This book has turned history on its head for an entire generation of readers, telling the nation’s story from the viewpoints of ordinary people – the slaves, workers, immigrants, women, and Native Americans who made their own history but whose voices are typically omitted from the historical record.

Howard Zinn’s body of work is particularly pertinent now at a time when Native Americans are standing up to big companies’ construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The protests have become an international rallying cry for indigenous rights and climate change activism, drawing thousands to the rural area of Cannon Ball, North Dakota in the US. The local Standing Rock Sioux tribe and thousands of Native American supporters from across North America have set up camps in Cannon Ball to try and block the oil project. Opponents of DAPL say the project threatens sacred native lands and could contaminate their water supply from the Missouri river, which is the longest river in North America. As in the past, the Native Americans’ rights are being violated.

Red Kufi Books supports this movement against the plundering of Mother Earth and the oppression of the Native American people. ‘If you are a rock, stand up like a mountain.’