A Young People's History of the United States

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key ideas are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Introduction-Part 1, Chapter 5

Reading Check

1. In the Introduction, Zinn writes that his point of view is critical of 3 primary cultural afflictions. What are those 3 things?

2. Zinn emphasizes the death and destruction that colonialism wrought against Indigenous communities. What is the name of at least one specific community named by Zinn in Chapter 1?

3. The international slave trade involved advanced African societies taking captives from adjacent, less powerful groups and marching them to Africa’s west coast, where they would be shipped across the Atlantic to North America. What fraction of captives forced to make this march died en route?

4. Zinn cites Bacon’s Rebellion as an example of what sort of conflict, which led to the American Revolution?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Zinn explains in the Introduction why it is important to adapt A People’s History of the United States for young readers. What is his reason?

Paired Resource

“Howard Zinn on How US History Is Taught”

• In this 3-minute video, Howard Zinn explains, in his own words, his educational ethos on how history should be taught in schools.
• This video was created in response to a comment by President Donald Trump, calling Zinn’s work “propaganda.”
• Do you agree with Zinn’s educational philosophy that teachers should be honest with children at any age, even about the harsh and often violent reality of United States history? How do Zinn’s remarks reflect the theme of Heroism as a Subjective and Problematic Concept? Do you think it’s important to consider which people children are taught to view as heroes?

Part 1, Chapters 6-9

Reading Check

1. In 1848, a group of women signed a document that drew upon Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence but that included the rights of women. What was this document called?

2. In the late 1840s, what was the main ideological concept embraced by President James K. Polk and others who considered themselves “expansionists”?

3. In a 70-year period during the first half of the 19th century, the number of enslaved people increased from 500,000 to what number?

4. In 1850, the United States government passed a law that required citizens to help capture people seeking freedom and return them to bondage. What was this law called?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In the context of 19th-century westward expansion, what was the process of “speculation”? What larger consequence did it have on the development of American society?

Part 1, Chapters 10-12

Reading Check

1. What does Zinn refer to as the “Other Civil War”?

2. Overseas expansion, according to Zinn, is the logical extension of what ideology described in Chapter 8?

3. What is the name of the group that Zinn discusses in Chapter 12, which “worked to educate the American public about the horrors of the Philippine war and the evils of imperialism”?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In Chapter 11, Zinn refers to the wealthy group of 19th-century industrialists as “robber barons.” What is one example of a “robber baron” offered up by Zinn, and how does he define this term?

Paired Resources

“The Social Responsibility of American Industrialists”

• Journalist Livia Gershon shines a light on the little-known history of how, in the 1890s, the first public relations professionals counseled wealthy “robber barons” on how to subdue public outrage.
• How do you think Zinn would respond to this article? How does it fit into his overall narrative about how the “robber barons” dominated—and ultimately controlled—society at that time? How does it relate to the theme of Capitalism as the Foundational System of US Economy and Politics?

“Rags to Riches Revisited”

• This 16-minute podcast segment explores the myth of social mobility in American society. One guest, historian Jill Lepore, explains how Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography became the template for rags-to-riches stories, although he left out many details from his life that did not fit neatly into the self-portrait he wished to construct.
• Do you recognize the rags-to-riches idea from books, movies, and other expressions of American culture? Who does it benefit? What does Natasha Boyer’s story suggest about the idea of hard work and luck paving the way to the American dream? How does the podcast segment relate to the book’s themes surrounding Inequality and Heroism?

Part 2, Chapters 13-16

Reading Check

1. What was the largest national labor union in the early 20th century?

2. In what year did the United States enter the First World War?

3. Which American president enacted the New Deal to help deal with the unprecedented economic crisis of the Great Depression?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What was “muckraker” journalism, as described in Chapter 13? Why was it important, particularly in the beginning of the 20th century?

Part 2, Chapters 17-20

Reading Check

1. What student political group fought for equality via voting registration and protection during the Civil Rights Era, as discussed by Zinn in Chapter 17?

2. Zinn names a certain 1965 law, having to do with outlawing discriminatory election practices, as the most meaningful civil rights law won through activism. What is the name of this law?

3. Women’s Liberation was the fight for gender equality in the 1960s and 1970s. What is another name for this movement?

4. According to a 1975 poll, which Zinn cites in Chapter 20, what percentage of Americans said that they had confidence in the president and Congress?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What are several reasons Zinn cites in Chapter 18 for why the Vietnam War was incredibly unpopular in the United States?

Paired Resource

“This Land Is Your Land”

• Bruce Springsteen performs Woody Guthrie’s classic folk song.
• What idealistic vision of the United States is expressed in Guthrie’s song? How does it contrast with the themes involving Capitalism and Inequality in Zinn’s book?

Part 2, Chapters 21-23

Reading Check

1. In Chapter 21, Zinn writes that, toward the end of the 20th century, government power swung back and forth between Democrats and Republicans, but neither party offered a new vision of how things could be. What were the two guiding principles for both parties that maintained the status quo?

2. The election of which president in the 1980s marked an apex of 20th-century conservatism, according to Zinn?

3. The year 1992 marked the 500th anniversary of what moment in American history, sparking protests led by Indigenous people from North and South America?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In Chapter 23, Zinn highlights certain movements of the end of the 20th century that, despite a general lack of media attention, forced real change. What is one example, and what was the impact of the movement?

Paired Resource

“Voices of a People’s History”

• Voices of a People’s History is a nonprofit arts, education, and social justice organization founded in 2007 by a group of activists and educators (including Howard Zinn).
• In these videos, words of history are brought to life in dramatic performances. Each video draws upon primary source materials to illustrate the struggles to “end slavery and Jim Crow, protest war and the genocide of Native Americans, create unions and the eight-hour work day, advance women’s rights and LGBTQ+ liberation, and struggle to right wrongs of the day.”
• How do organizations like Voices of a People’s History contribute to the modern-day activism described in this section? How is it different than, say, a march or a live protest? What connection can you make between this project and the theme of Heroism?

Part 2, Chapters 24-26

Reading Check

1. In the wake of the tragedy of September 11, 2001, hate crimes against people of what background skyrocketed?

2. What piece of legislation gave the Department of Justice the power to, in Zinn’s words, “hold noncitizens on nothing more than suspicion, without charging them with a crime and without the protections guaranteed in the Constitution”?

3. After invading Afghanistan and failing to locate bin Laden, what reason did the Bush administration give for expanding the War on Terror to Iraq?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does the title of Chapter 26, “Rise Like Lions,” refer to?

Recommended Next Reads

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Jean Mendoza, and Debbie Reese

• Hearkening not only in title to Zinn’s A Young People’s History of the United States, Dunbar-Ortiz, Mendoza, and Reese offer up a revisionist account of American history that centers Indigenous people.
• Like Zinn’s, the book critiques Capitalism and the built-in Inequalities of American society. It also points, more specifically, to the implicit project embedded in colonialist endeavors: the struggle for white supremacy.
• An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People on SuperSummary

The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America by Andrés Reséndez

• Mexican historian at University of California Davis Andrés Reséndez debunks the myth that only African peoples faced enslavement in the Americas, shedding light on enslaved Indigenous people in the Caribbean, central and northern Mexico, and the American Southwest.
• This book builds upon some of the core themes in A Young People’s History of the United States, including but not limited to the dark side of Capitalism and how Inequality is at the heart of American society. It also is a revisionist history that seeks to recast traditional narratives of American history, questioning the subjective and often problematic depiction of the colonialists and founders as Heroes.
• The Other Slavery on SuperSummary