Customer Reviews

A People's History of the United States

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He tells another side, the embarrasing parts of American history some would rather forget. He seems biased, but as he says in his last words of the book, it is not a tell all history. One couldn't possibly put it all in a book this size.

Our 'official' history books tell us of the stuff we should be 'proud' of. He puts a different perspective on these things, and brings out everything that is wrong with what we should be 'proud' of. If you want to know about the trials of the common man and the less-than-fortunate throughout America's history, in the face of big government and big business, he will give you an insight to that.

Author Zinn presents U.S. history through the exacting lens of detailed minutia and many lesser known historical facts. These facts, as presented, serve to "fill in the gaps" between the greater or more laudible benchmark events in our brave Nation's past.

This book focuses primarily on the contributions, labor, and sufferings of the resident national and immigrant poor. Professor Zinn paints his prose with great detail to include the significant contributions by early African and Native American peoples.

Be forwarned however, this book does not celebrate the national triumphs and victories as traditional historical texts have done. This book vividly fleshes out the ugly, oft forgotten clashes between the rich and poor, management and labor, and government and citizen. The details as presented serve to remind the reader that any advantages in standard of living, wages, etc., that are realized by our society today were paid for in "blood, sweat, and tears," many, many times over by our collective national ancestors.

This text is well worth the money and I heartily recommend it without hesitation or reservation as a necessary part of any home or institutional library. Superb!

Perfect book to use as reference while teaching. Great for analyzing the other perspective of a history that is usually portrayed as one sided.