A People's History of the United States

by Howard Zinn

Overview

With a new introduction by Anthony Arnove, this updated edition of the classic national bestseller reviews the book’s thirty-five year history and demonstrates once again why it is a significant contribution to a complete and balanced understanding of American history.

Since its original landmark publication in 1980, A People's History of the United States has been chronicling American history from the bottom up, throwing out the official version of history taught in schools—with its emphasis on great men in high places—to focus on the street, the home, and the, workplace.

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, the working poor, and immigrant laborers. As historian Howard Zinn shows, many of our country's greatest battles—the fights for a fair wage, an eight-hour workday, child-labor laws, health and safety standards, universal suffrage, women's rights, racial equality—were carried out at the grassroots level, against bloody resistance.

Covering Christopher Columbus's arrival through President Clinton's first term, A People's History of the United States, which was nominated for the American Book Award in 1981, features insightful analysis of the most important events in our history. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062397348
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	11/17/2015
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	784
Sales rank:	6,658
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Howard Zinn (1922-2010) was a historian, playwright, and social activist. His many books include A People's History of the United States, which has sold more than two million copies.

Table of Contents

Introduction Anthony Arnove xi

1 Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress

2 Drawing the Color Line 23

3 Persons of Mean and Vile Condition 39

4 Tyranny Is Tyranny 59

5 A Kind of Revolution 77

6 The Intimately Oppressed 103

7 As Long as Grass Grows or Water Runs 125

8 We Take Nothing by Conquest, Thank God 149

9 Slavery Without Submission, Emancipation Without Freedom 171

10 The Other Civil War 211

11 Robber Barons and Rebels 253

12 The Empire and the People 297

13 The Socialist Challenge 321

14 War Is the Health of the State 359

15 Self-help in Hard Times 377

16 A People's War? 407

17 "Or Does It Explode?" 443

18 The Impossible Victory; Vietnam 469

19 Surprises 503

20 The Seventies: Under Control? 541

21 Carter-Reagan-Bush: The Bipartisan Consensus 563

22 The Unreported Resistance 601

23 The Coming Revolt of the Guards 631

24 The Clinton Presidency 643

25 The 2000 Election and the "War on Terrorism" 675

Afterword 683

Bibliography 689

Index 709

Editorial Reviews

"A brilliantly written story about the U.S. through the lives of those too often overlooked."

Time magazine

[A People’s History of the United States is] one of the most important books I have ever read in a long life of reading...It’s a wonderful, splendid book—a book that should be read by every American, student or otherwise, who wants to understand his country, its true history, and its hope for the future.” — Howard Fast

“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. . . . [It] should be required reading.” — Eric Foner, New York Times Book Review

"Howard Zinn's work literally changed the conscience of a generation. And the series of 'people's histories' derived from this great work have provided new understanding of who we are and what we should aspire to be."  — Noam Chomsky

"A brilliant and moving history of the American people." — Library Journal

"A brilliantly written story about the U.S. through the lives of those too often overlooked." — Time magazine

From the Publisher

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. . . . [It] should be required reading.

Eric Foner

"Howard Zinn's work literally changed the conscience of a generation. And the series of 'people's histories' derived from this great work have provided new understanding of who we are and what we should aspire to be." 

Noam Chomsky

[A People’s History of the United States is] one of the most important books I have ever read in a long life of reading...It’s a wonderful, splendid book—a book that should be read by every American, student or otherwise, who wants to understand his country, its true history, and its hope for the future.

Howard Fast