A Young People's History of the United States

Introduction-Part 1, Chapter 5

Reading Check

1. War, racism, and economic injustice (Introduction)

2. The Arawaks, the Incas, the Aztecs, and/or the Powhatan Confederacy (Part 1, Chapter 1)

3. 2/5 (Part 1, Chapter 2)

4. Class conflict (Part 1, Chapter 3)

Short Answer

1. Zinn thinks it is important to adapt his original book for young readers because he wants students and other young readers to learn how to be critical by confronting unpleasant truths. He thinks it is wrong to treat young people as if they are not mature enough to look at their nation’s policies honestly. (Introduction)

Part 1, Chapters 6-9

Reading Check

1. The Declaration of Principles (Part 1, Chapter 6)

2. Manifest Destiny (Part 1, Chapter 8)

3. 4 million enslaved people (Part 1, Chapter 9)

4. The Fugitive Slave Act (Part 1, Chapter 9)

Short Answer

1. “Speculation” was the process of wealthy Americans buying up huge pieces of land with the intention of selling it later for great profit. This process not only continued the movement of white settlers into new western territories, but it also had the larger consequence of displacing Indigenous communities from their land. (Part 1, Chapter 7)

Part 1, Chapters 10-12

Reading Check

1. The struggle between classes (Part 1, Chapter 10)

2. Manifest Destiny (Part 1, Chapter 12)

3. The Anti-Imperialist League (Part 1, Chapter 12)

Short Answer

1. Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and J. P. Morgan are all examples of Zinn’s “robber barons.” Zinn explains that the term is a disparaging one that likens these men to the barons of medieval nobility, who procured much of their wealth through dishonest and/or greedy means. (Part 1, Chapter 11)

Part 2, Chapters 13-16

Reading Check

1. The American Federation of Labor (Part 2, Chapter 13)

1. 1917 (Part 2, Chapter 14)

2. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Part 2, Chapter 15)

Short Answer

1. Muckraker journalism exposed, in Zinn’s words, “the bad conduct and unfair practices […] of corporations, government, and society in general.” Muckraker journalism was important because it helped expose the American government’s policies that allowed for unfettered capitalism and led to poor working conditions for the American people. (Part 2, Chapter 13)

Part 2, Chapters 17-20

Reading Check

1. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (Part 2, Chapter 17)

2. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Part 2, Chapter 17)

3. Second-wave feminism (Part 2, Chapter 19)

4. 13% (Part 2, Chapter 20)

Short Answer

1. Many Americans were “horrified by its cruelty,” especially as reports of mass pillaging and sexual violence were revealed by various American media institutions. Additionally, tens of thousands of American soldiers died, many of whom were drafted and sent to fight with little to no training. (Part 2, Chapter 18)

Part 2, Chapters 21-23

Reading Check

1. Capitalism and nationalism (Part 2, Chapter 21)

2. Ronald Reagan (Part 2, Chapter 21)

3. The anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s accidental landfall in the Americas (Part 2, Chapter 22)

Short Answer

1. Two examples and their impacts are (1) a large protest that students and community members orchestrated to support living wages for campus workers at Harvard University, which resulted in a pay increase and health benefits, and (2) the 1999 Seattle protest of the World Trade Organization talks among “representatives of the world’s richest and most powerful companies and countries” who “were there to make plans to maintain their wealth and power.” Their protests disrupted and dismantled the talks. (Part 2, Chapter 23)

Part 2, Chapters 24-26

Reading Check

1. Middle Eastern (Part 2, Chapter 24)

2. The Patriot Act (Part 2, Chapter 24)

3. To find weapons of mass destruction (Part 2, Chapter 25)

Short Answer

1. The chapter’s title, “Rise Like Lions,” refers to a line from a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley about strength in numbers during an uprising. The poem reads, “Rise like lions after slumber / In unvanquishable number!” The masses have not historically held the power, but they greatly outnumber those who do—and they have long proven that they can organize to bring about change. (Part 2, Chapter 26)