THE CLASSIC NATIONAL BESTSELLER“A wonderful, splendid book—a book that should be read by every American, student or otherwise, who wants to understand his country, its true history, and its hope for the future.” –Howard FastHistorian Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States chronicles American history from the bottom up, throwing out the official narrative taught in schools—with its … up, throwing out the official narrative taught in schools—with its emphasis on great men in high places—to focus on the street, the home, and the workplace.
Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research, it 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, the working poor, and immigrant laborers. As Zinn shows, many of our country’s greatest battles—the fights for a fair wage, an eight-hour workday, child-labor laws, health and safety standards, universal suffrage, women’s rights, racial equality—were carried out at the grassroots level, against bloody resistance.
Covering Christopher Columbus’s arrival through President Clinton’s first term, A People’s History of the United States features insightful analysis of the most important events in our history. This edition also includes an introduction by Anthony Arnove, who wrote, directed, and produced The People Speak with Zinn and who coauthored, with Zinn, Voices of a People’s History of the United States.
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Zinn’s is the only history book that should be used in history classes in this nation. He gives a truer rendering of North America and the United States with its warts than other general history books.
If you haven’t read this book yet, it’s going to surprise you.
Well-written, well-researched, and well-documented, it tells the history of the USA from a much different perspective than you were likely taught in school. Zinn has a particular perspective, but he supports it, and he tells you that up front.
It’s going to make you think … long and hard … about numerous things you thought you already understood. If it doesn’t, you’re probably content to continue to think of US history in terms of the collection of noble, valorous stories of patriots and heroes we studied as school kids while learning how our “perfect” system was birthed.
This book will make you think. It’ll make you question. It’ll make you shake your head. Some of it is going to piss you off … but you’ll be better off for having read it. The history of our country is a more involved – and much more fascinating – story than I had heard before I read this book.
Important to note: Zinn did not write history, he wrote political polemics that he (deceptively) called history. The only redeeming value of any of Zinn’s work is that it brings attention to areas of history commonly neglected in the US and the English speaking world. Unfortunately, he writes with a very particular agenda that taints all he does. He is more concerned with making a point than seeing the nuance, which leads him down many roads and interpretations where facts don’t matter to him as much as politics, assumptions, impressions, and his own biases (especially his anti-American bias). Do not read his work unless you do so with a skeptic’s eye and an understanding of some of the things he (by choice) leaves out in an attempt to push his agenda.
Seems like a manifesto.
Well dang, everything really *is* a rich man’s trick. Definitely one of the most depressing, disheartening and demoralizing books I’ve ever read. The ultra-rich – both individuals and companies – constructed a brilliant formula to increase their control/wealth from its “founding,” and the population fell for it.
We The (non-rich) People were doomed from the beginning. Enjoy your crumbs, peasants – that’s how the US operates. Great book, recommended read, but it was too late from the beginning.
This book should be required reading for every U.S. citizen and those waiting to be citizens. A lively riveting read, it in also impeccably researched and chock full of essential information about the history of our country. Only by having a true picture of the past can we have an accurate view of the present. Only by understanding what really happened– not the PC version– can we steer away from the kinds of mistakes and errors the U.S. has made before and toward fairer and sounder policies and decisions as we go forward.
Learn the true American history
This is the book referenced in Goodwill Hunting. Checked it out and found I liked it. Learn about the alternative view of history; not the history we were taught in school.
A hatchet job, that essentially portrays Americans as very evil conquerors.
Very misleading ideology dressed up as history.
really stupid anti-American book
Pathetic
Not a history book. Just a selection of events to fit his agenda.
Pure communist propaganda: simplistic and misguided.
Historically inaccurate. Has ruined a generation of historians.
Socialist/communist view of American history. Waste of time and money.
Just terrible. A myopic, one-dimensional view of history that exhibits no apparent understanding of the historical context of any given event. Rather, it prefers to judge historical events through a modern lense, casting actors and motives across a moral spectrum. While history always benefits from new or competing viewpoints and research, Zinn’s work is too steeped in a pervasive political agenda to be more than a conversion-starter. Learn your facts from a more objective source first, then turn to Zinn only to explore how history can be twisted to advance a political agenda. If you can stomach his self-righteous moralizing, that is.
A humorous and yet deeply biased view of American history.
Should be required reading for every registered voter before they vote.
classic good leftist history of the USA
easy reading, entertaining
high school level