Rating: 
Summary: Great Writing, good for a second opinion about history
Review: I think this book is a must have for a American History Course or just to read. Zinn is a great writer and he uses good evidence and analysis. This book is appealing because it takes a different view on history. Every historian has their biases so I'm not judging him on his beliefs, it is a great book
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Summary: An excellent counterpart to almost any standard history book
Review: Zinn paints an excellent picture of the part of US history that is usually ignored by most history books taught in schools today. Althought not a good stand-alone history book, it balances out the normal view of history with the peoples (as in proletariate) role in American history, a role often ignored by most texts. This book should definately be required reading for all students of history.
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Summary: I couldn't stop reading it
Review: This book was reguired in one of my college courses. I found it very interesting and I read it cover to cover during my winter break. I recommend this book to anyone who has interest in history and politics. This book really moved me and it was one of the best readings I made during my college career.
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Summary: Great Supplement to Text
Review: While this book doesn't explain all sides of US History, it does serve as a great supplement to a more traditional text. This book does a great job of presenting traditional American heroes in a new and usually damning light.
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Summary: More Marxist Dribble
Review: Interesting book, but too one sided to be taken seriously. Good points made pertaining to injustices and misconceptions regarding the idealistic but unreallistic perceptions of the founding and progress of the United States thru the line of history to the present. Unfortunately, the author seemed more intent on drawing conclusions to support his villification of America to the point of ignoring obvious counterpoints to many of his positions. At least, that was my impression. I would suggest Paul Johnson's book, "A History of the American People" as a more balanced work. It covers many of the same issues and does not cut anyone any slack regarding injustices and some of the idealistic misconceptions we have regarding American history, but, it does present a more objective look.
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Summary: Great History
Review: A nescesary compainoin to any pro colonist history book. Tells the tale of the oppressed iin an excellant fashion. Love it or hate, you must read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: with all due respect
Review: I respect the author's reasoning to criticize the stereotypical hero/villain emphasis of history used in many U.S. elementary classrooms. I also found the book to provide a valuable perspective on the foibles of human society and well...human repression. Further more, I found the book to be an excellent gateway into the experience of alternative history, and it provides numerous references to other useful literature. But... did any one else find logical errors in the use of some of the statistics? On page 168 of the current soft-cover, which is the 7th. paragraph of chapter 9, a record of slave deaths kept in a particular plantation journal is mentioned. The ages of the deaths of 32 individuals are mentioned as evidence for how crippling and life-shortening slavery is when applied to a human. Only 4 of the 32 deaths reach 50. I had trouble being moved by this fact, because the total number of enslaved people (on the plantation) are not mentioned. What percent of the population died? If we don't know the total number of the slaves, surely it's impossible to estimate the impact of the deaths on the population, that is, how many people WERE surviving the plantation in that period of time. If the statistics were meant to be used as evidence of the expected life-span of the population, perhaps the infancy death rate or life-span expectations of the Southern slave-drivers of that time period would have been useful. With what life expectancy are we to compare the plantation's? Certainly not those (many) U.S. citizens are used to today! Medicine was not so impacting in the 1800's as in the 1980's when the text was published. It is evident that U.S. slavery destroyed the livelihood of its repressed. Slavery is, aside from genocide, the greatest abomination human kind has devised. (so far) But perhaps the author could have defended this fact instead of glazing over statistics that are necessary to his argument. I'm just beginning to learn about literary criticism.... Perhaps I missed something... Could someone please explain this?!
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Summary: Lighten up people
Review: Please stop praying for me, folks. I read the book. And I just didn't like it. It's too much of a one-note song. I'm not a conservative. I'm not a liberal. I'm just sick of idealistic people who have nothing better to do than defend books in no danger of being burned. A book this one-sided is a fiction, because it paints a distorted picture. Zinn himself admits it's one sided. My problem is, that's not enough. I'm sorry, I just think he should have been more thorough and less dogmatic. I was looking for history, not polemic. As for those of you worried that my views with infect those considering this book, instead of responding to us narrow-minded people, go change the world. It's waiting for you, and I'll be happy. You can start by not taking every negative review of your favorite book as an attack on your worldview. Otherwise, you would realize I just might agree with most of you on the issues. I just don't think Zinn's book contains many answers, other than a lot of axe grinding that I think is counterproductive. Your reviews illustrate my point. I would agree with you if you weren't so adamant that you don't want me to. Argue one point and you're a heretic, unworthy to turn Professor Zinn's red inked pages. You guys are worse than Baptists. Smile, will you? For those of you who haven't read the book, you'll probably want to read it. Any book this contested must have something worth looking at. For those of you have read it: Just so you know, I'm praying for you folks too. Peace.
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Summary: Another comment to the man from Key West.
Review: Ever think that the reason someone like Professor Zinn, or Professor Noam Chomsky choose to "air the dirty laundry" of this country is in hopes that future generations will try and make it better? The conservative right, which I'm assuming you're part of judging by your review, goes on about how America is "the greatest country in the world" while acknowledging the many problems this country does face. What I'm trying to say is: If you are willing to accept the fact that there are many inustices, why are you so against trying to make things better through positive change? Why are the conservatives so eager to live in a past which no longer exists? Even Prof. Zinn states in his first chapter that the past is gone, and that his book is not an attempt to bring tears to the eye's of the reader by stating what is obvious. Instead, as far as I can tell, it is his intent to remind us all of what we've done and how far we HAVEN'T come. Books like this one, and many other so-called "left-wing" books make an attempt to better this great nation. America offers the possiblity for every man to live his life to the fullest, but all to often our leaders, in what seems to be a vie for ultimate power, hide the facts, distort the truth, and crush those who cause something of a threat to their bright-happy way of life. The worst part is, most people acknowledge these things, yet do very little, if anything, to make things better. I belive that is where Prof. Zinn comes in. Perhaps he is trying to get us all, the public that is, to think about what our currnet leaders are doing by giving examples about the crimes of our past leaders. Also, by telling us how past groups of peoples had to put up with hardships brought on them by the leaders of that time, it may give us a chance in the present, and hopefully the future, to think a little more about anyone else who might be a victim of this or any other world government. The most recent example of this was the bombings of Serbia in retaliation to the ethnic cleaning of ethnic-Albanians. In out attempt to help the unfortunate in Kosovo, we neglected to recognize that the people of Serbia, who in addition to hating Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic as much, if not more than the rest of us, had absolutely nothing to do with the death of thousands of Kosovars. Yet they were bieng killed in mass numbers by NATO airstrikes. Unfortunately, no one in this country, except for a minority of protestors (which I, unfortunatley, was not a member of due to my then feelings that President Bill and co. were doing the right thing, which I now regret) were willing to speak out for for the plight of the innocent Serbian populations. The same goes for the people of Iraq. How many out there realise what is being done to those Iraqi citezins all thanks to U.N. sanctions against President Hussein's government? It seems that are hurting innocent people more than we are an evil dictatorship. I belive that Prof. Zinn wishes to clue us all in on what has really happened, what is happening, and may keep on happening if we don't watch ourselves and our government a little closer.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but too much all at once.
Review: I know I was not given the whole story in 9th grade American history, but you've got to give it to me in bite-sized pieces. And you've got to leaven it with positives. Sometimes people in power do come across and do the right thing, and sometimes citizen-activists are spectacularly successful. People's History does include a lot of positives, but it needs a lot more. And it needs to give examples of how we can integrate activism into our lives. For example, it's too easy to move away from friends who agree with you on the issues but choose not to invest energy and incur risks for what may well be a long shot. And friendships in the activist community sometimes do not materialize, even when you have a lot in common. Please give examples of how people handled this in winning fashion. Both personal growth and societal change are possible. We need to be optimistic. It's our birthright as human beings to be optimistic. And we can be both realistic and optimistic. Even if we're discussing the Nazi holocaust, we can point out that some people did make a difference, people like Raoul Wallenberg and Chiune Sugihara. (And wasn't there some movie in which Liam Neeson played a German businessman who manufactured pots and pans?) Anyway, People's History is fine for use as a reference, fine for using the index and reading a few pages, but reading more than that does not inspire me to get out there and try. I have attempted this book on at least four separate occasions and have read large sections, but it's just too much all at once. For a book that is at a good pace and that does fill me with hope, check out Ralph Abernathy's autobiography And the Walls Came Tumbling Down (1989), which is well worth reading even if you already know a lot about the Civil Rights Movement.
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