A People's History of the United

States Study Guide

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Summary: Introduction
Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States has been highly influential since its initial publication
in 1980. It spawned adaptations for young readers (a two-volume adaptation by Rebecca Stefoff: A Young
People's History of the United States) and The People Speak, a History Channel documentary based on Zinn's
work. Zinn himself remains a heroic figure to many, especially for this book and for his ongoing teaching and
social activism, which were directly related.

A People's History of the United States was praised from the moment it appeared on shelves. A 1980 Library
Journal review called it "brilliant and moving" and said it was well-designed to appeal to both historians and
general readers. However, the volume was not without its criticisms. Some of these critiques align with party
lines. Roger Kimball's review in the conservative National Review labeled Zinn a "Professor of contempt" and
dismissed the work as the ultimate in "anti-American history," a patchwork of leftist clichés. Oscar Handlin's
review for The American Scholar dismissed both Zinn's approach to history and the actual content of the
work, citing a number of Zinn's claims as fallacious.

Some criticisms of the work carried more intellectual weight and addressed the quality of Zinn's reasoning
directly. Bruce Kuklick's review of the book for The Nation suggested that A People's History of the United
States was essentially a textbook for the left, and as such it shared many of the weaknesses of textbooks:
overly simplified issues, lack of nuance, and a willingness on Zinn's part to repeat easy answers.

In the end, A People's History of the United States continues to be read and to influence thousands of readers
because it was groundbreaking in many ways. It told stories left out of mainstream history books, and it spoke
for the voiceless. It rejected the false objectivity that colors too many textbooks, and it openly declared its
ethical and political allegiances. If it was clumsy at times, its sweeping energy cleared the ground for later
generations of scholars to explore these issues in more detail.

Additional Summary: Extended Summary

Throughout A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn blends critical approaches. The book's
twenty-five chapters move from the European discovery of North America through the year 2000, evoking
American history in a roughly chronological sequence. However, each chapter also has a topical focus, which
allows Zinn to trace distinct but intersecting lines of historical influence. Zinn uses these intersections of time
and topic as a combination of springboard and platform: he inserts extended meditations on key themes where
they grow logically from the narrative of the people's history. For example, Zinn's first chapter discusses the
general relationship between Europeans and Native Americans, but Zinn also analyzes larger-than-life
historical figures—Christopher Columbus in this case—and their role in American history.

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Almost every chapter performs a set of interwoven functions central to Zinn's project:

• First, he revisits the major events of American history.

• Second, he retells them, emphasizing the role of the people by including details often left out of or
minimized in mainstream histories.
• Third, he makes an interpretative claim about how the powerful elite worked to solidify or maintain
their control.

Chapter 1: Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress

Chapter 1 begins Zinn's process of shifting history's focus from that of the European conquerors and resulting
power elites to that of the people. The chapter opens from the perspective of the Arawak Indians who met
Columbus. He describes them and their similarities to other indigenous people of the continent, and he then
puts Columbus's explorations into historical, political, and economic context. Zinn emphasizes the relative
peacefulness of the natives (from Columbus's own account) and the cruelty Europeans exercise in their quest
for gold. Next, he documents how the Indians' numbers dwindled away due to enslavement, violence, and
disease.

This in turn leads to the introduction of Zinn's central premise, a meditation on the nature of history and what
it means to leave key details (such as Columbus's character and the Indians' suffering) out of a historical
narrative. If "history is the memory of states," as Zinn quotes Henry Kissinger, then Zinn's ultimate goal is to
free that past by telling the people's story. As an essential part of this untold history, Zinn reviews how almost
all European settlers in North America treated Native Americans in the same way, committing "genocide" to
claim what they saw as their destiny. Past historians had excused slaughter as the necessary price for human
progress. Zinn challenges that assumption and sees re-evaluating those events and who is sacrificed as
essential for real progress.

Chapter 2: Drawing the Color Line

Chapter 2 opens in 1619, with the arrival of a slave ship in North America. Zinn sketches the colonists' need
for labor, which was the immediate engine driving their willingness to hold slaves, and the larger European
cultural attitudes that made slavery tenable. He compares slavery in Europe and Africa, and he touches on the
nature of African civilization. Zinn moves back and forth through time by documenting the massive
importation of slaves ("10 to 15 million" imported by 1800) and analyzing what this enslavement meant. Zinn
addresses the marked racial bias in the seventeenth century (evidenced by laws against black/white
fraternization) and comments on the many ways blacks resisted slavery: everything from dodging work to
outright rebellion. Finally, Zinn documents how period power elites assembled "an intricate and powerful
system of control" that kept resistant slaves in their place and prevented poor white laborers from rebelling
with them.

Chapter 3: Persons of Mean and Vile Condition

Chapter 3 opens with a summary of Bacon's Rebellion of 1676. Zinn sketches the complex economic and
political forces driving this armed uprising by whites from the frontier. The frontiersmen were caught between
the landed classes in the east of Virginia (who received substantial land grants) and the Indians to the west. A
harsh summer in 1676 ruined crops, leaving the majority of the population hungry and angry. The
rebel Nathaniel Bacon led forces who were not happy about their economic situation but who were not happy
about open warfare either. Twenty-three rebels were eventually hanged, an act anchoring what Zinn calls "a
complex chain of oppression in Virginia": England was at the top, then the Virginia elite, then the
frontiersmen, and finally the Indians at the bottom. The result was that most people supported the rebellion
and a "leveling" of the wealth in the colony.

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The intense economic imbalance in Virginia was representative of a similar situation back in Europe. England
and other countries displaced the poor from their land, then punished them for being idle, which eventually
drove them to the colonies. Settlers came with hopes of better conditions in America, but most were
disappointed: they came as servants, and they remained as working poor in colonies that quickly developed
strict class divisions. As a result, the decades prior to the American Revolution saw a growing underclass in
the colonies, as well as numerous strikes and protest by the poor. This unhappiness was intensified by the
foreign wars England fought, which made merchants rich but further oppressed the poor. To prevent a unified
uprising, the power elites thus created even more laws dividing blacks from whites.

Chapter 4: Tyranny Is Tyranny

Chapter 4 addresses the American Revolution. Casting light on the concentration of wealth in the decades
prior to the revolution, Zinn focuses first on the power struggle between the colonial elites and England. Zinn
discusses rebellions of colonial poor against the landowning rich, and he analyzes the Regulator movement
against taxation. Once violence broke out in the 1770s, many of the revolutionary leaders actually struck a
moderate tone, while others found ways to resolve colonial class conflicts by creating a united front against
England.

Chapter 5: A Kind of Revolution

Chapter 5 continues to discuss the American Revolution, putting military actions in social and cultural
context. On one hand, forming a militia quickly was possible because so many colonists were armed. On the
other hand, the new nation soon started forcing sailors to join the war, which had been one of the complaints
against the British. Period observers noted that military leaders such as George Washington reinforced strict
class hierarchies, and the Continental Congress that came together to write the new nation's laws was
overwhelming made up of the rich, leaving the same men in power as had been in charge in the colonies.
Once the revolution was won, Americans assumed they could take Indian lands to the west. Many discharged
soldiers were not paid, or were paid in devalued currency, and the result was riots.

Chapter 6: The Intimately Oppressed

Chapter 6 shifts focus to those left out of the major political maneuvering of the revolutionary period: women
and blacks. Zinn contrasts the legal and social inequality of colonial and early American Caucasian women to
the status women held in Indian tribes, arguing that such inequality is built into an economic system based on
private property. Native American women may not have been full equals, but they were treated respectfully,
while many European girls came over as servants and remained ill-treated and poor throughout their lives.
Black women had it worse: they worked at hard labor and were often sexually abused. Women, such as Anne
Hutchinson, who spoke out publicly were punished. During the revolutionary period, the rhetoric of equality
sparked women's desire for the same, but the legal system defined them as inferior. During the early
nineteenth century, the "cult of true womanhood" developed, which justified keeping women at home and in a
domestic position. The same period saw the emergence of women public speakers, like the Grimke sisters,
who spoke against slavery. Those activists and the issues they championed became the impetus for the first
feminist movements.

Chapter 7: As Long As the Grass Grows or Water Runs

Chapter 7 opens with an analogy: women were the most "interior" group oppressed by the new nation, while
Indians were the most "exterior" because they were aliens in their own lands. Zinn then describes the
Euro-American treatment of Native Americans, including the many armed conflicts, the broken treaties, and
the forced displacements, one of which became known as the Trail of Tears. Zinn describes the Native
American response to government mistreatment, which he then contrasts with the white justification of that

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treatment.

Chapter 8: We Take Nothing by Conquest, Thank God

Chapter 8 focuses on the Mexican-American War. Zinn argues that while some histories have portrayed the
war as a popular cause, the reality was quite different. President James Polk pushed an expansionist agenda to
justify his conquest of Mexico, and the newspapers supported his actions, misrepresenting both the conflict
and popular response to it. The true response of citizens, Zinn posits, can be seen in the demonstrations
against the war, while the response of the military can be seen in the number of desertions.

Chapter 9: Slavery Without Submission, Emancipation Without Freedom

Chapter 9 examines the socio-economic structures supporting and justifying slavery. Zinn argues that the U.S.
government supported slavery because it was practical (i.e., profitable), and when freedom came, it came via
organized war rather than widespread rebellion for similar reasons of practicality. If slaves had been allowed
to rebel, Zinn argues, the rebellion might have spread to a generalized class movement, thereby threatening
the powerful elite. Chapter 9 also documents the uneven path America took toward emancipation, freedom,
and partial racial equality: the failure to pay black soldiers equally, the exodus of freed blacks from southern
states, the highly racist attitudes period whites held toward blacks, and more.

Chapter 10: The Other Civil War

Chapter 10 addresses a range of class and labor-related struggles. Zinn starts with the Anti-Renter movement
in 1839, discussing its popular protests and outbreaks of violence. He then moves on to the Dorr Rebellion,
which fought for voting rights and tax relief for the poor. Zinn documents an array of economic issues, such
as depressions, and numerous populist responses to them, including the rise of labor unions. Zinn argues that
Andrew Jackson's liberal rhetoric allowed "Jacksonian Democracy" to co-opt the lower classes in order to
enlist their help, thereby heading off potential class struggles. Further, he argues that the national laws passed
in the 1860s to enforce contracts were intrinsically class-biased because they favored the business owner.

Chapter 11: Robber Barons and Rebels

Chapter 11 begins in 1877, with the end of the railroad strikes. Zinn indicates that the elite proclaimed a
national mission for this period: to industrialize and power an economy that was explosively growing. Zinn
documents how the introduction of machinery into all areas of the economy made everything faster to
produce, allowing much greater levels of production. Zinn describes how the many period innovations became
the foundation of great fortunes—and how "blood, sweat, politics and thievery" were crucial to building the
railroads. Zinn discusses the same major industrialists and businessmen from this period as most
historians—Morgan, Rockefeller, Carnegie—but puts more of an emphasis on their ruthless and unethical
actions. He also documents the unequal distribution of wealth and the various forms popular protest against
this inequality took: strikes, sabotage, utopian literature (such as Bellamy's Looking Backward), and even
songs.

Chapter 12: The Empire and the People

Chapter 12 focuses on American expansion overseas. Zinn links the American need for expansion to the
closing of the internal frontier in 1890, marked by the massacre at Wounded Knee. Overseas expansionism
also already had a long history at that point. It was anchored diplomatically in the Monroe Doctrine of 1823,
which declared American intentions to dominate the Western hemisphere, and it was illustrated through the
"103 interventions" in foreign affairs "between 1798 and 1895."

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In the 1890s, the clash with Spain had many roots: a generalized push to open foreign markets to U.S. goods,
a sense of destiny, a theory about how naval superiority led inevitably to political dominion, a sense of white
and Christian superiority (which carried with it a right to rule), and a sympathy for Cuban rebels fighting for
independence from European rule. That combination led to American troops being dispatched to support the
Cuban and the Philippine independence movements. The result was openly imperial ambitions on the part of
the American ruling elite, and a push back from the workers and soldiers, especially black military men, who
saw themselves supporting the same system that oppressed them.

Chapter 13: The Socialist Challenge

Chapter 13 focuses on the various ways people fought back against the war, their working conditions, and
their daily lives. The first decade of the twentieth century saw many writers—Upton Sinclair, Jack
London, Mark Twain, and others—speak out against American agendas. Their exposure of daily life's
injustices was linked to the rise of muckraking journalism and mass circulation magazines. It was fueled,
though, by a rising awareness of working conditions. Industrial accidents killed tens of thousands, and
industrialists saw no need to improve conditions or compensate those killed or injured. Trade unions fought
for better conditions, but they were exclusive, focusing on skilled white workers. By contrast, the Industrial
Workers of the World (IWW) attempted to unify and speak for all workers. Some period organizers and
writers were explicitly socialist (the Socialist party got its official start in 1901), while others simply fought
for better conditions. Socialists helped lead the feminist movement of the early twentieth century. The period
also saw the creation of the NAACP. Workers went on strike across the nation, in some cases by the tens of
thousands. Some reforms were passed, and politically, a national Progressive movement took hold. For the
most part, though, basic conditions did not change, and many of the strikes were put down by violent
government action.

Chapter 14: War Is the Health of the State

Chapter 14 discusses World War I. The chapter title is a quote from period radical Randolph Bourne, and it
provides the guiding theme for much of the chapter. Zinn's discussion of the war focuses on four areas: the
thin justification for America entering the war, the extremely limited public support for the war at the start, the
governmental actions to support the war, and opposition to the war. When the call for voluntary enlistment
produced less than a tenth of the soldiers needed, the government turned to a draft to assemble military forces
directly; the government then had to turn to propaganda to build support. Anarchists, socialists, radicals, and
the Industrial Workers of the World all spoke out against the war. The Espionage Act (1917) made it illegal to
speak out against World War I, and hundreds of Americans were jailed for doing so. Vigilante groups were
also formed to police American cities.

Chapter 15: Self-Help in Hard Times

Chapter 15 starts with the close of World War I and the beginning, in early 1919, of massive movements led
by the IWW. Widespread strikes involved tens of thousands of workers in Washington state. The established
powers responded by enlisting thousands of new deputies with the permission to use direct violence. Both the
strikes and the violent responses on the part of the industrialists and the government then spread across the
nation. After the war, Congress passed anti-immigration laws; these laws were in line with widespread racist
backlash that led to the Ku Klux Klan growing to 4.5 million members by 1924. The 1920s were marked by
huge disparities between rich and poor. Some writers spoke out against these conditions, but few politicians
did.

Then, in 1929, the stock market crash led to the Great Depression. Thousands of banks closed, and millions of
Americans were out of work (1/4 to 1/3 of the labor force). This revealed tremendous stresses in the system,
as real goods (clothes, food, etc.) existed, but people did not have the money to buy them. Farmers as well as

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middle- and lower-class workers lost their homes to foreclosures. People became very angry, and over 20,000
members of the Bonus Army marched on Washington demanding help. They were met with violence and tear
gas.

The many desperate poor began to take action for themselves. They formed Unemployed Councils (often led
by communists), engaged in strikes, refused to pay rent or utilities, and so on. Shared conditions produced
new connections between racial and ethnic groups. The Roosevelt administration passed numerous acts to
address the situation; this New Deal legislation addressed many of the problem areas in American capitalism.
However, in 1935 the Wagner Act was passed to stabilize the economy. The result was a Labor Relations
Board that regulated labor activities, and more government involvement in the economy in general.

Chapter 16: A People's War?

Chapter 16 analyzes World War II. Zinn grants that the war was quite popular with the American public and
that the enemy was "evil." However, he also debunks the American image of defender of the free and
oppressed in the war, arguing that America entered the war because Japan's actions challenged the "American
Pacific Empire." Regardless of any claims of fighting for freedom, Zinn argues that the American elite fought
to make sure the war would leave America economically dominant throughout the world. Moreover, while
fighting fascism in 1942, Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 into law: this allowed the army "to
arrest every Japanese-American on the West Coast," which amounted to 110,000 people. In short, WWII was
a war America fought against an "evil" power, but it was war led on both sides by a powerful racist elite for
their own economic interests. Additionally, some of the German atrocities, such as the bombing of civilians in
London, were more than matched by the Allied bombing raids on targets such as Dresden. The worst of these
was America dropping atomic bombs on Japan, an act which Zinn feels was not justified by military
necessity.

After victory, the United States was well-positioned to expand its power globally. It did so by intervening in
Korea, where two million people were killed in the name of peace. This military expansion of capitalism
became an explicit war against communism. America found its economic interests clashing with those of the
Soviet Union and China. This led to a continual expansion of the military budget during the 1950s, one that
continued through the 1970s. The external struggle against communism was paralleled by an internal push for
ideological unity. Senator Joseph McCarthy was the public face of the anti-communist witch hunts; suspected
communist spies lost their jobs and freedoms after dubious trials.

Chapter 17: Or Does It Explode?

Chapter 17 discusses the "black revolt of the 1950s and 1960s." The chapter starts by recounting various black
writers' expression of their suffering and condition. Zinn describes the links between black liberation
movements and communism (the Communist Party was alone in paying serious attention to racial issues);
writers such as Richard Wright joined the Communist Party, and leaders such as W.E.B. Du Bois sympathized
with communist positions. President Truman created a Committee on Civil Rights to address racial issues, in
part for ethical reasons, and in part because America's growing presence on the world stage meant every
action was scrutinized. In 1954, the American Supreme Court "outlawed segregation." Despite these
governmental actions, blacks mobilized throughout the nation in various ways: boycotts, marches, speeches,
sit-ins, and voting rallies. The white ruling class responded with arrests and with violence both official (police
brutality) and unofficial (bombed churches, lynchings, and assassinations of key leaders). The result was a
series of urban riots across the nation, especially after Dr. Martin Luther King was killed. Despite the passage
of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, the courts failed to protect blacks who were injured in the riots or the
backlash following them.

Chapter 18: The Impossible Victory: Vietnam

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Chapter 18 covers the Vietnam War. Zinn's discussion of the war starts by tracing its roots from the end of
World War II, when Japan had to surrender the former French colony of Indochina. From 1946 through 1954,
the French fought the Vietminh movement for control of Vietnam. American involvement was publicly
justified by a war against communism, but it was more properly considered a "military action" to expand U.S.
power and secure regional economic dominance. In 1964, President Johnson's government falsified the Gulf
of Tonkin episode to justify official intervention. The United Stated bombarded the countryside and sent
hundreds of thousands of troops. These military excursions extended into nearby Laos and Cambodia, and
countless civilians were slaughtered. The result was a massive popular movement against the war. In the end,
the United States removed its troops, thus demonstrating that "the people" of a nation can end a war and lead
national policy.

Chapter 19: Surprises

Chapter 19 is a catchall chapter in which Zinn covers the other social movements of the 1960s. Zinn starts
with the feminist movement, touching on major authors (Betty Friedan Susan Brownmiller) and major
activities or events (such as 1973's Roe v. Wade, which granted women the right to an abortion). Zinn then
addresses prison riots and reform movements and the Native American movements.

Chapter 20: The Seventies: Under Control?

In Chapter 20, Zinn focuses first on how protests in the 1960s had communicated a sense that the system was
no longer working and the power elite were no longer in complete control. That theme can be seen in the
Republican break-in at the Watergate complex. Nixon staffers and Republican supporters (who included
former CIA members) were caught breaking into and bugging the Democratic National Committee's offices.
This led to public trials that exposed extensive government malfeasance, including evidence of the secret
bombing of Cambodia. In August 1974, just before he would have been impeached, President Nixon resigned.
Gerald Ford became president, and the power elite made a point of punishing those responsible, but only
mildly and without engaging in any serious reform. Instead, Ford continued the same sort of policies he had
inherited, including supporting U.S. involvement in Vietnam. This eventually proved futile, and American
troops were withdrawn. The nation lost faith in its leaders and reflected on what the right path was for
America. For the first time, the mood of the American people could be said to be anti-Establishment.

Chapter 21: Carter-Reagan-Bush: The Bipartisan Consensus

Chapter 21 covers the mid-1970s through the 1980s. Zinn treats those years as a unit, arguing that rather than
Ronald Reagan representing a break with Jimmy Carter, the two men, followed by George Bush, represented
a "bipartisan consensus" about the way the country should be run. Zinn argues that while Carter seemed to be
an attempt to reach out to elements of the disenfranchised majority, he was really the choice of the Trilateral
Commission, and charged with the job of minimizing popular dissatisfaction with the government. Carter
made some advances in the support of human rights, but this was not universal: American support of
tyrannical regimes continued, as did American military involvement around the globe. Carter's administration
remained in the service of "oil and gas interests," and his policies did nothing to redress the country's unequal
distribution of wealth.

The twelve years of Reagan and Bush administrations moved the government even further to the right. Carter
had supported OSHA to a certain degree, but Reagan largely reversed Carter's limited successes. Reagan and
Bush both supported unregulated corporate activity, including reducing or removing legal restraints on
pollution at the very time when scientists were documenting concerns over global warming. The income tax
code was revised to favor the wealthy even more. Poverty grew, and the poor were stigmatized under Reagan
while the military budget was increased. Various military actions (in Nicaragua, Iran, Libya, and Iraq)
occurred, each marked by governmental secrecy and frequent disregard for civilian deaths.

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Chapter 22: The Unreported Resistance

Chapter 22 focuses on the culture clashes of the 1980s and 1990s. Zinn begins with the academic opposition
to establishment positions, then moves to a discussion of the peace movements (including the antinuclear and
antidraft movements). Americans protested U.S. actions in Nicaragua, workers' conditions, pollution, and
official treatment of gays and lesbians.

Chapter 23: The Coming Revolt of the Guards

Chapter 23 is not, strictly speaking, a history. Instead, it is, as Zinn writes, "a hope" about what shape the
future might take. He does work from a historical base, making disclaimers about how limited his ability is to
speak for all people and pointing out how most historical studies accent the role of the powerful few and
discount the power of the people. He argues that properly understood, history shows the ongoing class
dissatisfaction over unequal distributions of wealth and unethical treatment. The power elites try to appease
the people or to distract them by calls for patriotic unity, but the people are not fooled. At present, there are
signs of change. The middle class, who have long been foundational to keeping the establishment standing
through their support, are shifting their loyalties. (They are the "guards" in the prison who give the chapter its
title; they are shifting their support from the warden to the prisoners: the people.) This will lead to the
possibility of happy, ethical, egalitarian communities in which necessary work is done by everyone and
material goods are distributed fairly. Mutual respect will rule the day, and the arts will flourish.

Chapter 24: The Clinton Presidency

Chapter 24 discusses the Clinton administration, which offered the hope of change but delivered little. Bill
Clinton did appoint more people of color to the government, but he often attempted to promote liberal
appointees only to abandon them when he encountered conservative resistance. He worked with Congress to
reduce or eliminate welfare payments to many and to toughen punishment for illegal immigration. Clinton's
administration continued international arms sales, trained advisors to support foreign wars, and actively
intervened in situations such as Rwanda, where the conflict was "between warlords" and there was no real
winning side. These produced active popular protests, as did the economic sufferings of the poor. The most
important period protest was the 1999 protest in Seattle at the meeting of the World Trade Organization.
"Tens of thousands" showed up to protest the economic regime being forced upon the world's poor. The
Clinton administration was also marred by both governmental missteps (such as the Waco tragedy) and by
personal scandals (such as President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky). These limited his ability to act.

Chapter 25: The 2000 Election and the "War on Terrorism"

Chapter 25 focuses on the Gore/Bush campaigns of 2000, Bush's contested victory, and the resultant Bush
administration. Zinn argues that George Bush's brother Jeb's role as Florida governor allowed him to carry the
state and thus the election. Once in office, Bush followed a clear policy: reduce social services, increase
military spending, and favor the rich. On September 11, 2001, America and the Bush administration were
rocked by terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. Bush's response was to declare a "war on
terrorism." This meant attacks on Afghanistan and a widespread hunt for terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.
Internally, a wave of patriotism swept the nation, and the USA Patriot Act (2001) was instituted. This
suspended constitutional rights and allowed heightened police powers to support the war on terrorism. Some
people protested the Patriot Act as well as the subsequent bombings that killed civilians but did not capture or
defeat terrorists.

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Themes

Some historians strive for complete objectivity, and as such might reject the idea of themes running through
their work. Others might argue that any themes found in their work derive from the character of the people or
period studied. In the first chapter of A People's History of the United States, Zinn sets forth his approach to
history, and it is clear that he would distinguish himself from both positions indicated above. Historians, Zinn
argues, always practice "selection, simplification, emphasis," but should be upfront about their purposes in
doing so. He uses the analogy of the cartographer, with history being parallel to a map. All maps distort their
territories, but they should do so to serve useful, specific, and specified purposes. In a like manner, all
historians distort their histories, but should do so to specific ends, and should announce those ends in their
work. Therefore, it is wholly appropriate to seek themes in Zinn's history of America. Indeed, tightly
interwoven themes make Zinn's work—clumsy though it can be on the stylistic level—highly literary in
structure.

Situated Perspectives / Lack of Objectivity

Unsurprisingly, the first theme running through Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States is that
of the situated perspective. Zinn rejects the ideal of objectivity, arguing both that it is not possible and that
most texts which claim to provide objective perspectives on reality, especially on American history, do so by
leaving out unwanted perspectives and failing to mention specific details that might disrupt their desired
representation of the world.

Zinn defines his own situated perspective in Chapter 1: rather than telling the history of the United States
from the statist point of view (the history of a state), or from that of a minority ruling class, Zinn's work is the
history of the people who make up that nation. As a result, there is a far less emphasis on the standard
victories and achievements of the "founding fathers" or the bankers, investors, and explorers whose names
repeat throughout America. Instead, Zinn emphasizes the experience of the numerous "minority" groups who
together make up the numerical majority: the working class, the poor, Native Americans, slaves, women, and
so on.

While Zinn's goals in exploring this perspective are numerous (justice, truth, etc.), Chapter 23 lays out his
overarching goals: through the people becoming self-aware, they can create a new and better society. In that
way, Zinn's historical map is like that of the early American explorers: it is not just for reference; it is to guide
travelers to a new world.

Inclusion and Exclusion

A closely related second theme is that of inclusion and exclusion. To be specific, Zinn argues that the
experience of "the people" has been left out of most history books, as well as the dark or shadowy side of
history. These two are often linked for Zinn, as the people have often suffered in that darkness, with crimes
against them left unmentioned. Zinn therefore moves through American history doing three things: pointing
out that which has been excluded from history, filling in those blank spaces in American history, and pointing
out who benefited from those crucial details being left out. These range from rounding out the portrait of
Christopher Columbus so that it includes his ego as well as his vision, to filling in entire elements of
American history that do not fit in the organizing schema found in standard textbooks, such as the widespread
labor movements prior to the Civil War. Zinn also makes a point of quoting frequently from a very wide range
of sources (laws, speeches, folk songs, interviews, and court testimonies) so that the broadest possible array of
American voices is included in his own work.

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Manipulated Reality

Most textbooks, Zinn would argue, are complicit in establishing and maintaining a manipulated reality. This
reality is manipulated for the benefit of the ruling classes. As such, various crucial elements of American
reality that were socially created are treated as natural, or as happening without any one acting to create them.
White racism towards African immigrants is one example, as are more generalized attitudes toward
African-Americans found throughout American history and culture. Chapter 2 of A People's History of the
United States documents how racial prejudice was generated by the conditions of the early colonists, and how
blacks and poor whites got along relatively well before entrenched powers worked to convince these poor
whites that their common interest lay with the rich white planters rather than with their fellow (black)
laborers.

American Hypocrisy

Although he does not excuse competing systems (such as Soviet communism) for their failures, Zinn's focus
in this volume is, as the title indicates, on American history. He therefore spends considerable time
documenting the hypocrisy with which America has exercised its grand ideals of freedom, democracy, and
equality.

Zinn does this in several ways. First, he points out how unsteady are the foundations of American history for
such an edifice, by documenting how explorers and colonists, and later, the American government, treated
Native Americans. Chapter 1 examines Columbus's treatment of the natives he met, and Chapter 7 examines
the Indian Removal Act and associated government military and legal actions. Second, Zinn examines the
inconsistency with which America has practiced its ideals within its borders. To be more specific, Zinn
hammers home how unequal "equal rights" can be when the poor have no money to act on those rights, and
when the rich provide the legislators who pass the laws, the judges who interpret them, and the lawyers who
fill the courts. The result, Zinn argues, is a continually rigged game that is continually proclaimed fair for all.
Third, Zinn discusses American foreign policy, especially military actions, and demonstrates how often and
how deeply these actions are driven by things other than American ideals. In Chapter 12 ("The Empire and the
People"), Zinn does this in a simple and damning fashion: he quotes the U.S. State Department's own litany of
instances in which armed force was used. This list flatly states that the country uses force to protect
"American interests," rather than, as is often claimed, human lives or democratic ideals. Other chapters
document an uglier reality still: military force used to shore up American pride or presidential ratings. None of
this, Zinn argues, is necessary or inevitable. It is a choice, and one that betrays the ideals America claims to
embody.

The Heroism of the Common Man

Zinn's history is not without heroes. However, these heroes are not the generals and inventors who populate
many histories. Instead, they are the brave representatives of the people the American ruling class oppressed.
As often as he can, Zinn lets these figures speak for themselves. These heroes include members of the
revolutionary period Regulators, anonymous rebels who nailed notes to the sheriff of Pittsfield's door in 1780,
freed slaves, and striking workers who stood up against armed strikebreakers.

While some of these figures (for example, Sojourner Truth) overlap with traditional heroes from American
history, for the most part, they are not the standard heroes. Indeed, given Zinn's perspective on history, they
cannot be: these are the people to whom history happens, who try to survive it. Nonetheless, Zinn finds in
such figures an endurance, a bravery, and a desire for fair treatment which seems universal. Indeed, the people
who Zinn finds heroic are not all found within American borders: they include people like the peasants of
Laos who suffered in American attempts to bomb Vietnam. Since the common man, in Zinn's narrative, has
not yet reworked society into his own image, the result is somewhat of a paradox. On one hand, the endurance

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and values practiced at great risk to themselves demonstrate these common men and women are heroes. On
the other hand, a litany of so many encounters that are hard to see as anything but defeats makes their heroism
seem tragic.

Characters
In A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn covers a time span of over 500 years. Historians who
focus on the actions of a few great individuals (followers of the "great man" school of history) might devote
considerable time to specific people, but Zinn's focus is different. Because he is trying to give voice to "the
people" who are often left out of histories of the United States, Zinn directs his attention to three types of
characters:

1. Well-established historical figures

2. Representatives of the people
3. Classes or groups of Americans

Well-Established Historical Figures

Zinn discusses well-known individuals at various points throughout the book. His purpose in doing so is to
add complexity to traditional and overly simplified descriptions. The following are some of the key historical
figures reworked, and how they change under Zinn's eye:

Christopher Columbus is portrayed as an intrepid explorer, which is in line with traditional depictions, but he
is also revealed to be politically ambitious and racially insensitive.

James Otis receives more attention than usual in accounts of the pre-Revolutionary era because his rhetoric
captures what it was like to be a laborer during the period.

Of the Founding Fathers, Thomas Paine receives the most attention, primarily because of his rhetorical skills
and because he eventually opposes inclusion of the lower classes in the United States.

Andrew Jackson receives extended description because of his pivotal role in the Indian Removal Act.

Among contemporary leaders, Jimmy Carter receives an extended analysis that debunks his liberal leanings
and shows how closely his policies align with the Reagan administration that replaced him. Bill Clinton is
discussed at disproportional length for similar reasons: to show how liberal he was not.

Representatives of the People

Zinn describes representative individuals to provide context for the reader, but when he can, he quotes at
length to allow these individuals to speak for themselves.

Nathaniel Bacon, leader of Bacon's Rebellion (1676), is presented as mixing period prejudice toward Native
Americans with class anger.

Colonel Ethan Allan Hitchcock speaks for the common soldier in the Mexican-American War, articulating
their resistance and moral concerns.

Despite his wealthy background, Thomas Dorr becomes a leader for the nineteenth-century suffrage
movement, aiming to extend voting rights to the lower classes. He is shown as a kind of pragmatic,

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improvisational leader of a would-be class rebellion.

Countless voices from the early-twentieth-century labor movement are sketched or quoted, with Wobblies
Jack White and Joe Hill the largest names among them. These populist leaders are defined by their honesty
and their solidarity with other workers.

A similarly large number of figures are quickly sketched in the Vietnam antiwar movement and related sixties
movements. Of these, Mary Moylan, a member of the Catonsville Nine, is quoted at the greatest length; her
account reveals an organic growth to an antiwar stance.

Classes or Groups of Americans

In A People's History of the United States, Zinn often characterizes classes or groups. The following receive
considerable attention throughout the work.

Native Americans

Zinn opens his study by sketching an account of what the Arawak culture Columbus encountered was like. He
touches on Indians repeatedly, especially in the earlier chapters, and returns his focus to the continent's native
peoples in Chapters 2, 7, and 19. Taken together, the resulting portrait is of a people who were not perfect
when the Europeans arrived, and who were politically vulnerable due to intertribal tensions, but who were
also superior to their conquerors in many ways (such as in their treatment of women). Zinn quotes extensively
from Native spokespeople responding to crimes like the Indian Removal Act; their words are articulate and
markedly ethical, giving clear insight into Native American character.

African-Americans

Zinn focuses on African-Americans periodically. He begins in the second chapter, where he sketches what
African culture prior to the slave trade and what the middle passage aboard slaving ships were like. He
follows this with an extended discussion in Chapter 9 of the various ways slaves resisted slavery. Zinn
touches on African-American identity in numerous chapters, noting how this population responded to the
various crises and wars the United States experienced. In Chapter 17, Zinn details the "black revolt of the
1950s and 1960s." Taken together, a portrait emerges of African-Americans never fully enslaved and never
defeated as a people.

Women

Zinn discusses how every major political and economic event affected American women. He focuses on
women directly in Chapters 6 and 19, and somewhat less directly in chapters that analyze shared economic
crises, such as Chapter 15, where Zinn discusses the Great Depression. Zinn writes about the oppression
women suffered with great sympathy, and he presents protofeminist, feminist, and socialist/anarchist voices
who spoke in favor of equality for women. The resulting portrait is one of tireless labor (both economic and
biological) by a class fully aware of their mistreatment and innate rights.

Workers

The conditions of the working poor are treated in almost every chapter of A People's History of the United
States. However, workers receive special attention in Chapters 2-5, 10-11, 13, and 15. Zinn turns a bright
spotlight on workers in times of great suffering, and the actions they engage in there are marked by
compassion and a seemingly innate heroism. Although they suffer from enthusiasms, are led astray by their
leaders' rhetoric, and are often weary from the long hours they work, the American labor classes are shown as

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people of dignity, generosity, and a continually reviving faith in equality and possibility.

The Nation's Powerful Elite

Whether Zinn is describing the rulers of the American colonies, the actions of the nineteenth-century robber
barons, or the machinations of Bush supporters to sway the 2000 election, none of America's leaders appears
in a good light. Instead, they all seem nakedly committed to preserving and advancing their own interests, of
only limited honesty, and fairly aware of the extent to which they distort reality to serve their own ends.

Critical Essays: Critical Overview

Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States has received sharply focused critical attention since its
first appearance, and that attention has continued or been revived. It has been nominated for and/or received
awards both domestic (it was runner-up for the National Book Award in 1980) and international (the French
version of the book won the Prix des Amis du Monde Diplomatique in 2003).

The book's reception, however, has not been uniformly positive or, indeed, uniform in any fashion. Upon the
recent occasion of Zinn's death, historian Eric Foner (who had reviewed the book when it was first published)
reflected on Zinn's critical legacy. Foner praised Zinn's work as a rare variant on "monumental history" for its
focus on the common man rather than on great men or great events, noted how often Zinn led fine students of
history into the field through his passion for justice, and criticized Zinn for his oversimplified moral reading.
This is a gentler version of the review Foner had published in 1980, in which he praised the book's passion
and style but specified a number of elements and people Zinn had overly simplified and/or failed to fully
integrate into his account of history. Christopher Phelps, also writing on occasion of Zinn's death, found cause
for Zinn's success in that very simplification paired with his passion for justice. The result, more than one
reviewer noted, was a historian who appealed to nonhistorians. As one might perhaps expect from a historian
classified this way, several professional historians found Zinn's work lacking along more than one axis. Praise
for Zinn's accomplishments mixed with correction of his focus marked several of the reviews.

The most negative criticism came from those who opposed Zinn on ideological grounds. Roger Kimball,
writing in the National Review, accused Zinn of reproducing "every left-wing cliché" that academic
intellectuals had ever employed, flatly accused Zinn of representing American history dishonestly, and said
that the book's success was due to the fact that there is no place for "reasoned argument" in American culture.
Kimball is a conservative and the author of Tenured Radicals, a critique of leftist influence on higher
education, so his objections to Zinn are unsurprising.

Kimball praised an earlier, highly negative review of Zinn by Pulitzer Prize–winning Harvard historian Oscar
Handlin. Handlin, reviewing Zinn's book for The American Scholar, was at least as brutal to Zinn but more
substantive in his critiques. Handlin has praised the ideal of objective history in his writing and is a scholar of
both immigration and liberty, two topics Zinn addressed throughout A People's History of the United States.
When Handlin argued that Zinn offered "little proof" for his claims about the nature of American history and
pronounced Zinn's volume "deranged" and a "fairy tale" for its disregard of "factual accuracy," the charges
carried considerable weight. Handlin's litany of Zinn's weaknesses as a historian continued: he is biased, and
his representations of history "falsify events." That Zinn's work had stung Handlin—and that he was
responding on a personal as well as a professional basis—are visible late in the review, where he wrote of
Zinn's book as marked by "hatred of humanity" in its tone. Zinn responded to Handlin's criticisms in a letter to
The American Scholar (and Handlin to him in turn), but from several decades' distance it is clear that
whatever validity Handlin's criticisms may hold on specific historical details, the emotional storm the two
produced underscores Zinn's contention that history is not objective but, rather, ideological and partisan.

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However, the left is not at ease with Zinn either. An example of this can be seen in Michael Kazin's 2004
critical review. After wondering about the extent of Zinn's success, Kazin critiqued him for failing to address
a question central to the left: "Why have most Americans accepted the legitimacy of the capitalist republic in
which they live?" Zinn's analysis is, Kazin argued, lacking, and it results in a work that misrepresents both the
people and the system under which they labor. Kazin concluded that Zinn's volume serves almost no one
because it anchors political reality where it is without providing tools or understanding.

Analysis: Setting
Chronologically, A People’s History of the United States covers a significant span of time. It begins in 1492,
with what has long been considered by popular histories the first encounter between Europeans and
inhabitants of North America: Columbus’s “discovery” of America. Zinn moves briskly through the initial
periods of exploration and colonization, and then methodically discusses American history from the formation
of the new nation through 2001 and the war on terrorism. Technically, Chapter 23, “The Coming Revolt of the
Guards,” extends this time span even beyond the Bush years because Zinn extrapolates popular political
activity into a hypothetical (and utopian) future.

Geographically and physically, the setting varies widely in location, focus, and density of detail. As the work's
title suggests, Zinn’s history focuses on the people of America; comparatively little attention is thus given to
the country's geography and natural resources, or how these factors shaped American lives. Instead, Zinn
touches on geography and natural resources when they play major roles in mainstream political events or
when they are the sites of key populist activity or suffering. For example, Hispaniola as a region is described,
though briefly; far more attention is instead given to the geopolitical maneuverings of Columbus’s time.
Likewise, interactions between colonists and Native Americans at Jamestown are described, but almost no
attention is given to the actual physical geography of Jamestown. In Chapter 3, “Persons of Mean and Vile
Conditions,” and in Chapter 4, “Tyranny is Tyranny,” the setting is spoken of in terms of political and
economic importance: what drove people from England to North America, where wealth was distributed in
the colonies, and so on. This distinction continues throughout the volume. As a result, although the book is a
people’s history, it is a curiously abstracted one: events happen to people, but the people themselves live
almost without material context, and there are almost no descriptions of what houses, shops, and so on would
have been like in specific periods.

There are some exceptions. When the land itself meant something of great emotional and cultural importance,
especially in traumatic instances, considerably more attention is given. An example of this can be seen in
Chapter 7, “As Long As Grass Grows or Water Runs.” The chapter focuses on the treatment of Native
Americans, and descriptions of setting become denser in several directions. First, Zinn quotes Indian writings
and speeches on the meaning of the land. Second, he describes the ongoing forced transformations of the land
by armed raids, treaties, and imposition of European models of property. Third, he describes the actions and
context of the Indian Removal Act, during which Native Americans still living in the eastern United States
were forced to move west of the Mississippi.

Similarly dense description is dedicated to accounts of working-class labor and housing. For example, in
Chapter 10, “The Other Civil War,” the marches related to the Dorr Rebellion (1842) are vividly sketched,
and the period accounts of the Flour Riot (1837) are quoted at some length. Working conditions under the
“Lowell system” are described clearly, and the daily politics of local geography can be seen in strikes by New
Hampshire mill workers to prevent a particular elm tree from being cut down for another mill. The greatest
detail is devoted to accounts described in Chapter 13, “The Socialist Challenge,” where Zinn focuses on
twentieth-century labor strikes and mass actions led by the IWW, socialists, and anarchists. Zinn again quotes
at length from organizers’ and reformers’ accounts of the ugly reality of child labor and of the subhuman
conditions under which garment and other factory workers labored. Racial struggles are awarded a similarly

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detailed and evocative description in Chapter 17, “Or Does It Explode,” where the lives of black Americans in
the mid-twentieth century are situated within a coherent and meaningful political setting. Native American
movements receive similarly vivid descriptions in Chapter 19, “Surprises.” Although Zinn is open about his
political leanings, these chapters make both his loyalties and sympathies not just clear but persuasive. His
descriptions also make a strong ethical appeal for the sort of nation Zinn wishes America were.

The other settings described in dense detail document the sort of America Zinn regrets his country is: an
aggressive military power that profoundly affects other countries. The descriptions begin in Chapter 8, “We
Take Nothing by Conquest, Thank God,” where Zinn discusses the Mexican-American War. There the
marches, the bombings, and the slaughter are described. Zinn returns to this focus when discussing the
Spanish-American War and the American treatment of the Philippines in Chapter 12, “The Empire and the
People,” but in comparatively moderate detail. Where he truly brings his setting to sympathetic life is in his
discussion of the 1960s. In Chapter 18, “The Impossible Victory: Vietnam,” Zinn vividly documents the
extensive devastation American bombardment brought to Vietnam and what this did to the lives of
Vietnamese peasants. The chapter also evokes the protest movement on the domestic front, describing the
transformation of American life as U.S. citizens protested the war in great numbers.

The description of how American bombings changed Afghanistan in the 2000s is markedly shorter and
weaker, as are most of the descriptions of American historical settings after 1970. These foci and shifts in
descriptive density communicate a great deal about Zinn and his history. He is most intimately formed by and
dedicated to the struggles of the labor classes, women, African-Americans, and Native Americans; and he is
most eloquent in discussing their suffering and the suffering of foreign countries from 1840 to 1970. One
unintended result, however, of Zinn's having a minimal focus on the settings of daily life throughout the work
is that the people tend to disappear unless they are suffering or protesting; there is little sense of where or how
they lived day to day.

Bibliography
Aliprandini, Michael. 2005. Howard Zinn Database: MasterFILE Premier.

Foner, Eric. "Majority Report." New York Times Book Review. March 2, 1980, pp. BR3-BR4.

Foner, Eric. "Zinn's Critical History." Nation. February 22, 2010, Vol. 290, Issue 7, p. 6.

Kazin, Michael. "Howard Zinn's History Lessons." Dissent. Spring 2004, Vol. 51, Issue 2, pp. 81-85.

Kimball, Roger. "Professor of Contempt: The Legacy of Howard Zinn." National Review. February 22, 2010,
p. 29.

Phelps, Christopher. "Howard Zinn, Philosopher." Chronicle of Higher Education. February 1, 2010.

"The Reader Replies." American Scholar. Vol. 50, Issue 3, p. 430.

Weiss, Mark. "A People's History of the United States." The Nation. September 21, 1992, Vol. 255, p. 299(2).

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