A People’s History of the United States: The Wall Charts

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A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
The Wall Charts

Howard Zinn and George Kirschner

The New Press (November 2007)

Paperback/Poster • ISBN-13: 978156584171B • US $25.00 • 48 pgs.

ABOUT:

Few works of American history have done more to change the way in which recent generations have looked at their past than Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States. With millions of copies sold, Zinn’s social history fleshes out the bare skeleton of traditional historical texts with the stories of working men and women throughout this country’s history.

A People’s History of the United States: The Wall Charts is a set of two posters and an explanatory booklet designed to bring the contents of the original People’s History to an even broader audience. Illustrated in full color, they portray over five hundred years of American social and cultural history. Organized thematically as well as chronologically, they allow the reader to trace the developments of specific topics—from slavery and resistance to the role of women—through images and quotations that go well beyond the wars and presidencies of traditional American history.

A People’s History of the United States: The Wall Charts creates a unique tool for learning about American history from the celebrated book that turned history on its head.

**PRAISE FOR A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES:**

“Professor Zinn writes with an enthusiasm rarely encountered in the leaden prose of academic history, and his text is studded with telling quotations from labor leaders, war resisters, and fugitive slaves. There are vivid descriptions of events that are usually ignored … A reversal of perspectives, a reshuffling of heroes and villains.”

Eric Foner, The New York Times Book Review

“[A] brilliant and moving history of the American people from the point of view of those who have been exploited politically and economically, and whose plight has been largely omitted from most histories.”

Library Journal

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Howard Zinn (1922–2010) was a historian, playwright, and activist. He wrote the classic 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” (Library Journal). The book, which has sold more than 2.6 million copies and been translated into 23 foreign editions, has become a cultural touchstone, encouraging interest in“people’s histories” in universities and activist meetings alike. In 2009, History aired The People Speak, an acclaimed documentary co-directed by Zinn, based on A People’s History and a companion volume, Voices of a People’s History of the United States. As Noam Chomsky wrote, “Howard Zinn’s work literally changed the conscience of a generation.”

Zinn grew up in a working-class, immigrant household in Brooklyn. At eighteen, he became a shipyard worker and flew bomber missions over Europe during World War II, experiences which helped to shape his opposition to war and his interest in the lives of working people. After attending college under the GI Bill and earning a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University, he taught at Spelman College, a historically black women’s college, where he became active in the civil rights movement. After being fired by Spelman for his support for student protesters, Zinn became a professor of Political Science at Boston University, where he taught until his retirement in 1988. He wrote more than forty books.

George Kirschner (d. 2008) began teaching high school history at the age of fifty, using A People’s History of the United States.