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

In A People’s History of the United States, Zinn aims to write an account of American history from the perspective of persecuted, powerless, marginalized people, rather than the usual pantheon of heroes and elites. He begins by studying Christopher Columbus’s conquest of the New World in 1492; over the following century, European explorers wiped out entire Native American tribes and brought tremendous wealth back to their own countries.

The Civil War is often remembered as the event that prompted the federal government to intervene and end slavery forever. But in fact, the federal government only did so because it had been pressured by generations of radical Americans who staged uprisings, slave revolts, and exercised their right to petition the government. When the government finally did free the slaves, it did so in a way that gave African-Americans minimal support. Indeed, in the years following the Civil War (the period known as Reconstruction) the federal government provided some financial and military support for African-Americans in the South. However, following 1876, the federal government backed away from supporting African-Americans and instead aligned itself with the interests of Southern business elites. In the second half of the 19th century, the federal government became bolder about cooperating with business; indeed, it supported military interventions, especially in Latin America, that were designed to strengthen American business.

During World War One, the American government sent its poorest citizens to die in a conflict that had nothing to do with them. It also passed a series of laws preventing citizens from speaking out against the war in any way. Indeed, many Socialist activists of the era were imprisoned for daring to state the obvious—World War One was a corrupt, imperialist conflict.

During the Cold War—the standoff between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., the world’s other leading superpower—the U.S. government tried to frighten the American people by warning of a global Communist takeover. The government funded coups and right-wing dictatorships around the world, often deposing democratically-elected Socialist leaders in the process, always with the claim of protecting democracy and fighting Communism. In reality, the Establishment was trying to protect its own business interests, ensuring that the world’s leaders would continue to cooperate with American corporations.

During the 1960s, America experienced an outpouring of pent-up radical frustration. The people fought for civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights, environmental protection, Native American reparations, and hundreds of other radical populist causes. In many cases, the government’s response to its people’s actions was to institute tepid, superficial reforms that didn’t address the root causes of the problem.

In the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, radicalism seemed to die down in America. But in large part, this was because the media stopped reporting on popular protests. Meanwhile, the American government, despite shifting back and forth between Republican and Democratic leaders, enforced a virtually consistent political agenda, in which welfare was cut back and the military budget increased. Even after the end of the Cold War, America’s military budget continued to grow. Americans joined together in record numbers to protest the meeting of the World Trade Organization in Seattle in 1999, a sign that radicalism wasn’t dead in America.

In the final chapter of the book, Zinn discusses the “war on terror,” during which the government deployed troops to the Middle East, supposedly to fight Muslim terrorists. Zinn concludes that, while it’s too soon to see what the American reaction to the war on terror will be, the American people need to decide if they stand on the side of morality and decency, or if they support imperialism and military aggression.