A People's History of the United States: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

Article Images

Line 26:

| followed_by =

}}

~~{{liberalism US}}~~

''''' A People's History of the United States''''' is a 1980 [[nonfiction]] book (updated in 2003) by American historian and [[political scientist]] [[Howard Zinn]]. In the book, Zinn presented what he considered to be a different side of history from the more traditional "fundamental nationalist glorification of country".<ref name="nytobit">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/us/28zinn.html|newspaper=The New York Times|title=Howard Zinn, Historian, Dies at 87|author=Howard Powell|date=27 January 2010|quote=Mr. Zinn, delighted in ... lancing what he considered platitudes, not the least that American history was a heroic march toward democracy ... 'Our nation had gone through an awful lot—the Vietnam War, civil rights, Watergate—yet the textbooks offered the same fundamental nationalist glorification of country,' Mr. Zinn recalled in an interview with ''The New York Times''. 'I got the sense that people were hungry for a different, more honest take.'}}</ref> Zinn portrays a side of [[American history]] that can largely be seen as the exploitation and manipulation of the majority by rigged systems that hugely favor a small aggregate of elite rulers from across the orthodox political parties.

''A People's History'' has been assigned as reading in many high schools and colleges across the United States.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.ca/newspapers?id=1fVkAAAAIBAJ&pg=3753,654088|newspaper=The Arlington Times|title=Controversy brews over school textbook|author=Adele Ferguson|date=5 October 2005|page=A7}}</ref> It has also resulted in a change in the focus of historical work, which now includes stories that previously were ignored.<ref name="nytobit" /> The book was a runner-up in 1980 for the [[National Book Award]]. It frequently has been revised, with the most recent edition covering events through 2002. In 2003, Zinn was awarded the ''[[Le Monde diplomatique|Prix des Amis du Monde Diplomatique]]'' for the French version of this book ''Une histoire populaire des États-Unis.''<ref name="auto1">[http://www.amis.monde-diplomatique.fr/article.php3?id_article=252 Prix des Amis du Monde diplomatique 2003] announcement, December 1, 2003.</ref> More than two million copies have been sold.

Despite sharp criticism in mainstream liberal media circles,<ref name="childrens_books_2007_06_17_nytimes">Kirn, Walter: [https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/books/review/Kirn3-t.html "Children's Books,"] (book review of Howard Zinn's ''Young People’s History of the United States''), June 17, 2007, ''[[New York Times]],'' retrieved January 2, 2022</ref><ref name="other_half_1980_03_23_washpost">Kammen, Michael (professor of American History, culture at [[Cornell University|Cornell]]): [https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1980/03/23/how-the-other-half-lived/ce505900-12fd-427d-a689-90edf3836309/ "How the Other Half Lived" (review of Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States"), March 23, 1980, ''[[Washington Post]],'' retrieved January 2, 2022</ref><ref name-"bannon_2017_02_09_washpost">[[Fareed Zakaria|Zakaria, Fareed]]: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/stephen-bannons-words-and-actions-dont-add-up/2017/02/09/33010a94-ef19-11e6-9973-c5efb7ccfb0d_story.html "Stephen Bannon’s words and actions don’t add up,"] (op-ed), February 9, 2017, ''[[Washington Post]],'' retrieved January 2, 2022</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Kazin|first1=Michael|title=Howard Zinn's Disappointing History of the United States|url=http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/4370|website=History News Network|publisher=George Washington University|date=February 9, 2010|access-date=August 23, 2017}}</ref>

and outrage it sparked among conservatives,<ref>{{cite web|last=Ohlheiser|first=Abby|title=Former Governor, Now Purdue President, Wanted Howard Zinn Banned in Schools|url=http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/07/former-ind-gov-daniels-now-purdue-president-wanted-howard-zinn-banned-schools/67256/|publisher=Atlantic Wire|date=July 16, 2013|access-date=August 23, 2017|archive-date=October 16, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131016214127/http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/07/former-ind-gov-daniels-now-purdue-president-wanted-howard-zinn-banned-schools/67256/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2017/2017R/Bills/HB1834.pdf |archive-url= https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2017/2017R/Bills/HB1834.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=House Bill 1834- For An Act To Be Entitled An Act to Prohibit a Public School District or Open-Enrollment Public Charter School from Including in Its Curriculum or Course Materials for a Program of Study Books or Any Other Material Authored by or Concerning Howard Zinn; and for Other Purposes.|website= arkleg.state.ar.us| publisher= Arkansas State Legislature |access-date=March 3, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2017/03/02/bill-introduced-to-ban-howard-zinn-books-from-arkansas-public-schools|title=Bill introduced to ban Howard Zinn books from Arkansas public schools| date=March 2, 2017|access-date=August 23, 2017}}</ref> the book was a runner-up in 1980 for the [[National Book Award]]. It frequently has been revised, with the most recent edition covering events through 2005. In 2003, Zinn was awarded the ''[[Le Monde diplomatique|Prix des Amis du Monde Diplomatique]]'' for the French version of this book ''Une histoire populaire des États-Unis.''<ref name="auto1">[http://www.amis.monde-diplomatique.fr/article.php3?id_article=252 Prix des Amis du Monde diplomatique 2003] announcement, December 1, 2003.</ref> More than two million copies have been sold.

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."<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Parayre |first=Catherine |date=18 February 1998 |title=The Conscience of the Past: An interview with historian Howard Zinn |url=http://www.flagpole.com/Issues/02.18.98/lit.html |access-date=2006-02-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010525003828/http://www.flagpole.com/Issues/02.18.98/lit.html |archive-date=2001-05-25 |magazine=Flagpole Magazine }}</ref> In 2004, Zinn edited a [[primary source]] [[Sequel#Companion piece|companion volume]] with [[Anthony Arnove]], entitled ''[[Voices of a People's History of the United States]]''.

Line 40 ⟶ 37:

==Overview==

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:

{{~~quote~~blockquote|My history ... describes the inspiring struggle of those who have fought slavery and racism ([[Frederick Douglass]], [[William Lloyd Garrison]], [[Fannie Lou Hamer]], [[Bob Moses (activist)|Bob Moses]]), of the labor organizers who have led strikes for the rights of working people ([[Big Bill Haywood]], [[Mary Harris Jones|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 [[Moro Crater massacre|massacre of Filipino villagers]] at the turn of the century, but [[Mark Twain]], who denounced the massacre and satirized [[American imperialism|imperialism]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://shs.westport.k12.ct.us/conetta/US%20History%20Docs/mark_twain%20anti-imperialism.htm |title=Mark Twain |date=10 October 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061010154645/http://shs.westport.k12.ct.us/conetta/US%20History%20Docs/mark_twain%20anti-imperialism.htm |archive-date=October 10, 2006 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.is.wayne.edu/mnissani/cr/moro.htm|title=Comments on the Moro Massacre by Mark Twain (March 12, 1906)|publisher=Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, College of Urban, Labor and Metropolitan Affairs (CULMA), [[Wayne State University]]| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051228150639/http://www.is.wayne.edu/mnissani/cr/moro.htm| archive-date= December 28, 2005 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

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 [[United States Declaration of Independence|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 baron (industrialist)|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.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/books/review/Letters-t-1.html |title=Making History |author=Howard Zinn |date=2007-07-01 |work=The New York Times |access-date=2010-11-14}}</ref>}}

Line 54 ⟶ 52:

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 of the United States|Founding Fathers]] agitated for war to distract the people from their own economic problems and to 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 notes that "[[Charles A. Beard|Charles Beard]] warned us 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."<ref>Zinn, Howard. ''A People's History of the United States''. New York: Perennial Classics, 2003. p. 98 {{ISBN|0-06-052837-0}}</ref>{{page needed|date=September 2023}}

===Independence to the robber barons===

Line 101 ⟶ 99:

<span id="Chapter23">Chapter 23</span>, "The Coming Revolt of the Guards", covers Zinn's theory on a possible future radical movement against inequality in America. Zinn argues that there will eventually be a movement made up not only of groups previously 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 strike]]s; [[direct action]] to redistribute wealth, to reconstruct institutions, to revamp relationships".<ref>Zinn, pp. 639–640</ref>

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 change, his presidency kept many things the same. Topics covered include [[Jocelyn Elders]], the [[Waco siege]], the [[Oklahoma City bombing]], the [[Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act|Crime Bill of 1996]], the [[Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996]], the [[Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996]], the [[Cruise missile strikes on Iraq (June 1993)|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 [[Operation Infinite Reach|1998 bombing of Afghanistan and Sudan]], the [[NATO bombing of Yugoslavia|1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia]], 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 (labor leader)|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]]'', the [[North 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 United States presidential election|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]] ... [[Iraq sanctions|sanctions against Iraq]] which ... had resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children; [and] the continued U.S. support of Israel's occupation of land claimed by [[Palestine (region)|Palestinians]]."<ref>Zinn, p. 681</ref> Other topics covered include [[Ralph Nader]], and the [[War in Afghanistan (2001–present)|War in Afghanistan]].

Line 108 ⟶ 106:

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'':

{{~~quote~~blockquote|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–American War|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. Nonetheless, ''A People's History'' reflects a deeply pessimistic vision of the American experience ... Uprisings are either crushed, deflected or co-opted ... Why such movements so often fail to achieve their goals is never adequately explained ... The portrayal of these anonymous Americans, moreover, is strangely circumscribed. 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. Nor does Professor Zinn stop to explore the ideologies that inspired the various uprisings he details.}}

Foner continues by remarking that "history from the bottom up, though necessary as a corrective, is as limited in its own way as history from the top down." What is necessary, Foner asserts, is "an integrated account incorporating [[Thomas Jefferson]] and his slaves, [[Andrew Jackson]] and the Indians, [[Woodrow Wilson]] and the [[Wobblies]], in a continuous historical process, in which each group's experience is shaped in large measure by its relation to others."<ref>Foner, Eric, "Majority Report", ''[https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0817F63B5A12728DDDAB0894DB405B8084F1D3 New York Times Book Review]'', March 2, 1980, pp. BR3–BR4.</ref>

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

{{~~quote~~blockquote|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.<ref name="Herbert2010">{{cite news|last=Herbert|first=Bob|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/30/opinion/30herbert.html|title=A Radical Treasure|work=The New York Times|date=January 30, 2010|access-date=November 21, 2018}}</ref>}} Herbert quotes from Zinn's account of the [[presidency of Andrew Jackson]] as an example of what he means.<ref name="Herbert2010"/>

Also writing for ''The New York Times'', columnist Michael Powell praised the text's impact on changing the perspective of modern histories:

{{~~Quote~~Blockquote|text=To describe it as a revisionist account is to risk understatement. A conventional historical account held no allure; he concentrated on what he saw as the genocidal depredations of Christopher Columbus, the blood lust of Theodore Roosevelt and the racial failings of Abraham Lincoln. He also shined an insistent light on the revolutionary struggles of impoverished farmers, feminists, laborers and resisters of slavery and war. Such stories are more often recounted in textbooks today; they were not at the time.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/us/28zinn.html "Howard Zinn, Historian, Dies at 87"] by [[Howard Powell]] in ''[[The New York Times]]'' January 30, 2010</ref>|sign=|source=}}

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:

{{~~quote~~blockquote|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.<ref name="Howard Zinn's History Lessons"/>}}

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.{{notetag|While Zinn may have failed to explain this second fact in his book on why there has never been a widespread radical left in America, he responded to a similar point in a lecture he gave at MIT in 2005.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6ym9B6I3UM "The Myth of American Exceptionalism"]; see 1:29:19</ref>}}

[[Sam Wineburg]], a professor of history at [[Stanford University]], criticizes Zinn's use of [[leading question]]s, [[cherry-picking]] of sources and presentation of disputable claims as facts. Wineburg used as an example Zinn's claim that [[African American]]s had "widespread indifference, even hostility" to the American war effort in [[World War II]], which was supported by three quotes. According to Wineburg, Zinn drew the quotes from a book by [[Lawrence S. Wittner]], but omitted evidence from the same pages that African Americans were underrepresented among draft evaders and conscientious objectors. Wineburg argued that the reason for the book's longtime appeal was that it "speaks directly to our inner [[Holden Caulfield]]."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wineburg |first1=Sam |date=Winter 2012–13 |journal=American Educator |title=Undue Certainty: Where Howard Zinn's A People's History Falls Short |pages=27–34}}</ref>

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:▼

{{quote|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.▼

▲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:

▲{{~~quote~~blockquote|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.<ref name="chronicle.com">{{Cite web|url=https://www.chronicle.com/article/Howard-Zinn-Philosopher/63833|title=Howard Zinn, Philosopher|first=Christopher|last=Phelps|date=February 1, 2010|via=The Chronicle of Higher Education}}</ref>}}

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:

{{~~quote~~blockquote|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 shooting|Columbine]], from the first [[Independence Day (United States)|Independence Day]] to the Internet, and from the [[Boston Tea Party]] to Baghdad is a wandering line, not a party line. As for the "new possibilities" it points to, I can't see them clearly.<ref name="nytimes.com"/>}}

Professors [[Michael Kazin]], [[Michael Kammen]] and [[Mary Grabar]] condemn the book as a black-and-white story of elite villains and oppressed victims, a story that robs American history of its depth and intricacy and leaves nothing but an empty text simplified to the level of propaganda.<ref name="Howard Zinn's History Lessons">[http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/howard-zinns-history-lessons "Howard Zinn's History Lessons"], by Michael Kazin, ''Dissent'', Spring 2004</ref><ref name="auto">{{cite web|last=Kammen|first=Michael|date=23 March 1980|title=How the Other Half Lived|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1980/03/23/how-the-other-half-lived/ce505900-12fd-427d-a689-90edf3836309/|access-date=10 August 2011|work=Washington Post Book World|page=7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book

| last =Grabar

| first =Mary

Line 148:

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 [[populism|Populists]], anonymous wage-earners and ... articulate radicals{{'"}}.<ref name="sarver">Aaron Sarver, [http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2305/ The Secret History]", ''In These Times'', 16 September 2005</ref>

~~Whether~~Sarver argued that, whether Zinn intended it or not, ''Voices'' ~~serves~~served 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."<ref name="sarver" />

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 drawn from ''A People's History of the United States'' as well as Zinn's own history of his involvement in activism and historic events as covered in his autobiography ''You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train''.

Line 208:

*''[[The Untold History of the United States]]'', a 2012 documentary series directed, produced, and narrated by Oliver Stone

* [[Page Smith]] wrote an eight-volume history with the same title, whose first volume appeared in 1976, four years before Zinn's book was published

* ''We, the People the Drama of America'' , a [[Marxist history]] of the United States by [[Leo Huberman]] (1932)

* [[People's history]]