Book Review: A People’s History of the United States
1492–2003 American Memory Viewed from the Bottom
Almost two weeks from the killing of George Floyd, America is still crying out for justice. Yesterday in DC, tens of thousands were in the streets. A nine-minute murder, broadcast instantly by modern technology, has once again thrown police conduct against communities of color into the spotlight.
For those caught in despair during this struggle, it’s essential to reflect upon the history of times like these. Both to realize that change is hard and to know past generations have met change with the strength. Not just in the street, but in the voting booth. Most views of history focus on the achievements of leaders from the top down, but there is one book that centers on movements and their work from the bottom up: A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn.
People’s History provides a (more or less) linear trek from the landing of Columbus to the presidency of George W. Bush — with every war, major movement, and historic moment along the way, examined from the perspective of the oppressed. For anyone who’s only learned history in a public K-12 classroom or anyone who’s only learned political action through Rage Against the Machine lyrics, a potential pitfall for privileged white-males like me, this book is an excellent primer on the history of our country.
1492–1865 in America
People’s History begins from the first moment Europe invaded North America — and the book makes no qualms about framing it as such. If you have a friend who would say, “I’m not racist,” but would also say, “So, what are you doing for Columbus day?” you may need to get them a copy to help reconcile their disconnect with the real story.
It tracks the annihilation of indigenous people, the import of white servants, black slaves, and the cycle of wealth creation celebrated at the time, but now squarely labeled as barbarous. It establishes a tone like in no other history book: Exploitation is not the prologue to the story of America; it is the plot. No twist. No climax. Just a long, slow slog to make it better one-by-one and step-by-step.
The treatment of women in colonial America gets a chapter that dives into infuriating detail. As far as I can recall — and with no disrespect to Mrs. Russell — I don’t remember learning about auction markets for “wives” in middle school. The penniless confinement to marriage without property rights, the segregation of what limited work there was for women, and the complete lack of ability to participate in public discourse due to no vote and zero representation unfold at length. The chapter concludes with a description of the nascent feminism movement, but it’s a good example of how like-minded people gathering for change rarely achieve anything.
Relevant to the institutional framework and historical backdrop of the current struggle for oppression, much was also written in the early chapters of the book on how the plight of slaves weighed on the conscience of many white thinkers and politicians, including multiple energetic abolition movements going back to the time of English rule. Unlike the portrayal of abolitionist action being civil discourse in parlors and politics, People’s History talked about protests and insurrections alongside legal action. Ultimately, Emancipation only came through armed conflict after a hundred years of advocacy.
1865–2003
Most of the book chronicles times in America after the Civil War, but from an activist standpoint, this is where the book finally gets more interesting and relevant to our modern times. With the actors for change now recognized as Americans (even if not all of them can vote) and the national trauma of the Civil War echoing in the popular conscience, incremental change now tends to play out via popular movements that advocate, sometimes overstep, then achieve change.
The book’s portrayal of working conditions during the Industrial Revolution, fomenting the formation of unions and inducing the government to enact regulations that seem like commonsense nowadays, plays out as the classic archetypes. Walkouts, strikes, and sometimes destruction of property were some of the tactics used by workers to go from 16 hours a day, six days a week of working down to the modern 40-hour work-week. Unfolding over many chapters and steps, this didn’t happen all at once. I must admit I had to let out a grim laugh when it told about the lofty and at-the-time unrealistic goals of child laborers: 55 hour work weeks!
The portrayal of the 50s and 60s Civil Rights movement is also more nuanced than I’ve seen in any book. Rather than focusing on simply Martin Luther King, jr. he names and describes movements in the ecosystem of change that turned the south into a political catalyst for racial equality. The Department of Justice has a record of 1,412 demonstrations in three months in 1963. It wasn’t one man making that kind of change; it was a movement. Zinn also doesn’t shy away from Malcolm X, clashes with the National Guard, and wrapping up the entire chapter with accounting for the limited success of the Civil Rights movement according to an assessment ten years later.
Fifty years later, I would more generously say the work is incomplete.
Now in Tri-Cities
In unassuming Tri-Cities, WA, we’ve also had Black Lives Matter protesters, despite an overwhelming white-majority city that votes very red (even in a blue state). In response to some people turning the protests into property destruction a week ago, vigilante groups took to the streets to prevent looting. Finally, yesterday at a peaceful BLM protest in Richland — in the same park where I took my daughters the day after Trump was elected in the earnest fear that America would be worse off with him in power — a gunman brandished a pistol at the crowd.
Rather than becoming hysterical at the plight of my community and my country, I know this is a painful moment of progress. Generals or Presidents do not make most history, it is movements from the bottom up, persuasion person-to-person, and national trauma channeling into change that makes real history. Even though I disagree with their appraisal of medical science, the “Every Business is Essential” protesters (who used that same park) are on the right side of politics, even if it’s the wrong side of history.
Progress in the Time of Corona
Even coronavirus, while a factor in the climate of this conflict, cannot hobble progress against systemic racism in America. The killing of George Floyd has inspired populist action like never before — spawning protests in all 50 states and 52 countries in less than ten days. I hope the resulting political action, which we must not consider inevitable without continued commitment, will turn one more page on the long road to racial equity in America.
In what is either the greatest endorsement of the book or the direst warning about its potential to offend: People’s History is a magnet for criticism from right-wing commentators and has been called overtly pro-socialist (by people who think that’s a bad thing). If you’re not ready to question the long-held beliefs Sean Hannity has been telling you for years about American Exceptionalism and the universally positive role of capitalism in our society; then this is not the book for you. Everyone seeking intellectual ammunition to undermine the “shining city on a hill” myth of this great, yet flawed, nation should get a hardcopy immediately — before things go full 1984.
If you’re eager to examine current events — from pandemic to protests — thought the longer lens of past progress made by proletariats, People’s History is possibly the perfect prose.
Erik Ralston is an innovator with 13 years of experience, 5 years in leadership at the fastest growing tech company in Australia, a BS in Computer Science from Washington State University, and too many ventures to mention in one biography. Erik is also co-founder of Fuse Accelerator in Tri-Cities, WA where he works on connecting people and sharing knowledge to turn new ideas into growing startups. You can find him on LinkedIn, Twitter, or the next Fuse event — once Benton county hits its milestones for Phase 2
