Goodreads | Rachel's review

Rachel's review

People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present (P.S.)
by Howard Zinn

[close]

blog this review

Copy/paste the text below into your blog.

<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2767.People_s_History_of_the_United_States_1492_to_Present?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present (P.S.)" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1161517606m/2767.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2767.People_s_History_of_the_United_States_1492_to_Present?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1899.Howard_Zinn">Howard Zinn</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6867436?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 5 of 5 stars 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-tested tricks of manipulation. It is in the best interest of those in power for the people to have a hazy, patriotic view of American history, or they might start recognizing BS when they hear it:
 
 "...up to this time, as we knew, we had heard of no open act of aggression by the Mexican army, but that the danger was imminent that such acts would be committed. I said that in my opinion we had ample cause of war..."
 -President Polk in 1845, justifying the invasion of Mexico
 
 "The determination of our slaveholding President to prosecute the war, and the probability of his success in wringing from the people men and money to carry it on, is made evident, rather than doubtful, by the puny opposition arrayed against him. No politician of any considerable distinction or eminence seems willing to hazard his popularity with his party...by an open and unqualified disapprobation of the war. None seem willing to take their stand for peace at all risks; and all seem willing that the war should be carried on, in some form or other."
 -Frederick Douglass, in 1848, on the war with Mexico
 
 "If there is a war, you will furnish the corpses and the taxes, and others will get the glory. Speculators will make money out of it--that is, out of you. Men will get high prices for inferior supplies, leaky boats, for shoddy clothes and pasteboard shoes, and you will have to play the bill, and the only satisfaction you will get is the privelege of hating your Spanish fellow-workmen, who are really your brothers and who have had as little to do with the wrongs of Cuba as you have."
 -Bolton Hall, treasurer of the American Longshoremen's Union, writing in 1898 about the Spanish-American war
 
 "I intend to be most conservative, but in the interests of the corporations themselves and above all in the interests of the country."
 -Theodore Roosevelt
 
 "...a review of the diplomatic history of the past 35 years will show that petroleum has historically played a larger part in the external relations of the United States than any other commodity."
 -a State Department officer, in 1945
 
 "Victory is in sight."
 -Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara on Vietnam, 1963
 
 "I have never been more encouraged in my four years in Vietnam."
 -General William Westmoreland, 1967
 
 "Hanoi has accepted near-total defeat."
 -Columnist Joseph Alsop, 1972
 
 "I am absolutely convinced if Congress made available $722 million in military assistance by the time I asked... the South Vietnamese could stabilize the military situation in Vietnam today."
 -President Gerald Ford, April 1975
 
 "By virtue of its military victory the United States is likely to have more influence in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries than any industrial nation has ever exercised."
 -NY Times business correspondent, after the Persian Gulf War
 
 "One percent of the nation owns a third of the wealth. The rest of the wealth is distributed in such a way as to turn those in the 99 percent against one another: small property owners against the propertyless, black against white, native-born against foreigh-born, intellectuals and professionals against the uneducated and unskilled. These groups have resented one another and warred against one another with such vehemence and violence as to obscure their common position as sharers of leftovers in a very wealthy country."
 -Howard Zinn
 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/419307?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Rachel's review
rating:
bookshelves: history

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-tested tricks of manipulation. It is in the best interest of those in power for the people to have a hazy, patriotic view of American history, or they might start recognizing BS when they hear it:

"...up to this time, as we knew, we had heard of no open act of aggression by the Mexican army, but that the danger was imminent that such acts would be committed. I said that in my opinion we had ample cause of war..."
-President Polk in 1845, justifying the invasion of Mexico

"The ...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it) flag

comments (showing 1-2 of 2)

newest »

date

message 1: by Leon764

11/19/2007 09:03AM

I an sorry to tell you this, Rachel, but this man Howard Zinn hates America. Is someone who hates his own country really the person to teach you about its history? Do a search for Dennis Prager interviewing Howard Zinn. There is a podcast available so you can hear it for yourself.

http://dennisprager.townhall.c...

Happy hunting.