Amazon.com Review Consistently lauded for its lively, readable prose, this revised and updated edition of A People's History of the United States turns traditional textbook history on its head. Howard Zinn infuses the often-submerged voices of blacks, women, American Indians, war resisters, and poor laborers of all nationalities into this thorough narrative that spans American history from Christopher Columbus's arrival to an afterword on the Clinton presidency.
Addressing his trademark reversals of perspective, Zinn--a teacher, historian, and social activist for more than 20 years--explains, "My point is not that we must, in telling history, accuse, judge, condemn Columbus in absentia. It is too late for that; it would be a useless scholarly exercise in morality. But the easy acceptance of atrocities as a deplorable but necessary price to pay for progress (Hiroshima and Vietnam, to save Western civilization; Kronstadt and Hungary, to save socialism; nuclear proliferation, to save us all)--that is still with us. One reason these atrocities are still with us is that we have learned to bury them in a mass of other facts, as radioactive wastes are buried in containers in the earth."
If your last experience of American history was brought to you by junior high school textbooks--or even if you're a specialist--get ready for the other side of stories you may not even have heard. With its vivid descriptions of rarely noted events, A People's History of the United States is required reading for anyone who wants to take a fresh look at the rich, rocky history of America.
Product Description Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research, A People's History of the United States is the only volume to tell America's story from the point of view of -- and in the words of -- America's women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, working poor, and immigrant laborers. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
Better than I thought, I thinkJuly 30, 2010 B. Cocke(Minneapolis, MN, USA) First, there is absolutely no reason to detest his bias. Most of it can be detected in the title, or if you are a zealous reader he completely explains his position in the first 11 pages.
But the book itself is actually quite well constructed and Zinn's tiny little notes are always a help. The author writes little asides about motives or the validity of motives of groups or people throughout his book. I read plenty of history and all too often I find myself being presented the facts and little context, there is little of that here. Most of the events in the book feature extensive quotations and believable context. The book is by no mean's the history of the US, rather it is a very select group of events, that do paint a pretty complete picture of America, but by no means is complete in and of itself.
To elaborate a little, I find experts all too often rely on their title. Many critics of the book have many harsh things to say about it, some of it justly (the argument that Zinn builds upon what many American social historians had done before him, without due credit in the book, is in fact true). But a lot of the critics don't actually build arguments against Zinn, they simply throw up the beginning of arguments, assuming that the dear reader will see the seeds of doubt and believe that someday they will grow, many of them simply aren't valid. It's utter shite. Zinn, knowingly or un, has done a wonderful thing with this book, he has bridged the gap between the semi-educated and the educated, showing those who are willing to look a counter to the oft-cited history of the United States.
The parts of the book I liked were many, but my main criticisms of the book are two-fold. First of all, Zinn has done a great dis-service to the book by updating it with new chapters. This is something I utterly hate, I don't know if this is a new trend or a sad tradition but it boils my blood when I read a 'history' book about something that happened 10 or 5 years ago. Not that those events aren't important, but rather 'history' implies something greater than simply an enumeration of events. But an understanding of their context, both past and future. Zinn's research in the last few chapters of the book is less than impressive, interesting but not history.
Second problem with the book; I agreed with too much of it. When you read a book that is truly influential, you can't come to it fresh. You have always heard something from it (Give a Huge Lady gaga fan a Madonna album and you will see what I mean). One problem that arises is the difficulty of thinking critically about it. The other, and this may sound psychotic, is that you will agree with large portions of it. I don't know how I would advise Zinn, or his editors, in correcting this problem, but I find it difficult to swallow. I don't appreciate reading something and feeling my guard slip down, Zinn doesn't do this intentionally, more my own mind does it because of how agreeable I find his points.
I would recommend this to any person interested in history, who has taken an American History course or two.
As a veteran history teacher, I find this book very lacking.July 29, 2010 Alan B. Rogers(York, SC United States) 0 out of 3 found this review helpful
As a veteran history teacher, I found this book to be very lacking. It is very biased and ignores much of history. If you are a progressive, you will love it. If you are looking for real history, I suggest A Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror. It is accurate, better written and is very well sourced.
History that you never learned in school or from the main stream mediaJuly 27, 2010 alprince 2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Howard Zinn gives a sobering and humbling account of the sad state of colonization and subsequent governance for the past 500+ years
Truth in HistoryJuly 25, 2010 Brian Page(Phoenix) 2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Howard Zinn is my new favorite historian and I now rise to belatedly mourn his passing and praise his work. This is the best history book I've ever read, and I read a lot of history and historical fiction. What a radical concept, the history of radicalism.
Not just radicalism for the sake of radicalism, as this stuff is often presented in conventional history, but rather with the whole backstory. It's history from the perspective of the losers, so to speak, although "the loser now may be later to win. For the times they are a changin'."
This is also the best description of history-as-watching-grass-grow that I've ever come across. Significant historical changes are usually slow and halting in their approach and often Earth shattering in their arrival, and Zinn describes the process brilliantly in this exposition. He focuses more on the process of change than change itself and on those that gave the last full measure of devotion to the cause.
This book contains heartwrenching stories of dedicated individuals that helped change history despite the opposition of the wealthy and powerful. Human nature can be ugly at times and Zinn exposes some of the worst excesses of the US government in the exercise of its power. He also explains power as both an end and a means of suppressing the unruly masses. It was particularly interesting to read about the founding fathers as a group with common economic interests in a revolution rather than as a noble collection of political altruists. Sure they were great men, some of them anyways, but they occasionally may have put their personal interests ahead of those of the country as a whole. What a heretical concept!
The rich, powerful and privileged have always had folks available to tell their history and the history of their "country", but there are other perspectives to history and in this book Howard Zinn proves that the stories of the downtrodden and powerless are often much more interesting, and infinitely more thought provoking.
A must readJuly 20, 2010 Mordecai R(Peekskill, NY) 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If any American is to consider themself educated, Zinn's book must be on their shelf.
