In February of 2003 a remarkable event took place in New York City, a celebration of the millionth copy sold of Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States. In his opening remarks that evening, HarperCollins editor Hugh Van Dusen noted that in addition to having sold a million copies, Zinn’s book has sold more copies every year than the year before through its twenty-three years.
For that evening, Zinn drew from his book, and from a few other sources, the statements of Americans—some famous, some little known—across the range of American history. These were read by a distinguished cast of actors and writers assembled for just that event: James Earl Jones, Alice Walker, Kurt Vonnegut, Alfre Woodard, Marisa Tomei, Danny Glover, Myla Pitt, Andre Gregory, Harris Yulin, Jeff Zinn.
They read the words of Christopher Columbus, a Lowell mill girl, Frederick Douglass, John Brown, Mark Twain, Helen Keller, Eugene Debs, a House Un-American Activities interrogation, Malcolm X, a Gulf War resister, a family member of a victim of the September 11 Twin Towers attack, and others.
The enthusiastic response to that evening at the 92nd Street Y led to the idea that theater companies, as well as high schools and colleges, might want to do their own readings of this highly charged material. HarperCollins agreed to undertake the publication.