PEOPLE'S HISTORY DISCUSSION GROUP

Hello  this is to invite you to join us in a People's History discussion group. We're going to begin by reading the book that started it all "A People's History of the United States." The book was written by Howard Zinn, a bombardier of a B17 who'd become a historian at Spelman college with mostly African American students and found himself immersed in the sixties civil rights and anti war movements. 

The young people of those movements had lots of unanswered questions about what the people who they were bringing into peace and social justice struggles came up against. Like why were the government institutions, the wealthy and the corporations acting against the aspirations, needs and interests of the working class and the impoverished here at home and throughout the third world? What were the causes of war, poverty and racism? Why weren't the answers in our text books, the newspapers and TV? 

What was happening and this continues was that was that the history that was taught wasn't telling our stories, our stories as human beings with third world heritages, as peasants or workers or indigenous people, even as women. Back then and to a certain extent now, Black History, Working Class History, Indigenous History all those kinds of things had to be searched for and many libraries were completely lacking. 

If you examine the bibliography at the back of Zinn's book most people will find titles and subjects they've never heard about or hardly had a chance to think about. If you look at the table of contents you'll find such chapters as "the Intimately Oppressed" now can you imagine who that is? All the chapters are from the view point of the displaced, exploited, oppressed and/or the casualties of impoverishment, violence and war. He connects the stories of the the bottom 80% as they are forced to submit or fight back and includes the 14% sliding back and forth in between. 

You get some new eyeglasses to see thorough. You get a taste of our stories, our history from the ground up, history from our people's stand point are told.  It will come to you that tow distinct classes came off the European ships that arrived on the eastern shores. The slaves and indentured servants didn't come here by choice nor did most the refugees. You'll get to almost feel what it was like to be among the invaded indigenous people

how the class society and its culture thought of those they were violently displacing and exploiting.  You might be surprised to learn that Mark Twain was one of our first anti-imperialists as he writes about the Moro massacre as we easily defeat the Spanish and invade the Philippines. You'll meet Mother Jones and Big Bill Haywood and get a taste of what the labor movement has always been about. You'll find out there were anarchists, communist and socialist in America before there was a Democratic or Republican Party and the red flag flew during the Eight Hour Movement 31 years before the Russian revolution. You'll get to meet the abolitionists and the early women's movements hear Fredrick Douglas arguing with Abraham Lincoln about arming the slaves during the civil war to fight for their own freedom and what Harriet Tubman had to say the white women as these courageous gals rewrote the Declaration of Independence to include women as equal human beings. Of course some of us are excited that you't meet EuGene Debs who's sitting in jail for being a labor leader, a socialist and opposed to world war I. But most America's agreed with him about the war even if he was spending his jail time reading Marx and still running for president and getting a quarter of the votes. In the amidst this book there'll be our ideal fore mother -- Lucy Parsons -- a Mexican Cherokee European American working class woman who spent a life time fighting for all the things we're fighting for today. 

Most of all what People's History does is help you answer those burning questions those sixties kids were asking and see what we and the people of this world are up against a little more clearly. It adds immensely to that feeling of who we are and perhaps the insight and courage it will take to make this planet a inhabitable home worthy of our humanity. I promise it'll clear you your home work of quite a few mistakes and make it a bit easier. 

Look for notifications, email winter.george0@gmail.com or call 451-969-6746  for information... buy yourself a book or ask us to help to my knowledge there's only 1 copy in the library -- george