Truth Has a Power of Its Own

Conversations About A People’s History

American history told from the bottom up by Howard Zinn himself—and the perfect all-ages introduction to his eye-opening viewpoint, published on Zinn’s hundredth birthday

“Free-wheeling and illuminating. . . . A readable and nondogmatic
book that will appeal to young people especially as a way to rethink conventional history.” —Kirkus Reviews

Truth Has a Power of Its Own is an engrossing collection of conversations with the late Howard Zinn and “an eloquently hopeful introduction for those who haven’t yet encountered Zinn’s work” (Booklist). Here is an unvarnished, yet ultimately optimistic, tour of American history—told by someone who was often an active participant in it.

Viewed through the lens of Zinn’s own life as a soldier, historian, and activist and using his paradigm-shifting A People’s History of the United States as a point of departure, these conversations explore the American Revolution, the Civil War, the labor battles of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, U.S. imperialism from the Indian Wars to the War on Terrorism, World Wars I and II, the Cold War, and the fight for equality and immigrant rights—all from an unapologetically radical standpoint. Longtime admirers and a new generation of readers alike will be fascinated to learn about Zinn’s thought processes, rationale, motivations, and approach to his now-iconic historical work.

Zinn’s humane (and often humorous) voice—along with his keen moral vision—shine through every one of these lively and thought-provoking conversations. Battles over the telling of our history still rage across the country, and there’s no better person to tell it than Howard Zinn.

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Praise

“No historian—and few public figures—have ever made radical politics as deliriously and deliciously attractive as Howard Zinn. These conversations with Ray Suarez resurrect Howard for a new generation, including those youth who are fed up with politics as usual. Buy it for the young rabble rouser in your life. As Howard liked to say, ‘We must know our history not only to have knowledge of the past, but to change the future.’”
—Dave Zirin, author of A People’s History of Sports in the United States and sports editor, The Nation
“Truth Has a Power of Its Own is a virtual epilogue to Zinn’s classic work, A People’s History of the United States, and it eloquently shows that Zinn’s mission was not to demonstrate our exceptionalism or our superiority. Instead, he urges us to look squarely at our stained past for the glimmers of human decency and courage which so often have welled up among the ordinary people historians too often ignore.”
—Frances Fox Piven, distinguished professor of political science emerita, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
“In this short, rich volume, Zinn connects the dots from the abolitionists to Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Movement, leads the reader to question whether there is any ‘good war,’ and encourages us all to see civil disobedience as important as voting in a democracy. It is a guidebook for organizers.”
—Deborah Menkart, executive director of Teaching for Change and co-director of the Zinn Education Project
“The conversations in Truth Has a Power of Its Own sing with Howard Zinn’s wisdom, humanity, and wit. Zinn explains how despite unspeakable brutality and exploitation throughout U.S. history, we find hope rising from the social movements that have sought equality and justice. This is a marvelous introduction to the history—a people’s history—of our country.”
—Bill Bigelow, curriculum editor, Rethinking Schools, and co-director of the Zinn Education Project

News and Reviews

Booklist

“[Truth Has a Power of Its Own] provides eloquent and hopeful insight into Zinn’s vision of America’s past as well as its future … a valuable supplement for readers familiar with Zinn's A People’s History of the United States, and an eloquently hopeful introduction for those who haven't yet encou

Kirkus Reviews

“Free-wheeling and illuminating... A readable and nondogmatic book that will appeal to young people especially as a way to rethink conventional history.” 

Goodreads Reviews