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

Howard Zinn (Author), Kathy Emery (Author), Ellen Reeves (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1565848268 | ISBN-13: 978-1565848269 | Publication Date: August 2003 | Edition: Updated & abridged

The New Press's Abridged Teaching Edition of A People's History of the United States has made Howard Zinn's original text available specifically for classroom use. With exercises and teaching materials to accompany each chapter, this edition spans American Beginnings, Reconstruction, the Civil War and through to the present, with new chapters on the Clinton Presidency, the 2000 elections, and the "War on Terrorism."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

According to this classic of revisionist American history, narratives of national unity and progress are a smoke screen disguising the ceaseless conflict between elites and the masses whom they oppress and exploit. Historian Zinn sides with the latter group in chronicling Indians' struggle against Europeans, blacks' struggle against racism, women's struggle against patriarchy, and workers' struggle against capitalists. First published in 1980, the volume sums up decades of post-war scholarship into a definitive statement of leftist, multicultural, anti-imperialist historiography. This edition updates that project with new chapters on the Clinton and Bush presidencies, which deplore Clinton's pro-business agenda, celebrate the 1999 Seattle anti-globalization protests and apologize for previous editions' slighting of the struggles of Latinos and gays. Zinn's work is an vital corrective to triumphalist accounts, but his uncompromising radicalism shades, at times, into cynicism. Zinn views the Bill of Rights, universal suffrage, affirmative action and collective bargaining not as fundamental (albeit imperfect) extensions of freedom, but as tactical concessions by monied elites to defuse and contain more revolutionary impulses; voting, in fact, is but the most insidious of the "controls." It's too bad that Zinn dismisses two centuries of talk about "patriotism, democracy, national interest" as mere "slogans" and "pretense," because the history he recounts is in large part the effort of downtrodden people to claim these ideals for their own.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Howard Zinn is professor emeritus at Boston University. He is the author of numerous books including A People’s History of the United States, the award-winning Declarations of Independence, and Failure to Quit, as well as the recent memoir You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train and the play Marx in Soho.

Product Details

• Paperback: 640 pages
• Publisher: New Press, The; Updated & abridged edition (August 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565848268
• ISBN-13: 978-1565848269
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #169,862 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars amazing to read this while OWS is happening, October 25, 2011

By 

ted r (Boston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A People's History of the United States (P.S.) (Paperback)

The book is factual and well researched. To the angry right wingers, get over it. Shining a light on aspects of America which we want to improve is not anti-American.

On the other hand, I agree with some other reviewers in that this book is by no means a complete, or even balanced view of American history. The author states up front that this book was written as a "counterbalance" to the whitewashed version of history that we all learned in public schooling, e.g. Indians were savages, the Civil War was a noble war for the purpose of freeing the slaves, etc.

This book is the full, unvarnished story which is often driven by greed and altruism and groups with many different interests fighting and working together.

The Civil War is portrayed in full complexity as the result of many forces. Slave revolts, abolitionists, racists, patriotism, apathy toward war, working class resentment against the wealthy who could pay $300 to escape the draft, clashing interests of southern business leaders and northeastern bankers, small farmers, General Robert E. Lee realizing that his only hope lay in the risky gamble of giving guns to the slaves who were 1/5 of the population, then this is the history book you want.

This is not a traditional history book, in that there is nearly zero coverage of the military campaigns of the Civil War; you're expected to know how it ends and who is Robert E. Lee, etc. I think this book would be confusing for younger than high school. On the other hand, it would be a wonderful complement to enrich the over-simplified high school textbooks I remember being bored by.

It seems that all the 1 star reviews are not reviews of the book itself but a statement that the reviewer hates socialism.
This book focuses on conflict between the elites and the working class, the haves and have nots. Americans are brought up to believe that we are all equals (a good thing!) and any suggestion that there is a class war is seen as un-American. Well, you will be surprised to learn that Americans were in the streets protesting against the government or wealthy bankers years before Karl Marx.
Yes, this book specifically tries to look at history from the viewpoint of "the people," defined as the working class or average person majority. It does not look at history from a pro-wealthy elite point of view. (Although, that would be an interesting book...)
Ultimately, the lesson from this book is not that socialism is the answer; but that when there is a big difference between the wealthy elite and a working class that is losing their jobs or homes or farms, etc., that's the cause of protests and demands for change.

It's especially interesting to read this book now (Fall 2001) during the surprising explosion of Occupy Wall Street protesters pitting unfocused idealism against the banking and power elite of the US. The "99%" vs the bankers? Not new! It was fascinating to learn how the history of the US is virtually a nonstop series of protests. The Whiskey Rebellion when government taxed whiskey, thousands marching as Boston and New York sprouted a new class of super wealthy while the other people lost jobs and lived in squalor without enough pay to feed their families. The Tea Partiers, Occupy Wall Street, red state vs blue state have been the story of America since its founding.
Bankers speculation leading to boom and bust cycles and mass unemployment... 200 years of history.

I really enjoyed this book and learned many new things, both depressing and inspiring, about my beloved home country.

32 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Very Disapointing, May 30, 2011

By 

Christopher G. Loverich (Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A People's History of the United States (P.S.) (Paperback)

I had put this book off for quite some time, and was initially very excited about it. I had read about 1/2 of the first chapter while at a friends house and was blown away by the blunt treatment of a sensitive subject. I was also hopeful that an author with a very readable yet authoritative style was about to present a side of history that is so rarely told. In the end, I was disapointed to the point that I could barely finish the work.

To start off, the premise is exceptional - that part of the reason human history is so repeatedly violent is it is presented from the glorious leader's - the elite's - standpoint, and not the suffering individuals which are either the cogs of the machine or trampled in its path. To this end the first chapter starts with a bang - presenting nothing more than an excerpt from Columbus' journal - which makes me question how the hell we could have glorified him so much in grade school. It is unfortunate that this point could not be carried through the rest of the work.

A brief sample of complaints:

1) Lack of sources. Of course history is opinionated - I expected and accepted that at the outset from this work - but he very rarely even makes an attempt to justify outlandish historical claims with objective evidence. For example, saying 'a study of 303...executives.... showed that 90% came from upper or middle class.....making rags to riches a....useful myth for control.' Immediately I ask: a) Was that typical of the population at large? b) Was the majority of that sample middle class, who themselves were only one generation away from lower class? These would seem to impact is argument greatly.

2) Lack of perspective. Related to the above, he will often use specific situations (which are moving) to make his point, but give no overall perspective of how representative a sample is to the population at large. This is a very basic request of an historical interpretation. We live in a very, very, large country, and individual stories of any nature are a dime a dozen - if you give me no perspective, how am I to know if this is the average, or the extreme? Life is full of tragedy - his attempted point is that this tragedy in America has been systematic. Thus, it is reasonable to expect anectdotal information to be backed by credible (or the best available) accounts possible. Ironic that a work painted as 'scholarly' lacks this core component.

3) His bizzarre insistance that American slavery was the worst slavery in the history of the world. It seems strange to discuss which form of something as degrading as slavery was 'better', but to clearly and repeatedly state that America was the worst place ever to be a slave seems absurd. Take for instance the aftermath of the Roman slavery rebellion led by Spartacus - I believe over 5000 people (who surrendered) were systematically crucified across the country. I very much doubt American slavery could compete though, even if it could, it seems almost petty to argue it as such.

Its too bad. This is an immensely important topic which deserves comprehensive, scholarly treatment. If this is what you were expecting from this book, keep looking.

49 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great ideas for the classroom!, January 17, 2007

By 

gmt903 - See all my reviews

This review is from: A People's History of the United States, Abridged Teaching Edition, Updated Edition (Paperback)

Zinn is focused on getting the historical information correct, and explaining why we learned it another way. He presents the side of history that is untold, but honest. TRUTH is the core of this book. It's getting it right and learning from our past so we don't make the same mistakes. Zinn does a great job at this. The section on different teaching techniques is also wonderful for those teachers who get tired of doing the same thing in their lessons. Teacher's must remember that there is more than just one learning style, and it's important not to sxclude those students who learn in different ways. I would recommend this book to any history teacher or anyone just interested in American history!