THE CLASSIC
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
“A wonderful, splendid
book–a book that should be read by every American, student or otherwise, who
wants to understand his country, its true history, and its hope for the
future.” -Howard Fast
Historian Howard Zinn’s A
People’s History of the United States chronicles American history from the
bottom up, throwing out the official narrative taught in schools–with its
emphasis on great men in high places–to focus on the street, the home, and the
workplace.
Known for its lively, clear
prose as well as its scholarly research, it is the only volume to
tell America’s story from the point of view of–and in the words of–America’s
women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, the working poor,
and immigrant laborers. As Zinn shows, many of our country’s greatest
battles–the fights for a fair wage, an eight-hour workday, child-labor laws,
health and safety standards, universal suffrage, women’s rights, racial
equality–were carried out at the grassroots level, against bloody resistance.
Covering
Christopher Columbus’s arrival through President Clinton’s first term,
A
People’s History of the United States features insightful analysis of the
most important events in our history. This edition also includes an
introduction by Anthony Arnove, who wrote, directed, and produced
The People
Speak with Zinn and who coauthored, with Zinn,
Voices of a People’s History
of the United States.
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Hi, I'm Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn (1922 –2010) was raised in a working-class family in Brooklyn, and flew bombing missions for the United States in World War II, an experience he now points to in shaping his opposition to war. Under the GI Bill he went to college and received his Ph.D. from Columbia University. In 1956, he became a professor at Spelman College in Atlanta, a school for black women, where he soon became involved in the civil rights movement, which he participated in as an adviser to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and chronicled, in his book SNCC: The New Abolitionists. Zinn collaborated with historian Staughton Lynd and mentored a young student named Alice Walker. When he was fired in 1963 for insubordination related to his protest work, he moved to Boston University, where he became a leading critic of the Vietnam War.
In his liftetime, Zinn received the Thomas Merton Award, the Eugene V. Debs Award, the Upton Sinclair Award, and the Lannan Literary Award. He is perhaps best known for A People's History of the United States. City Lights previously published his essay collection A Power Governments Cannot Suppress. We feel lucky and proud to have known and worked with him, and are honored to bring The Historic Unfulfilled Promise to a wide readership.
