A People's History of the United States

A Harper Perennial Deluxe Modern Classic

Newly Reissued with a New Introduction

With a new introduction by Anthony Arnove, this updated edition of the classic national bestseller reviews the book’s 35-year history and demonstrates once again why it is a significant contribution to a complete and balanced understanding of American history.

“Historians may well view it as a step to a coherent new version of American history.” —Eric Foner, New York Times Book Review
 
 

Since its original landmark publication in 1980, A People’s History of the United States has been chronicling American history from the bottom up, throwing out the official version of history taught in schools—with its emphasis on great men in high places—to focus on the street, the home, and the workplace.

Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research, A People’s History of the United States is the only volume to tell America’s story 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. As historian Howard Zinn shows, many of our country’s greatest battles—the fights for a fair wage, an eight-hour workday, child-labor laws, health and safety standards, universal suffrage, women’s rights, racial equality—were carried out at the grassroots level, against bloody resistance.