Image Source - We Really Still Need Howard Zinn by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Since its original landmark publication in 1980, A People’s History of the United States has been chronicling U.S. history from the bottom up.
Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research, A People’s History tells U.S. history 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. Covering Christopher Columbus’s arrival through President Clinton’s first term, A People’s History of the United States features insightful analysis of the most important events in U.S. history.
Library Journal calls Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States “a brilliant and moving history of the American people from the point of view of those. . . whose plight has been largely omitted from most histories.” Packed with vivid details and telling quotations, Zinn’s award-winning classic continues to revolutionize the way U.S. history is taught and remembered.
The book has appeared in popular media, like The Sopranos, The Simpsons, Good Will Hunting, Lady Bird, and the History Channel documentary The People Speak. [Publisher’s description.]
The 35th anniversary edition, published in November of 2015, includes a new introduction by Anthony Arnove. He begins,
"Howard Zinn fundamentally changed the way millions of people think about history with A People’s History of the United States. He would be the first to say, however, that he didn’t do so alone. The book grew out of his awareness of the importance of social movements throughout U.S. history, some of which he played an active role in during the 1960s and 1970s and beyond, namely the Civil Rights Movement, mass mobilizations to end the Vietnam War, as well as other antiwar movements, and the many movements for higher wages and workers’ rights and the rights of women, Latinos, Native Americans, gays and lesbians, and others.
ISBN: 9780062397348 | Published by HarperCollins.
Taken From Zinn Education Project
Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research, A People’s History tells U.S. history 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. Covering Christopher Columbus’s arrival through President Clinton’s first term, A People’s History of the United States features insightful analysis of the most important events in U.S. history.
Library Journal calls Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States “a brilliant and moving history of the American people from the point of view of those. . . whose plight has been largely omitted from most histories.” Packed with vivid details and telling quotations, Zinn’s award-winning classic continues to revolutionize the way U.S. history is taught and remembered.
The book has appeared in popular media, like The Sopranos, The Simpsons, Good Will Hunting, Lady Bird, and the History Channel documentary The People Speak. [Publisher’s description.]
The 35th anniversary edition, published in November of 2015, includes a new introduction by Anthony Arnove. He begins,
"Howard Zinn fundamentally changed the way millions of people think about history with A People’s History of the United States. He would be the first to say, however, that he didn’t do so alone. The book grew out of his awareness of the importance of social movements throughout U.S. history, some of which he played an active role in during the 1960s and 1970s and beyond, namely the Civil Rights Movement, mass mobilizations to end the Vietnam War, as well as other antiwar movements, and the many movements for higher wages and workers’ rights and the rights of women, Latinos, Native Americans, gays and lesbians, and others.
ISBN: 9780062397348 | Published by HarperCollins.
Taken From Zinn Education Project
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Synopsis
The Impossible Victory (PDF), from Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, offers teachers and students a brief but vivid history of the Vietnam War. With direct quotations from government officials, soldiers, anti-war activists and civil rights leaders forming the core of the story, the Vietnam War becomes a living history that will capture the interest and passions of students.
“The Impossible Victory“, begins with the short period in which Vietnam was free of foreign domination in 1945 and ends in 1975 with the ultimate failure of the United States, a military giant backed with modern technology, to impose its will on a poor, largely peasant, country. Zinn describes how and why the United States moved in early to prevent the unification of Vietnam, establishing South Vietnam as an American sphere with Ngo Dinh Diem as head of the government in Saigon. He traces the opposition in the countryside that grew alongside this U.S. involvement, beginning as an incipient guerrilla movement which solidified with the formation of the mass-based National Liberation Front in 1960. The NLF was an alternative to the U.S.-imposed Saigon government, enacting significant social changes, like land reform and promising greater self control for the peasants.
The chapter carefully chronicles the U.S. military effort in Vietnam, including a full description of the Gulf of Tonkin episode in 1964 and the lies told about it to the American public by their highest officials; the steady escalation of the war, the cover-ups, and continuing deception; the bombing of North Vietnam and the massive human suffering it caused; the massacres of civilians and the role of the CIA and American advisors in the brutality. Zinn uses abundant quotes from participants to reveal the truths behind the events described.
Alongside the history of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam and the resistance among the Vietnamese the chapter also traces the history of the antiwar movement in the United States. From its early appearance from within the civil rights movement to its mushrooming strength in the late 1960s and early seventies, the antiwar effort and its success in changing the course of history unfolds. Zinn discusses the release of the Pentagon Papers and the activities of clergy, students, civil rights leaders, soldiers and veterans in the antiwar effort. The chapter also covers the attack on protesters by the National Guardsmen at Kent State University which resulted in the deaths of four students, as well as the general student strike in its aftermath.
Readers will be drawn into the history of the Vietnam War through Zinn’s dramatic telling of it. The courage of individuals, the motives of governments, and the suffering and moral dilemmas of war will come alive for students and deepen their understanding of Regret to Inform and the accompanying classroom activities.
Download Impossible Victory chapter in PDF.
“The Impossible Victory” synopsis was written by Nancy Carlsson-Paige.
The Impossible Victory (PDF), from Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, offers teachers and students a brief but vivid history of the Vietnam War. With direct quotations from government officials, soldiers, anti-war activists and civil rights leaders forming the core of the story, the Vietnam War becomes a living history that will capture the interest and passions of students.
“The Impossible Victory“, begins with the short period in which Vietnam was free of foreign domination in 1945 and ends in 1975 with the ultimate failure of the United States, a military giant backed with modern technology, to impose its will on a poor, largely peasant, country. Zinn describes how and why the United States moved in early to prevent the unification of Vietnam, establishing South Vietnam as an American sphere with Ngo Dinh Diem as head of the government in Saigon. He traces the opposition in the countryside that grew alongside this U.S. involvement, beginning as an incipient guerrilla movement which solidified with the formation of the mass-based National Liberation Front in 1960. The NLF was an alternative to the U.S.-imposed Saigon government, enacting significant social changes, like land reform and promising greater self control for the peasants.
The chapter carefully chronicles the U.S. military effort in Vietnam, including a full description of the Gulf of Tonkin episode in 1964 and the lies told about it to the American public by their highest officials; the steady escalation of the war, the cover-ups, and continuing deception; the bombing of North Vietnam and the massive human suffering it caused; the massacres of civilians and the role of the CIA and American advisors in the brutality. Zinn uses abundant quotes from participants to reveal the truths behind the events described.
Alongside the history of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam and the resistance among the Vietnamese the chapter also traces the history of the antiwar movement in the United States. From its early appearance from within the civil rights movement to its mushrooming strength in the late 1960s and early seventies, the antiwar effort and its success in changing the course of history unfolds. Zinn discusses the release of the Pentagon Papers and the activities of clergy, students, civil rights leaders, soldiers and veterans in the antiwar effort. The chapter also covers the attack on protesters by the National Guardsmen at Kent State University which resulted in the deaths of four students, as well as the general student strike in its aftermath.
Readers will be drawn into the history of the Vietnam War through Zinn’s dramatic telling of it. The courage of individuals, the motives of governments, and the suffering and moral dilemmas of war will come alive for students and deepen their understanding of Regret to Inform and the accompanying classroom activities.
Download Impossible Victory chapter in PDF.
“The Impossible Victory” synopsis was written by Nancy Carlsson-Paige.