A People’s History of the United States
Published 1980
By Howard Zinn
This reading of American history has sold 2.5 million copies and is widely used as a textbook in high schools and colleges. Zinn was associated with Communist activities in the post WWII period, and a self-admitted Marxist, although he said he was leaning towards anarchism later in life. His history is a critique of America as an essentially racist country built on the oppression of minorities, contradicting the traditional narrative of America as a refuge for victims of religious persecution in Europe and a country built on a belief that human rights are granted by God and enshrined in its founding documents.