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Summary: Great book, Questionable Author
Review: "People's History" is essentially a reworking of the whole of American history by a revisionary Marxist. Does Zinn come off as Anti-American? Yes, but if you can look past the "faults" of the author, you'll find an extremely well-researched text that gives a voice to those peoples that have been left out of textbooks and never given an opportunity to give their side of the story. Though I don't agree with some of Zinn's conclusions or with his apparently socialist leanings, this book is a must-read simply because it is a well-written book that finally fills in all the gaps, giving anyone who has studied traditional American history a full understanding of everything that transpired from 1492 to now.
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Summary: A book for all Americans
Review: By far, the most compelling, the most brilliant historical text I have ever read on the history of the United States. Having recently finishing this book (in a week and a half - I couldn't put it down), I feel that my world has been opened to the struggles and accomplishments of people like me. Of the people who came before me and faced similar positions and had to fight in the face of classism, racism, sexism, idealism, the military industrial complex, repressive wealth, social myths, and much more. One of the most common themes I found in this text was "no matter how much things seem to change, they really just keep repeating". I saw the events of our current position with the Bush Administration, right down to the very language they use, in the events of that founded this nation and have brought us up unto this point. No wonder we don't learn this is school - if every child in the educational system were to learn the facts and the ideas expressed in Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, there would be a revolution today. Read this book, and then share it with your friends!
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Summary: Must read book
Review: This is an absolutely must-read book for those looking for a comprehensive view of US History. It's amazing how one-sided the history we're taught in school is. I am recommending this book to everybody.
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Summary: About the negative regative
Review: The reviewers giving this book 1 star are criticizing Zinn and not the book. Calling Zinn anti-American is ironic, the history he writes about is the history as was experienced by majority of Americans. Zinn's concern and hope for American( and world's ) populace is palpable.
Leftist, socialist, Marxist? Aren't these just tags? Why try to profile? Why not read the facts?
The socialist experiments of Europe might have failed. But the Indian societies of America were sustainable and perhaps successful. We would never know.Capitalistic societies are not sustainable, there have to be winners and losers. Is Socialism the answer? Dont know, perhaps not but one should look into these questions and reject or accept ideas on their merit.
Classifying ideas/people/countries en-masse and rejecting them, one looses the good ones with the bad.
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Summary: Zinn has given research a new meaning.
Review: This book is incredible. This book is like SAVING PRIVATE RYAN compared to THE SANDS OF IWO JIMA. Like Spielberg's film, it does not glaze over what happened in American history with patriotic garbage. Howard Zinn clearly shows why he is regarded as one of the most thorough research intellectuals in America today, and his work shows that he truly has put a tremendous amount of time and effort into his book. This book tells the truth, whether it tells the "patriotic" truth or not, and it shows us American citizens why our country has been and still is so violent both in our homeland and abroad. Whether you agree or not with Zinn's points, he has done the research and laid out his findings to let us as Americans know that the history we have been taught is not even close to the truth. Whether or not you respect the information that he supports with overwhelming evidence, it is hard to refute the points made in this book. This book is very thorough, and is not the easiest read, but if you sit down with it and bring a highliter, you will not miss a point. I highly reccomend this book to anyone who wants to learn something new and important about American history that they were not taught in school. Enjoy!!
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Summary: This is a true History of American People.
Review: First of all, let me say that I read this book as a freshmen in college, and now in my final semester before graduating with a BA in history, I can safely say it, more than any other book, has shaped my understanding of America, the supposed "Land of the Free." Next, I would like to comment on some of the lower scores that it has received here on this forum. They seem to have several things in common. Most, not all, attack Mr. Zinn as a Marxist and an anti-American. Most also say that he does not do a good job of giving "the other side," whatever it may be. Please read the title and introduction. It is a "people's history," not the history of the small elite and powerful, those who try so adamantly to control the rest of us. Those who give the book a poor score seem to have something against Mr. Zinn, not his book. You are supposed to review the book, no the man.
As the post 9/11 world has shown us, to have an opinion or speak out against the norm is to be labeled "anti-American" or "extremist." All Mr. Zinn does is show us what really happened, from the perspective of those that history tries to forget. It is a verified Voice of the Voiceless. It is their story.
Our nation is a good nation, but to deny or attack the things that Mr. Zinn has discovered about our country is to deny the true past. Just as our ideals and culture are furthered by our view of history, we must understand and realize what this book teaches us if we are ever to live in a truly equal society.
Finally, this book is not an attack on America, it is a diagnosis. It shows us what diseases are causing the terrible symptoms that the United States faces today. To deny the diagnosis would be to say that we live in a fairy-tale society that has reached its peak and top ability. If that is true, if there is no room for improvement, then it is all downhill from here.
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Summary: A history of struggles for freedom, justice, and peace
Review: By page 10, after a fascinating look at the journals of Columbus, Howard Zinn explains his approach to writing the history of the Unites States. Rather than write what Henry Kissinger called "a history of states," Zinn chooses to focus on the stories of the people. The result is a sort of class history in disguise. The history of states is really a history of the people who run the countries --- a history of the powerful. Zinn writes about strikers, the Abolitionists, socialists like Hellen Keller and Eugene Debs, environmental activists, and even a few crusading politicians like LaGuardia. He reveals a long trend in the US for resistance to new forms of tyranny. The word "democracy" takes on a different coloration --- instead of voting for a candidate, Americans have been forced to take to the streets, calling into question the whole system. Two excellent examples of this are in chapters 17 and 18, covering the civil rights movement and the resistance to the Vietnam War. In both of these movements, activists were not given candidates to vote for --- or they couldn't even vote due to racism --- so they had to march, strike, and pressure leaders. A People's History of the United States has had a real impact in this country. Millions have bought it and read it. That trend will continue because so few historians are willing to take Zinn's approach. Although a handful of other historians have written their own people's histories, it's not enough to satisfy the average American. This book should be considered a revolutionary first step toward exposing the struggles that have been part of the US political scene since the country was founded. Rather than a revisionist history, it is a history of the stories that have been left out of the other books. Read it and you'll see the world in a different way.
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Summary: Marxist not People's History
Review: Zinn's book is a good Marxist history but that is pretty much it. It is not balanced and shows little real understanding of history. The Marxist mistake to ignore ideology as a motivator leads to a complete misunderstanding of all historical actors. The "people" were never Marxists. That is really important to remember. They were religious and in fact their views could more accurately be termed as conservative. In fact, their beliefs were pretty much the same as their "oppressors." They were just as racist as the elites. Often the people were even wrong as history has illuminated. Columbus did not go to the New World to enslave and oppress the people. In fact, the Spanish had a complex view of slavery that led to the encomienda system to avoid pure slavery. Also, Indian tribes allied with the Spanish when they arrived against the Aztecs because these people had oppressed them for centuries. It might have been the nasty habit of demanding victims for human sacrifice. Just because a group lost in history does not make them good. The problem is historical actions are not looked at in context. The whole world had slavery, in fact the first slaves were black African slaves bought from other black Africans. Arabs and black Africans committed atrocities in capturing slaves that really put the Middle Passage in perspective. Zinn has no understanding of classical liberalism, the belief in freedom and the defining idea of America. To boil down the whole American belief in human freedom to merely capitalist exploitation is a pretty good trick but makes American history into a cartoon. But then I guess that when Martin Luther King Jr. was marching for freedom for African-Americans he was just suffering from false consciousness. No one told him the joke that Americans didn't really believe in all that freedom stuff. To finish, Zinn serves his purpose and in that produces an excellent book.
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Summary: not for neo-cons
Review: It's easy to see just why right wingers hate this book. It gives an alternative and not so flattering history of our august imperialist country, with all its warts displayed. It's not for the politically faint of heart, the "my country right or wrong" style patriots, homophobes, racists, sexists, corporatists, or anyone who doesn't want to examine the dark flip sides of our numerous American sacred cows. But it's not depressing, because Zinn clearly loves his country and hasn't given up on it. He's a progressive with an agenda, but to my way of thinking, a healthy one. Read this book. It's long but worth the time. You'll learn what they didn't teach you in high school.
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Summary: A balanced view
Review: I am currently working on my M.A. in Social Science education and critically reviewed this text for a class. Zinn's research is impeccable. He uses primary sources rather than simply rewording what has already been said. His language is clear and concise. I highly recomend this text for anyone interested in U.S. History or planning on teaching U.S. History. This is a great resource for homeschoolers, too.
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