A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present »

Howard Zinn, professor emeritus at Boston University, is a historian, playwright, and social activist. The author of numerous books, he has received the Lannan Foundation Literary Award for Nonfiction, and the Eugene V. Debs Award for his writing and political activism. In 2003 he was awarded the Prix des Amis du Monde Diplomatique.

"There is an underside to every age about which history does not often speak, because history is written from records left by the privileged."

"A brilliant and moving history of the American people from the point of view of those who have been exploited politically and economically and whose plight has been largely omitted from most histories." Library Journal A classic since its original landmark publication in 1980, Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States is the first scholarly work to tell America's story from the bottom up 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. From Columbus to the Revolution to slavery and the Civil War from World War Two to the election of George W. Bush and the "War on Terror" A People's History of the United States is an important and necessary contribution to a complete and balanced...

Eric Foner

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 to the 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. —New York Times Book Review