A People's History of the United States

“The historian’s distortion is more than technical, it is ideological; it is released into a world of contending interests, where any chosen emphasis supports (whether the historian means to or not) some kind of interest, whether economic or political or rational or national or sexual.”

Zinn argues that the work of a historian is inherently biased. Historians cannot avoid bias because it is woven into their personality, their worldview, and the way they choose to view and interpret facts. Zinn’s criticism against establishment history is not that it is ideological but that it holds an ideology that Zinn disagrees with. Zinn hopes to correct the record by injecting his preferred ideology into the conversation.

“If history is to be creative, to anticipate a possible future without denying the past, it should, I believe, emphasize new possibilities by disclosing those hidden episodes of the past when, even if in brief flashes, people showed their ability to resist, to join together, occasionally to win.”

Zinn’s goal in A People’s History is not just to recount the history of the United States. It is to create a new history designed to motivate and encourage Americans to organize and demonstrate against perceived injustices. Zinn reinforces the notion that he is not trying to write an impartial history. Rather, he is writing a history designed to move people to activism and onto the streets. It is a history written for the future not to explain the past.

“We see now a complex web of historical threads to ensnare blacks for slavery in America: the desperation of starving settlers, the special helplessness of the displaced African, the powerful incentive for profit for slave trader and planter, the temptation of superior status for poor whites, the elaborate controls against escape and rebellion, the legal and social punishment of black and white collaboration.”

Zinn’s discussion of slavery pulls together multiple threads. It represents a unique twist on his otherwise class-based lens. While slavery has obvious implications in that it creates an exploited lower class, American slavery was also defended on the grounds of racial superiority. In this way, American class relations have always carried a racial dimension not seen in other places.