ALSO BY HOWARD ZINN
The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy, second edition (2009)
A Young Peoples History of the United States, adapted by Rebecca Stefoff (2008, 2009)
Readings from Voices of a Peoples History of the United States (audio CD), edited with Anthony Arnove (2007)
The Unraveling of the Bush Presidency (2007)
A Power Governments Cannot Suppress (2007)
The People Speak (2006)
Original Zinn: Conversations on History and Politics with David Barsamian (2006)
Artists in Times of War (2003)
Passionate Declarations: Essays on War and Justice (2003)
You Cant Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times, second edition (2002)
Terrorism and War, with Anthony Arnove (2002)
Emma (2002)
A Peoples History of the United States: 1492Present, updated ed. (2001)
Three Strikes: Miners, Musicians, Salesgirls, and the Fighting Spirit of Labors Last Century, with Dana Frank and Robin D. G. Kelley (2001)
Howard Zinn on War (2001)
Howard Zinn on History (2001)
La otra historia de los Estados Unidos (2001)
Marx in Soho: A Play on History (1999)
The Future of History: Interviews with David Barsamian (1999)
Failure to Quit: Reflections of an Optimistic Historian (1993, 2002)
The Politics of History, 2d ed. (1990)
Justice: Eyewitness Accounts (1977, 2002)
Postwar America: 19451971 (1973, 2002)
Disobedience and Democracy: Nine Fallacies of Law and Order (1968, 2002)
Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal (1967, 2002)
SNCC: The New Abolitionists (1964, 2002)
The Southern Mystique (1964, 2002)
LaGuardia in Congress (1959)
Copyright 2004, 2009 by Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove
For permissions information see .
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means, including mechanical, digital, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Seven Stories Press
140 Watts Street
New York, NY 10013
www.sevenstories.com
IN CANADA
Publishers Group Canada, 559 College Street, Suite 402, Toronto, ON M6G 1A9
IN THE UK
Turnaround Publisher Services, Unit 3, Olympia Trading Estate, Coburg Road, Wood Green, London N22 6TZ
IN AUSTRALIA
Palgrave Macmillan, 1519 Claremont Street, South Yarra, VIC3141
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION
Zinn, Howard, 1922
Voices of A peoples history of the United States / Howard Zinn, Anthony Arnove. 2nd ed.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-1-58322-947-7
1. United StatesHistorySources. 2. United StatesBiography. I. Arnove, Anthony, 1969- II. Zinn, Howard, 1922- Peoples history of the United States. III. Title.
E173.Z564 2009
973dc22
2009037882
College professors may order examination copies of all Seven Stories Press titles for a free six-month trial period. To order, visit www.sevenstories.com/textbook, or fax on school letterhead to 212-226-1411.
For a free copy of the teachers guide to Voices of a Peoples History of the United States visit www.sevenstories.com/textbook.
For additional teaching resources visit for more information).
v3.1
If there is no struggle there is no progress. This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS
TO ROSLYN ZINN (19222008)
AND TO THE REBEL VOICES OF THE COMING GENERATION
Contents
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank, first and foremost, Dan Simon, our editor and friend, who not only envisioned this book and made it possible, but who served as the strongest advocate the readers of this book could ever have.
Two skilled and insightful researchers provided invaluable help and deserve special appreciation: Joey Fox, who helped this project in its daunting initial stages, and Jessie Kindig, who assisted us in the final stages. Without either of them, this book would not now be in your hands.
Brenda Coughlin labored long hours in editorial and research assistance, but more significant, kept us from losing sight of the importance of this project when it seemed it might never be completed.
Thanks to Hugh Van Dusen of Harper Collins, who has so ably published and sustained A Peoples History of the United States for more than twenty years.
Elaine Bernard of the Harvard Trade Union Program generously facilitated the initial meetings and research that began Voices.
Ray Raphael, Elizabeth Martnez, and David Williams provided invaluable editorial suggestions, recommendations, and guidance.
George Mrer brilliantly handled the enormous task of securing permissions, for which we are profoundly indebted, and Paul Abruzzo undertook some of the early preliminary research for Voices in its first incarnation.
Therese Phillips, Dao X. Tran, Peter Lamphere, Laura Durkay, Monique Jeanne Dols, David Thurston, Chris Peterson, Rosio Gallo, Story Lee Matkin-Rawn, and Meredith Kolodner all contributed importantly to our research efforts, logging long hours with old manuscripts and microfilms, as well as lap tops.
Jon Gilbert deserves special appreciation for his work on the laborious production of this book.
Shea Dean offered her excellent editing skills when the manuscript was completed.
Andrew H. Lee, New York University history librarian, provided critical assistance to our research. For research assistance, we would also like to thank: Ryan Nuckel, Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University; David Kessler and Amelia Hellam, The Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley; The University of Washington Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies in Seattle; Stephen Kiesow, Seattle Public Library; the California Digital Library; the Online Archive of California; Sherri F. Pawson and David G. Horvath, University of Louisville Libraries; Tom Hardin, Louisville Free Public Library; Ann Billesbach, Nebraska State Historical Society; Brian DeShazor, Pacifica Radio Archives; Joseph Ditta, The New York Historical Society; Candace Falk, Emma Goldman Papers Project, University of California at Berkeley; New York Public Library; Ann Bristow, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana; William LeFevre, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan; Toni M. Carter, the Virginia Historical Society; Harry Elkins Widener Library and all the Harvard Libraries; the Boston Public Library; the New York Historical Society; the Chicago Historical Society; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; and all of the other libraries and librarians whose work contributed to our research.
For help with specific readings and permissions, we would like to thank: David Barsamian of Alternative Radio; Joan Miura; Johanna Lawrenson; Julie Diamond; Yolanda Huet-Vaughn; Wini Breines; Alan Maass of