Howard Zinn and Stephen Pimpare on A People's History of Poverty in America

Just as Zinn's own People's History of the United States is a "revisionist" history, so too is Pimpare's, telling the story of poverty from the perspective of people who are actually poor. Most of his information comes from secondary sources; he'd wanted to conduct a wide-ranging interview study, but realized this would put the focus too much on the present. In order to retell history from a new point of view, Pimpare used sources from the past to let poor people speak in their own voices.

And those voices are stark. One of our favorite quotes that Pimpare cited from his book was "I'm not stupid, I'm just poor." Too often, assumptions are made about poor people and how or why they are poor: lack of intelligence, lack of effort, lack of merit. Pimpare emphasized that social and institutional factors, not individual fault, are a large reason for poverty, and asserted that a living wage and affordable housing would go a long way toward eradicating poverty. But the idea that poor people somehow deserve their socioeconomic standing is ingrained in us, so we focus on "helping" them out, not changing the system. Zinn emphasized this idea with an anecdote of his own, relating how a relative used to make charitable food deliveries in a van with the slogan to the effect of: "Give food to the poor, they call you a saint. Ask why people are poor, they call you a communist."

Pimpare also underscored the historical expectation that poor people display a "becoming deference" to their benefactors and society at large, a sense of gratitude for "assistance" that doesn't really help that much. People want to keep the poor quiet in order to keep their own power. And being poor can require so much work just to make ends meet that it defeats one's activist impulses. When you're worried about whether you can eat, it can be hard to plan a revolution.

After Pimpare introduced his book, he and Zinn took questions from the audience. Most of these focused on what we can actually do to address poverty. Pimpare made the excellent point that Barack Obama supporters now need to step up and actually do work to promote change. It wasn't enough to get Obama elected—people now have to continue working to make things better. Pimpare worried that our society has too fully internalized Chicago School tenets and the idea that big government is bad, and he asserted that aggregate self-interest does not necessarily equal a greater good. Even now, in the midst of what looks like a massive market failure, people are arguing against intervention, assuming that the "invisible hand" will soothe us all—or at least the all-important middle class on "Main Street."

Some audience members suggested that revolution might be necessary for reform. Folks proposed sending people from homeless shelters around the country to Washington for a march. Pimpare and Zinn didn't go quite that far (and Pimpare wondered just how folks would get from the shelters to D.C.), but both did support social movements, protest, and activism. Pimpare cited the Republic Window Workers as a model for others who are laid off, encouraging people to say no to being laid off with no concessions by companies benefiting from billion-dollar bailouts. He also said that campaign finance reform has the potential to produce major changes in our society's structure. Citing the number of millionaires in our government, Pimpare said it's simply too difficult to run for office—or at least to win—if you're not independently wealthy or at least well-connected. So we find ourselves governed by rich folks willing to give poor people house plants—or nothing at all.

All in all, the evening with Pimpare and Zinn was thought-provoking, and it certainly made us want to pick up the book. We'll also keep an eye out for other People's History books: a history of sports is out now. Sadly, it probably doesn't include any photos of those new Red Sox uniforms.