A People's History of American Empire (American Empire Project) (Paperback)

by Howard Zinn (Author), Mike Konopacki (Author), Paul Buhle (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal
Grade 10 Up–A study of empire-building by established politicians and big businesses from the 1890 Massacre at Wounded Knee through the current Iraq war. As nonfiction sequential art narrative, this stellar volume is compelling both as historical interpretation and you-are-there observation during many eras and in many climes. Konopacki melds realistic and energetic cartoons–Zinn lecturing in the present day, American and Vietnamese soldiers in the jungle, the Shah of Iran's White Revolution–with archival photos and document scraps to create a highly textured visual presentation. Each episode has its own period-specific narrator: Woody Guthrie sings about the Ludlow Massacre, a zoot suiter recounts the convergence of racial politics with popular music, and Zinn remembers his class-conscious boyhood through World War II soldiering and activism undertaken as a Civil Rights-era college professor. Politically charged, this book can't stand alone as a history text, but it is an essential component for contemporary American government education, as well as an easy work to suggest to both narrative nonfiction and sophisticated comics readers.–Francisca Goldsmith, Halifax Public Libraries, Nova Scotia
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
In addition to publishing the collected works of master cartoonists of the past, such as Krazy Kat creator George Herriman, Fantagraphics has a flair for discovering and collecting artists whose visions are a tad twisted. Case in point: Kerschbaum, whose hilarious and grotesque vignettes featuring Petey and Pussy, a mischievous dog and cat sporting bald-pated human heads. When Petey isn’t busy pursuing female canines, or Pussy isn’t harassing the mouse living behind his parlor wall, the pair are usually seen together quaffing cocktails at the local bar or getting into some form of mischief involving Pussy’s elderly owner and her demented pet parrot, Bernie. In one episode, the two battle a neighbor’s renegade boa constrictor and rescue Bernie from the snake’s innards with a convenient carving knife. In another, Petey helps Pussy replace his lost spectacles with a pair of horn-rims filched from a nearby nursing-home resident. Readers are advised to avoid eating while reading or risk choking during the inevitable and frequent guffaws. --Carl Hays --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Metropolitan Books (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805087443
• ISBN-13: 978-0805087444
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #11,470 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

88 of 107 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Propagating truth, April 4, 2008

By	Kerry Walters (Lewisburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The word "propaganda" has an almost universally negative connotation. Whenever we use it, we generally mean to refer to systematic and deliberate misinformation. But it's worth remembering that the word is etymologically derived from the same root as the word "propagate," to increase or grow. Propaganda, as the word was originally used, is simply a means of spreading the news, of getting the word out to large numbers of people, of disseminating information that needs to be disseminated.

It's in this original sense of the word that A People's History of American Empire is propaganda. Using the medium of the comix or graphic novel, Howard Zinn, Mike Konopacki, and Paul Buhle get the word out about a side of U.S. history that almost never gets taught in public schools, and about which many Americans even today remain clueless. Their treatment is entertaining and accessible--which means that it has a potentially huge audience--but neither patronizing nor simplistic--the book contains an extensive bibliography, and references both graphics and narrative claims. It's ideal for folks who have neither the time nor inclination to read Zinn's bulky classic A People's History of the United States, from which much of the volume is mined.

The format is ingenious. Zinn (wonderfully drawn, by the way) is the up-close narrator of the book. He begins by expressing bewilderment that the U.S. response to 9/11 has followed the same old violent pattern that the U.S. (and, of course, not only the U.S.) has typically adopted when threatened. This response, Zinn argues, ultimately only makes matters worse because it does nothing to get to the root causes of unrest. It is "an old way of thinking," one that tragically keeps following the same destructive script, and Zinn proceeds throughout the rest of the book to chronicle its many historical manifestations, ranging from the Wounded Knee massacre to the invasion of Cuba, Hawaii, the Philippines, and Central American nations such as El Salvador and Nicaragua (according to a list published by the State Department in 1962, the U.S. militarily intervened 103 times in foreign countries between 1798 and 1895). Zinn also discusses governmental and big business response to domestic workers' strikes (the Pullman strike and the Ludlow massacre, for example), and draws a connection between this "internal" imperialism and the "external" variety.

Of particular interest are Zinn's treatments of what he calls the "cool war," a culture and ethnic battle over black music in the 1950s, and the current Iraq War.

Another especially interesting feature of the book is its inclusion of Zinn's life story (derived from his autobiographical You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train) which traces his childhood poverty (and tenderness for his parents), his radicalization, his repudiation of violence following his service in World War II, his activism at Spelman College (which led to his dismissal), and his anti-war work--including the famous peace mission to Vietnam--during the Vietnam conflict.

Although the story of the insidious partnership between state and money is shocking and even horrifying at times, Zinn ends the book on an upbeat note. There's much to be hopeful about, he insists, when one considers the extraordinary achievements of the last fifty years. Legal racial apartheid in the U.S. was ended; the Vietnam war was stopped by public protests; velvet revolutions throughout Europe and South Africa succeeded in overthrowing tyranny in relatively bloodless fashion. So "to be hopeful in bad times is not foolishly romantic," Zinn concludes. "It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness" (p. 263).

Both of those messages deserve propagation.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A People's History for the ADHD set, August 7, 2008

By	T. Rodgers - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

YES, this is a People's History for those with short attention span, but who doesn't have a short attention span these days? A fast and entertaining read. It's interesting, even if you have read Zinn's original Magnum Opus and/or its spawn.

Adding Howard Zinn's personal experience to the tie the stories together really works well, and gives the book a personal element.

This is definitely a PG comic....as in requiring Parental Guidance. I think this would be a great way to introduce alternative history to your children, when they are ready (like studying the same stuff at school), but this book can be quite graphic. It at least warrants discussion.

25 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant! The truth must be known!, April 5, 2008

By	B. B. Bridenbaugh "KingNot" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I just picked up this book today, and I don't often just start reading a book then buy it, but this one was well worth it. A brutal expose of the injustice going on in America, and perpetuated by it. Not just an expose of the "Rich Elite" and their hold on our supposed Democracy, but all those they've hurt to make an extra dishonest dollar as if they did not have enough already.