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Howard Zinn

A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present (Perennial Classics) Paperback – April 1, 2003

by Howard Zinn (Author)

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Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research, A People's History of the United States is the only volume to tell America's story from the point of view of -- and in the words of -- America's women, factory workers, African Americans, Native Americans, working poor, and immigrant laborers.

Print length

752 pages
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English
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Harper Perennial
Publication date

April 1, 2003
Dimensions

5.31 x 1.2 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

0060528370
ISBN-13

978-0060528379
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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.

About the Author

Howard Zinn is a historian, playwright, and social activist. He was a shipyard worker and Air Force bombardier before he went to college under the GI Bill and received his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He has taught at Spelman College and Boston University, and has been a visiting professor at the University of Paris and the University of Bologna. He has received the Thomas Merton Award, the Eugene V. Debs Award, the Upton Sinclair Award, and the Lannan Literary Award. He lives in Auburndale, Massachusetts.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Perennial; Trade Paperback Edition (April 1, 2003)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 752 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0060528370
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0060528379
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.42 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.31 x 1.2 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #424,099 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #478 in Democracy (Books)
- #13,233 in United States History (Books)

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4.6 394 ratings

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Howard Zinn

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Howard Zinn (1922-2010) was a historian, playwright, and activist. He wrote the classic A People's History of the United States, "a brilliant and moving history of the American people from the point of view of those ... whose plight has been largely omitted from most histories" (Library Journal). The book, which has sold more than two million copies, has been featured on The Sopranos and Simpsons, and in the film Good Will Hunting. In 2009, History aired The People Speak, an acclaimed documentary co-directed by Zinn, based on A People's History and a companion volume, Voices of a People's History of the United States.

Zinn grew up in Brooklyn in a working-class, immigrant household. At 18 he became a shipyard worker and then flew bomber missions during World War II. These experiences helped shape his opposition to war and passion for history. After attending college under the GI Bill and earning a Ph.D. in history from Columbia, he taught at Spelman, where he became active in the civil rights movement. After being fired by Spelman for his support for student protesters, Zinn became a professor of Political Science at Boston University, were he taught until his retirement in 1988.

Zinn was the author of many books, including an autobiography, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train, the play Marx in Soho, and Passionate Declarations. He received the Lannan Foundation Literary Award for Nonfiction and the Eugene V. Debs award for his writing and political activism.

Photographer Photo Credit Name: Robert Birnbaum.

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4.6 out of 5

394 global ratings

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An Excellent Perspective for Understanding the Complete Past

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 9, 2005

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There are those who have called Howard Zinn "unpatriotic" and who have denounced his book as left-wing propaganda. Nothing could be further from the truth. I would like to ask these individuals how they define patriotism. If one defines a patriot as a blind bigot who is ready to march to the ends of the earth for their country without looking where he or she is going, perhaps then Zinn is not a patriot. This book pulls plenty of punches at our country's past. However, these are not exactly cheap punches. Zinn has certainly done his homework. The information in this book is out there for any historian to find. Zinn's cardinal sin, for those on the conservative side of the aisle, is apparently that he collected these incidents together in a single volume.

But if one defines a patriot as someone who believes in attempting to change our country for the better, through the power of a complete history, then Zinn satisfies in spades. Why has Zinn collected these stories and told the history of the United States from the minority perspective? Quite simply, the majority perspective has been taught to us from the first grade. Moreover, he tells us in the opening chapter:

"If history is to be creative, to anticipate a possible future without denying the past, it should, I believe, emphasize new possibilities by disclosing those hidden episodes of the past when, even if in brief flashes, people showed their ability to resist, to join together, occasionally to win. I am supposing, or perhaps only hoping, that our future may be found in the past's fugitive moments of compassion rather than in its solid centuries of warfare" (11).

There are a couple of important things to point out about Zinn's intentions. First, he believes that a history, in order to provide the present with meaningful content with which to construct a better future, must be a complete history, one that does not hide from its weak moments. Secondly, by telling these forgotten stories, say the full story of Christopher Columbus's journey into the Americas, you will force American citizens to take a second look at the issues and problems of the past, realize their relevancy to the present, and provide the intellectual fodder for us to improve upon our imperfect past.

I know it sounds like I am crafting a high ideal for this book, but I think the ideal is true to Zinn's intentions. Read this book if you would like to explore American history from an angle that is frequently passed over in standard history books and courses. Any student of history will realize that all of these angles--be they liberal, conservative, etc.--are just that--merely angles or perspectives. But the "truth" cannot be found in any single one of these perspectives. Rather, by taking in the totality of perspectives, one comes to understand history and find meaning in the totality of our experience.

21 people found this helpful

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Ernest Buckler

Should be required reading for ALL hi-school seniors

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 23, 2013

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...and smart hi-school freshmen. Along with every literate American. This book by Zinn cuts out ALL the propaganda delivered by history books written by authors on the payroll of the victors. For instance, the first thing you'll learn here is that our so-called heroic discoverer, Christopher Columbus, was an immoral subhuman psychopath who just happened to know how to sort-of navigate a ship (tho he was only off by 10,000 miles) who by any standards of decency should have been run thru with a spear the instant he set foot on land. Then Cortes and Pizarro, likewise men with no conscience, did the same thing under the authority of the King of Spain AND the Pope, who answered a priest's inquiry about the morality of what they were doing (planned massacres of the natives using trickery and metal weapons) that such behavior "had been approved by the highest authorities". Not only were these mass murders carried out in the name of God and King, the perpetrators were proud of their deeds and bragged about their evil work in open letters which have been preserved as objects of pride. You will cry and rage in the same paragraph. The meanness and stupidity and avarice continues by way of stories of the people of the new land, a testament only to greater men and women who overcame such horrible beginnings (Pilgrims? Good folks? Read this book and be appalled.)

I'm 72 yrs old - and have just realized that I (we all) should have read this book the year it was published, that we be not so self-righteous about our origins, as well as more alert to the damages done by greed-driven sociopaths in high places.

2 people found this helpful

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Swimfast

What they didn't teach you in high school history class

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 7, 2021

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Great story of the groups in the US that did not win. The women, immigrants, black people, mine workers, strikers, etc. As I read it I thought "did this really happen this way?" and then I got up to the 60's where I had expercience the history first hand and saw that what Zinn was saying was true for that period and must be for the previous 200 years. A real eye-opener. Should be required reading in HS.

3 people found this helpful

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Jay Friedman

Great Content, Tough Reading

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 12, 2004

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I don't know about you, but I work all day and have kids at home. I strongly desire to acquire knoweldge and become more educated, but just because I want to read about something educational doesn't mean I want it written as though it's supposed to be difficult.
Zinn, while adept at research, of course, writes, to a degree, like this, with many apositives, and other elements to sentences which, while descriptive, make it unneceessarily, and unfortunately, tough reading. No fun.
However, while it's not wonderfully written prose, the content appears to be superbly researched and thorough. It really makes you feel cheated by the school system that they taught us everything SO one-sided. To think that potentially 2/3 of colonial citizens were NOT supportive of the revolution is completely contradictory to anything I've been taught. However, it's potentially true. One important thing to know, though, is that this is the other side of the story, and not the whole story.
If only this book were written more simply, I'd lobby for every child 6th grade and up to read and know this book in addition to text books. It has fantastic knowledge, important information for every american and makes each us a better person for reading it.

31 people found this helpful

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Melanie B.

I'm halfway through and still find the book compelling reading.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 10, 2017

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If you were taught a romanticized history of the United States in school then this book will give you a more balanced view of reality, but not the whole story. The author is rather hard on some of the major figures of history and in my view seems to forget that they need to be seen as people in their time, not our time. Still, I am impressed with the author's exhaustive research; in my opinion it's very well done. I feel as if history comes alive in this book, but I also realize that this is only one view of it. I would recommend the book as part of any reasonable study of US history.

2 people found this helpful

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Music Lover

Good

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on May 30, 2020

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Easy to read and interesting.

MH

Great package! Great Book!

Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on April 11, 2016

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Was sent very fast and packed safely so no damages to book. The book itself is a heavy read but worth it if you want to get some good facts.

frederic chalouin

Ras

Reviewed in France 🇫🇷 on May 9, 2021

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Ras

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Pangolin S.E.P.

Excellent, différent

Reviewed in France 🇫🇷 on December 10, 2015

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J'avoue, je n'ai pas tout lu, mais ce livre apporte un regard qu'il est bon de connaître quand on veut avoir une vision d'ensemble des Etats-Unis et de leur histoire. Ce livre est même cité dans Will Hunting. Il s'agit de "progressive history", l'histoire plutôt vue du côté des perdants, autant que possible.

One person found this helpful

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読書好きサラリーマン

開眼しました

Reviewed in Japan 🇯🇵 on April 6, 2005

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当時の資料から次々と引用されるアメリカの生の声。

まさに「People's History」と呼ぶにふさわしいものとなっています。

ハードカバーは、上･中･下の三巻あるのを一つにまとめた、600ページの大著ですが、それほど大きくないので電車内で読むことも出来ます。

それにしても、今まで学んできたアメリカ史とは明らかに違うので、最初は、本当に自分が原書の内容を理解しているか心配になりました。

しかし、読み進めていくにつれ、これもアメリカの真実なのだということが理解でき、それにつれて読むスピードもアップしました。

アメリカには、共和党と民主党が居て、白人と黒人が居て、富裕層と貧困層が居て、それぞれがそれぞれの真実の中に生きています。

教科書に載るアメリカ史は、どちらかというと白人の富裕層の歴史であり、アメリカの一面にしか過ぎません。

是非この本を手にとって、もう一つのアメリカを理解しましょう。

22 people found this helpful

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