The Politics of History was published by Beacon Press in 1970. It collects essays written during the 1960s in which Zinn develops the theoretical framework that would eventually produce A People’s History of the United States. The central argument is epistemological: there is no neutral position from which to write history. Every historian makes choices about what to include and exclude, whose perspective to foreground, what counts as significant — and these choices are inherently political.
If neutrality is impossible, Zinn argues, then historians must choose consciously: they can write history that serves power (celebrating national greatness, justifying existing institutions, treating the perspectives of elites as universal) or history that serves justice (recovering suppressed voices, exposing mechanisms of exploitation, providing historical precedent for present struggles). The pretense of objectivity merely disguises the first choice as no choice at all.
The book also contains concrete historical essays demonstrating this approach: studies of the New Deal from the perspective of those it failed, of the Vietnam War from the perspective of its victims, of American expansion from the perspective of those who were displaced. These essays preview the method — though not yet the comprehensive scope — of A People’s History.
Collecting The Politics of History
First edition (Beacon Press, Boston, 1970): Cloth with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $50–$150
- Very good: $20–$50