Rating: 
Summary: Zinn and the Fine Art of Historical Revision
Review: This book should be read by all flag waving, freedom loving Americans. Not to read all of Zinn's mad Marxist ravings and distortions, but to understand the mind of those within our own country who hate it and the principles on which it stands. Are we perfect? Have we always done right by our own people? No! But the principles of our founding are those that we can focus on to become a better and more enlightened people. Zinn and those like him (like my son's High School US History teacher who uses this book for his classroom text) are attempting to educate a generation of citizens who hate our country and do not understand what we stand for. Education like this will cause our society to collapse from within. Read this only to arm yourself in the fight against the bankrupt philosophy it represents.
Rating: 
Summary: smart, comprehensive, and well-researched . . . and fun too!
Review: The People's History begins with Christopher Columbus landing in the Bahamas and ends with Bill Clinton serving as President, but (unlike most traditional history texts) it focuses on how normal people -- blacks, Native Americans, women, the poor -- lived and worked. Howard Zinn is an accomplished historian, and this book is well-researched and factually accurate; however, Zinn is also an exceptional writer, and so his People's History is actually fun to read as well. It's strange to me that people pick on Howard Zinn as "anti-American." The events and conditions he describes, from the massacres of Native Americans to the lives of poor 1920s factory workers to the horrors perpetrated by Americans in Vietnam, are all facts. It's not anti-American to write the truth. In fact, Zinn is much more hopeful and optimistic than some other writers he is often associated with. He uses some of "the people's" successes -- abolition, women's suffrage, desegregation, and so forth -- to illustrate his underlying point that real American men and women really can change the world. In short, The People's History is a must read for anyone interested in history, anyone whose only historical education came in the form of traditional schoolwork, and anyone who desires an intelligent discussion of the good, the bad, and the ugly of America. If what he says makes you angry, don't blame him -- he's a historian, not a novelist. Instead, take that anger and direct it where it belongs. Do something constructive to change your world.
Rating:
Summary: Insult to my intelligence
Review: This book will be welcomed by anyone with no real knowledge of the world history, poor critical thinking, and unresolved teenage anger towards their parents (remember how they were always wrong? - now it's the government's turn!). Biased marxist coverage of the american history indicates that the author has no clue about the horrors of living under the real communist regime where his ideals were put to action. I was unlucky to be born and live in the former USSR, before I was able to leave to the US, thanks to the firm anti-communist stand of the former president Reagan and his followers, who brought the Soviet empire down to its knees... As the proud US citizen I would challenge Mr. Zinn to seek an asylim in any of the remaining communist countries (China, Cuba, North Korea, you name it), if he wants anyone to believe that he is a man of integrity.
Rating:
Summary: Wow! It was Amazing!
Review: For all the low-brow types out there: this book blew chunks! Never have I read a more depressing book that takes so many pot-shots at America. Most people are not blind to the truth, not flag flying conservatives that ignore or disregard what is truth.
The main challenge that I have with the book is that it is written by a person who lives in a nation that he hates. How in God's name can a person have NOTHTING good to say about America and yet continue to NOT move to a country that embodies the ideals that he wants? Makes me feel sorry for him and glad that I read this book on my own and wasn't required to read it for school.
Rating:
Summary: An easy to read painful experience
Review: After reading this book it is hard to know just where to begin. Many of the other reviewers have called it "balanced", "the other side of the coin", and a "non-revisionist" look at our history. Actually, it is none of these. It is the work of an anti-capitalist who so obsessed with the utopian-like (albeit failed) ideals of Marxism and radical socialism that he readily disregards all evidence to the contrary to promote the belief that America is the sole source of the world's evils. His views are the epitome and throwback to the "peace-at-any-cost" crowd of 1930's England. He praises all things anti-American and boldly champions their various causes. However, most of his conclusions are based on presuppositions that cannot be substantiated with empirical evidence or credible testimony. Where he does site witness testimony, i.e., in the Waco siege or the Attica riot, he quotes ONLY the Davidians or the prisoners and not the other side. He summarily dismisses conventional history and promotes his view of it, without providing a firm backing for his beliefs, other than his opinion. In other words, at the meat of this book, Zinn is the authority sited most to substantiate a radically new "history." In the end, it is not history it is HIS story. However, at its core, it is an interesting read, but only in as much as it gives the reader insight into the mind of a depressed, paranoid, Marxist writer who rallies against revisionist history while proudly championing his own revision of the same.
Rating:
Summary: Real history of US
Review: "Other side of coins" type books are always interesting. In this one I have read the story of people mostly with no-names in history. They are not generals, presidents, ministers or religious guys. They are people, ordinary ones. I guess that's why the book is named as people's history of america, people who made America. When I started the book I was looking for raw history, I searched through Amazon and other sites for such books but then decided to read this book. I was not wrong with my choice. I really loved the stories of those people, indians, slaves, landless people, workers.
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Summary: A Marxist History Of The United State
Review: Howard Zinn is an American Marxist who embraces all things anti-American. His book is replete with anti- establishment, anti- corporation, anti- white male, anti- patriotic bias. And lest the reader have any question as to his agenda, read the final two chapters in which he openly advocates the overthrow of our current way of life, the forced redistribution of wealth, and in it's place, a new utopian existence based on failed social experiements of the past. This book does not represent a balanced view of American History. It's an entirely negative, depressing view of our nation as seen from a depressed Marxist who looks for the overthrow of our country.
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Summary: A People's History of the United States : 1492-Present
Review: An excellent well written book. I have told dozens of people to read this for it gives incredible insights to the thoughts, feelings, and mindset of many significant individuals during various periods of American History. Frankly, I thought I was well read when it came to US history yet I was shocked and humbled by at times the brutality and conversely the humanity that was evidently so prevelant in a youthful America. Today's world and National events could learn a good lesson from the atrocities of past times and perhaps, with a lot of luck, not repeat the horrible events of yesterday.
Rating: 
Summary: Personal histories
Review: This book give a voice to the other side of history. It's not left or right - it's just another side of side of history that doesn't get nearly enough exposure. He illustrates his points effectively and his research is impeccable.
Rating:
Summary: Self-righteous leftist ideology, not history
Review: If you are looking for a well-written and comprehensive history of the United States, you won't find it here.
If you are a leftist (not liberal, but really leftist) and are looking for reading material to reinforce your view of the world, you might enjoy this.
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