A review by emmarj
A People's History of the United States, by Howard Zinn
A People's History of the United States presupposes that you have also been educated under the common American system, that you have been raised up in American culture, and thus you won't be needing to hear our history from the side of military leaders, billionaires, or politicians. You've been hearing that your whole life.
This text is instead a telling of American history from the side of the working and middle classes. It goes out of its way to point out hypocrisies and outright lies because someone has to. AND IT IS HEAVY. This was not an easy read. In fact, this might be the most emotionally taxing thing I've ever read. I consider myself a fairly well-read person. I read the news, I keep up on politics, I follow world affairs. There were many things in my education that never made sense to me, things I never fully understood (because I was only presented the barest glimmer of facts), and, come to find out, many things I had never learned of at all.
I certainly never learned about the multiple rebellions and uprisings of the people in the United States. One day, unions existed. Suddenly, women could vote. MLK said he had a dream and then Black people had rights. Americans didn't like the war in Vietnam so it ended. That's what my history books said. My jaw hit the floor when I read about polls taken in the 70s, 80s, 90s that showed the American people supported taxing the rich, universal health care, guaranteed employment, etc. Y'all. I thought this was new. The American people have wanted this for 40 years and we're sitting here talking about pornstar payouts. For real?
I think these days most of us are pretty angry and this book will reaffirm your right to be angry. That's all I think I'm willing to put into this review for the good of myself and my family. If you think you've been fed a load of lies and half-truths, you should read this too. It will give you a lot of things to think about.
Five stars for required reading.
This text is instead a telling of American history from the side of the working and middle classes. It goes out of its way to point out hypocrisies and outright lies because someone has to. AND IT IS HEAVY. This was not an easy read. In fact, this might be the most emotionally taxing thing I've ever read. I consider myself a fairly well-read person. I read the news, I keep up on politics, I follow world affairs. There were many things in my education that never made sense to me, things I never fully understood (because I was only presented the barest glimmer of facts), and, come to find out, many things I had never learned of at all.
I certainly never learned about the multiple rebellions and uprisings of the people in the United States. One day, unions existed. Suddenly, women could vote. MLK said he had a dream and then Black people had rights. Americans didn't like the war in Vietnam so it ended. That's what my history books said. My jaw hit the floor when I read about polls taken in the 70s, 80s, 90s that showed the American people supported taxing the rich, universal health care, guaranteed employment, etc. Y'all. I thought this was new. The American people have wanted this for 40 years and we're sitting here talking about pornstar payouts. For real?
I think these days most of us are pretty angry and this book will reaffirm your right to be angry. That's all I think I'm willing to put into this review for the good of myself and my family. If you think you've been fed a load of lies and half-truths, you should read this too. It will give you a lot of things to think about.
Five stars for required reading.