A People’s History of American Empire

Since its landmark publication in 1980, the original history has sold more than 1.7 million copies. More than a successful book, it 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.

Historians Howard Zinn and Paul Buhle and cartoonist Mike Konopacki have collaborated to retell, in vibrant graphic form, a most immediate and relevant chapter of A People’s History of American Empire: the story of America’s ever-growing role on the world stage. Narrated by Zinn, this version opens with the events of 9/11 and then tracks back to explore the cycles of US expansionism from Wounded Knee to Iraq, while taking in 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, this is a classic ground-level history of America in a dazzling new form.