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Howard Zinn, author portrait

Howard Zinn

1922 – 2010
Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train is a 2004 documentary film narrated by Matt Damon about the life and times of historian, activist and author Howard Zinn and his involvement in some of the most important social movements of the past fifty years. The film was directed by Deb Ellis and Denis Mueller.
On LuvemBooks, we've reviewed A People's History of the United States.
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Cover of A People's History of the United States
A People's History of the United States

4.7/5

reader rating · 17,320 ratings

Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States is a foundational and fiercely debated work of American nonfiction that reorients the national story away from presidents, wars, and institutions toward the laborers, enslaved people, Indigenous nations, women, and dissidents who shaped — and resisted — the country from below. Originally published in 1980 and revised multiple times through events covering 2002, it has sold more than four million copies in English and been translated into more than a dozen languages, cementing its status as one of the most widely read and argued-over works of American history ever written. The audiobook edition, narrated by Howard Zinn's son Jeff Zinn and released by Harper in December 2009, runs 34 hours and 10 minutes in unabridged form.

Reviewed Apr 4, 2026

Authors Like Howard Zinn
Peter Frankopan

Peter Frankopan

Politics & Society
History
Peter Frankopan's The Silk Roads applies the same revisionist, counter-narrative impulse globally, recentering world history away from Western triumphalism just as Zinn does for America.
1 book reviewed
The Silk Roads: A New History of the World
David Graeber

David Graeber

Politics & Society
History
David Graeber's The Dawn of Everything also rewrites standard history from below, using suppressed evidence from the margins to dismantle myths about how human societies were organized.
1 book reviewed
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity
Yuval Noah Harari

Yuval Noah Harari

History
Harari's Sapiens applies the same critical skepticism to civilization broadly, offering a globe-spanning narrative that challenges received wisdom beyond American history.
1 book reviewed
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond

Politics & Society
History
Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel offers another sweeping challenge to conventional history, examining why some peoples dominated others through an environmental lens rather than a political one.
1 book reviewed
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
T

Timothy Snyder

Timothy Snyder's On Tyranny shares Howard Zinn's focus on citizen vigilance and dissent, offering an urgent argument about how democracies collapse.
1 book reviewed
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by
James Madison

James Madison

Politics & Society
History
James Madison's The Federalist Papers details the framers' consensus on the founding and structure of American power, offering the institutional counterpart to Howard Zinn's history.
1 book reviewed
The Federalist Papers