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Dec 16, 2009

Megan rated it:

I finally finished this after slogging through it for two weeks, and it was definitely worth it. Besides being a good refresher in U.S. history, particularly from a non-nationalist perspective, I learned a lot about people's movements, and the ways that people (as opposed to 'the great men of history') have created change in our country.

It's good to know that some of what Zinn covers in A People's History, even though unorthodox at the time he wrote it, has already filtered into pub More...

5 comments like (45 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Billy rated it:

DO NOT READ THIS BOOK! EVER! BURN IT! HOWARD ZINN SHOULD BE DRAWN AND QUARTERED IN A PUBLIC FORUM!!!

Seriously though, when I describe my highschool sophomore year history class I generally use the following sentence, "The theme of sophomore year history was: White people - bad, the downtrodden - good." Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" was our textbook. I HATE THIS BOOK! His basic thesis is that America was built on the blood and suffering More...

56 comments like (32 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Daniel rated it:

I feel like no one should call themselves an American without having a basic grasp of the history of this country. You'd be amazed how many people don't even know even the most common gradeschool history of the U.S., much less the real history of it.

This book is an absolute must read for anybody who cares to know how this country was really founded. Columbus "discovering" America, independence from England, Civil War over slavery, and World War 2 because we got attacked b More...

0 comments like (43 people liked it)

Dec 22, 2008

Jim rated it:

As a reference or an additional information source, this isn't terrible (4 stars). It really does hit a lot of high points & some that other histories have left out. The writing is good. While dry, it is readable & conveys a lot of information. My copy is an old one that only goes through the Vietnam war. He has updated versions to 2003, I believe.

It is NOT a balanced view of our history & is proposed reading for schools (minus 1 star). It shouldn't be unless read with other mater More...

40 comments like (21 people liked it)

Jun 21, 2010

Caris rated it:

When I was young, I was taught that Columbus discovered America. He landed at Plymouth Rock and was met by the indigenous peoples of the country. Together, they celebrated the landing and had am admirable feast. To commemorate this moment, henceforth known as Thanksgiving, my classmates and I threaded dried fruit necklaces and made headbands, complete with feathers.

I was taught this same course of events all throughout elementary school. At some point along the way, though likely no More...

48 comments like (50 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

MethuselasChild added it

I don't know why teachers would make kids read a book about America written by someone with so little clarity. In the World According to Zinn, Americans (especially THE RICH <tm>) are responsible for all the bad things that have happened in the last 2 centuries.If you believe as he does that America has been a net bad for the world, then by all means read this book. Hell, memorize it. If you believe that America has been a net good in the world, then read it so you can understand the damag More...

13 comments like (19 people liked it)

Jan 26, 2012

Jeffrey rated it:

Actually, if you're even somewhat familiar with American History (and I'm not talking about what you learned in your politically correct high school readers, even though in recent years more of the 'bad stuff' is leaking out to our high school students), there's nothing new here. So why are so many upset by Zinn? Most say they are bothered by Zinn's subjectivity (but who cares? after all, it's his book) and what some say is his "whining" tone. Hey, this will help you build your critic More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jul 27, 2010

Mike (the Paladin) rated it:

Oh my goodness aren't we brave to tell (re-tell) American history this way? "You've been lied to and only I have the strength of character to tell you about it"

Ya, ya, ya I've heard it all before. In C.S. Lewis' Great Divorce there's a high churchman of the Church of England who's going on about how brave he was to take a secular stand and renouncing "traditional" beliefs. The "person" he's talking to (who was with him at that time) calls him on it and s More...

14 comments like (16 people liked it)

Mar 27, 2008

Emily rated it:

People who don't approve of Zinn's equal opportunity perspective of history love to call him an America hater. I'm sure that George W. Bush would say that he's an enemy of freedom. But the thing that I love so much about Zinn and this book is his consistent ability to portray the United States (as defined by its history) as so much more than a static, monolitichly motivated country. Traditional approaches to history tell a student that our country was founded by white Christian men with lots More...

1 comment like (15 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Meghan rated it:

I like the book, because, well, I know that I should like it. After all, if it’s good enough to get a shout out from Good Will Hunting, it should be good enough for me. And of course, I find Zinn’s project of telling an alternative history admirable and important. But here’s the thing: I don’t really like the book. I kind of felt like Zinn essentializes all of the subaltern figures of history as mostly good, righteous people (for example, the poor racist southern farmer isn’t that bad; he wa More...

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Feb 18, 2011

Brian rated it:

Nobody likes to look in the mirror and see a big zit. Zinn makes us do so and a lot of people don't like that (it's not polite to point out zits). America has seen itself as perfect for a long time and we are taught that all the way from grade school through college (and every day on Fox News). People say Zinn blames America for everything. Honestly the bull shit has been so steeped the other way for so long, it forced his hand to go over the top in pointing our our flaws. The truth is pr More...

3 comments like (11 people liked it)

Nov 02, 2007

John rated it:

History as it's told in our high school history textbooks is history that focuses on American leaders, whether political, military, or business. Zinn argues convincingly that we need also to see history as it happened to "the people," and that this perspective is by no means synonymous with that of America's elites. In fact, the official line in America's history and politics has been that America is basically one big middle class. Certainly, America long had a larger middle class than More...

1 comment like (11 people liked it)

Oct 28, 2007

Rachel rated it:

This book taught me more about U.S. history than any class I ever took. I was never interested in history in school. Maybe I was just a budding socialist predisposed to reject the presidents-and-wars perspective. Maybe it was just boring.

Zinn's history is more accurate to what was actually going on than the textbooks are, and much more interesting. Viewing U.S. history as a struggle to gain and keep power on the part of the very rich, I began to see parallels with our own time, More...

8 comments like (9 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Ryan rated it:

"Zinn will blow your hair back." Thanks Matt Damon. This book was long, drawn out and boring. Do I really care to learn about every single union leader and strike in America? No, but most U.S. History Teachers think you do. Do yourself a favor, pick an interesting sentence in the introduction and write a paper about that. Save yourself a lot of trouble.

2 comments like (9 people liked it)

Jan 20, 2008

Andrew rated it:

A well written, but severely flawed historical work.
It reads more like sociology than history, with Zinn's concern for social groups and people's movements. Now, at a certain point, those areas with overlap, but for the most part he seems less concerned with getting to a historical truth than preaching a message. At that point, one has to wonder how he deals with contradictory evidence and conflicting opinions. Does he grapple with them and try to sift through all the available evidenc More...

1 comment like (10 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

sydney rated it:

Holy pignolia, this took me a long time to read.

But it was worth it. Zinn takes you from Columbus's arrival in North America all the way up to the crazy (read: corrupt) 2000 presidential election, highlighting the stories that don't normally get told in history textbooks or mainstream media. It's a "people's history," so he tells Vietnam from the POV of the protesters, industrialism from the workers, slavery from the slaves, etc. I learned a lot of new (and disturbing) More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Jasmine rated it:

I finally got through this beast, and it only took me about 3 months to do it (and a severely beaten up copy to prove it)! I completely agree with Eric Foner's quote on the back of my edition that says this book should be required reading. Getting through A People's History cover to cover in one fell swoop (although I will admit I took two mini breaks) is no easy task as the book is dense with information, but it's quite possibly the most important and transformative information you'll ever read More...

5 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Cedar rated it:

One of the most poorly written pieces of propaganda I've ever had the misfortune to read. I'll give it this: it filled in a few blindspots in my knowledge of history. There were several major events that I could swear I never learned about in history classes. (Perhaps because my high school history teacher was also the football coach and gave extra credit on exams for guessing the point spread of the upcoming game, but that's another story.) Other than that, reading this book was like pullin More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Oct 12, 2007

Brian rated it:

Why write a history of the United States when you know it is one-sided and basically propaganda? I understand his stated reasons for writing the book but I think the truth is better than "this is propaganda to fight mainstream history that I think is propaganda." Any one-sided historical accounts are not worth people's time and knowingly writing one is a waste of time. The truth remains obscured.

3 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jul 04, 2011

P.J. rated it:

History is about power, said Eugen Weber. This one is about the powerless majority, the humble members of society. The farmers, mechanics, laborers. The Native Americans dispossessed of their land. The slaves dispossessed of their liberty. The women and children, the rent payers, the downtrodden. This is the flip side of the elitist history you learned in school. It is not about kings or presidents, founding fathers or saviors or statesmen. It is "disrespectful of governments and respectful More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 03, 2008

Nick rated it:

An extremely readable, powerful, and provocative book. The Peoples History of the United States is a must have companion text for anyone studying American history.

The commonly taught historical perspective comes from the top of the pyramid: the government and the economic and social elite. Zinn's work refocuses that perspective to those at the middle and bottom of the pyramid: the working class and the disenfranchised lower classes. This previously unexplored vantage point allows More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 24, 2008

Steven rated it:

sometime in that heady, idealistic autumn of 2002 eric schleder and i were cubicle mates at, gee i think it was still pharmacia, yes, it was still pharmacia. we decided to read people's history in sort of a two person book club. i think we agreed to tackle 3 chapters a week. that was reasonable being that eric had a toddler and another child on the way and i am just lazy.

i stalled out after the chapter about Andrew Jackson, the man adorning our US currency 20 dollar bill. I was s More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Meagan rated it:

I've had to read this book twice now. well, excerpts from it. perhaps one day I'll read its entire contents but from the chapters that I have read I have arrived at the following conclusions:

1) I despise Christopher Columbus and the idiot Americans who parade him around, honoring his memory as if he sat down with our indigenous peoples and had corn bread and tea. Oh yeah, he was a swell guy, he saw that they perhaps would be cold so he gave them some blankets...infested with small po More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Rob rated it:

A fascinating and sobering introduction to Amerian history from the viewpoint of those with no political power: common laborers, slaves and sharecroppers, Native Americans, women. Zinn presents a scathing indictment of unfettered capitalism as the source of America's social and economic difficulties of yesterday and today. At times, Zinn relies too heavily on anecdotal evidence—as a a statistician, I was most impressed by his reports of large trends, such as the huge number of striking worker More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 08, 2009

Helenn rated it:

This book was mostly force into my hands by my wonderful American History teacher... and that was the end of it. The fact that I was been force to read the book made me not want to so much as touch it, so I barely got pass the first couple of pages. I read some here and there and I must admit it was really good. It provided me with information that was not in my test book and open a whole new perspective. The problem is that... my teacher was forcing me to make and analysis of it and thus I refu More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 05, 2007

Sam rated it:

Do you think the U.S. government's domination by business interests and the wealthy is a relatively recent development? Think the founding fathers would be appalled by the current situation? Think Republicans are responsible for tax cuts for the rich? Think Democrats are the party of the working class? Think JFK was a pretty good guy? Think U.S. involvementin WWII was morally motivated?
If you want to find out why you're wrong about all these things, if you want clear evidence that our gove More...

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

Jun 09, 2007

Ryan rated it:

I read this book for my AP United States History class required summer reading. I borrowed/recieved it from a friend who had a copy and had taken the class already. A hefty little read it appeared far to borish and complex--a weeks long read at least, and most likely I felt I'd end up trudging through the book word by word without an soul or passion for the text. Begrudgedly I opened up the book and began to run my eyes across the first few sentences. I was completely aghast at the bitter-tone, More...

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jan 08, 2009

Robb rated it:

This is one of those books that I pick up on occasion and read another chapter. Want to know what REALLY happened in this country's history...minus the varnish and bullshit? Some of the names will be familiar, but this ain't your high school history book...

4 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jul 18, 2008

Jarir rated it:

Great book for an alternative version of the historical events that shaped the USA. The title says it all, because it is a history from the point of view of the people.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 30, 2009

Steve rated it:

I read Zinn in an English class during the spring semester of my first year in college. I was taking "Chief American Writers I" with Krista Walter at Loyola, and she had us reading Zinn, along with Catharine Maria Sedgwick's "Hope Leslie" (which I didn't like), James Fenimore Cooper's "The Last of the Mohicans" (which I liked), and the "Heath Anthology of American Literature, Volume 1" (which had both pieces I liked and disliked). Zinn's book was the mos More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

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