HOWARD ZINN

(1922 – 2010)
AUTHOR ::: POLITICS: :::

Howard Zinn challenged the way America tells its own story. A historian and political scientist, he believed that history written solely from the perspective of presidents, generals, and institutions was incomplete by design. Zinn set out to reverse the lens, insisting that democracy could not be understood without listening to those who lived under its consequences.

Published in 1980, A People’s History of the United States overturned the traditional curriculum by retelling major events through the experiences of workers, Indigenous peoples, enslaved Africans, women, dissidents, and organizers. Rather than presenting history as inevitable progress, Zinn revealed it as contested ground—shaped by struggle, resistance, and moral choice. The book’s power lies in its refusal to treat inequality as background noise.

The result was not just a revision, but a provocation. A People’s History asks readers to reconsider whose voices are amplified, whose are erased, and why that matters. Its enduring impact comes from a simple, unsettling premise: that understanding the past is inseparable from questioning power in the present.