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Summary: The Untold Story and Thoughts for Anti Zinn Maniac
Review: This is a great book. It may seem biased, but isn't history as taught throughout America's schools biased as well? These are the untold stories of American history, the stories of the common man, the oppressed populations and exposes injustices ignored throughout mainstream history teachings.
To people who treat Zinn with utter disrespect, who sit on their throne and judge, using fancy language to try to sound intelligent, and claim to be all-knowing have no place reading this book. You are obviously too closed minded and ignorant to consider diary entries, officially documented stories, letters and other writings from citizens early in the countries history as truth, as though fabricated in a effort to create an apparent conspiracy. There are some independent thoughts from the author, but most of the info is backed up with exceptionally documented writings. And by the way, if you think Zinn is a spoiled, rich old man, you should see his house. It is a very modest, small old house in Auburndale, MA (shown in a CSPAN interview). You do not know the man so don't begin to speculate his profits and what he does with them. That would be utterly stupid and foolhardy.
This book is informative and intriguing and will help open your mind to the plight of oppressed humans around the globe.
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Summary: A very interesting read, but DANGEROUS.
Review: Howard Zinn writes beautifully.Howard Zinn is a hypocrite. He spends the first chapter of the book, in beautiful prose, describing his disgust with American textbooks. He believes (and I agree) that they show a one-sided view of American history. He then writes a book guilty of the same act. Not only is it misleading for Zinn to leave out important historical facts, but it weakens his arguments. It is one of the most important rhetorical practices: do not deny the truth, but find a new way to interpret it. Zinn chooses to deny it. He goes on in great detail about the tragedies the Americans imposed in Vietnam, but never ONCE mentions any of the atrocities committed by the Vietcong against the Vietnamese people. He paints a portrait of the Vietcong as gentle patriots. This is ridiculous. There are hundreds of examples. This book is dangerous to anyone without an education. Zinn comes off as a fair and intelligent writer, and will easily persuade anyone who does not have a thorough knowledge or understanding of American and world politics. If you are a highly educated human being, I DO recommend this book. It is extremely interesting, and fun to argue with. But if you plan to merely read through this book, accept it word for word and never question it, stay away. Nothing should be read in that way. Especially this.
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Summary: Think of "1984" - An Orwellian rewriting of History
Review: "Who controls the present controls the past and who controls the past, controls the future". -- Orwell, "1984". Now THIS is a book that should be mandatory reading! Apparently, collectivist thinking has taken over American Education to the point where completly falsified and unscientific versions of "History" can be published with the aura of respectability. This book makes so many ridiculous claims (such as about the "good" indians, who just happened to slaughter their ennemies in the most cruel ways) that it is a matter of disbelief that anyone should take it seriously. Those who heap praise on such a book are either pushing a cynical political agenda or are just plain uneducated and unable to THINK. Simple extrapolation from the present day and a few very simple and unmistakable facts about history allow the reader to invalidate most claims made by the author. It is enough to know that there was a population explosion in industrialised countries in the 19th century to realize that the one single factor that really changed was that living conditions for the average person grew so comfortable that most children survived into adulthood instead of dying an early death. As late as 1750, even the wealthiest people lost many, if not most of their children. Think of Johann Sebastian Bach, a very wealthy person in his time, yet he lost 7 of his 17 children and his first wife. No matter how bleak the picture of industrial society, as painted by Dickens and others, it was infinitely better than anything that preceeded it. You don't need to study much history, a single fact, true without any possible doubt, demonstrates it clearly. Therefore, if the average and the poorest populations were those who most benefitted from industrialisation, then most of the other claims of Zinn (and in no way new or unique, but really just a warmed-up marxist view of history) must be false, too. In fact, Marx himself already had to falsify the data in his books, for even during his own lifetime, reality contradicted every single prediction he had made about the evolution of capitalist society. Workers were continuously better off and were not getting poorer (or else, there would have had to bee some strange and unexplained "jump" in conditions, to give us the present situation). The market was not gobbled up by monopolies, instead, it diversified ever more. The only true monopoly that managed to survive and expand unrelentingly was the State. Unfortuately, science and logical thought is no longer considered very important by too many americans, given that they can make a very comfortable living by being Homer Simpsons. This fundamentallly ridicules their very claim that modern society is so hard on the poor. If society was really meting out rewards and punishment according to merit, most of the stupid people would be DEAD! Instead, they thrive and write thick books. If anything, this might be the most awful aspect of Capitalism: that it is so efficient at generating wealth that even the useless and the parasites can make an amazingly comfortable living, for I presume that the anti-capitalist Zinn is making a fortune off this book and all the well-meaning but naive people who buy it, invalidating every biased word within. Go ahead, buy this book, so that Zinn can afford another capitalist cocktail and some caviar at another glamorous presentation for the poor and downtrodden masses in American history!
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Summary: necessary for democracy
Review: Zinn's book is not intended to be a complete picture of American History. He clearly states that the attention is to illuminate a view of our history that has been for too long left out. Having said that I wouldn't use this book to teach 8th grade American history but I do believe it should be required reading for any adult attempting to understand the complete picture of American history. People that only read American high school textbooks get a broad, sanitized version of American history. I have substitute taught for several years and seen history books that deal with slave revolts in a single paragraph. And usually through the use of ancedotal celebrity-type driven stories that do not give the reader a clear understanding of the lives of the majority of people. Most Americans, as today, were not presidents or celebrity types - the over study of these people may be interesting to some but it does not help one develop a clear understanding of history to be able to name all the presidents - a computer can do that.
Simply put martin luther king did not encompass the entire civil rights movement, nor was rachel carson the soul impetus for the environmental movement. It was everyday people like you and me. To teach kids that only the extrodinary have a place in history is to disconnect them from the history they live now. In doing so, we teach them that they are powerless. A nation of citizens that learn powerlessness, a sense that they are as likely to change the world as play for the NBA, or the idea that they shouldn't challenge the system (or as conservatives call it patriotism) drains the spirit and vitality of democracy.
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Summary: What a Bad Country This Is!
Review: According to People's History of the United States, this country is a bad country, conceived and built by bad people with bad motives, did nothing but bad things throughout its history, and continues to infest the world with bad things and bad ideas to this day. If one wants to write about bad things in a democracy, he should know two things: 1. (Quoting Winston Churchill: ) "Democracy is the worst form of all governments - except compared with all other forms of government." Nonetheless, the list of bad things in a democracy is endless. 2. One of those bad things is that it produces lots of vitriolic cynics, like the author of this book, and they can still find voice. Try to write People's History of the People's Republic of China, and you'll be in jail before can say Tien An Men Square. Howard Zinn's system is saturated with class, race and gender hatred that is at the core of the divisive politics of today. This book caters to the blame-America-for-everything crowd, and will find enthusiastic consumers.
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Summary: A Departure From History Class
Review: Zinn has numerous publications and they all center around the espousal of truth or at least a more laudable explanation of what really happened in history.
A People's History of the United States is best described as a textbook that would be viewed as unacceptable for educators seeking to impart a blind patriotism in the younger generation.
Zinn begins, as the title suggests, in 1492, describing Christopher Columbus not as the hero he was portrayed as in school, but the conqueror who enslaved and disposessed the American Indian population.
The author moves on to discuss the biased forming of the Constitutional framework, and through to the present, detailing government lies and misleading information which has been disseminated to the American people as truth.
I would recomend this book for anyone intersted in a real history.
My one problem is that it is poorly documented, and being incredibly thick reads like a textbook-but a good one at that.
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Summary: Where Was This History?
Review: I came across Zinn's book as a result of Amazon's recommendations, and I'm glad I did. Even as a high school student, I sought out the "other side of the story" of the history I was taught, realizing that history is often written by the "victors," who come out on top, and that other voices are muted if included at all. Zinn's approach appealed to me immediately, as I was more than aware of what our leaders did during varius historical eras. I wanted to hear the voices of those who didn't come out on top, who were sacrificed (usually involuntarily) to further the interests of the U.S., and who fought to make this country begin to live up to the words on which it was founded. If all you know about American history is what you learned in school, read this book. If I have any criticism, it's that Zinn's writing sometimes leaves a bit to be desired in terms of style. But that's probably due at least in part to the massive scope of the book and the amount of material packed between it's covers. At times, one is overwhelmed by the amount of information Zinn includes. At some points it's engrossing, and at other points it's best taken in small chunks. This is not a book for bedtime reading. You have to "bring something" to this book, it's much better to read it when you're likely to be more aware.
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Summary: Polemical, but well written
Review: No citations. This book is very readable, but entirely too revisionist to be truthful. Zinn is more interested in his class perspective than in actually portraying history. There are far better one volume histories out there. If you are a college student taking American History 101, this book should give you the right perspective to get that B or better term paper. An easy prose style does not a great history book make.
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Summary: Biased book
Review: This book should only be read if one is also reading a book with a more balanced perspective of American History. Zinn ignores way too many facts from American history and will leave the reader with a distorted view of the past. If one is comfortable having a half true view of history, by all means read this book and ignore all others.
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Summary: A Truly Amazing History Book
Review: I was completely blown away by this book. Back in high school I received an award for excellence in American History by a well-known national organization and I now realize that what I was taught in this arena was not the entire truth. I was stunned to read about Columbus' horrendous treatment of the American Indians after they welcomed him with open arms upon his arrival. Learning that our Government enacted the Sedition Act in 1791, allowing the Government to imprison anyone who spoke out against them, came as a complete surprise after I had been taught how important freedom of speech was supposed to be in the minds of our forefathers. (And yes, people were sent to jail under this act, too.) Abraham Lincoln, one of the most revered Presidents in our history, actually made public statements while running for office that talked about his belief in the supremacy of the white race. And his original Emancipation Proclamation, published four months before the one that became famous, offered to allow any Southern states who quit the Civil War and rejoined the Union to keep all of their slaves working for them exactly as they had become accustomed to before. It was only after none of the Southern states accepted this offer that Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that we've come to know. (Zinn also talks about how the real reasons for the Civil War had more to do with economic disagreements between the North and South than it had to do with the subject of slavery.) In addition to this we learn how wealth and big business rule all and for the most part always have in our country. And we also learn how the media go along with the game, careful to not disrupt big business and the wealthy elite. Zinn has a great, easily readable style of writing, and he backs his words up with solid evidence based upon the records of whichever era he is describing at the time. This was a very interesting, eye-opening read for someone who has spent most of his adult life as a voting Republican! I am very, very grateful that I discovered and read this book.
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