Historian and activist Howard Zinn, working with comic artist Mike Konopacki, has produced an illustrated book called A People’s History of the American Empire. Here’s an excerpt from the publisher’s write-up:
Adapted from the bestselling grassroots history of the United States, the story of America in the world, told in comics form.
Since its landmark publication in 1980, A People’s History of the United States has had six new editions, sold more than 1.7 million copies, become required classroom reading throughout the country, and been turned into an acclaimed play. More than a successful book, A People’s History triggered a revolution in the way history is told, displacing the official versions with their emphasis on great men in high places to chronicle events as they were lived, from the bottom up.
Now Howard Zinn, historian Paul Buhle, and cartoonist Mike Konopacki have collaborated to retell, in vibrant comics form, a most immediate and relevant chapter of A People’s History: the centuries-long story of America’s actions in the world. Narrated by Zinn, this version opens with the events of 9/11 and then jumps back to explore the cycles of U.S. expansionism from Wounded Knee to Iraq, stopping along the way at World War I, Central America, Vietnam, and the Iranian revolution. The book also follows the story of Zinn, the son of poor Jewish immigrants, from his childhood in the Brooklyn slums to his role as one of America’s leading historians.
Shifting from world-shattering events to one family’s small revolutions, A People’s History of American Empire presents the classic ground-level history of America in a new form.
Grab your copy here!
Bonus: Here’s a short film called “Empire or Humanity?: What the Classroom Didn’t Teach Me about the American Empire” by Howard Zinn and narrated by Viggo Mortensen.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn3lF5XSUg&hl=en]
Extra Special Bonus: This weekend, Howard Zinn and Mike Konopacki will be appearing at Cooper Union to talk about the book.
