Product Description: Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research, A People's History of the United States is the only volume to tell America's story from the point of view of -- and in the words of -- America's women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, working poor, and immigrant laborers. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
Amazon.com Review: Consistently lauded for its lively, readable prose, this revised and updated edition of A People's History of the United States turns traditional textbook history on its head. Howard Zinn infuses the often-submerged voices of blacks, women, American Indians, war resisters, and poor laborers of all nationalities into this thorough narrative that spans American history from Christopher Columbus's arrival to an afterword on the Clinton presidency.
Addressing his trademark reversals of perspective, Zinn--a teacher, historian, and social activist for more than 20 years--explains, "My point is not that we must, in telling history, accuse, judge, condemn Columbus in absentia. It is too late for that; it would be a useless scholarly exercise in morality. But the easy acceptance of atrocities as a deplorable but necessary price to pay for progress (Hiroshima and Vietnam, to save Western civilization; Kronstadt and Hungary, to save socialism; nuclear proliferation, to save us all)--that is still with us. One reason these atrocities are still with us is that we have learned to bury them in a mass of other facts, as radioactive wastes are buried in containers in the earth."
If your last experience of American history was brought to you by junior high school textbooks--or even if you're a specialist--get ready for the other side of stories you may not even have heard. With its vivid descriptions of rarely noted events, A People's History of the United States is required reading for anyone who wants to take a fresh look at the rich, rocky history of America.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - History falls somwhere in the middle, and this is an important side of it
Everyone needs to take Zinn's magnum opus here for what it is --> It's no more fact or propaganda than what we were fed in elementary school.
The only fact we know about the past is that ... Read More
Rating: - Everyone should read this book.
This book is simply one of the best books I have ever read. Zinn and the people tell it like is. We never learned this in History class. From Columbus to the Revolution, slavery, the Civil War, the Robber ... Read More
Rating: - History of the U.S. book
A must for high school, jr. high/middle school students who want a good, solid summary understanding of U.S. history!
Rating: - Socialist Propaganda
Only avowed Socialists would find this propaganda book intellectually honest. If you're in college right now you'll probably run into this book in one of your courses; if so you know your professor is a loon ... Read More
Rating: - Hate speech
In an important recent article (9 September 2008) by Ian Jobling entitled `What is Leukophobia?", Howard Zinn's book is analyzed from the point of view of the stereotypes it is based on and which it fuels. These ... Read More
- History falls somwhere in the middle, and this is an important side of it
- Socialist Propaganda