009 (most recent edition)

Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)

Pages729 pp (2003 edition)

ISBNsee Current editions section

OCLC50622172

LC   Class E178 .Z75 2003

A People's History of the United States is a 1980 non-fiction book by American historian and political

scientist Howard Zinn. In the book, Zinn seeks to present American history through the eyes of the

common people rather than political and economic elites. A People's History has been assigned as

reading in many high schools and colleges across the United States.[1] It has also resulted in a change in

the focus of historical work, which now includes stories that previously were ignored.[2] The book was a

runner-up in 1980 for the National Book Award. It has been frequently revised, with the most recent

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.

Reviews have been mixed. Some have called it a brilliant tool for advancing the cause of social equality.

Others have called the book a revisionist patchwork containing errors.

In a 1998 interview, Zinn said he had set "quiet revolution" as his goal for writing A People's History.

"Not a revolution in the classical sense of a seizure of power, but rather from people beginning to take

power from within the institutions. In the workplace, the workers would take power to control the

conditions of their lives."[4] In 2004, Zinn edited a primary source companion volume with Anthony

Arnove, entitled, Voices of a People's History of the United States.

Contents

  [hide] 

1 Overview

o 1.1 Columbus to the Robber Barons

o 1.2 The Twentieth Century

2 Critical reception

3 Other editions and related works

o 3.1 Younger readers' version

o 3.2 Lessons for the classroom

4 Current editions

5 See also

6 References

7 External links

Overview[edit]

In a letter responding to a 2007 critical review of his A Young People’s History Of The United States (a

release of the title 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 (Big Bill Haywood, Mother Jones, César Chávez), of the

socialists and others who have protested war and militarism (Eugene V. Debs,Helen Keller, the

Rev. Daniel Berrigan, Cindy Sheehan). My hero is not Theodore Roosevelt, who loved war and

congratulated a general after a massacre of Filipino villagers at the turn of the century, but Mark Twain,

who denounced the massacre and satirized imperialism.[5][6]

I want young people to understand that ours is a beautiful country, but it has been taken over by men

who have no respect for human rights or constitutional liberties. Our people are basically decent and

caring, and our highest ideals are expressed in the Declaration of Independence, which says that all of

us have an equal right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” The history of our country, I point

out in my book, is a striving, against corporate robber barons and war makers, to make those ideals a

reality — and all of us, of whatever age, can find immense satisfaction in becoming part of that.[7]

Columbus to the Robber Barons[edit]

Chapter 1, "Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress" covers early Native American civilization

in North America and the Bahamas, the genocide and enslavement committed by the crew

of Christopher Columbus, and incidents of violent colonization by early settlers. Topics include

the Arawaks, Bartolomé de las Casas , the Aztecs, Hernán Cortés , Pizarro,Powhatan, the Pequot,

the Narragansett, Metacom, King Philip's War, and the Iroquois.

Chapter 2, "Drawing the Color Line" addresses the early enslavement of Africans and servitude of

poor British people in the Thirteen Colonies. Zinn writes of the methods by which he says racism was

artificially created in order to enforce the economic system. He argues that racism is not natural

because there are recorded instances of camaraderie and cooperation between black slaves and white

servants in escaping from and in opposing their subjugation.

Chapter 3, "Persons of Mean and Vile Condition" describes Bacon's Rebellion, the economic conditions

of the poor in the colonies, and opposition to their poverty.

Chapter 4, "Tyranny is Tyranny" covers the movement 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 problems and stop popular movements, a strategy that he

claims the country's leaders would continue to use in the future.

Chapter 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 land of

veterans of the Revolutionary War was seized for non-payment of taxes, it led to instances of resistance

to the government, as in the case of Shays' Rebellion. Zinn wrote that "governments - including the

government of the United States - are not neutral... they represent the dominant economic interests,

and... their constitutions are intended to serve these interests."[8]

Chapter 6, "The Intimately Oppressed" describes resistance to inequalities in the lives of women in the

early years of the U.S. Zinn tells the stories of women who resisted the status quo, including Polly

Baker, Anne Hutchinson, Mary Dyer, Amelia Bloomer, Catharine Beecher, Emma Willard, Harriot

Hunt, Elizabeth Blackwell, Lucy Stone, 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 elementary school textbooks in American history, you will find 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 United States[9]

Chapter 7, "As Long As Grass Grows or Water Runs" discusses 19th century conflicts between the U.S.

government and Native Americans (such as the Seminole Wars) and Indian removal, especially during

the administrations of Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren.

Chapter 8, "We Take Nothing By Conquest, Thank God" describes the Mexican-American War. Zinn

writes that President James Polk agitated for war for the purpose of imperialism. Zinn argues that the

war was unpopular, but that newspapers of that era misrepresented the popular sentiment.

Chapter 9, "Slavery Without Submission, Emancipation Without Freedom" addresses slave rebellions,

theabolition movement, the Civil War, and the effect of these events on African-Americans. Zinn writes

that the large-scale 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 system. He writes that the war could limit the freedom granted to African-

Americans by allowing the government control over how that freedom was gained.

Chapter 10, "The Other Civil War", covers the Anti-Rent movement, the Dorr Rebellion, the Flour Riot of

1837, the Molly Maguires, the rise of labor unions, the Lowell girlsmovement, and other class

struggles centered around the various depressions of the 19th century. He describes the abuse of

government power by corporations and the efforts by workers to resist those abuses. Here is an excerpt

on the subject of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877:[10][11]

Chapter 11, "Robber Barons and Rebels" covers the rise of industrial corporations such as the railroads

and banks and their transformation into the nation's 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, theFarmers' Alliance, and the Populist Party.

The Twentieth 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 asHawaii, Guam, and Puerto Rico.

The Teller Amendment. Zinn portrays the wars as being racist and imperialist and opposed by large

segments of the American people.

Chapter 13, "The Socialist Challenge", covers the rise of socialism and anarchism as popular political

ideologies in the United States. Covered in the chapter are the American Federation of Labor (which

Zinn argues provided too exclusive of a union for non-white, female, and unskilled workers; Zinn argues

in Chapter 24 that this changes in the 1990s),Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), Mary Harris

"Mother" Jones, Joe Hill, the Socialist Labor Party, W. E. B. Du Bois, and the Progressive Party (which

Zinn portrays as driven by fear of radicalism).

Chapter 14, "War is the Health of the State" covers World War I and the anti-war movement that

happened during it, which was met with the heavily enforced Espionage Act of 1917. Zinn argues that

the United States entered the war in order to expand its foreign markets and economic influence.

Chapter 15, "Self-Help in Hard Times" covers the government's campaign to destroy the IWW, and the

factors leading to the Great Depression. Zinn states that, despite popular belief, the 1920s were not a

time of prosperity, and the problems of the Depression were simply the chronic problems of the poor

extended to the rest of the society. Also covered is the Communist Party's attempts to help the poor

during the Depression.

Chapter 16, "A People's War?", covers World 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 ever

fought,"[12] but states that this support 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 War I) as proof. Zinn also argues against the US' true intention was not fighting against

systematic racism such as the Jim Crow laws (leading to opposition to the war from African-Americans).

Another argument made by Zinn is that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not

necessary, as the U.S. government had already known that the Japanese were considering surrender

beforehand. Other subjects from WWII covered include Japanese American internment and

the bombing of Dresden. The chapter continues into the Cold War. Here, Zinn writes that the U.S.

government used the Cold War to increase control over the American people (for instance, eliminating

such radical elements as the Communist Party) and at the same time create a state of permanent war,

which allowed for the creation of the modern military-industrial complex. Zinn believes this was possible

because both conservatives and liberals willingly worked together in the name of anti-Communism. Also

covered is the US' involvement in the Greek Civil War, the Korean War, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg,

and the Marshall Plan.

Chapter 17, "'Or Does It Explode?'" (named after a line from Langston Hughes's poem "Harlem" from

"Montage of a Dream Deferred", referred to as "Lenox Avenue Mural" by Zinn), covers the Civil Rights

movement. Zinn argues that the government began making reforms against discrimination (although

without making fundamental changes) for the sake of changing its international image, but often did not

enforce the laws that it passed. Zinn also argues that while nonviolent tactics may have 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. Also covered is the involvement of the Communist Party in the

movement, the Congress of Racial Equality, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee,

the Freedom Riders, COINTELPRO, and the Black Panther Party.

Chapter 18, "The Impossible Victory: Vietnam", covers the Vietnam War and resistance to it. Zinn

argues that America was fighting a war that it could not win, as the Vietnamese people were in favor of

the government of Ho Chi Minh and opposed the regime of Ngo Dinh Diem, thus allowing them to keep

morale high. Meanwhile, the American military's morale for the war was very low, as many soldiers were

put off by the atrocities that they were made to take part in, such as the My Lai massacre. Zinn also tries

to dispel the popular belief that opposition to the war was mainly amongst college students and middle-

class intellectuals, using statistics from the era to show higher opposition from the working class. Zinn

argues that the troops themselves also opposed the war, citing desertions and refusals to go to war, as

well as movements such as Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Also covered is the US invasions of

Laos and Cambodia, Agent Orange, the Pentagon Papers, Ron Kovic, and raids on draft boards.

Chapter 19, "Surprises", covers other movements that happened during the 1960s, such as second-

wave feminism, the prison reform/prison abolition movement, the Native American rights movement,

and the counterculture. People and events from the feminist movement 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 v.

Wade, Susan Brownmiller's Against Our Will, and Our Bodies, Ourselves. People and events from the

prison movement 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 First Convocation of American Indian

Scholars, Frank James, the American Indian Movement, and the Wounded Knee incident. People and

events from the counterculture covered include Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Malvina

Reynolds, Jessica Mitford's The American Way of Death, Jonathan Kozol, George Dennison, and Ivan

Illich.

Chapter 20, "The Seventies: Under Control?", covers American disillusion with the government during

the 1970s and political corruption that was exposed during the decade. Zinn argues that the resignation

of Richard Nixon and the exposure of crimes committed by the CIA and FBI during the decade were

done by the government in order to regain support for the government from the American people without

making fundamental changes to the system; according to Zinn, Gerald Ford's presidency continued the

same basic policies of theNixon administration. Other topics covered include protests against

the Honeywell Corporation, Angela Davis, Committee to Re-elect the President, the Watergate

scandal,International Telephone and Telegraph's involvement in the 1973 Chilean coup d'état,

the Mayagüez incident , Project MKULTRA, the Church Committee, the Pike Committee, theTrilateral

Commission's 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. W. Bush administrations and their effects on both the American people and

foreign countries. Zinn argues that the Democratic and Republican parties keep the government

essentially the same (that is, they handled the government in a way that was favorable for corporations

rather than for the people) and continued to have a militant foreign policy no matter which party was in

power. Zinn uses similarities between the three administrations' methods as proof of this. Other topics

covered include the Fairness Doctrine, the Indonesian invasion of 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 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 Union, the United 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 movement, the Plowshares Movement, the Council for a Nuclear Weapons Freeze,

the Physicians for Social Responsibility, George Kistiakowsky, The Fate of the Earth, Marian Wright

Edelman, the Citizens' Clearinghouse for Hazardous Wastes, the Three Mile Island accident,

the Winooski 44, Abbie Hoffman ,Amy Carter, the Piedmont Peace Project, 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-war movement during the Gulf

War, David Barsamian, opposition to Columbus Day, Indigenous Thought, Rethinking Schools, and

the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

Chapter 23, "The Coming Revolt of the Guards", covers Zinn's theory on a possible future radical

movement against the inequality in America. Zinn argues that there will eventually be a movement made

up not only of previous groups that were involved in radical change (such as labor organizers, black

radicals, Native Americans, feminists), but also members of the middle class who are starting to become

discontented with the state of the nation. Zinn expects this movement to use "demonstrations,

marches, civil disobedience; strikes and boycotts and general strikes; direct action to redistribute wealth,

to reconstruct institutions, to revamp relationships."[13]

Chapter 24, "The Clinton Presidency", covers the effects of the Bill Clinton administration on the U.S.

and the world. Zinn argues that, despite Clinton's claims that he would bring changes to the country, his

presidency kept many things the same as in Reagan-Bush era. Topics covered include Jocelyn Elders,

the Waco Siege, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Crime Bill of 1996, the Antiterrorism and Effective

Death Penalty 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 Bosnia

and Herzegovina, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the North American Free Trade

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 Million 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 Human Rights

Campaign, the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Spare

Change News, theNorth American Street Newspaper Association, the National Coalition for the

Homeless, anti-globalization, and WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 protest activity.

Chapter 25, "The 2000 Election and the 'War On Terrorism'", covers the 2000 presidential election and

the War on Terrorism. Zinn argues that attacks on the U.S. by Arab terrorists(such as the September

11, 2001 attacks) are not caused by a hatred for our freedom (as claimed by President George W.

Bush), but by grievances with U.S. foreign policies such as "stationing of U.S. troops in Saudi

Arabia... sanctions against Iraq which... had resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children;

[and] the continued U.S. support ofIsrael's occupation of Palestinian land."[14] Other topics covered

include Ralph Nader, the War in Afghanistan, (though notably absent is any mention of

the Taliban government in control in Afghanistan at the time, the war being launched, according to Zinn,

based merely on the belief that bin Laden was hiding in the country) and the USA PATRIOT Act.

Critical reception[edit]

When A People's 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 usually 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 chapter on Vietnam—bringing to life once again the free-fire zones, secret bombings, massacres

and cover-ups—should be required reading for a new generation of students now facing conscription.

Blacks, Indians, women, and laborers appear either as rebels or as victims. Less dramatic but more

typical lives — people struggling to survive with dignity in difficult circumstances — receive little

attention. ...A People's History reflects a deeply pessimistic vision of the American experience.

Foner called for "an integrated account incorporating Thomas Jefferson and his slaves, Andrew

Jackson and the Indians, Woodrow Wilson and the Wobblies."[15]

Taking a negative view of the book, Harvard University historian Oscar Handlin wrote in a review in The

American Scholar:

Hence the deranged quality of this fairy tale, in which the incidents are made to fit the legend, no matter

how intractable the evidence of American history. It may be unfair to expose to critical scrutiny a work

patched together from secondary sources, many used uncritically (Jennings, Williams), others ravaged

for material torn out of context (Young, Pike). Any careful reader will perceive that Zinn is a stranger to

evidence bearing upon the people about whom he purports to write. But only critics who know the

sources will recognize the complex array of devices that pervert his pages... On the other hand, the

book conveniently omits whatever does not fit its overriding thesis... It would be a mistake, however, to

regard Zinn as merely Anti-American. Brendan Behan once observed that whoever hated America

hated mankind, and hatred of mankind is the dominant tone of Zinn's book... He lavishes indiscriminate

condemnation upon all the works of man — that is, upon civilization, a word he usually encloses in

quotation marks.[16]

In the Washington Post Book World, reviewer Michael Kammen, a professor of American History, wrote:

I wish that I could pronounce Zinn's book a great success, but it is not. It is a synthesis of the radical

and revisionist historiography of the past decade. . . Not only does the book read like a scissors and

paste-pot job, but even less attractive, so much attention to historians, historiography and

historical polemic leaves precious little space for the substance of history. . . . We do deserve a people's

history; but not a simpleminded history, too often of fools, knaves and Robin Hoods. We need a

judicious people's history because the people are entitled to have their history whole; not just those

parts that will anger or embarrass them. . . . If that is asking for the moon, then we will cheerfully settle

for balanced history.[17]

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

Mr. Zinn was often taken to task for peeling back the rosy veneer of much of American history to reveal

sordid realities that had remained hidden for too long. [...] What was so radical about believing that

workers should get a fair shake on the job, that corporations have too much power over our lives and

much too much influence with the government, that wars are so murderously destructive that

alternatives to warfare should be found, that blacks and other racial and ethnic minorities should have

the same rights as whites, that the interests of powerful political leaders and corporate elites are not the

same as those of ordinary people who are struggling from week to week to make ends meet?[18]

Writing in Dissent, Georgetown University history professor Michael Kazin argued that Zinn is too

focused on class conflict, and wrongly attributes sinister motives to the American political elite. He

characterized the book as an overly simplistic narrative of elite villains and oppressed people, with no

attempt 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 only to fight the rich and haughty and, inevitably, to be fooled by them.

[19]

Kazin argued that A People's 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.

Writing in The Chronicle of Higher Education, 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 against 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 still considered Samuel Eliot Morison's 1955 book on Columbus to be definitive. The crowd

lapped it up, but Zinn knew better. He missed a chance to explain how the social movements of the

1960s and 1970s have transformed the writing and teaching of history, how his People's History did not

spring out of thin air but was an effort 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 be 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 critical reflection about

received wisdom. He understood that America's various radicalisms, far from being "un-American," have

propelled the nation toward more humane and democratic arrangements. And he sold two-million copies

of a work of history in a culture that is increasingly unwilling to read and, consequently, unable to

imagine its past very well.[20]

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 not a better place — that it finds itself almost globally despised, mired in war, self-doubt

and random violence — is also a fact, of course, but not one that Zinn’s brand of history seems equal to.

His stick-figure pageant of capitalist cupidity can account, in its fashion, for terrorism — as when, in the

second volume, subtitled “Class Struggle to the War on Terror,” he notes that Sept. 11 was an assault

on “symbols of American wealth and power” — but it doesn’t address the themes of religious zealotry,

technological change and cultural confusion that animate what I was taught in high school to label

“current events” but that contemporary students may as well just call “the weirdness.” The line from

Columbus to Columbine, from the first Independence Day to the Internet, and from the Boston Tea

Partyto Baghdad is a wandering line, not a party line. As for the “new possibilities” it points to, I can’t see

them clearly.[21]

Other editions and related works[edit]

A version of the book titled The Twentieth Century contains only chapters 12-25 ("The Empire and the

People" to "The 2000 Election and the 'War on Terrorism'"). Though it was originally meant to be an

expansion of the original book, recent editions of A People's History now contain all of the later chapters

from it.

In 2004, Zinn and Anthony Arnove published a collection of more than 200 primary source documents

titled Voices of a People's History of the United States, 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 made was his approval of Zinn punctuating 'his

narrative with hundreds of quotes from slaves and Populists, anonymous wage-earners and ... articulate

radicals.'"[22]

Whether Zinn intended it or not, Voices serves as a useful response to Kazin’s critique. As Sarver

observes, "Voices is a vast anthology 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 piece, letting the actors and their words speak for themselves." [22]

In 2008, Zinn worked with Mike Konopacki and Paul Buhle on creating A People's History of American

Empire, a graphic novel that covers various historic subjects from A People's History of the United

States as well as Zinn's own history of involvement in activism and historic events as covered in his

autobiography You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train.

Zinn worked as the series editor for a series of books under the A People's History label. This series

expands upon the issues and historic events covered in A People's History of the United States by

giving them in-depth coverage, and also covers the history of parts of the world outside the United

States. These books include[citation needed]:

A People's History of the Supreme Court by Peter Irons with Foreword by Zinn [23]

A People's History of Sports in the United States by Dave Zirin with an introduction by Howard Zinn

A People's History of American Empire (American Empire Project) by Howard Zinn, Mike

Konopacki, and Paul Buhle

The Darker Nations: A People's 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 War by David Williams[disambiguation needed]

A People's History of the Vietnam War by Jonathan Neale

The Mexican Revolution: A People's History by Adolfo Gilly

Likewise, other books were inspired by the series:

A People's History of Australia from 1788 to the Present 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 by Clifford D Connor.

A People's History of the World by Chris Harman. It is endorsed by Zinn.

A People's History of Christianity by Diana Butler Bass.

Younger readers' version[edit]

In July 2007 Seven Stories Press released A Young People's History of the United States, an illustrated,

two-volume adaptation of A People's History for young adult readers (ages 10–14). The new version,

adapted from the original text by Rebecca Stefoff, is updated through the end of 2006, and includes a

new introduction and afterword by Howard Zinn.

In his introduction, Zinn writes, "It seems to me it is wrong to treat young readers as if they are not

mature enough to look at their nation's 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

young readers to "Imagine the American people united for the first time in a movement for fundamental

change."

In addition, the New Press released an updated (2007) version of The Wall Charts for A People's

History — a 2-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 use of A People's History

of the United States (and other materials) for teaching in middle and high school classrooms across the

U.S. The goal of the project is to give American students accurate and complete versions of U.S.

history, with full historical complexity.[24] With funds from an anonymous donor who had been a student

of Zinn, the project began by distributing 4,000 packets to teachers in all states and territories. The

project now offers teaching guides and bibliographies that can be freely downloaded.[25]

Current editions[edit]

Zinn, Howard (2005). A People's History of the United States: 1492-present. Harper Perennial

Modern Classics. ISBN 0-06-083865-5.

Zinn, Howard (2003). A People's History of the United States: 1492-present. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-

06-052842-7.

Zinn, Howard (1999). A People's History of the United States: 1492-present. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-

06-019448-0.

Zinn, Howard (1995). A People's History of the United States: 1492-present. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-

06-092643-0.

Zinn, Howard (1980). A People's History of the United States. Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-014803-9.

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 United States.

Seven Stories Press. ISBN 1-58322-628-1.

A Young People's History of the United States, adapted from the original text by Rebecca Stefoff;

illustrated, in two volumes; Seven Stories Press, New York, 2007

Vol. 1: Columbus to the Spanish-American War. ISBN 978-1-58322-759-6

Vol. 2: Class Struggle to the War on Terror. ISBN 978-1-58322-760-2

Teaching Editions

A People's History of the United States: Teaching Edition

A People's History of the United States, Abridged Teaching Edition, Updated Edition

A People's History of the United States: Volume 1: American Beginnings to Reconstruction,

Teaching Edition

A People's History of the United States, Vol. 2: The Civil War to the Present, Teaching Edition

A People's History of the United States: The Wall Charts; designed by Howard Zinn and George

Kirschner; New Press (2007). ISBN 978-1-56584-171-0

See also[edit]

People's history

Chris Harman 's A People's History of the World a more general volume, cited by Zinn as a global

companion to his book.

A Patriot's History of the United States  written as a conservative response to A People's History of

the United States.

Page Smith  was the author of an eight-volume history of the same name, the first volume of which

appeared in 1976, four years before Zinn's book was published.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_People's_History_of_the_United_States