American History — Video Companion

Chapter-by-chapter videos to go with A Young People's History of the United States
Howard Zinn, adapted by Rebecca Stefoff (2023 revised edition, with Ed Morales)

BrainPOP links open the topic page (log in to watch the movie and take the quiz). YouTube picks lean on Crash Course, TED-Ed, and other classroom channels. Check the box on a chapter when you're done — it remembers.

Part One

1

Columbus and the American Indians

1492–1600s

Columbus arrives — seen through the eyes of the Arawak/Taíno people. Conquest, and Bartolomé de las Casas.

2

Black and White

1619–1700s

How African slavery began in colonial Virginia, and how racism was built alongside it.

BrainPOP
3

Who Were the Colonists?

1600s–1760s

Rich and poor in the colonies: indentured servants, class tensions, and Bacon's Rebellion.

4

Tyranny Is Tyranny

1763–1776

The road to revolution: Stamp Act, Boston Massacre, Tea Party — and who steered the anger.

5

Revolutions

1775–1790

The Revolutionary War — who fought it, who won what, and the Constitution as a compromise.

6

The Women of Early America

1600s–1848

Women's lives and labor in early America, the Lowell mill girls, and Seneca Falls.

7

As Long as Grass Grows or Water Runs

1814–1840s

Indian removal: Andrew Jackson, the Trail of Tears, and the Seminole Wars.

8

War with Mexico

1836–1848

Manifest destiny, the Mexican-American War, and the Americans who opposed it.

9

Slavery and Emancipation

1830s–1877

Slavery and resistance, the abolitionists, the Civil War, emancipation — and Reconstruction's end.

10

The Other Civil War

1830s–1877

Not the one you think: renters' revolts, factory life, and the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.

11

Robber Barons and Rebels

1877–1900

The Gilded Age: Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Morgan — and the strikes and Populists who fought back.

12

The American Empire

1893–1902

The Spanish-American War, Hawaii and the Philippines, and the anti-imperialists.

Part Two

13

Class Struggle

1900–1917

The Progressive era from below: the IWW, the Triangle fire, Ludlow, and Eugene Debs.

14

World War I

1914–1918

The Great War, American entry, propaganda — and what happened to those who spoke against it.

BrainPOP
15

Hard Times

1929–1939

The Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, the Bonus Army, sit-down strikes, and the New Deal.

16

World War II and the Cold War

1939–1960

WWII, Japanese-American internment, the atomic bomb, Korea, and McCarthyism.

17

Black Revolt and Civil Rights

1954–1968

Montgomery, sit-ins, Freedom Rides, Dr. King, Malcolm X, and Black Power.

18

Vietnam

1964–1975

The war in Vietnam and the movement at home that helped end it.

BrainPOP
19

Surprises

1960s–1970s

Movements nobody predicted: women's liberation, prisoners' rights and Attica, and the American Indian Movement.

BrainPOP
20

The Latino Emergence

1900s–today

Puerto Rico, the Chicano movement, Cesar Chavez and the farm workers, and Latino immigration.

BrainPOP
21

Under Control?

1972–1976

Watergate, Nixon's resignation, and what the Church Committee found out about the CIA and FBI.

22

Politics as Usual

1976–1992

Carter, Reagan, and Bush: Iran-Contra, Central America, and the Gulf War.

23

Resistance

1980s–1990s

Grassroots movements of the '80s and '90s: anti-nuclear, environmental, and disability rights.

24

The End of the Twentieth Century

1992–2000

The Clinton years, globalization and NAFTA, and the Seattle WTO protests.

25

The "War on Terrorism"

2001–2003

September 11, the war in Afghanistan, and the debate over security and liberty.

26

War in Iraq, Conflict at Home

2003–2008

The Iraq War, the case made for it, Hurricane Katrina, and the 2008 financial crisis.

27

Our Voices Need to Be Heard

2008–today

Occupy, Black Lives Matter, Standing Rock, March for Our Lives, and the youth climate movement.