Howard ZINN Extended Summary PDF

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HOWARD ZINN EXTENDED SUMMARY Extended Summary Throughout A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn blends critical approaches. The book's twenty-five chapters move from the European discovery of North America through the year 2000, evoking American history in a roughly chronological sequence. However, each chapter also has a topical focus, which allows Zinn to trace distinct but intersecting lines of historical influence. Zinn uses these intersections of time and topic as a combination of springboard and platform: he inserts extended meditations on key themes where they grow logically from the narrative of the people's history. For example, Zinn's first chapter discusses the general relationship between Europeans and Native Americans, but Zinn also analyzes larger-than-life historical figures—Christopher Columbus in this case— and their role in American history. Almost every chapter performs a set of interwoven functions central to Zinn's project: 

First, he revisits the major events of American history.

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Second, he retells them, emphasizing the role of the people by including details often left out of or minimized in mainstream histories.

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Third, he makes an interpretative claim about how the powerful elite worked to solidify or maintain their control.

Chapter 1: Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress Chapter 1 begins Zinn's process of shifting history's focus from that of the European conquerors and resulting power elites to that of the people. The chapter opens from the perspective of the Arawak Indians who met Columbus. He describes them and their similarities to other indigenous people of the continent, and he then puts Columbus's explorations into historical, political, and economic context. Zinn emphasizes the relative peacefulness of the natives (from Columbus's own account) and the cruelty Europeans exercise in their quest for gold. Next, he documents how the Indians' numbers dwindled away due to enslavement, violence, and disease. This in turn leads to the introduction of Zinn's central premise, a meditation on the nature of history and what it means to leave key details (such as Columbus's character and the Indians' suffering) out of a historical narrative. If "history is the memory of states," as Zinn quotes Henry Kissinger, then Zinn's ultimate goal is to free that past by telling the people's story. As an essential part of this untold history, Zinn reviews how almost all European settlers in North America treated Native Americans in the same way, committing "genocide" to claim what they saw as their destiny. Past historians had excused slaughter as the necessary price for human progress. Zinn challenges that assumption and sees reevaluating those events and who is sacrificed as essential for real progress. Chapter 2: Drawing the Color Line Chapter 2 opens in 1619, with the arrival of a slave ship in North America. Zinn sketches the colonists' need for labor, which was the immediate engine driving their willingness to hold slaves, and the larger European cultural attitudes that made slavery tenable. He compares slavery in Europe and Africa, and he touches on the nature of African civilization. Zinn moves back and forth through time by documenting

the massive importation of slaves ("10 to 15 million" imported by 1800) and analyzing what this enslavement meant. Zinn addresses the marked racial bias in the seventeenth century (evidenced by laws against black/white fraternization) and comments on the many ways blacks resisted slavery: everything from dodging work to outright rebellion. Finally, Zinn documents how period power elites assembled "an intricate and powerful system of control" that kept resistant slaves in their place and prevented poor white laborers from rebelling with them. Chapter 3: Persons of Mean and Vile Condition Chapter 3 opens with a summary of Bacon's Rebellion of 1676. Zinn sketches the complex economic and political forces driving this armed uprising by whites from the frontier. The frontiersmen were caught between the landed classes in the east of Virginia (who received substantial land grants) and the Indians to the west. A harsh summer in 1676 ruined crops, leaving the majority of the population hungry and angry. The rebel Nathaniel Bacon led forces who were not happy about their economic situation but who were not happy about open warfare either. Twenty-three rebels were eventually hanged, an act anchoring what Zinn calls "a complex chain of oppression in Virginia": England was at the top, then the Virginia elite, then the frontiersmen, and finally the Indians at the bottom. The result was that most people supported the rebellion and a "leveling" of the wealth in the colony. The intense economic imbalance in Virginia was representative of a similar situation back in Europe. England and other countries displaced the poor from their land, then punished them for being idle, which eventually drove them to the colonies. Settlers came with hopes of better conditions in America, but most were disappointed: they came as servants, and they remained as working poor in colonies that quickly developed strict class divisions. As a result, the decades prior to the American Revolution saw a growing underclass in the colonies, as well as numerous strikes and protest by the poor. This unhappiness was intensified by the foreign wars England fought, which made merchants rich but further oppressed the poor. To prevent a unified uprising, the power elites thus created even more laws dividing blacks from whites. Chapter 4: Tyranny Is Tyranny Chapter 4 addresses the American Revolution. Casting light on the concentration of wealth in the decades prior to the revolution, Zinn focuses first on the power struggle between the colonial elites and England. Zinn discusses rebellions of colonial poor against the landowning rich, and he analyzes the Regulator movement against taxation. Once violence broke out in the 1770s, many of the revolutionary leaders actually struck a moderate tone, while others found ways to resolve colonial class conflicts by creating a united front against England. Chapter 5: A Kind of Revolution Chapter 5 continues to discuss the American Revolution, putting military actions in social and cultural context. On one hand, forming a militia quickly was possible because so many colonists were armed. On the other hand, the new nation soon started forcing sailors to join the war, which had been one of the complaints against the British. Period observers noted that military leaders such as George Washington reinforced strict class hierarchies, and the Continental Congress that came together to write the new nation's laws was overwhelming made up of the rich, leaving the same men in power as had been in charge in the colonies. Once the revolution was won, Americans assumed they could take Indian

lands to the west. Many discharged soldiers were not paid, or were paid in devalued currency, and the result was riots. Chapter 6: The Intimately Oppressed Chapter 6 shifts focus to those left out of the major political maneuvering of the revolutionary period: women and blacks. Zinn contrasts the legal and social inequality of colonial and early American Caucasian women to the status women held in Indian tribes, arguing that such inequality is built into an economic system based on private property. Native American women may not have been full equals, but they were treated respectfully, while many European girls came over as servants and remained illtreated and poor throughout their lives. Black women had it worse: they worked at hard labor and were often sexually abused. Women, such as Anne Hutchinson, who spoke out publicly were punished. During the revolutionary period, the rhetoric of equality sparked women's desire for the same, but the legal system defined them as inferior. During the early nineteenth century, the "cult of true womanhood" developed, which justified keeping women at home and in a domestic position. The same period saw the emergence of women public speakers, like the Grimke sisters, who spoke against slavery. Those activists and the issues they championed became the impetus for the first feminist movements. Chapter 7: As Long As the Grass Grows or Water Runs Chapter 7 opens with an analogy: women were the most "interior" group oppressed by the new nation, while Indians were the most "exterior" because they were aliens in their own lands. Zinn then describes the Euro-American treatment of Native Americans, including the many armed conflicts, the broken treaties, and the forced displacements, one of which became known as the Trail of Tears. Zinn describes the Native American response to government mistreatment, which he then contrasts with the white justification of that treatment. Chapter 8: We Take Nothing by Conquest, Thank God Chapter 8 focuses on the Mexican-American War. Zinn argues that while some histories have portrayed the war as a popular cause, the reality was quite different. President James Polk pushed an expansionist agenda to justify his conquest of Mexico, and the newspapers supported his actions, misrepresenting both the conflict and popular response to it. The true response of citizens, Zinn posits, can be seen in the demonstrations against the war, while the response of the military can be seen in the number of desertions. Chapter 9: Slavery Without Submission, Emancipation Without Freedom Chapter 9 examines the socio-economic structures supporting and justifying slavery. Zinn argues that the U.S. government supported slavery because it was practical (i.e., profitable), and when freedom came, it came via organized war rather than widespread rebellion for similar reasons of practicality. If slaves had been allowed to rebel, Zinn argues, the rebellion might have spread to a generalized class movement, thereby threatening the powerful elite. Chapter 9 also documents the uneven path America took toward emancipation, freedom, and partial racial equality: the failure to pay black soldiers equally, the exodus of freed blacks from southern states, the highly racist attitudes period whites held toward blacks, and more. Chapter 10: The Other Civil War

Chapter 10 addresses a range of class and labor-related struggles. Zinn starts with the Anti-Renter movement in 1839, discussing its popular protests and outbreaks of violence. He then moves on to the Dorr Rebellion, which fought for voting rights and tax relief for the poor. Zinn documents an array of economic issues, such as depressions, and numerous populist responses to them, including the rise of labor unions. Zinn argues that Andrew Jackson's liberal rhetoric allowed "Jacksonian Democracy" to coopt the lower classes in order to enlist their help, thereby heading off potential class struggles. Further, he argues that the national laws passed in the 1860s to enforce contracts were intrinsically class-biased because they favored the business owner. Chapter 11: Robber Barons and Rebels Chapter 11 begins in 1877, with the end of the railroad strikes. Zinn indicates that the elite proclaimed a national mission for this period: to industrialize and power an economy that was explosively growing. Zinn documents how the introduction of machinery into all areas of the economy made everything faster to produce, allowing much greater levels of production. Zinn describes how the many period innovations became the foundation of great fortunes—and how "blood, sweat, politics and thievery" were crucial to building the railroads. Zinn discusses the same major industrialists and businessmen from this period as most historians—Morgan, Rockefeller, Carnegie—but puts more of an emphasis on their ruthless and unethical actions. He also documents the unequal distribution of wealth and the various forms popular protest against this inequality took: strikes, sabotage, utopian literature (such as Bellamy's Looking Backward), and even songs. Chapter 12: The Empire and the People Chapter 12 focuses on American expansion overseas. Zinn links the American need for expansion to the closing of the internal frontier in 1890, marked by the massacre at Wounded Knee. Overseas expansionism also already had a long history at that point. It was anchored diplomatically in the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, which declared American intentions to dominate the Western hemisphere, and it was illustrated through the "103 interventions" in foreign affairs "between 1798 and 1895." In the 1890s, the clash with Spain had many roots: a generalized push to open foreign markets to U.S. goods, a sense of destiny, a theory about how naval superiority led inevitably to political dominion, a sense of white and Christian superiority (which carried with it a right to rule), and a sympathy for Cuban rebels fighting for independence from European rule. That combination led to American troops being dispatched to support the Cuban and the Philippine independence movements. The result was openly imperial ambitions on the part of the American ruling elite, and a push back from the workers and soldiers, especially black military men, who saw themselves supporting the same system that oppressed them. Chapter 13: The Socialist Challenge Chapter 13 focuses on the various ways people fought back against the war, their working conditions, and their daily lives. The first decade of the twentieth century saw many writers— Upton Sinclair, Jack London, Mark Twain, and others—speak out against American agendas. Their exposure of daily life's injustices was linked to the rise of muckraking journalism and mass circulation magazines. It was fueled, though, by a rising awareness of working conditions. Industrial accidents killed tens of thousands, and industrialists saw no need to improve conditions or compensate those killed or injured. Trade unions

fought for better conditions, but they were exclusive, focusing on skilled white workers. By contrast, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) attempted to unify and speak for all workers. Some period organizers and writers were explicitly socialist (the Socialist party got its official start in 1901), while others simply fought for better conditions. Socialists helped lead the feminist movement of the early twentieth century. The period also saw the creation of the NAACP. Workers went on strike across the nation, in some cases by the tens of thousands. Some reforms were passed, and politically, a national Progressive movement took hold. For the most part, though, basic conditions did not change, and many of the strikes were put down by violent government action. Chapter 14: War Is the Health of the State Chapter 14 discusses World War I. The chapter title is a quote from period radical Randolph Bourne, and it provides the guiding theme for much of the chapter. Zinn's discussion of the war focuses on four areas: the thin justification for America entering the war, the extremely limited public support for the war at the start, the governmental actions to support the war, and opposition to the war. When the call for voluntary enlistment produced less than a tenth of the soldiers needed, the government turned to a draft to assemble military forces directly; the government then had to turn to propaganda to build support. Anarchists, socialists, radicals, and the Industrial Workers of the World all spoke out against the war. The Espionage Act (1917) made it illegal to speak out against World War I, and hundreds of Americans were jailed for doing so. Vigilante groups were also formed to police American cities. Chapter 15: Self-Help in Hard Times Chapter 15 starts with the close of World War I and the beginning, in early 1919, of massive movements led by the IWW. Widespread strikes involved tens of thousands of workers in Washington state. The established powers responded by enlisting thousands of new deputies with the permission to use direct violence. Both the strikes and the violent responses on the part of the industrialists and the government then spread across the nation. After the war, Congress passed anti-immigration laws; these laws were in line with widespread racist backlash that led to the Ku Klux Klan growing to 4.5 million members by 1924. The 1920s were marked by huge disparities between rich and poor. Some writers spoke out against these conditions, but few politicians did. Then, in 1929, the stock market crash led to the Great Depression. Thousands of banks closed, and millions of Americans were out of work (1/4 to 1/3 of the labor force). This revealed tremendous stresses in the system, as real goods (clothes, food, etc.) existed, but people did not have the money to buy them. Farmers as well as middle- and lower-class workers lost their homes to foreclosures. People became very angry, and over 20,000 members of the Bonus Army marched on Washington demanding help. They were met with violence and tear gas. The many desperate poor began to take action for themselves. They formed Unemployed Councils (often led by communists), engaged in strikes, refused to pay rent or utilities, and so on. Shared conditions produced new connections between racial and ethnic groups. The Roosevelt administration passed numerous acts to address the situation; this New Deal legislation addressed many of the problem areas in American capitalism. However, in 1935 the Wagner Act was passed to stabilize the economy. The result was a Labor Relations Board that regulated labor activities, and more government involvement in the economy in general.

Chapter 16: A People's War? Chapter 16 analyzes World War II. Zinn grants that the war was quite popular with the American public and that the enemy was "evil." However, he also debunks the American image of defender of the free and oppressed in the war, arguing that America entered the war because Japan's actions challenged the "American Pacific Empire." Regardless of any claims of fighting for freedom, Zinn argues that the American elite fought to make sure the war would leave America economically dominant throughout the world. Moreover, while fighting fascism in 1942, Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 into law: this allowed the army "to arrest every Japanese-American on the West Coast," which amounted to 110,000 people. In short, WWII was a war America fought against an "evil" power, but it was war led on both sides by a powerful racist elite for their own economic interests. Additionally, some of the German atrocities, such as the bombing of civilians in London, were more than matched by the Allied bombing raids on targets such as Dresden. The worst of these was America dropping atomic bombs on Japan, an act which Zinn feels was not justified by military necessity. After victory, the United States was well-positioned to expand its power globally. It did so by intervening in Korea, where two million people were killed in the name of peace. This military expansion of capitalism became an explicit war against communism. America found its economic interests clashing with those of the Soviet Union and China. This led to a continual expansion of the military budget during the 1950s, one that continued through the 1970s. The external struggle against communism was paralleled by an internal push for ideological unity. Senator Joseph McCarthy was the public face of the anti-communist witch hunts; suspected communist spies lost their jobs and freedoms after dubious trials. Chapter 17: Or Does It Explode? Chapter 17 discusses the "black revolt of the 1950s and 1960s." The chapter starts by recounting various black writers' expression of their suffering and condition. Zinn describes the links between black liberation movements and communism (the Communist Party was alone in paying serious attention to racial issues); writers such as Richard Wright joined the Communist Party, and leaders such as W.E.B. Du Bois sympathized with communist positions. President Truman created a Committee on Civil Rights to address racial issues, in part for ethical reasons, and in part because America's growing presence on the world stage meant every action was scrutinized. In 1954, the American Supreme Court "outlawed segregation." Despite these governmental actions, blacks mobilized throughout the nation in various ways: boycotts, marches, speeches, sit-...