Making People in the United States: Reflections on Howard Zinn's Popular History

This article looks at US historian Howard Zinn's most famous book, entitled A People's History of the United States. 1492-Present, through the lens of the author's methodology, as well as according to the writer's personal intentions. Two quotations are used as entry points in order to determine, on the one hand, what intellectual legacies are explicit in the narrative; and on the other hand, what sources of inspirations are implicit in the story. This essay seeks to clarify the underlying method which informs this famous book and argues that a so-called "history from below" does not represent a satisfactory category to account for an approach delineated by such an openly militant historian. Instead of aiming at inverting conventional textbook narratives, A People's History was envisioned as a unique project, focused on the meticulous investigation of instances when the power of the people was dynamically displayed through specific manifestations, namely social movements, regardless of their size, over the long course of the country's history.