A history of America that seeks to illuminate, document, and even overturn our current understanding of it. Howard Zinn does not get trapped in the national myths of “official” history, which is written “from the perspective of governments, conquerors, diplomats, and leaders” and which “not only presents a distorted image of the past but also creates a misleading picture of the present.”
He chooses to tell the American story as it was experienced by women, workers, Blacks, Indigenous people, the poor, and immigrants. He presents the facts without ignoring the conflicts between the powerful and the powerless, while also not overlooking that the dividing lines between perpetrators and victims are often hard to distinguish, leading the victims—desperate and influenced by the system that oppresses them—to turn against other victims and commit atrocities.
As the saying invoked by the author goes: “The cry of the poor is not always just but if you have not heard it, you will never understand what Justice means.”
The "People's History of the United States" was published in 1984 and has evolved into a timeless bestseller, with sales that, only in the U.S., have exceeded 1,000,000 copies. It is taught in hundreds of universities and colleges across America and has been translated into many languages. This edition includes new chapters that cover the latest global developments of the century we are in.
