A People's History of the United States

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A People's History of the United States is a well-known history textbook by the historian Howard Zinn from 1980, which tells American history from the perspective of groups otherwise usually neglected in historiography, including powerless "victims".

Change of perspective of the book

Instead of America being discovered by Columbus , the natives discovered a "strange ship" with equally strange people on it. Further examples of this change of perspective - in the words of Howard Zinn - are:

Because of the inevitable position for or against a certain side in history, I prefer to tell the discovery of America from the point of view of the Arawaks , the Constitution from the point of view of the slaves , Andrew Jackson as seen by the Cherokees ; the Civil War from the perspective of the Irish in New York , the Mexican War as it was experienced by the deserters of Scott's army; the industrialization of the suffering of young women in the textile factories, the Spanish-American war from the perspective of the Cubans , the conquest of the Philippines from the perspective of the black US soldiers in Luzon , the First World War from the perspective of the socialists and the second from that of the Pacifists ; the New Deal as seen by blacks in Harlem and the post-war US influence from the standpoint of low-wage workers in Latin America .

reception

The change of perspective in this history book was received controversially by reviewers in 1980. The historian Eric Foner (since 2000 chairman of the American Historical Association), praised in the New York Times Book Review : "Professor Zinn writes with an enthusiasm that has so far hardly been found in the rather boring academic historiography." For Michael Kammen (Cornell University) in a Washington Post review, however, the book was too often a story of "fools, crooks and Robin Hoods ".

In retrospect, Christopher Phelps (University of Nottingham) recognized the work in 2010 as important to bring the story closer to the population. Zinn "challenged national piety and encouraged critical reflection on known knowledge". Phelps critically notes, however, that for the meaning of the book it should not be forgotten that this type of historiography did not arise suddenly and that social movements as early as the 1960s and 1970s designed the storytelling from different perspectives.

“His claim to present history in the form of the stories of the little people harbors the temptation to stop drawing the broad lines in which politics ran and instead to string together individual fates for a long time. Tin has withstood this temptation. Of course, he illustrates his view of history by anecdotally depicting misery and violence. But this does not get out of hand, source reproductions are never excessive, but rather well integrated into the overview from a distance. "

- Daniel Blum : Review on Deutschlandfunk, 2007

See also

literature

  • Howard Zinn: A People's History of the United States: 1492 – Present (1980, revised 1995) ISBN 0-06-052837-0
  • Howard Zinn: A People's History of the United States: 1492 – Present (2005), Harper Perennial Modern Classics ISBN 0-06-083865-5
  • Howard Zinn: A People's History of the United States. With a new introduction by Anthony Arnove (2015) , Harper Perennial Modern Classics ISBN 978-0-06-239734-8
German editions
  • Howard Zinn: A History of the American People. Complete edition. Black Friday, 2007. ISBN 978-3-937623-50-4
  • Howard Zinn: A History of the American People. Volume 1: Colonialism, Racism and the Power of Money. Black Friday , 2006. ISBN 3-937623-51-5
  • Howard Zinn: A History of the American People. Volume 2: Declaration of Independence, Revolution and the Rebellion of Women. Black Friday , 2006. ISBN 3-937623-52-3
  • Howard Zinn: A History of the American People. Volume 3: The "resettlement" of the Indians and the war against Mexico. Black Friday , 2006. ISBN 3-937623-53-1
  • Howard Zinn: A History of the American People. Volume 4: The Other Civil War. Black Friday, 2006. ISBN 978-3-937623-54-2
  • Howard Zinn: A History of the American People. Volume 5: Triumphant advance of capital. Black Friday, 2006. ISBN 978-3-937623-55-9
  • Howard Zinn: A History of the American People. Volume 6: Reforms, Repressions and the First World War. Black Friday, 2006. ISBN 978-3-937623-56-6
  • Howard Zinn: A History of the American People. Volume 7: The Second World War and the Black Revolt. Black Friday, 2006. ISBN 978-3-937623-57-3
  • Howard Zinn: A History of the American People. Volume 8: From Vietnam to Watergate. Black Friday, 2007. ISBN 978-3-937623-58-0
  • Howard Zinn: A History of the American People. Volume 9: Carter - Reagan - Bush. Black Friday, 2007. ISBN 978-3-937623-58-0
  • Howard Zinn: A history of the American people , from the American English by Sonja Bonin, Nikol Verlag, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-86820-192-5

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Foner, Eric, "Majority Report," New York Times Book Review , March 2, 1980, pp. BR3-BR4.
  2. ^ Kammen, Michael, "How the Other Half Lived," Washington Post Book World, March 23, 1980, p. 7th
  3. ^ "Howard Zinn, Philosopher" by Christopher Phelps. Chronicle of Higher Education February 1, 2010
  4. Blum, Daniel, “History dirty and gloomy” , Deutschlandradio August 6, 2007