what is howard zinn's thesis in chapter 1

A People’s History of the United States

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Lumpy’s Zinn Notes

Notes on Chapter 1: Columbus, The Indians, and Human Progress

Summary of howard zinn's a people's history of the united states.

Zinn uses Chapter 1: Columbus, The Indians, and Human Progress, not to address the first known Europeans to actually step foot on what we now call the United States, but the moment imperialism begins in this part of the world. He also uses this time to explain his purpose for writing People’s History of the United States.

For the latter part, he uses the Kissinger quote to make his point, “History is the memory of the states”. Good ol’ Henry quoted that in a history book he wrote using the point of view of the world leaders in Europe in the 19th century. Howard was going to do better. He wouldn’t focus just on the leaders, as he knew they never truly represented the people as a whole. 

He wrote, “One reason these atrocities are still with us is that we have learned to bury them in a mass of other facts”. Basically, he is saying we can’t change the past, but we can learn not to accept the atrocities as just prices to pay for progress and actually try to learn from them what not to do.

So, we begin.

The year is 1492 and Columbus convinced the King and Queen of Spain (Ferdinand and Isabella, respectively) to finance his trip. Columbus was looking for a better route than what the Portuguese had been using around South Africa since the Turks shut off the land roads to China. 

Gold was becoming more important for status than property and his benefactors wanted as much as they could get. Columbus talked them into believing he was the man for the job. If he brought them the gold they desired, he would get 10%, governorship over any lands and a lovely title, Admiral of the Ocean Sea. 

Howard mentions a story within this chapter about how it was a sailor named Rodrigo that discovered the signs of land first. There had been an offer of 10,000 maravedis every year for life to the first person to spot land. However, Columbus claimed that he actually saw the signs first the night before. The dude couldn’t even give the sailor his due. Hero? 

Zinn opens the chapter with the Arawaks standing on their Bahama Island watching as the 3 ships come in. We can only gather what the idiginous people were thinking from Columbus’s log. He describes their awe, how generous they were and how they were well-built. Columbus also notes with 50 men they could “subjugate them all and make them do what we want.”

Probably the first thing Columbus himself actually spied was the small gold studs the Arawaks wore in their ears. This convinced him he hit the jackpot. He kidnapped a few Arawaks onto his ship and demanded that they bring them to the source of the gold.

From there he went to what is now known as Haiti (the Spaniards called Hispanola) and his largest ship, the Santa Maria, ran to ground so he constructed the first European military fort out of the timbers there and called it Navidad (Christmas). He left 39 men there and sailed with the rest plus a few Arawaks he would offer to the King and Queen. 

In Spain, he exaggerated his findings enough so that he was given 17 ships and 1200 men. On his second trip back to Spain in 1495, still not finding that gold source, he brought 500 Arawaks out of the 1500 his men captured, 200 of them died en route. 

Since the natives kept dying in captivity, Columbus was desperate to make good on his promises to fill his ships with gold. He ordered each Native 14 or older to round up a certain quantity of gold and return with it every 3 months. In doing so, they would get a copper token to wear around their necks. If a native did not have this token, the Spaniards would cut their hands off and let them bleed to death. Since there was not much gold there, the natives fled and were hunted down with dogs and killed.

The Natives tried to resist but the Spaniards had armor, muskets, horses and swords. When the resisters were caught they were hung or burned to death. The Arawaks turned to suicide by cassava poisoning to escape their fate. 

Within 2 years, the population of 250K Arawaks on the island of Hispaniola were cut in half. The ones that survived were used as slaves at the large estates called encomiendas. By 1515 there were about 50K Natives left. By 1550 about 5K. 

Besides Columbus's logs, another source for information at the time came from a priest named Bartolome de las Casas. He did own a plantation at one time but gave it up and became a "vehement critic of Spanish cruelty". Las Casas, in his fifties, wrote a multivolume history of the West Indies. He describes the natives as agile and good swimmers. He talks about how they do battle from time to time but more for individual reasons and not for a ruler.

He thought Black slaves would make better workers but took that back after watching how the Spaniards treated slaves, such as riding the backs of Natives & making them carry big leaves to fan them. They got more cruel as time went on and there was no defending themselves.

This is not only imperialism at work but the birth of capitalism. 

Zinn writes as he segues the book to what is now known as the United States, "What Columbus did to the Arawaks of the Bahamas, Cortes did to the Aztecs of Mexico, Pizarro to the Incas of Peru, and the English settlers of Virginia and Massachusetts to the Powhatans and the Pequots." 

In 1585, the Englishman Richard Grenville brought 7 ships to what is now Virginia and was greeted by the natives there much like Columbus was by the Arawaks with curiosity and generosity. So yeah, when he believed a silver cup was stolen by one of the members of the Aquascogoc, he burnt down their village and cornfields.

In the winter of 1609-1610 came the "Starving Time" and a few of the English ran off to the Natives because they knew they would get fed there. When the colonists didn't return after the winter was over the governor asked the Natives to return them which they refused.

Soldiers were sent out “to take Revenge”. Zinn writes, “They fell upon an Indian settlement, killed fifteen or sixteen Indians, burned the houses, cut down the corn growing around the village, took the queen of the tribe and her children into boats, then ended up throwing the children overboard...The queen was later taken off and stabbed to death.”

Twelve years later, the English settlers kept coming and the Natives tried to destroy the English food source and also killed 347 settlers and from there on “it was total war”. The English, knowing the indigenous did not make for good slaves, decided they needed to exterminate them. 

The historian Edmund Morgan is quoted here, “Since the Indians were better woodsmen than the English and virtually impossible to track down, the method was to feign peaceful intentions, let them settle down and plant their corn wherever they chose, and then, just before harvest, fall upon them, killing as many as possible and burning the corn... . Within two or three years of the massacre the English had avenged the deaths of that day many times over.”

Now Zinn moves north to Massachusetts and the Puritans that landed there in 1620. There was an uneasy truce with the Pequots but the Puritans wanted land and that was not to hold for long. In 1636 they used the murder of Captain John Stone, who Zinn describes as “a white trader, Indian-kidnaper, and troublemaker”, as an excuse to go after the Pequots in earnest. 

The Natives didn’t have the weapons to use against the English. They were used to fighting each other on the same level of weapon technology but also, the English had no problem breaking promises and they took no mercy. 

It is estimated that there were 10 million indigenous living in North America before the Europeans came, and about the time of the King Phillip’s War which began in 1675, there was less than 1 million. This was both due to the disease that the Europeans brought and the wars.

Zinn writes, “Behind the English invasion of North America, behind their massacre of Indians, their deception, their brutality, was that special powerful drive born in civilizations based on private property. It was a morally ambiguous drive; the need for space, for land, was a real human need. But in conditions of scarcity, in a barbarous epoch of history ruled by competition, this human need was transformed into the murder of whole peoples.”

Zinn talks about how the indigenous of these lands were much more egalitarian than the Europeans. The women were treated much better and no one person owned the land but it was shared for the common good. There was a stark contrast in how the Europeans lived, in a patriarchal society with classes of rich and poor, the haves and have nots. 

Howard ends chapter one with this: “Even allowing for the imperfection of myths, it is enough to make us question, for that time and ours, the excuse of progress in the annihilation of races, and the telling of history from the standpoint of the conquerors and leaders of Western civilization.”

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ZINN QUESTIONS – A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn Chapter 1 – Columbus, the Indians and Human Progress

A Young People's History of the United States

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Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Part 1, Chapter 5

Part 1, Chapters 6-9

Part 1, Chapters 10-12

Part 2, Chapters 13-16

Part 2, Chapters 17-20

Part 2, Chapters 21-23

Part 2, Chapters 24-26

Key Figures

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Summary and Study Guide

A Young People’s History of the United States is based on author Howard Zinn’s acclaimed A People’s History of the United States , written for an adult audience and originally published in 1980. Rebecca Stefoff adapted Zinn’s text to suit a young audience of middle school to high school ages. This adaptation has been in print since 2007.

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The key word in the title is “ People’s .” Zinn (and Stefoff) deliver a history about the masses in the US, starting with the first contact between Europeans (Columbus and the ensuing “conquistadors”) and Indigenous groups in the Americas. This most recent edition of the book covers US history through the Iraq War and the social pushback against it. While the author names and describes the big figures typically associated with historical eras like presidents and politicians, social leaders, and military figures, he recasts the standard characterizations of these “American heroes” to correct the mythology surrounding them—and makes room to discuss lesser-known historical actors. He devotes entire chapters to expounding the views and plights of marginalized social groups, including enslaved Black people , Native nations facing European and American colonialism , poor people, immigrants, political dissenters, and women (who legally had little control over their lives for much of American history).

Each chapter is about 20 pages, and the book includes illustrations, anecdotes about related topics sectioned off from the main narrative , and excerpts from primary sources, which are documents, photographs, or other materials produced within the historical period in question. In addition to replicating speeches, statements, documents, and more, Zinn provides brief explanations of trends in historiography , or the recorded study of history as an academic field. Zinn discusses breakthroughs and controversies that historians have created during decades of examining and reexamining the past.

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Perhaps the most important aspect of the book is how it challenges popular narratives of American history through surprising interpretations of historical figures, events, systems, movements, and entities (including the US government, both world wars, and capitalism ). For example, Zinn’s interpretation of capitalism presents it as a guiding principle of American life—but not one to celebrate. Some of the historical actors that the book most often discusses are groups of lower-class laborers that, for generations, protested their deplorable working and living conditions and pushed for socialism , which they hoped would bring more equality to American life. Indeed, Zinn is sympathetic to centuries of calls for systemic change, though he recounts steadily how the government and ruling class in the US has completely resisted such fundamental reform.

The book is also critical of US nationalism, which often persists under the guise of patriotism. Attitudes of American superiority, Zinn explains, have long created suffering around the world.

In the years since the book’s publication, some of these critical narratives have become more popular in the mainstream. Certain topics—like systemic racism and sexism—have emerged even in some political discourse as shameful patterns of history. Zinn’s work provides a quick-paced but thorough chronical of American people in action against the forces that threatened to oppress them.

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A People's History Of The United States Chapter 1 Summary

Q&A for A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn Logan Baumer Chapter 1: 1. Howard Zinn’s main purpose to writing A People’s History of the United States is to tell the story of our country through the perspective of the people. More specifically, the original inhabitants, minorities, and immigrants. He also wants to expose what has happened in the past that is not typically mentioned in our history books. Zinn vows however to not just criticize but to also mention the good things our leaders have done. 2. Howard Zinn’s thesis for pages one through eleven is that Christopher Columbus has been given a false image of being a heroic, peaceful person who discovered the Americas by history books. In reality, Columbus gave false reports to the Spanish crown and oversaw …show more content…

Howard Zinn argues that the Indians are indeed, not inferior by mentioning all of the progress they have made and their actions while being completely isolated. His support being their journey over the Bering Straits land mass 25,000 years ago, responding to the different environments with their respective soil and climate, the development of hundreds of different cultures, a productive and innovative agricultural system, and their architecture. Chapter 2: 1. According to Howard Zinn, the root cause of racism in the United States was slavery. This is because slavery separated people based on their color of their skin and segregated them. People who were white were not slaves and were treated normally while people who were black were treated like sub-humans and discriminated, over time, this led to negative attitudes towards blacks. 2. The reason why Africans were considered better slaves than Native Americans was because the Indians outnumbered the colonists, were defiant, tough, and were on their own land. Africans on the other hand, were already considered slaves by Europeans and thought to be helpless when captured because they were completely separated from their

Christopher Columbus Controversy

However, opposing historians address this fact through varying degrees of approval. In A Patriot's History of the United States, Schweikart and Allen do not mention any of Columbus’ faults, and refer to the massacre of Aztecs by Cortés and his men as a “stunning victory” (Schweikart ) in order to preserve their goal in retelling history from a patriotic standpoint. Because Schweikart and Allen choose to ignore the undeniable brutalities and damage inflicted on native people and societies, they fail to recognize the importance of addressing these issues as a root of racial intolerance. On the other hand, Zinn’s documentation provides a far more in-depth description of the injustices faced by the native and states, “Even allowing for the imperfection of myths, it is enough to make us question, for that time and ours, the excuse of progress in the annihilation of races, and the telling of history from the standpoint of the conquerors and leaders of Western civilization” (Zinn). As a social activist, Zinn’s primary focus is calling out flawed systems and actions within history, but by doing so, he disregards the positive outcomes of European exploration. Conversely, Mintz points out numerous advantages from exploration, pointing out that “Columbus's voyage of discovery… contributed to the development of the modern concept of progress”

Should We Celebrate Columbus Day

Previously, Columbus was the “person who found the Americas,” but that is historically incorrect. We celebrate Columbus day as if he was a hero who saved mankind but he did the exact opposite. Zinn explains how much the Native Americans suffered and their perspective during Columbus's “discovery” of the Bahamas. We learn that because of his discovery, everyone was able to benefit from it but we never learn specifically how his actions affected the Arawaks.

Essay on Zinn Howard Questions Ch 1-6

1. According to Zinn, the root of racism is slavery because it created a separation between whites and blacks for about 350 years. The whites were superior and the blacks were inferior.

Essay on Howard Zinn Chapter 1 Study Questions

Howard Zinn explains that his purpose as a historian and his purpose for writing A People’s History of the United States, is to tell history from the view points of the forgotten members of history, such as the Cubans during the Spanish-American War.

Thomas King The Indian Ethos Pathos Logos

Thomas King’s chapter “Forget Columbus” surrounds the idea that the preconceived notions that Americans have about their own history, and the Native Americans who have resided here for centuries, are wrong. Columbus never discovered America. The

Howard Zinn Chapter One Essay

Columbus has always been portrayed as an enlightened, peaceful explorer who “discovered” a new world, and became friends with the native people. Howard Zinn’s view on Columbus’s encounter with the natives is an entirely different perspective. Zinn describes Columbus as a man who is willing to torture and kill others to be able to accomplish what he wants; in this case he wanted to obtain gold and other resources to take back with him to Spain.

Compare And Contrast Howard Zinn And The People's History

2. By assigning both, The People’s History of the United States, and A Patriot’s History of the United States, it allows us to take a look at two different views of American history. Howard Zinn, the author of The People’s History of the United States, seems to tell the story from the view of those not in power, like those in slavery, women, and Native Americans. Conversely, the authors of A Patriot’s History of the United States, Larry Schweikart and

Analysis of A People´s History of the United States Essays

1. According to Zinn, the root of racism in America has to do with the culture back in Europe before 1600. In England before 1600 the Oxford English Dictionary

Essay on Howard Zinn Answer Guide

3.) According to Howard Zinn, Christopher Columbus was wrongly portrayed as a ‘hero’, of sorts. Although he did discover America, there are quite a few significant reasons

Howard Zinn 's The United States

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 was until his death in 2010 a heroic figure to many, especially for this book and for his ongoing teaching and social activism, which were directly related.

Questions for Ap Us History

1. According to Zinn, what is his main purpose for writing A People's History of the United States?

A People 's History Of The United States

Chapter one of Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States discusses the differences between the culture and attitudes of the Europeans and the Native Americans. It further describes how the Europeans came to the New World and committed genocide against the Native Americans in order to get land and gold from them, which displayed the cruelty and greed of the European explorers coming to the Americas. However, many historians consider these actions by the European Conquistadors to be necessary in order for human progress to occur, but Zinn argues whether human progress needed all of these barbaric actions. He talks about how history has had many important details left out of many events and believes that it is important for history to be seen for all that happened. For example, Zinn writes, “To emphasize the heroism of Columbus and his successors as navigators and discoverers, and to de-emphasize their genocide, is not a technical necessity but an ideological choice. It serves- unwittingly-to justify what was done.” (Zinn) This quotation shows how Zinn emphasizes how this brutality was not a necessity but it is a choice on how it should be interpreted. Zinn also talks about Hernando Cortes’ time with the Aztec Empire. In the text, Zinn writes, “Cortes then began his march of death from town to town, using deception, turning Aztec against

Howard Zinn

The author of A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn was born in 1922 and grew in Brooklyn. By 18 he became a shipyard worker and a few years later joined the air force where he flew bomber missions during World War II. It was these years that created Zinn’s opposition for war and passion for history. He was a professor at Spellman College in Atlanta, Georgia, but got fired because he supported student protestors. Zinn ended up different places such as imprisonment for civil disobedience and fights for open debates in universities because he was so politically engaged. The many profession of Howard Zinn includes historian, author, professor, playwright, and activist. He wrote numerous plays and authored dozens of books including

Howard Zinn Greed

Since 1980, A People’s History of the United States influenced many both young and old, stating untold historical events left out of your conventional history textbook. However, Zinn presents himself as a “Professor of Contempt”, labeled by National Review, rejecting the book as an “anti-American history” book. Repeatedly, Howard Zinn depicts the American story as a result of greed. He believed that every historical leader that took part in our history, their ultimate goal was exploitation and profit. Zinn also intentionally left out substantial American success stories, such as, we were first in flight and first to walk on the moon. He also left out many significant battles, such as Gettysburg and D-Day’s Normandy Invasion. Many critics judge

Analysis of A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn

• 1 Works Cited

A People's History of the United States, originally published in 1980, as a work of non-fiction by the political scientist and American historian, Howard Zinn. Zinn seeks to show us American history through the eyes of common, everyday people rather the views of biased historians. A People's History is included in high school and college curriculum across the United States and is a favorite of American

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The New York Times

The learning network | we the people: considering howard zinn’s approach to history.

We the People: Considering Howard Zinn’s Approach to History

U.S. History

Teaching ideas based on New York Times content.

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Overview | What was Howard Zinn’s approach to history, and what values are inherent in it? What issues does his work raise about the purpose and significance of studying history? What are the benefits and drawbacks of his method? In this lesson, students examine Mr. Zinn’s work by comparing his writing with a typical American history textbook. They then write a reflection or select a document from American history to perform.

Materials | Student journals, projection equipment or handouts, copies of relevant portions of “A People’s History of the United States” and a history textbook

Warm-Up | Provide the following two questions for students to respond to in their journals: In writing history, what do you think should be a historian’s goal(s)? Why do you think people should study history?

When students are finished writing, invite them to share their ideas and record them on the board.

Next, hand out, project and/or read aloud the following quotation from Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States”:

I don’t want to invent victories for people’s movements. But to think that history-writing must aim simply to recapitulate the failures that dominate the past is to make historians collaborators in an endless cycle of defeat. If history is to be creative, to anticipate a possible future without denying the past, it should, I believe, emphasize new possibilities by disclosing those hidden episodes of the past, when, even if in brief flashes, people showed their ability to resist, to join together, occasionally to win. I am supposing, or perhaps only hoping, that our future may be found in the past’s fugitive moments of compassion rather than in its solid centuries of warfare. That, being as blunt as I can, is my approach to the history of the United States. The reader may as well know the before going on.

Ask: How would you paraphrase this historian’s approach to United States history? What does he seem to value and why? What does he seem to think the purpose and function of history is? How does this approach seem similar to and different from how you have studied history in school? What are the connections between what you wrote earlier in your journals and these ideas?

Tell students the source of the quotation and that they will take a closer look at the work and philosophy of this historian, Howard Zinn, and the controversy over his approach.

Related | In the obituary “Howard Zinn, Historian, Is Dead at 87,” Michael Powell notes that Mr. Zinn’s book “A People’s History of the United States was a “best-seller that inspired a generation of high school and college students to rethink American history”:

Almost an oddity at first, with a printing of just 4,000 in 1980, “A People’s History of the United States” has sold nearly two million copies. 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.

Questions | For discussion and reading comprehension:

• What does it mean that Howard Zinn “delighted … in lancing what he considered platitudes, not the least that American history was a heroic march toward democracy”?
• Why did the book meet with some skepticism and opposition? How did Mr. Zinn respond to critics?
• How has Mr. Zinn and his work penetrated popular culture? Why do you think that is?
• How do you think Mr. Zinn’s life might have contributed to his worldview and historical approach and vice versa? Why?
• What “personal philosophy” do you think is expressed in the title of Mr. Zinn’s memoir, “You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train”?
• How do you think the way you study history is different from how it was taught to your parents and grandparents?

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From NYTimes.com

• Times Topics: Howard Zinn
• Times Topics: History
• Op-Ed Column: “A Radical Treasure”

Around the Web

• History Matters
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Activity | Explain that students will now examine Howard Zinn’s approach to history writing by comparing a subject in a typical American history textbook with Mr. Zinn’s portrayal of the same event in his book “A People’s History of the United States.”

You could use any topic for this lesson, depending on your current curriculum, by simply looking through the index of “A People’s History of the United States.” The example here is about Shays’ Rebellion.

To begin, hand out the following textbook account of Shays’ Rebellion, from the middle school-level United States history textbook “The American Nation,” by James West Davidson and John E. Batchelor, Prentice Hall, 1986, and read it out loud with the class:

While Congress dealt successfully with the Northwest Territory, it failed to solve other problems. Among the most serious were the problems of farmers. During the Revolution, the demand for farm products was high. Farmers borrowed money for land, seed, animals and tools. But after the war, the nation suffered an economic depression. An economic depression is a period when business activity slows, prices and wages fall, and unemployment rises. When prices for farm goods fell, farmers could not repay their loans. Farmers in western Massachusetts were hard hit by falling farm prices. To make matters worse, Massachusetts raised taxes. The courts threatened to seize the farms of people who did not pay their loans and taxes. Captain Daniel Shays was a Massachusetts farmer who had fought in the Revolution. In 1786, Shays gathered a force of about 1,000 angry farmers. They attacked courthouses and tried to take a warehouse full of rifles and gunpowder. Massachusetts quickly raised an army and ended the rebellion. Shays’ Rebellion worried many Americans. It was a sign that the Articles of Confederation were not working. Leaders of several states called for a convention to discuss ways of reforming the Articles. They decided to meet in Philadelphia in May 1787. When they met, however, they took more drastic action.

After they read this account, ask students to read the same subject from a history Web site, like this one or this one .

After reading these two sources, students work individually or in pairs to write a short summary of what happened during Shays’ Rebellion. Invite a few students or pairs to share their summary with the class.

Next, hand out Mr. Zinn’s account of Shays’ Rebellion, from “A People’s History of the United States,” and read it out loud with the class. (It is available online here , but this version may contain some typos, as the site’s disclaimer notes; you may wish to use a print copy of the book with your class.)

After the class finishes reading both accounts, ask pairs to compare and contrast Mr. Zinn’s account with the textbook versions. Questions for consideration include these:

• What are similarities and differences between the passages? What do you make of these differences?
• What characters does Mr. Zinn introduce that the textbook and summaries do not mention?
• What significant perspectives or information may have been left out of each passage? Do you feel that either of the passages offered a more adequate retelling of this event? If so, which one?
• Explain how reading historical accounts influences your understanding. What did you take away from the textbook passage? What did you take away from Mr. Zinn’s account? When would a simple textbook passage be most helpful? When would it be more useful to read an account like those in “A People’s History”?
• In what ways does Mr. Zinn’s account of Shays’ Rebellion relate to the quotation about his approach to writing history that we read at the beginning of class?
• Why do you think an account like Mr. Zinn’s could make some historians and readers dismiss him?
• Why do you think that the way Mr. Zinn approaches history led to some historians to dismiss him and brand him a “radical”?

To take this further, you might share one or both of the following:

• A transcript of an interview with Howard Zinn from WBUR in which he connects the story of Shays’ Rebellion to present-day America: “We could learn from that history, because people are being foreclosed, they’re losing their homes. Instead of waiting for the president and Congress to act, who are very slow to act and who are not going to really represent the interests of these poor people or even middle class people who are evicted from homes. People should be organizing, doing what citizens have done, doing what democracy requires to prevent these evictions from taking place.” Invite students to consider that comparison further for similarities and differences in circumstance, context and so on.
• Bob Herbert’s Op-Ed column “A Radical Treasure,” in which he questions why Mr. Zinn was often characterized as a radical, and why he considered himself one. Discuss with students what the term “radical” means and how and why it might, and might not, apply to Mr. Zinn. They might also read some more of Mr. Herbert’s columns to compare and contrast Mr. Herbert’s and Mr. Zinn’s work and approach to documenting the people and events of the United States. Can you find any evidence in Mr. Herbert’s columns of Mr. Zinn’s philosophy? Would you call Mr. Herbert a radical? Why or why not?

Going Further | Students revisit their warm-up writing and discussion by re-exploring the question of how history should be “told” in a written piece that explores some of the following questions: What power and responsibility does a historian have in telling a story? Is there a way to write history completely objectively? Or, do historians always add some form of personal bias? How does a concentration on “the people” make Mr. Zinn’s version of history different than an emphasis on, say, politics, economics or foreign relations? Do you think a voice like Mr. Zinn’s is an essential part of the historical record? Is it important, in your opinion, that historians use primary sources in their exploration of history? Why or why not? How do you most like to learn about history? Why?

Alternatively or additionally, students watch some of “The People Speak” and read the corresponding texts. They then create their own video or performance piece on the document of their choice from American history. Hold a classroom “People Speak” contest, in which students enter video, animated projects, raps, theater pieces, etc. Perform and share the pieces at a community event or for other classrooms in the school. They then reflect on how this experience brought the texts “to life” for them in a new way.

Standards | From McRel , for Grades 6-12:

Language Arts 5. Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process 7. Uses reading skills and strategies to understand and interpret a variety of informational texts

Historical Understanding 1. Understands and knows how to analyze chronological relationships and patterns 2. Understands the historical perspective

Grades K-4 History 4. Understands how democratic values came to be, and how they have been exemplified by people, events, and symbols

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Ugh. the first activity suggests comparing a 200 word passage in a dry textbook to 10,000 words of polemic analysis. Many of Zinn’s angles and facts are indeed good to know about, but there are other well-written, longer treatments of the material that would not conflate reader-friendly analysis with anachronistic tub-thumping that feeds a contemporary political agenda.

One major flaw of Zinn’s history is the lack of foot or end notes. This failing should disqualify the work for any serious student of history.

Another caveat is Zinn’s history covers minorities and movements but sometimes to the exclusion of broader developments such as the increasing democracy in the country from 1790 to 1840. It is a good adjunct to a history of the U.S. but should not be the main text.

Dinah and Holly – Thank you for creating this valuable and thoughtful lesson.

As a social studies teacher, another resource I’ve found invaluable is the Zinn Education Project website ( //zinnedproject.org ). ZEP has dozens of teaching activities and similar resources – organized by time period and theme – to teach a people’s history.

In addition, Dr. Zinn recently responded to questions from teachers, and it is available at //www.zinnedproject.org/posts/5046 . It, too, provides additional insight into his life and work, as well as great advice for social studies teachers.

Thanks for taking the time after Howard’s passing for including this thoughtful lesson and especially for including Howard’s last work, the film THE PEOPLE SPEAK ( //www.thepeoplespeak.com ).

Michael R’s is right: The Zinn Education Project has terrific materials for many different age groups.

And students around the country are also putting on readings from Zinn’s Voices of a People’s History of the United States, the primary source companion to A People’s History.

Performance and reading out loud is a great way to bring history to life for students. There are online organizing tools and scripts at //www.peopleshistory.us

As a teacher/tutor, I object to the constant thread of polemics in Zinn and his lack of references. We are to take his assertions about history as gospel because he says so. Frankly, I think he is the genesis of the movement that condemns anything American.

The Zinn piece is just too long. My students could not get through all of it. My classes are only 57 minutes and I don’t teach at Stuyvesant. Can’t the Times create something for, for lack of a better term, average students?

To all the critics of Zinn, Re: endnotes, polemics: I see Zinn as more of a jumping off point. His perspective is one that is more of a wider vision of American History that has generally been left out of other treatments, For example, Zinn’s historical work is inclusive of indigenous people, the impact of indigenous people in a larger framework and goes beyond “official” or “Big Man” history. That is, delves into subtexts left out of the history of big events (like wars, etc.) and “Big Men,” theories of history (so-called “Top Down” history) that use a central big event and the central leaders (presidents, kings, industrial leaders, social movement leaders, etc.) and describes surrounding or contemporary events in the context of, or through the “lense” of, the major players, events and officials. Zinn was a vanguard of “social history,” more or less positing that change occurs from the bottom up, from the grass roots. By viewing from such a perspective a deeper, richer more comprehensive understanding of history, a truer and more realistic and more inclusive history, “a people’s history,” is attained. Is he a polemicist? From certain pespectives, of course, but that does not serve as meaningful enough criticism to dismiss his work. As for the endnotes the primary and secondary material that is grounds for his writings widely exists. It’s not as if these events have not been written about by others. Don’t take Zinn’s word for it do your own research.

William Murphy alleges a lack of references in Zinn’s “A People’s History”. I suspect Mr. Murphy neglected to read the 19 pages of bibliography that precisely identifies sources, chapter by chapter.

In the 662-page text in the 1999 edition, Dr. Zinn identified the authors and book titles directly in the text and includes the full information for each in the bibliography. He placed asterisks next to those he found indispensable and said the quotes in the text were found in those marked with asterisks. He identified the scholarly journals and “less orthodox but important” periodicals he reviewed before writing.

Mr. Murphy also complains that what Zinn chose to write about sometimes excludes “broader developments such as the increasing democracy in the country from 1790 to 1840.”

We know that “increasing democracy” excluded fully half the adult population (women) until several centuries later along with many other broad sections of the population– including Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans and others — also until several centuries later.

When three quarters of the population–or more– is denied voting rights, whatever amount of democracy increased between 1790 and1840 did not include the majority of people living within the United States.

The Zinn Education Project has no place in any school and here’s why.

1. It’s full of half truths, innacuracies and flat out lies. “People’s History” is not only boring Marxist propagandizing, it’s not even well researched. He gets so much basic stuff wrong because he’s so busy trying to convince you he’s right, he just overlooks things or flat out puts things in there that aren’t correct. It seems the writers he reccomends do the same….Shay’s rebellion raided an arsenal full of “rifles”??? Is that so? Any military historian would scoff at that and tell you the clear difference between a rifle and a musket! 2. Zinn’s education project is flat out illegal according to most education codes. He tells the teachers to disregard this and fight a “guerilla war” against administrators. To all the teachers who think that little game is fun; guess what, Zinn and his ilk don’t care if you get fired or suspended, they just want to make a point at your expense….useful tools.

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About the author  (2015)

Bibliographic information.

In Memoriam

Howard Zinn (1922-2010)

Pillarisetti Sudhir | Sep 1, 2010

Paradigmatic people’s historian

Howard Zinn, the historian who translated his pioneering vision of the past—seen from the perspective of ordinary people—into progressive and radical political action, died of a heart attack on Wednesday, January 27, 2010, at the age of 87.

In his most famous book, A People’s History of the United States , Zinn sought to answer Bertolt Brecht’s “Questions from a Worker Who Reads” for the United States, taking the view that the past needed to be understood from the viewpoint of ordinary people. Living up to its title not just in its inspiring retelling of what had been until then the master’s narrative, but even in its lucid and accessible style, the book sold more than a million copies. It compelled readers to look at American history in an entirely different way, and became a paradigm for historians in many lands.

In one sense, Howard Zinn was the archetypal “worker who reads,” born to working-class parents (his immigrant father, Edward, was a waiter, and his mother, Jennie, was a homemaker). He himself worked in various menial jobs after he had served as a bombardier in the U.S. Air Force during the Second World War. But he took advantage of the GI Bill to get a degree from New York University and then went on to get his MA and PhD degrees from Columbia University. His dissertation, which received an honorable mention in the 1958 competition for the Albert J. Beveridge Award of the American Historical Association, was published for the AHA as LaGuardia in Congress by Cornell University Press. That first book already showed Zinn’s intellectual concern for the people without a presence in the traditional history books and presaged his lifelong commitment to constructing a new narrative about the past from a progressive perspective. As Zinn put it, it was the “obscure and ordinary people, farmers and small businessmen, white-collar workers and manual laborers, who beheld the glittering spectacle [of the Gilded Age] but were never quite part of it,” that people like LaGuardia were concerned about, and Zinn himself came to focus upon.

Zinn began his teaching career at Upsala College and Brooklyn College before moving to Spelman College in Atlanta, where he inspired generations of students including such distinguished alumni as Alice Walker and Marian Wright Edelman.

As Eric Foner, the Dewitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University and a former president of the AHA, said of Zinn, “Over the years I have been struck by how many excellent students of history had their interest in studying the past sparked by reading Howard Zinn.  That’s the highest compliment one can offer to a historian.”

Perhaps because of his new reading of American history, his own humane worldview, and his belief that a historian cannot ignore his or her civic responsibilities as a citizen, Zinn became an activist, first in the civil rights campaign (during which he served on the executive committee of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and then in the protests against the Vietnam War.

Zinn eloquently expressed his views about the historian as a citizen in an exchange with AHA President John K. Fairbank in the pages of the AHA’s newsletter ( www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/1970/7006/7006tim1.cfm ) following a dramatic business meeting in which Zinn had introduced a resolution against the war in Vietnam (as described by Carl Mirra in the February 2010 issue of Perspectives on History ): “If all Americans, in all the thousands of assemblies that take place through the year, insist on keeping out of politics because neither war nor racial persecution nor poisonous vapors coming in through the library window, affect them as historians, chiropodists, clerks, or carpenters—then ‘pluralist’ democracy is a facade for oligarchical rule.”

From Spelman College, Zinn moved to the political science department at Boston University, where he continued to inspire and mentor countless numbers of students (his classes sometimes had hundreds enrolled) with his teaching and his activism. Even after he took early retirement from the university in 1988, Zinn kept speaking and writing about the issues that were at the heart of his political self, which, for him, was never separate from his intellectual being. He produced a series of books, including the autobiographical You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times; Disobedience and Democracy: Nine Fallacies on Law and Order ; Declarations of Independence ; three plays, Emma (about Emma Goldman), Marx in Soho , and Daughter of Venus ; and different editions of People’s History , of which the most recent was a graphic book version. He was also a prolific writer of essays, some of which have been collected into anthologies.

Zinn was expected to be at the AHA’s 121st annual meeting held in January 2007 in Atlanta, to chair a session that was titled —most appropriately for him—“The Historian in a Time of Crisis: Staughton Lynd, Yale University, and the Vietnam War.” Unfortunately he could not come to the meeting because of the illness of his wife, Roslyn. (She died in 2008). Zinn had agreed to take part in a panel organized by Carl Mirra and Staughton Lynd for the AHA’s 2011 annual meeting in Boston, but which must now be bereft of Zinn’s iconic presence (Session 266: “The Global War on Terror: Historical Perspectives and Future Prospects”).

Just a few months before his death, Zinn appeared in a History Channel production, The People Speak , in which film, stage, and TV personalities read and performed extracts from his work or other related pieces and thus paid tribute to a historian who crossed the traditional boundaries of his discipline and perhaps even of his profession, to set an example that will always remain impossible to emulate. He was truly a historian of the people and for the people.

—Pillarisetti Sudhir Editor, Perspectives on History

Tags: In Memoriam

The American Historical Association welcomes comments in the discussion area below, at AHA Communities , and in letters to the editor . Please read our commenting and letters policy before submitting.

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Civil War and Class Conflict

Teaching Activity. By Gayle Olson-Raymer. 16 pages. Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 10 of Voices of a People’s History of the United States” on “The Other Civil War — the class conflict fought by the poor in the north and south.

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“Class conflict?” many students ask, “What does the Civil War have to do with class conflict?” Indeed, among the thousands of books that dissect the Civil War from almost every angle, most fail to examine what was happening within the divided nations during the four years the two sides waged war upon one another. Traditional texts unravel the causes and consequences of the war, the military battles, and the multiple tragedies of the conflict without looking at what Howard Zinn calls “The other Civil War” — the class conflict fought by the poor who lived in the industrializing North and by those who lived in the impoverished rural South.

Reprinted from Teaching with Voices of a People’s History of the United States , published by Seven Stories Press.

Related Resources

Voices of a People’s History of the United States, 10th Anniversary Edition

Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove. 2014. 704 pages. Speeches, letters, poems, and songs for each chapter of A People’s History of the United States .

Teaching with Voices of a People’s History of the United States

Teaching Guide. By Gayle Olson-Raymer. 2011 (second edition). 304 pages. Suggested questions and teaching ideas for each chapter of Voices of a People’s History .

More Teaching Resources