Review by Dean Bedekar, September 2023

 

This is a unique book.  It will turn upside down everything you learned in your high school history class.  It’s about people who are never mentioned in traditional history books – workers, women, Blacks, Native Americans, immigrants, LGBTQ, the lower classes and residents of third-world nations.  By 2015, the book sold over 2 million copies and was translated into 20 languages.  In the Oscar-winning movie Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon says the book “will knock you on your ass”. The book was released just as Reagan became president and caused a firestorm in conservative circles.  The president of Perdue University cheered when Prof. Zinn died in 2010 and called on all teachers not to teach from “this execrable book that misstates American history on every page.”  Some school boards sought to ban the book since they did not condone civil disorder.  Of course, courses on the American Revolution were exempt.

Prof Zinn’s view of history: History is personal, alive and changing.  It is not a stagnant retelling of past events. It’s a point of view.  It’s impossible to find two historians who agree on the same past events. (If you and your wife were asked to write a book on your marriage, would the two books agree?) Prof. Zinn was not a passive historian toiling in an ivory tower.  Quite often he was on the picket line or marching with the common folk.  He was arrested many times and dismissed from universities for his outspoken views. The book is imbued with Howard Zinn’s optimism.  His final caution: for every Moses who leads his people out of the wilderness, there’s a Shmoses who leads the same people into the wilderness.

The book covers a period of 500 years from Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the Bahamas to the end of Bill Clinton’s presidency. Prof. Zinn rips the curtain of politeness to reveal historical heroes in all their tawdry glory.

Before we get to the review, take this 12-point True or False quiz. Answers are at the end.

1. Since all Americans over the age of 18 can vote, the U.S. must be a democracy.
2. The U.S. is the leader of the free world. Its foreign policy is centered around ensuring that all countries have elected democratic governments.
3. Phrases in the U.S. Constitution such as “we the people”, “pursuit of life, liberty and happiness”, and “equal justice for all” refer to all legal inhabitants of the United States.
4. The primary goal of the Civil War was to end slavery.
5. Worker benefits such as job safety, paid vacations, a 40-hour work week and pensions were the result of negotiations between management and trade unions.
6. The 19^th Amendment passed in 1920, gave all women the right to vote. It was a major step towards women achieving equal rights.
7. The Industrial Revolution benefited workers most since machines now performed manual labor.
8. Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase was a legal transaction between two nations.
9. President Roosevelt was correct in moving 110,000 Japanese to internment camps in 1942.
10. Americans are less susceptible to propaganda than other nations because of a free press.
11. The Marshall Plan, which gave $16 billion to 90 countries in 1948, was an act of pure altruism.
12. The U.S. is the largest arms seller in the world.

 

Conquistadors

History books portray Columbus as an explorer who discovered America in 1492. His charter from Queen Isabella was simple: bring back slaves and gold. Columbus wrote in his log: the Arawaks will make fine slaves.  Hispaniola has great mines of gold and other metals.

After Columbus’ second expedition, half of the 250,000 Indians on Haiti were dead. Catholic priests accompanied Columbus on both expeditions.  The church was anxious to find new converts and new revenue. Between 1494-1508, over 3 million natives perished from war, slavery and European diseases.

The pattern continued with succeeding conquistadors – Hernando Cortez with the Aztecs, Francisco Pizzaro with the Incas and the Pilgrims with the Pequots.  The Pilgrims had the Bible to back them up with Romans 13.2. Murder was quite acceptable since they were merely casting savages to Hell. The history books tell a myth when they speak of the Pilgrims enjoying Thanksgiving dinner with the Wampanoag.

So what was the net result to Spain and England?  Spain used the money to wage wars that it lost leaving it none the richer.  England used the spoils of empire to conduct two world wars that left it bankrupt.

 

A Fast-Growing Nation

The U.S. has always been a high-growth nation. The population grew from 250,000 in 1700 to 1.6 million by 1760. Slaves were 1/5^th of the population. By 1830 there were 13 million Americans. It’s part of the national myth that America is a classless society.  Even in 1770, 1% of the population owned 44% of the wealth.  The ratio has remained unchanged to this day. The solution to the problem of poverty was to build poor houses, workhouses and prisons.

It’s part of American culture to believe that European immigrants came to a pristine continent and built the country with their sinews and brains.  Actually, the U.S. is an exceptionally rich land, next only to Russia.  The U.S. had capital and innovative businessmen.  Unlike other nations, the U.S. has the entrepreneurial spirit.  But the myth totally discounts the contributions of  the natives, slaves, Latinos , Chinese and other immigrants. It also discounts the support of the French without whom the Revolutionary war would’ve been lost.

As it so happens, the U.S. revolution meant nothing to the lower and marginalized classes.  Their dreary lives went on as always.

The U.S. became a world power only after World War II.  It was the only country left that wasn’t devastated.

Is the U.S. a democracy?

The U.S. is a sovereign republic.  The word “democracy” does not appear anywhere in the U.S. Constitution.  The founding fathers did not want the country to be a democracy.  For over 150 years, voting rights were restricted to property owners.  80% of the population was excluded.  Feel free to draw your own conclusions.

The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 doubled the size of the U.S.  With France and Spain gone, the next country ripe for invasion was Mexico.  The argument used was “manifest destiny” or the right of the U.S. to throw its weight around against weaker enemies. The lure was land and all the riches it held.

Foreign investment was crucial to the growth of the U.S. By 1914 the U.S. had invested $3.5 billion abroad, up from $700 million in 1897.  Woodrow Wilson gave a lecture in 1907 in which he said, “ Nations that refuse to trade will be forced to do so. U.S. foreign investment will be protected by U.S. arms.”

Where was the Church in all this?

The Churches promised rewards to the workers after death but they took their rewards now from the wealthy. The champions of the downtrodden behaved exactly like a corporation, making phony promises while protecting their bottom line.

Immigration was the key to the high growth experienced by the U.S. But U.S. policy on immigration has always been tainted by racism. 14 million immigrants came to the U.S. between 1900-1920. The majority came from Western Europe.

 

Slavery

The first slave ship arrived in Jamestown in 1619 with 20 slaves in the hold.  That cargo confirmed the inferior position of Blacks in the U.S. for the next 350 years.  The importation of slaves had to do with an acute labor shortage.  There weren’t enough white settlers to grow the corn and the natives were too proud to be enslaved. By 1860 the South was producing 4 million tons of cotton and had 4 million slaves.  It was the most profitable arrangement in the world. How profitable was slavery?  According to James Madison, a slave earned him $257 a year while he spent $12 on his upkeep.

Slavery didn’t begin in the U.S. By 1600 several million African slaves were working in South America and the Caribbean.  It’s popular to think of Africa as a “dark continent”. In fact, Africa had its own civilizations made up of 100 million people. Africa had its own practice of slavery.  Slaves to be exported were captured at gunpoint, shackled, marched to the coast, where they were branded with the slave trader’s mark, packed aboard slave ships and transported to the New World. Everyone played for huge profits, with the English, Dutch and Portuguese as the main players. By 1800 15 million Blacks were transported to the Americas.  The death toll from capture to sale was 65%.

The history books gloss over this point but slave revolts were commonplace, even after the slaves had been stripped of their identity, family and community. No one was a natural-born slave.  The slave masters had to keep constant vigil to ensure the slaves “know their place”. Slave women were not allowed to have sex because childbearing interfered with work. However, it was commonplace for slave masters to use female slaves for sex. (Jefferson and Sally Hemmings). The first large-scale revolt took place in New York in 1712. 20% of the population in New York were slaves. 

The plight of white indentured servants was hardly any better.  However, they were freed after their term of indenture was up. In 1857 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Dred Scot, a slave, could not sue for his freedom because he was not a person but property.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was formed in 1910. Blacks realized that they could not rely on the government for any favors.

The Civil War and Reconstruction

The war lasted 4 years and cost 500,000 lives in a nation of 30 million. As the war dragged on, the 4 million slaves in the South became more of a hindrance.  They could not serve in the Confederate Army. About 500,000 had run away to the North. 200,000 served in the Union Army (out of 2.1 million soldiers) and 38,000 were killed. In early 1865 Confederate President Jefferson Davis authorized the enlistment of slave as soldiers.  But by then the war was over. Historians agree that without Black soldiers, the north would not have won the war.

Profiteering was rampant during the war. Crooked businessmen sold defective rifles, sand as sugar and uniforms that fell apart in the rain.

Despite the rebel yells, the war had its detractors in the South. 2/3^rds of whites did not own slaves. The conscription laws gave rich whites a pass. 

After the war, Blacks had the vote and many were elected to public office.  But it did not last. Jim Crow laws were passed quickly in the South.  Whites realized that Blacks lacked capital and business networks.  They were dependent on whites for work. And Black realized that freedom is worthless without economic freedom.

With the slaves gone, the wealth of the South went into a tailspin. The post-war years saw the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and murderous raids on Black communities. In the North, 19 of 24 states did not allow Blacks to vote. It was a matter of self-preservation.

The last decade of the 19^th century was one of intense racism. Two blacks were lynched every week during the decade. Black soldiers who fought in Cuba with distinction were denied officers’ commissions.

The Native American Genocide

Native Americans could not be enslaved.  Since they occupied land that was valuable to the white settlers, the official policy was to sequester them.  Either that or kill them.  In North Carolina in 1750, there were 25,000 whites surrounded by 40,000 slaves and 60,000 natives.  (The same situation happened in colonial India, where 100,000 Britishers controlled 100 million Indians.)

Anyone who could not be subdued was exiled or killed.  The Native American genocide was thorough.  From forced marches and broken treaties to wholesale massacres of native women and children to blankets tainted with smallpox, no practice was overlooked. The government ordered the killing of over a million bison to deny food to the natives. Native children were forced into Christian boarding schools where they were given new names and identities.

History books tell us that the pioneers travelled in their chuck wagons over virgin plains, cleared the land and toiled the soil.  In truth, they travelled over trails laid down by the natives and planted seed corn stolen from them. 

Andrew Jackson played a key role in the native American genocide.  He has been thoroughly whitewashed in history books as the hero of the War of 1812. Jackson played a key role in signing  peace treaties with the Indians.  The treaties were nothing more than land grabs, and every one of them was broken. As a negotiator, Jackson himself purchased large tracts of Indian land for himself and friends at bargain-basement prices and amassed considerable wealth as a result. As President, Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act forcing 100,000 Cherokee to walk to Oklahoma.

Historians have documented that Adolph Hitler drew inspiration for lebensraum from the Native American genocide.  The idea for Nazi concentration camps came directly from the reservations created for Native Americans.

The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution in the last quarter of the 19^th century provided a dramatic boost to America’s output and the fortunes of its wealthy families. Steam and electricity were the keys in the factories and in the railroads joining the country from East to West.

Wealthy Americans like J.P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller escaped serving in the Civil War by paying $300. The Industrial revolution came as a boon They quickly capitalized on it by forming monopolies like Standard Oil, U.S. Steel and AT&T.

During this time Congress passed laws such as the Sherman Act to check on the excesses of the money men.  People believe that the passage of laws by Congress means the deed is done.  Far from it.  Laws need to be funded, and someone in the Executive and Judiciary branches must enforce them. In truth, New York money men sponsor most cabinet members and judges. The selective enforcement of laws is a problem that has yet to find a solution.

World Wars I and II

World War I was over protecting empires.  World War II was about acquiring colonies. The Great War consumed the lives of 10 million soldiers (50,000 American) and 20 million civilians. No one has been able to show that the war brought any gain for humanity. World War  II cost 20 million soldiers and 60 million civilian deaths. No nation was spared the misery.

America’s participation was crucial in winning both wars for the Allies. Despite claims of neutrality, the U.S, was an active supplier of armaments to the Allies. And America was the only country to emerge relatively whole from both wars.

 

Roosevelt’s New Deal

The Great Crash of 1929 consumed 5,000 banks. Industrial production fell 50%. Roosevelt’s answer was the New Deal.  Unfortunately, it did not touch anyone in Harlem.  Although Roosevelt was seen as a reformer, his primary goal was to stabilize businesses, and only then to pacify the working classes. The New Deal reduced unemployment by only 4 million.  It was World War II that put everyone to work.

As sharecroppers,  the New Deal bypassed black farmers.  Roosevelt was careful not to antagonize Southern politicians. Blacks were invisible to white Americans. There was no feminist movement in the 1930s.  The status of women remained unchanged despite the publicity given to Rosie the Riveter.

Racism and the Class System

Racism has been a central tenet of the country’s existence.  Racism allows the privileged classes to pay for the work of what the Nazis called the “untermensch” but they are not allowed to be part of the elite.

The rich have always controlled the 3 branches of government – Congress, the Executive branch and the Supreme Court.  (I’ve written a paper on welfare for the rich.  It amounts to 10 times the welfare for the poor, welfare being defined as something for nothing.) The Supreme Court is nothing more than a bunch of lawyers who are no more honest than anyone else.

Many Americans believe the U.S. to be a classless country..  Far from it.  The super-rich and the poor have always been part of the U.S. with a middle class to keep the peace between the classes.

Prof. Zinn includes the treatment of women as part of the country’s racist foundation. History books rarely mention women except as a form of tokenism.  Zinn discusses the relative roles of women in native, poor and rich white societies as well as restrictive laws passed in the U.S. to keep women in servitude. Society always had the church by their side to ensure women’s submerged status. An indication of that is in the literacy rates in 1750: over 80% for white men and 40% for women.

The impact of racism becomes clear in how justice is handed out.  White collar crimes are prosecuted at 10% of the rate for burglary and drug dealing.  White-collar crimes involve on average $200,000; and sentences average 7 months in a minimum security prison.  Sentences for burglary and drug dealing average 7 years for an average of $300.  “Law and order” means more prisons and more police.  The symptoms are never addressed.

 

Unions

Upton Sinclair’s book The Jungle published in 1906 did much to advance the cause of labor unions. In 1914, 35,000 workers were killed on the job and 700,000 injured. There was no compensation from the employer.

The wage gap was large.  Women made half as much as men and Blacks made 1/3^rd. The churches remained on the sidelines during the labor struggle, generally siding with the rich and promising workers their reward in heaven.  Joe Hill, a labor organizer,  wrote a song about the churches:

Long-haired preachers come out every night

Tell you what’s wrong and what’s right

But when asked for something to eat

They will answer with voices so sweet:

You will eat, bye and bye

In that glorious land above the sky

Work and pray, live on hay

You’ll get pie in the sky when you die.

The unions gained traction in the early 1900’s. Women were very prominent in the unions but they faced a conflict between their roles as mothers and career women. Many were members of both the suffrage and union movements. Even in professions where Blacks were allowed, they were kept out of unions.

 

The Working Poor

In 1790, fewer than a million Americans lived in cities.  By 1860, New York City’s population was over a million. The majority worked in industries and lived in squalor, one room per family with no water or garbage removal.  Epidemics came regularly with cholera, typhus and typhoid in the lead. Conditions were hopeless every time there was a slump in the business cycle, the worst of which were in 1877 and 1893.

Health and safety laws were non-existent or unenforced. It was always the working poor pitted against the rich and those high in government.  The government always sided with the rich.

The prevalent attitude was expressed by Russell Conwell, a minister and graduate of Yale: “there is not a poor person in the United States who was not made poor by his own shortcomings.”

Immigrants poured into the U.S. between 1880-1900.  They were mostly Irish and Italian and Chinese on the West Coast. In the early 1900s, one quarter  of a million children under 15 worked in factories, mines, and farms. There were no child labor laws.

 

A Capitalist Country

America is the top capitalist county in the world.  Clearly, capitalism has its merits as evidenced by the fact that the U.S. is #1 in GDP in the world.  But capitalism is hardly a panacea.  It lives by one simple rule: maximize profits.  Which leads to 4 grave social ills:

• Take the profit, pay workers the minimum in wages and benefits Example: Management will fight unions tooth and nail

• Take the profits now, defer the cost. Example: Amtrack trains go off the rails at 70 mph because track maintenance has been postponed

• Take the profits, let society pick up the costs. Example: Someone pocketed the $2 trillion in costs to clean up Superfund sites.
• Form monopolies, raise prices, let the customer pay Example: Anyone here who loves cable TV monopolies?

The U.S. will always have the poor.  Capitalism guarantees it. Capitalism guarantees that the U.S. will have the highest health care costs with only average outcomes. To put it vulgarly, American capitalists will run over their grandmas for a buck. Regardless of which party is in power there are certain lines neither party will cross.  The “system” is sacrosanct. This is reflected in cabinet and judicial appointments.

Prof. Zinn is angry with Democratic presidents. They were bought by the elite.  The only exception he cites are Roosevelt (and possibly Lyndon Johnson) who were forced by circumstances to propose and pass socialist legislation.

Arthur Schlesinger noted that “Liberalism is the movement on the part of ordinary citizens to restrain the power of the business elite.”

Socialism has never died in the U.S.  Senators like Bernie Sanders are rare.  It’s been beaten down.

Every few years socialism rears its head in the U.S.  During the early 1900’s, socialism was actually quite popular with the masses, expressed in the form of unions. It was suppressed ruthlessly.  In 1918, the socialist Eugene Debbs pleaded before the Supreme Court:

They say our institutions are democratic;

that we live in a great republic;

that we are a free and self-governing people.

That is too much, even for a joke.

To prove his point, Prof. Zinn compares the increase in wages to the increase in the value of common stocks.  The ratio has always been close to 16.

 

Foreign Policy

Foreign trade has always been the key to the success of the U.S. The domestic market is not large enough to absorb the nation’s huge production capacity.

The Spanish-American War of 1898 was nothing more than a land grab in the Caribbean (Cuba, Puerto Rico)and the Pacific (Guam, Philippines). Mark Twain characterized the war as “acquisition of swag, run with a mouthful of pious hypocrisies and pockets full of boodle.”. The casus belli was the explosion on the battleship Maine in Havana Harbor that killed 268 seamen. Spain was a weak enemy but it took the U.S. 3 years to subdue the Filipino rebels. The argument was the same, namely, to bring Christian civilization to the brown masses. There are 3 imperialist powers left in the world today: U.S., Russia and China. The European colonial powers wasted their loot on 2 destructive world wars.  The U.S. realized early on that its vast resources, cheap labor and access to capital would give it hegemony in the Americas and the Eastern Pacific.  It wasted no time in using military power to open up the markets of Japan (Commodore Perry, 1853) and China.

 

The Military-Industrial Complex

President Eisenhower warned against it.  Today’s U.S. military budget is $800 billion out of $5 trillion. It has increased every year since World War II to the point where it is the largest component of white welfare spending. 66% of defense spending goes to a dozen large corporations who employ over 2,000 high-ranking military officers.

 

The White Man’s Burden

Colonial powers, including the U.S., used a variety of phrases to justify their conquests.  The goal was always to loot and pillage the colonies but certain phrases were used to salve their conscience.  Phrases such as “American exceptionalism, “manifest destiny” “noblesse oblige,” and “bring civilization to the lesser breeds” were mixed with proclamations such as the Monroe Doctrine.

With the Monroe Doctrine, the U.S. made it clear to European powers that both Americas were within the sphere of influence of the U.S. Behind this was the notion of absolute racial superiority which was taken for granted.  The notion, of course, ignored the lessons of history when the Greeks, Persians and Romans behaved in the same manner and paid for their arrogance.

 

The Turbulent 60’s and 70’s

The twin issues of sexism and racism came to a head during this period. They challenged America’s claim to be the leader of the free world. People point to the integration of the armed forces and the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision as signs of progress. It took over a decade to integrate the armed forces.  By 1965, 75% of all school districts in the South remained segregated. White Southerners blamed it all on “outside agitators.” Black protests were the trigger that forced Congress to pass civil rights legislation.  A dramatic change occurred for the first time in history. In 1968, 3 million black voters were registered to vote in the South – the same as white voters.

As women found out in 1920, the right to vote means nothing without economic freedom. In 1963, 20% of whites were below the poverty line vs. 50% for blacks. Even as Congress was passing legislation to pacify Blacks, the FBI was busy harassing and breaking up black militant groups.

Blacks realized that token appointments of minorities to high office meant nothing. Whites continued to hold economic power.

The mightiest nation in the world tried for 11 years between 1964-75 to defeat a peasant nation composed of gooks and lost.  The U.S. claimed it was fighting Communist expansion. In truth, Ho Chi Minh was first and foremost a nationalist who defeated the Japanese in 1945 and the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. The U.S. plan was to establish a pro-U.S. Christian puppet state in South Viet Nam. The U.S. troop count rose from 6,000 under Kennedy to over 500,000 in 1968. By the end of the Vietnam war, 7 million tons of bombs had been dropped, twice the number dropped in World War II.  The neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia became war zones and Bangkok became the world’s largest brothel. The war cost 55,000 American lives and over 1,000,000 Vietnamese lives.

 

Women’s Rights

Women’s rights runs as a constant thread throughout Prof. Zinn’s book.  The picture gets muddled because of race, class, the multiple roles assumed by women and the different needs of women in regard to health care, welfare, abortion, child care, equal wages, the glass ceiling and many others.. Women have always worked.  In 1960, 36% of all women worked for wages that were ½ to ⅔^rd of those paid to men. The 1960s were the most active for women, with the formation of the National Organization of Women (NOW).  It was then that the phrase “women’s lib” was heard.

The church has always been a fifth columnist in regard to women’s rights – emphasizing their role as mothers and helpers, never as individuals.

 

Recent Presidents

Of all the presidents of the past 50 years, Ronald Reagan comes in for the most criticism. Prof. Zinn presents extensive data to show how the “conservative icon” was driven solely by capitalist ideology.  He did not know or care about the poor and marginal segments in the U.S. or abroad.  His dramatic increase in military spending came at the expense of social spending and through tax cuts for the rich (remember the famous Laffler curve?). Surprisingly, Reagan’s policies continue to this day as the gap between the rich and poor continues to widen.

Prof. Zinn regards Bill Clinton as a failed president, as someone whose performance never matched his promise.  Turns out Clinton was more concerned with his poll ratings than in taking the country in a new direction. This failure is reflected in the fact that the U.S. has the highest GDP but is ranked only 25 on the Social Progress Index (SPI).

The terrorist attack of 9/11 changed America irrevocably.  The Patriot Act and the  establishment of the Department of Homeland Security cost U.S. citizens dearly in the loss of their personal privacy.  (If you have a cell phone, the government knows all about you, thanks to software called Pegasus.) Ironically, the Christian right is exploiting this insecurity to demand even more governmental control.

 

SUMMARY

Prof. Zinn acknowledges the strength of the U.S.  His main thesis is that the U.S. is a country for rich people, a country that follows “political capitalism”.  Once you get past the lofty rhetoric of the constitution and lofty moral aspirations, he notes that the country is geared to benefiting the rich. Talk of American exceptionalism and leadership of the free world are sheer hypocrisy.

Prof. Zinn’s message is simple: change does not come from the top, it comes from the fringes and the bottom. Think of the civil rights and the women’s movements. Only you can change the status quo.

 

                                    Rise like lions after slumber

                                    In unvanquishable number!

                                    Shake your chains to earth like dew

                                    Which in sleep had fallen on you

                                    Ye are many; they are few!

 

                                                            Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet, 1792-1822

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Howard Zinn (1922-2010) was an author, playwright, and social activist. He was born into a working-class family in Brooklyn.. He earned a Ph.D. in history from Columbia and taught at Boston University for many years.

 

ANSWERS TO THE QUIZ

 

1. FALSE: 1% of Americans own 40% of the wealth, a sure sign of a plutocracy. This ratio has remained constant since the 1600s. The candidates Americans vote for are usually hand-picked by the wealthy.
2. FALSE: In its foreign policy, U.S. national interests are paramount. This involves military supremacy and the protection of vital supplies and markets.  The U.S prefers to deal with right-wing dictatorships such as Augusto Pinochet in Chile and the Shah of Iran. It has a long history of overthrowing elected governments that were not pro-U.S. Examples are Salvadore Allende in Chile, Mohamed Mossaddegh in Iran and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua.  The CIA is instrumental in regime changes.
3. FALSE: The U.S. Constitution does contain several lofty phrases but the Founding Fathers never intended them to include people unlike themselves. Lofty phrases were useful to motivate the populous to fight the rich men’s wars and add to their wealth.
4. FALSE: The primary goal was to preserve the Union. The Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment were an afterthought.
5. FALSE: Worker benefits were earned through boycotts, strikes and pitched battles with the police, mercenaries and the U.S. Army in which thousands of workers were killed.
6. FALSE: The 19^th Amendment included all women, but the states quickly passed laws excluding Blacks and minorities. The right to vote was more symbolic than real in giving women reproductive and economic rights.
7. FALSE: The Industrial Revolution primarily benefited the owners. Exploitation of workers is endemic to capitalism, whether the work is manual or performed on machines.
8. FALSE: The Louisiana Purchase was an illegal transaction between two European conquerors who had no right to the land legally occupied by native Americans.
9. FALSE: 75% of Japanese moved to internment camps were Nisei – American citizens born in the U.S.
10. FALSE: The U.S. press falls in line with the dictates of the federal government whenever it’s told to do so. Recall the demonization of the Soviet Union during the cold war, of Saddam Hussein during Gulf Storm and the phony case over Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
11. FALSE: The Marshall Plan had 2 aims: to find markets for U.S. products and to keep the Communists out of Western Europe.
12. TRUE: The U.S. share is 40% amounting to $154 billion in 2022.