Jim from Stevens Point, WI, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0

Howard Zinn, a World War II veteran turned historian, wrote A People's History of the United States in 1980, retelling American history from the vantage of workers, slaves, women, and Native Americans rather than presidents and generals. It became a bestseller that reshaped how the subject was taught. Zinn chaired the history department at Spelman College and wrote extensively on the civil rights and anti-war movements.