<![CDATA[Voices of A People's History of the United States]]>

false <![CDATA[Voices of A People's History of the United States]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166681962m/15721.jpg 15721 2 Howard Zinn is famous primarily for A People's History of the United States, the book in which he presented alternative versions of American milestones, including Columbus's "discovery" of the New World. Voices of a People's History of the United States is the follow-up to that original landmark work, but where People's History contained Zinn's interpretations of events, Voices turns the platform over to others, in a collection of first-hand accounts, journal entries, speeches, personal letters, and published opinion pieces from the nation's history. The purpose of Zinn's work, Voices included, is to engage in an act of political dissidence and activism. "What is common to all of these voices," Zinn and co-editor Anthony Arnove write in the book's introduction, "is that they have mostly been shut out of the orthodox histories, the major media, the standard textbooks, the controlled culture ... to create a passive citizenry." With Voices, Zinn and Arnove seek to address that malaise, showing that the impossible--slaves rising up against their slave masters, for example--is not only possible, but has occurred repeatedly throughout the country's history. "Whenever injustices have been remedied, wars halted, women and blacks and Native Americans given their due," they write, "it has been because 'unimportant' people spoke up, organized, protested, and brought democracy alive." The common thread throughout Voices is this mandate, and each selection is preceded by a brief introduction by the authors, written from a far-left perspective. (As an example, one section is titled "The Carter-Reagan-Bush Consensus.") Voices often works better as a reference book than a sit-down-to-read title. Its early chapters--on Columbus, slavery, the War of Independence, and the early women's movement--tend to be more engaging than later excerpts, largely because a contrary point of view to mainstream mythology has been so rarely heard. The modern sections have a haphazard, "greatest hits of the left" feeling, as the book jumps from an Abbie Hoffman speech to the lyrics of Public Enemy's "Fight the Power." The problem may be inherent in the format of the book. Everything is treated equally, and a speech by Danny Glover is given as much weight as an excerpt from W.E.B. DuBois's The Souls of Black Folk. For context and background, it's best to stick with the original People's History, but to hear the words right from the speakers' mouths, there's no better resource than Voices. --Jennifer Buckendorff 17549 1 9 2004 Voices of A People's History of the United States total:324|5:171|4:112|3:35|2:4|1:2| 324 1418 571 30 5 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Tue May 19 09:00:58 -0700 2009 Tue May 19 09:05:24 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2003 Fri Sep 21 12:48:45 -0700 2007 Fri Sep 21 13:13:04 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Jun 24 04:34:44 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 06 03:58:19 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 24 04:34:44 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Fri Jun 19 07:50:58 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 19 07:54:08 -0700 2009 Essential for an opened mind]]> 5 0 false false Tue Apr 21 08:27:55 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 21 08:30:35 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Feb 08 14:01:20 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 08 14:02:30 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Tue Mar 10 12:14:20 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 10 12:15:33 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Wed Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 1993 Thu May 14 07:15:35 -0700 2009 Thu May 14 07:19:26 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Tue Apr 07 14:53:31 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 07 14:54:03 -0700 2009
Many valuable primary sources, great for in class discussion, can be used in conjunction with CD]]> 5 0 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Jul 14 13:32:28 -0700 2007 Sat Jul 14 13:38:09 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Mar 03 05:58:58 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 03 05:58:58 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Wed Sep 17 16:01:29 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 17 16:01:59 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Apr 19 17:32:12 -0700 2007 Thu Apr 19 17:34:19 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Sep 06 10:50:27 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 06 10:54:05 -0700 2007 5 0 false false Wed Sep 05 10:17:22 -0700 2007 Sun Sep 09 13:11:35 -0700 2007 3 0 false false Sun Nov 16 10:22:03 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 16 10:23:46 -0800 2008 5 0 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Sun Aug 24 08:52:44 -0700 2008 Tue Nov 18 19:50:13 -0800 2008 0 0 false false Sun Mar 02 11:05:57 -0800 2008 Mon Aug 18 15:08:33 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Sun Jan 27 14:20:45 -0800 2008 Fri Aug 10 19:55:29 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 10 19:59:13 -0700 2007 5 0 false false Wed Nov 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Sun Jul 22 15:16:14 -0700 2007 Sun Jul 22 15:16:55 -0700 2007 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=15721