In life I’ve been lucky to have had great teachers; I’ll never forget first reading [b:A People's History of the United States|2767|A People's History of the United States|Howard Zinn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1494279423s/2767.jpg|2185591] in my high school U.S. history course. Even when he was cracking jokes, Mr. Sheehan always encouraged an active questioning of the historic record, and wanted us students to familiarize ourselves with a number of perspectives. I imagine this is how Howard Zinn entered the lives of many an impressionable or disaffected young person.

So what is this book? Well, it is more or less what it boasts to be: “A People’s History,” Zinn looks at U.S. history through the lens of the working class—the people. He also criticizes those in power that benefit off the exploitation of this group, as well as systems of control used to maintain this status quo. This includes re-examining the prevailing understanding of what American democracy entails. Starting at the very beginning, Zinn boldly asserts:

“The Constitution…illustrates the complexity of the American system: that it serves the interests of a wealthy elite, but also does enough for small property owners, for the middle-income mechanics and farmers, to build a broad base of support. The slightly prosperous people who make up this base of support are buffers against the blacks, the Indians, the very poor whites. They enable the elite to keep control with a minimum of coercion, a maximum of law—all made palatable by the fanfare of patriotism and unity.” (99)

If it’s not readily apparent, those who hold dear the ideas of “American exceptionalism” or extreme free-market capitalism will probably hate this book. Ingrained in the earliest version of what we conceptualize to be the United States, Zinn will challenge most notions of perceived greatness. This is after all a country built by the labor of enslaved blacks and on land stolen from Native Americans.

Zinn does not pull any punches when it comes to bluntly stating how racism, misogyny, fear, and other vain forms of division have been used to maintain America as a caste system of sorts with little room for social mobility. He makes a good case for how this is facilitated by a deeply entrenched and prevalent narrative:

“Control in modern times requires more than force, more than law. It requires that a population dangerously concentrated in cities and factories, whose lives are filled with cause for rebellion, be taught that all is right as it is. And so, the schools, the churches, the popular literature taught that to be rich was a sign of superiority, to be poor a sign of personal failure, and that the only way upward for a poor person was to climb into the ranks of the rich by extraordinary effort and extraordinary luck.” (262)

Taking a step back, it must be noted that the vast majority of published history adheres to a distinctly American form of story-telling that upholds rugged individualism and prioritizes the roles of esteemed individuals. Do you have a favorite president? Well, Zinn is going to do his darndest to kick out the pedestal upon which you view that guy. In this volume, no leader that upholds any system of inequality is free of criticism, which sometimes results in flippant quips such as this hot take on FDR in WWII:

“Roosevelt was as much concerned to end the oppression of Jews as Lincoln was to end slavery during the Civil War; their priority was policy (whatever their personal compassion for victims of persecution) was not minority rights, but national power.” (410)

It is important to contextualize that during World War II, FDR signed Executive Order 9066 which resulted in the unjust internment of Japanese Americans. Nearly a century earlier, Lincoln passed the Homestead Act to appease expansionists at the expense of Native American’s homes and lives. These are objectively bad things. Still, if pressed, I myself would be inclined to cite FDR and Lincoln as two of America’s most impactful presidents, but is important to remember the totality of a leader’s legacies, which are often more complex than an overly simplistic, feel-good narrative.

What Zinn most advocates for in this volume is that people must organize, not blindly follow a charismatic savior. ‘Be the (organized) change you want to see in the world’—or something to that effect. The socio-economic underpinnings that enables the preservation of power, affluence, and influence of the wealthiest elite can only be effectively challenged by the many, not the exceptional few.

“One percent of the nation owns a third of the wealth. The rest of the wealth is distributed in such a way as to turn those in the 99 percent against one another: small property owners against the propertyless, black against white, native-born against foreign-born, intellectuals and professionals against the uneducated and unskilled. These groups have resented one another and warred against one another with such vehemence and violence as to obscure their common position as sharers of leftovers in a very wealthy country.” (632)

If you think that’s chilling, in 2019 the Washington Post has since reported that the top 10% now own more than 70% of the nation’s wealth, with the top 1% having more than the bottom 80% of the population combined. So if these statistics upset you, please vote if you do not already do so.

Howard Zinn did his part by creating this accessible, pop-history of sorts that could be easily digestible by the working class, and change the conversation. On that note, while he does properly cite and contextualize his historical quotes, sadly, to my personal chagrin, he does not include detailed footnotes. If I have any criticisms of this work, they mostly boil down to this irksome observation. But that said, even if history isn’t your jam, this book is still easy enough to understand and a good learning tool.

Overall, I would still definitely recommend this book as a well-argued resource (and/or effective paperweight). Rather than an end-all be-all source on the subject matter, however, I would consider it more as an excellent launch point for further study. By Zinn’s own (refreshing) admission in the Afterword, his conception of the working class is hindered by the constraints of his own lived experience. So if you are interested in reading more, I would also recommend:
- [b:A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America|37564|A Different Mirror A History of Multicultural America|Ronald Takaki|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1439467571s/37564.jpg|37420] by Ronald Takaki
- [b:The History of White People|6919721|The History of White People|Nell Irvin Painter|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1349005576s/6919721.jpg|7147568] by Nell Irvin Painter
- [b:An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States|20588662|An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States (ReVisioning American History, #3)|Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1395003842s/20588662.jpg|39861426] by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
- [b:The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism|1237300|The Shock Doctrine The Rise of Disaster Capitalism|Naomi Klein|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442590618s/1237300.jpg|2826418] by Naomi Klein
- [b:The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness|6792458|The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness|Michelle Alexander|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328751532s/6792458.jpg|6996712] by Michelle Alexander

If you have any other must-read suggestions please leave your recommendation in a comment! In the spirit of Howard Zinn, and plucky high school history teachers everywhere, let’s keep the conversation going. Or don’t, you know, you do you.