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Summary: The revenge of the marginalized!
Review: A great many people who have reviewed this book seem to be surprised and appalled that Zinn has focused on the dark side of the American story. This should have been painfully obvious from the title- The 'PEOPLES'History of the United States. I'm more surprised that so many people have reserved so much invective for an author who dares to write a history from the perspective of the marginalized majority of this country- a large group who haven't always been on the recieving end of the American dream. Yes, this book is biased, but so is every flag waving history book I was forced to read when growing up. Kudos to Zinn for providing a counter balance to tear jerking stories of honest,kind hearted pilgrims searching for religious freedom. This book will be hard for some to swallow- especially those who have been raised on the jingoistic pap that many of our educational institutions call history. But this book is important and a must read for the serious student of American history. The old cliche' that 'history is written by the victors' is true and this book is the voice of those who were under the boot. Read it!
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Summary: Hardcore American History
Review: Dr. Zinn tells the public what they dont read in the text books. A must read for anybody who is in serach of truth about American goernment.
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Summary: Excellent book that gives another perspective of history
Review: I had to read this book and write a twenty-five page summary on this book for a history class. After reading the book, I was blown away at the content in the book. Okay, so the book is a biased, but it is still a good book. This book teaches you what you don't learn in school, the darker side of history. In elementary school, they never teach you the darker side of the Columbus tale. The chapter on Christopher Columbus is the one I found most shocking. It almost makes you sick when you hear how great Columbus was. Although I don't know if I agree completely with the extreme viewpoints of the book, it provides great insight on American History and acts as a good counter balance to all those history books you read in school that only tell about the highlights of history, not the parts that no one wants to hear about. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves history.
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Summary: Even accepting Zinn's biases, the book falls short
Review: If a scale has a ten pound weight on the right side, to balance the scale, ten pounds must be placed on the left. However, in the realm of ideas, does equal imbalance of your own viewpoint create balance? I think not. Rather than write a history of the United States that is properly balanced (from a leftist viewpoint), Zinn seeks to counter other biases by loading up this book with his own. Even from his own leftist viewpoint, Zinn falls short. You must read volume one of Clarence Carson's (a conservative) multivolume US history to find out what "mercantilism" is and how it leads nations to war. Zinn also makes no mention of the "Know Nothing" party and gives fairly short shrift to nativism in general. However, a conservative historian, such as Paul Johnson, gives treatment to the anti immigrant attitudes in the mid nineteenth century. Many good histories of the Civil War and biographies of Lincoln also cover "Know Nothingism" extensively. Perhaps the greatest flaw in the book is the following: Zinn purports to write a history of the underdogs in US history ... a book written not by the winneers but about the forgotten groups. However, the book commences at 1492. If book were truly about the underdogs, then Zinn would have written about native Americans entire history (as best it can be traced) on our continent. The book would commence centuries prior to 1492. Since the book commences at the time of Columbus, the truth is that Zinn is more concerned with a rant against the white, European male rather than with a real history of the groups he purports to represent. Quite frankly, it is rather insulting and patronizing to indicate that such an important group as American Indians has no significant history of it's own unrelated to it's interactions with the white race. The book kind of drags. Rather than being as interesting as "traditional" histories, the book, quite frankly, becomes boring. He goes on and on, changing subjects, rather than sticking to the topic he's on. For exasmple, in his chapter on robber barons, he goes off topic to discuss labor movements. He has the same discussion in other chapters so he is both disorganized in going off topic and boring in continuiously giving the same schpiel over and over. All in all, Zinn sets out to give balance as he defines the term. Unfortunately, from Zinn's own viewpoint, he falls short.
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Summary: absolutely necessary in the occident...
Review: i recommend this book to anyone that believes that mathematics originated from greece (math and science are of african origin, my friends, just like mankind). i recommend this book to anyone who thinks that columbus "discovered" america. i recommend this book to anyone who votes republican. i recommend this book to anyone who does not understand the complexities of an "indian" reservation. i recommend this book to any one who thinks that "african americans" have had ample time to be on a equivalent socio-economic status with caucasians. i recommend this book to anyone who does not believe in, or feels that affirmative has hindered them. i recommend this book to anyone who does not know how "america, the beautiful" econmoically crushed and politcally controlled latin america. i recommend this book to anyone that does not believe in reparations for "african americans". i recommend this book to anyone who did not know or refuses to admit that sicilians are part african. i recommend this book to anyone that does not believe that "african americans" built the necessary financial spinal cord for this country by working for over 400 years for free. i recommend this to anyone who believes that america does not owe the native american and the african a great deal of funding so that they can repair their neighborhoods and communities, from the actual roads (horrid driving conditions) to the public schools. this book should be read by students of all nationalites through out their K-12 school experience. it is an excellent contrast to the history books currently in circulation in the public school system that make an apotheosis out of this blasphemous country and their devil-ridden past. no, i'm am not a communist or anything, nor do i hate america-i just think that all people should know the truth behind this capitalist superpower known as america, and how it is slowly but surely destroying all that is natural, logical and spiritual about this world. the truth should be known and not hidden (this is why i think that south carolina should keep the confederate flag up-the naacp should address real issues and quit being punks). this book tells american history from the viewpoint of all those who were oppressed. now i know that alot of people will claim that zinn's arguments and information contained within this book are fallacious, but i pose this question to them: is the history that i learned in school completely correct? realizing that the study of history is basically the interpretation of accounts of people who lived during a particular time it is essential to read not only the majority opinion, but it is detrimentally important to the advancement of mankind to consider those who were used as stepping stones for the upper echelon to assume their current positon apon nigh. investigate anything that you read and hear. onasuss maximus the despot: primate foundation. peace
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Summary: Lenin's History of the United States
Review: While Zinn points out many of the inconsistancies and cruelties in many events and periods in our national heritage, he fails to show the total perspective. For example, Zinn paints the picture of the American Revolution as an elitist uprising but fails to explain why the peasants of Massachussetts fired on the British at Lexington and Concorde. Why did the common people of New York City tear the head off the statue of King George III in 1776? As a keen student and accomplished scholar of American History, I found most chapters laughable because Zinn simply left out the voices of those his modern and comfortable sensablities do not side with. Zinn and his book, are clearly like idealistic college students who haven't had a real job and had to deal with people. Anyone who has and possesses half a brain, would revere and value American institutions for harnassing human nature and the laws of economics. The very nature of these institutions has allowed for the grass-roots movements Zinn loves (after-all, Rome was not built in a day). The book is clearly a vehicle for Zinn's advocation for a socialist revolt-the last chapter proves this. I don't know of many historians who include a manifesto at the end of their work. Zinn is clearly a socialist, and I would like to challenge him to purport some of his views to a Pole or Hungarian who has lived through that sort of system.
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Summary: BIASED: Aren't we all? ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY: Yes.
Review: Nobody in their right minds would even think of calling this a balanced book. It's not SUPPOSED to be. The best way to use this book is to read it alongside any available U.S. history textbook (except maybe Tindall and Shi's AMERICA: A NARRATIVE HISTORY) and pick out the discrepancies between the glorious saga of progress and the oppression, "reprisals," "removals," "insurrections," and "counterinsurgencies" (let's face it, foreign AND domestic), that forms the mass of Zinn's American history. Zinn's history starts with the doomed Native Americans of the Caribbean and ends with an impassioned paean to us, the "guards," to think for ourselves and do something about making our society live up to its never-realized potential. His revelations concerning pre-Civil War land and labor movements in New York State and other parts of the country (while most were admittedly drawn from Philip Foner's labor history) were particularly fascinating. Don't ACCEPT this book. Nobody wants that to happen. The point of books like these is to get readers to actually go out and investigate sources and events to get the real picture. Given the media and government domination of popular culture and education, this book is probably more important today than it ever was.
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Summary: Great Book
Review: History always put me to sleep in school. After law school though I decided to force myself to read a U.S. history book and I just have to say thank goodness for Howard Zinn. This book was an eye opening experience. Be warned though it leaves you with a kind of frustration when you think about all those who haven't learned the truth about the U.S. gov't and oppressing people yet eg. when you see all the Columbus statues everywhere. I would have thought this a kinda Conspiracy theory text if not written by a college professor and PhD from Columbia. Who knew? My only regret is that the book didn't mention the oppression of other races through racist immigration laws which only allowed in free whites and peoples of african descent while barring Japanese from entering the U.S. through a 1924 act, barring chinese through the 1874 chinese exclusion act which kept chinese out till 1943, and the 1917 creation of a 'barred zone' banning people from India from entering the U.S. till 1946. These laws explain why many of these races are not yet well represented in government and media. Zinn's book also praises Samuel Gompers who had made racist comments about Hindus before they were barred from the U.S. Good books on these other races are Asian Americans and Congress by a professor Kim I forget the first name, and Asians in America by H.Brett Melendy. Best Zinn insight I got-the constitution's Life liberty and property is great till you realize slaves and women were property back then. -So how can justices Like Scalia say hey lets look to the meaning of the constitution as first written? I thank Howard Zinn for the help this book gave me in understanding a little bit more this cooky world I live in.
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Summary: Have you ever heard him lecture?
Review: I would simply like to ask if any of these people have ever heard him give a lecture. Not only does he not follow a logical pattern of thought, but preaches the need for a revolution. My reason for not caring for him is not because my views differ from his, the reason is that I can't listen, or read, from a person who cannot form a clear thesis, argue it, while still finding time to dispel doubts by disproving the oppositions arguments. Howard Zinn simply spurts out ideas without having any back up. This book of his has the potential to be good, but before I would ever call it so, Howard needs to learn the finer points of making an argument.
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Summary: the most inspiring and interesting history book I've read
Review: This book was one of the first history books I've ever been able to read cover to cover (and I was a history major!) It was far more interesting than the nautious repetitiveness of those historians who tell U.S. history from one president to the next. (and who cares what size his bed was anyways?) So what if the author is radical in his views? Isn't it about time we heard something fresh, something different then the uninspried mainstream goo we wade through all our lives? I think this book just might change my life.
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