Rating: 
Summary: A fearless indictment and cry for all people to organize.
Review: Zinn's book is a fearless indictment of Western and US oppression on "regular" Americans - Natives, Africans, the poor, activists, workers - as well as a call for these people to continue America's great tradition of activism. Despite its length and the incredible amount of information it possesses, it is not written using the technical jargon that makes much academic writing boring and sometimes unreadable. Many quotes from heroic people who have lived this history and those who continue to live the struggle daily give the book a different perspective from anything I've ever read. Every school child in America should read this book. It has made me want to continue to fight strongly against US oppression all over the world. A Citizen
Rating: 
Summary: Repenting, with our fists we beat upon others' chests
Review: During the 1992 LA riots I was a community college student. Some students gathered; one spoke about how "they" inflicted genocide upon the Native Americans, and now "they" beat up Rodney King, without specifying who those all-powerful and mysterious "they" are. This is Zinn's approach to American history - it is a story of evil and ruthless ruling classes dividing and conquering the populace. Take a random figure, Andrew Carnegie. Much is written about the bloody Homestead strike and his unsavory business practices; he is said to have made sure U S Congress instituted tariffs (no footnotes). His (and his peers') philantropy is mentioned in passing and criticized because the educational system thus created didn't encourage dissent. No mention is made of the fact that Carnegie gave this nation cheap steel. Very objective historian, this Zinn guy.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the Whole Story, but...
Review: What Howard Zinn has purposefully done is to look at history from a different viewpoint, the viewpoint of the poor, of the oppressed. Does he support socialist/marxist principles? Yes.
Don't let yourself prejudge this book, though...I feel it absolutley deserves to be read, no matter what you think of Zinn's political beliefs.
Rating:
Summary: A brilliant book, superbly organized, most impressive
Review: Zinn has done an excellent job in bringing to light many of the lesser known facts of American History. The book was tough to swallow at times. Not because it was unbelievable or unconvincing, but because Zinn makes a series of cogent arguments that make any thinking, patriotic American stop and re-examine what has been traditionally taught. The book was informative, moving and well researched. I would recommend this book to anyone who is open to hearing some sobering truths about America's past and present.
Rating:
Summary: A glance at the other side
Review: Zinn has written an amazingly well-researched, and well-written book which clearly narrates to us the "other side" of American History. While I would have preferred a more moderate position, I accept the truth in our history presented by the book.
Rating:
Summary: American History As A One-Sided Guilt Trip
Review: Don't get me wrong. One of my favorite books is "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee", which is an honest and highly critical treatment of U.S. Indian policy. But, Howard Zinn's narrative merely equates American history with all that is evil, cynical, and unjust in the past 500 years. In a ridiculous abandonment of balance and fairness, Zinn fails to credit the many positive influences and accomplishments of the United States, instead listing a long series of atrocities and crimes committed by the earlier generations of Americans who (in fact) created the society, freedoms, technologies, infrastructure, and institutions upon which Howard Zinn ungratefully relies. He compels readers to believe that the world would have been a better place without the likes of Washington, Jefferson, and Hamilton, who he stops just short of calling fascist enemies of "the people"- all the oppressed workers masses...blah, blah, blah. This pop history is clearly NOT written for anyone interested in a scholarly or balanced study of U.S. History. Self-righteous judgements are an easy practice through the retrospection of Zinn's extensive catalogue of current political correctness. His dark, one-dimensional view of U.S. History is reminiscent of the ridiculously slanted citations I used to read in the "Great Soviet Encyclopedia" while in grad school. But, if you're anxious to wallow in the shame of those evil Founding Fathers, knock yourself out! Personally, I find Paul Johnson's 1998 "History of the American People" a much better researched and comprehensive treatment of the nation's past. Johnson, while not glossing over the rough spots, also demonstrates why Americans should be proud of their contribution to political thought, literature, music, and so on. But, the implication of Zinn's narrative is that the American experience is one for which humanity should be ashamed. I disagree.
Rating:
Summary: More than a History .......
Review: This book makes it clear that "history" is the body of facts we choose to remember by showing us some of the facts we've chosen to forget. Seeing how myth and half-truths have survived through the years to become part of the canon, we become aware that one of the imperatives for any citizen is to cultivate the art of "paying attention".
Rating:
Summary: Glad someone else defended it. Now I can just review...
Review: He's 10% disabled from the US Department of Defense just like me. No benefits. His war was Korea. I served during Panama and Iraq. This is the real historian's bible. I think everyone should read through this before education/programming sets in. It exposes just about every myth any Allen & Bacon book ever put before us. His whole first chapter was devoted to the terribly un-Christ-like things Columbus did "in name of Christ." Signed, Marco Capelli PS: why is it that right this moment (sunday feb. 7, 1998) the UN is in Arizona investigating the US on Human Rights abuses and NO ONE IN THE PRESS seems to care???
Rating:
Summary: Nothing but revisionist propoganda
Review: If one seriously wishes to study American history from the perspective of reality, I do not recommend this book. It takes a radical bias on viewing American history without even mentioning the truths that we learned (and some of us still are learning them) in school. This book represents a problem that this country's youth is facing. They are learning their American history from sources like this. These anti-American socialists seek to destroy any sense of patriotism that Americans could feel towards their country. Our sources of pride are being stripped away by these revisionists. They see American history as a series of destructive stories which produce a horrible culture. In fact I would speculate that Zinn feels that this country's mere existence is a detriment to the entire world. On page 460, Zinn opens his chapter on the Vietnam War without this paragraph: "From 1964 to 1972, the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the history of the world made a maximum military effort, with everything short of atomic bombs, to defeat a nationalist revolutionary movement in a tiny, peasant country---and failed. When the United States fought in Vietnam, it was organized modern technology versus organized human beings, and the human beings won." If Zinn had done ACTUAL research on the Vietnam War, he would have seen that we did not make a "maximum military effort" in fighting this war. He would have seen that the military leadership for the United States was inept and we waged this war in a half-a!@#$ manner. We did not buildup military forces in Vietnam or bordering South-East Asian countries. Instead we sent a minimal number of our boys into the jungles so that they could be shot to pieces. We would then replace them but without any additional aid or hope of reinforcements. This is just one example of Zinn's inept and clearly socialist-biased writing. If he wasn't so caught up in spreading Marxism by praising the cruel (to put it lightly considering the number of atrocities they committed against American soliders during the war) North Vietnamese soliders and citizens, then he might realize he has the facts wrong. But Zinn is too busy spreading anti-American propoganda than to stop and think. If we seek to raise our children with the notion that our ancestors did nothing but evil, then I fear the future of this country. If you agree with this statement, then by all means buy this book. It would go well alongside your collection of the back issues of The Socialist Quarterly. But if there are any right-minded and patriotic people who are thinking of purchasing this book because they feel it would compliment their book collection (just based on the title), do not be fooled and DO NOT BUY IT. You would be better off without it. Seek the truth in other books.
Rating:
Summary: A deprogrammer of all of the establishment's rhetoric
Review: Howard Zinn's book is a masterpiece deprogrammer for all
of us who were told the traditional tales from grade school
on through college. Zinn takes American history and turns it
on its side, looking at Columbus from the perspective of the
Arawaks, the Civil War from the eyes of the black slaves,
and the New Deal as seen by the Harlem Blacks. This is an
excellent book to be used either in class or for pleasure by
any student in an American history survey course or anybody
who wants to see the whole side of the story. All literate
Americans have to read this before they fully know the
history of the country.
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