Goodreads | A People's History of the United States: From 1492 to the Present

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Megan rated it:

(review of isbn 0060926430)

06/23/07

bookshelves: history, non-fiction

Read in June, 2007

recommends it for: all Americans

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 public educ...more 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 public education. For instance, it was very clearly taught in my high school U.S. history course that Columbus was not the genteel 'discoverer' of the Americas but rather the wealth-obsessed leader of a genocide against indigenous people in the Caribbean.
However, we didn't cover the fact that even as late as the 1960s and '70s the U.S. government was supporting violence against American Indians. Or that 'equal protection' under the 14th amendment was granted to corporations many decades before it was granted to women. (Literally, judges declared that corporations were considered 'persons' - just as they had finally said black men were persons and not just property - and then they later ruled that the term didn't apply to women.) And we certainly didn't cover the continuous use of military forces by both corporations and government against worker protests, events like the Ludlow Massacre (a strike by miners against the Rockefeller family's Colorado Fuel & Iron Corporation), where first the Rockefeller's own hired thugs, and then the government's attempts to bring in strikebreakers, did not break the determination of the workers, and eventually the National Guard launched machine gun fire on a tent colony of workers and their families. And while we maybe mentioned the death of civilians at Hiroshima, we didn't talk about the millions of civilians killed by U.S. troops in the Philippines, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and both directly/indirectly in numerous Central and South American countries.

The gist of Zinn's book (and this is a long gist, but it's a long book): the U.S. was founded to protect the interests of the wealthy, and continuous class conflict has been suppressed regularly through the creation of nationalist sentiment, as well as through the pitting of oppressed social groups one against the other (for instance, poor blacks against poor whites, or the lower class against the middle class). Furthermore, as we have accepted 'history' as it has been given to us in school textbooks, we've allowed ourselves both to believe the myth that 'the people' are actually represented by the government, and that we have democracy, while allowing a rich elite to maintain power and help create the continuous war economy we now live in, in which we continuously say we cannot afford to provide people with jobs, food, or education, but yet somehow shell out trillions to military contractors to create weapons we should never even be thinking about using.

Some of this I had already picked up here and there, but Zinn's book is a sort of a thick concentration of it all, a thorough look at who "we" as the United States really are. While certainly not a pretty self-portrait, it does end on a hopeful note: 'the people' have created change, and we can do it again.
The catch: change has always been achieved by direct action (violent and non-violent). It has never been achieved by voting....less

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Billy rated it:

(review of isbn 0060528370)

08/11/07

Read in January, 1999

recommends it for: Someone who hates America, success, and all thats right with the world

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 of the ...more

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Emily rated it:

(review of isbn 0060838655)

03/27/08

bookshelves: booksofthepast

recommends it for: America haters

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

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Leon764 added it (review of isbn 0060838655)

11/19/07

recommends it for: Read cautiously

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

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John rated it:

(review of isbn 0060838655)

11/02/07

Read in March, 2005

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 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 most of the rest of the world, but as Zinn points out, we are "a middle class society governed for the most part by its upper classes." And what we see time after time (as in the present day) is that those who govern us have worked consistently for their own class first and for the country-as-a-whole second.

Zinn takes a hard look at the slaughter of the native Americans, at the exploitation of blacks and poor whites, at the alliance between government and business interests, at the struggles for the abolition of slavery, for labor rights, for civil rights, for women's rights... and over and over we see politicians taking action, passing and enforcing legislation only when popular movements force them to do so. Not simply when the electorate that voted them into office wants it, but when the people demand it in ways that cannot be easily ignored (as the polls more or less can when both parties are so similar on many basic issues). Voting, in fact, can be seen as consitently as a device for making people feel empowered while changing little.

I'll let Zinn speak for himself a bit.

“My viewpoint, in telling the story of the United States, is different: that we must not accept the memory of states as our own. Nations are not communities and never have been. The history of any country, presented as the history of a family, conceals fierce conflicts of interest (sometimes exploding, most often repressed) between conquerors and conquered, masters and slaves, capitalists and workers, dominators and dominated in race and sex. And in such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, as Albert Camus suggested, not to be on the side of the executioners.”

Zinn puts himself consistently on the side of "the people," inasmuch as there can be said to be such a group--certainly it's not a unified group, and Zinn recognizes this. Still, Zinn would argue, the diversity represented by "the people" have more in common with one another (as much as they have been prevented from seeing it) than they do with the elites who run the country.

Fair warning: it's a long read, and pretty dense. Definitely not what we used to call "drunk-on-the-beach reading." In fact, if you want to read a book that shares some insights with this book without the exhaustive focus, you might start with James Loewen's _Lies My Teacher Told Me_. Really, these are two books that should be read by anyone who wants to understand our country and its history. If it's true that "those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it," then I think a necessary corollary is that "those who don't know the truth about history are doomed to repeat it."...less

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Rachel rated it:

(review of isbn 0060838655)

10/28/07

bookshelves: history

Read in October, 2007

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, time-tes...more

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Meghan rated it:

(review of isbn 0060838655)

07/11/07

Read in July, 2007

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 ...more

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Peezy rated it:

(review of isbn 0060838655)

06/14/07

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 by...more

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Matthew rated it:

(review of isbn 0060838655)

03/24/08

bookshelves: history, politics

Read in February, 2006

Oh shit. The facade has been stripped away and now i only see the matrix. Holy shit, i need to run for senate and set people straight. Seriously, it is now frighteningly obvious that a very real system exists to keep the powerful and rich powerful and rich. Not a consciouss system or a small group of people running the show like a cabal, but a vast disorganized and dispersed network of the interests of very rich people. And if you get in the way of that system, the system will develop redundanci...more

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sydney rated it:

(review of isbn 0060838655)

06/19/07

Read in June, 2007

recommends it for: historians, teachers, curious americans

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) aspects...more

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Jasmine rated it:

(review of isbn 0060838655)

09/20/07

Read in September, 2007

recommends it for: Everyone

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

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Meagan rated it:

(review of isbn 0060838655)

06/27/07

recommends it for: neocons, embarassed Americans and uneducated valley girls

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 pox. Way t...more

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ProfBleen rated it:

(review of isbn 0060838655)

05/28/07

bookshelves: 2007, general-history

Read in May, 2007

recommends it for: Anyone interested in what US schools don't teach in American history

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 work...more

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Jarir rated it:

(review of isbn 0060838655)

07/18/08

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.

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Jeffrey rated it:

(review of isbn 0060838655)

09/23/08

bookshelves: history-historical

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), 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.

What frequently happens is that people respond emotionally and within that emotion analyze incorrectly, therefore, missing the mark a...more

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David rated it:

(review of isbn 0060838655)

08/15/08

This is nothing less than the definitive history of the plight of the people of the United States of America. It speaks truth to power, sticks it to the man, not like that judgmental piece of skulduggery by Paul Johnson, that rogue!

Popular interest in the book, no doubt, is fueled by a desire for an alternative view of history which speaks truth to power. But this book, strange to say, has itself become an orthodox view - it has passed into "conventional wisdom" to use John...more This is nothing less than the definitive history of the plight of the people of the United States of America. It speaks truth to power, sticks it to the man, not like that judgmental piece of skulduggery by Paul Johnson, that rogue!

Popular interest in the book, no doubt, is fueled by a desire for an alternative view of history which speaks truth to power. But this book, strange to say, has itself become an orthodox view - it has passed into "conventional wisdom" to use John Kenneth Galbraith's term - of American intellectual life. The new conventional wisdom, which understands itself as alternative and antiestablishment, holds, it seems with far more passion than argument or reason, that history is unjustly told by the victors and ruling class, and that history therefore must be rewritten to accomodate the underdog. Zinn believes this with 'passionate intensity', and, in the spirit of dissent and civil disobedience, reverses the 'victor' principle: he rewrites American history from the dispossessed People's point of view, i.e. from the view of the downtrodden and victims of racism and political oppression.

Nothing says that this 'reversal' is any more just or true than the (presupposed) opposite point of view.

If it is true "People's History" is being taught in American high schools, I think this is a big mistake. What it risks teaching is this: passionate adherence to a certain ideology is more desirable than the employment of sound judgment, prudence, reason. Here is the most important point: this particular "alternative" view, if accepted the way Howard Zinn seems to want it, and if taken to heart, will not tolerate any other evaluation of history besides itself; because any other evaluation, according to the merciless logic of this way of thinking, is necessarily sympathetic with the oppressors. The reason for this intolerance, I think, is that this view has fundamentally eviscerated the use of reason for the sake of political action, that is, it has abdicated the need to evaluate the truth of its own judgments because, as the slogan goes, it is time to Act Now! and judge later. (The Red-Neck version of this is 'Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out.')

The problems of racial and social injustice are far too serious for such unwise and oversimplied thinking.

...less

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Nick rated it:

(review of isbn 0060838655)

03/03/08

bookshelves: favorites

Read in October, 2002

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 the rea...more

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Ben rated it:

(review of isbn 0060838655)

03/21/08

Read in March, 2008

This book was a marathon. Over 700 pages. It took me almost a month to read. Seriously, break it up into volumes. That frustration aside, the information in this book was really important, while being very disturbing. It was a side of American history that very few people know, of course, in the afterword, Zinn admits that historians decide what becomes of history so we have to take all history somewhat carefully, knowing the source.

Zinn admits that he is embarrassed when readers and critics...more This book was a marathon. Over 700 pages. It took me almost a month to read. Seriously, break it up into volumes. That frustration aside, the information in this book was really important, while being very disturbing. It was a side of American history that very few people know, of course, in the afterword, Zinn admits that historians decide what becomes of history so we have to take all history somewhat carefully, knowing the source.

Zinn admits that he is embarrassed when readers and critics point out flaws but as a reader and a voluntary, if amateur, critic, I feel I am allowed to point out a few flaws. Zinn tried to blame all crime on poverty, considering Enron and all the other corporate fraud over the last several years, this position becomes harder to argue. Greed is as much of a motivation for crime as poverty. Zinn has a very one-sided view of history, which, again, he admits to in the afterward. He left a bad taste in my mouth when he mentioned Nickel and Dimed, a book I thoroughly disliked because of the contempt and condesending tone used to mention all of the working poor, a large majority of Zinn's subjects. Finally, I think his views on Utopia are very naive, as all views on Utopia probably are.

All that being said, it was fascinating to learn how much of our nation's history has been decided, much against public opinion and public morality, by the richest 1% of our society. It leaves a disagreeable pit in your stomach to see the extant some people will go to increase their already overly-substantial wealth (making more in one year than I will make in my entire lifetime). It gets to the point where you just have to ask what the point of it all is. The militarism that the government (the government for the people, by the people) has charged unwilling taxpayers for for the last 50 years is more than disturbing, often to the detriment of programs focused on helping the population, don't say welfare, that's got a negative connotation, say programs to help the poor. I think Zinn should be more realistic and explore ways of supporting a presidency without corporate backing which would eliminate 90% of the motivation he charged with almost all of the atrocities mentioned in this book.

All of the presidents discussed in this book come off badly, it's the nature of the material. They become the villians in the story. Understanding that I am a somewhat-educated liberal in the time of what I consider to be the worst presidency in the history of the United States, George W., I know that one of the reasons that George W. seems so bad, despite the fact that he's just not very bright, is the ease of access to information for modern society. Andrew Jackson was kind of a jackass but people didn't know as much about his policies as people now know about Bush's belief that global warming is a myth and that weapons of mass destruction, while held by most of our allies, were present in Iraq, prompting the war. I'm sorry if I turned this into a slightly political argument but I think this was part of Zinn's purpose.

Finally, I think that another of Zinn's purposes in writing this book was to demonstrate the power of the people, "Ye are many, they are few!" but much of the history that he brings up doesn't go well for the people....less

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Andrew rated it:

(review of isbn 0060838655)

01/20/08

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 evidence? ...more

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Steven rated it:

(review of isbn 0060838655)

01/24/08

bookshelves: to-read

Read in January, 2002

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 so outrag...more

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