Declarations of Independence (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In these informal, challenging essays that link the personal to the political, Zinn ( A People's History of the United States ) aims to shake complacency, to challenge what he calls "American orthodoxies" or received opinions about history and government. He charges that Machiavellian tactics have dominated policies of presidents in their pursuit of "national security interests." Calling the American economic system "shamefully wasteful and unjust," the Boston University political scientist urges a "real war on poverty" and on pollution, a turnaround in national priorities away from massive military spending. Recognition that the Soviet Union is a police state, he believes, should not lead us to embrace "fanatical anticommunism" or to justify the U.S. government's control over other countries. He argues that there are no just wars, accuses the major media of slavishness to government-business control and knocks social theories that resort to "human nature" to explain war and class inequities.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"A shotgun blast of revisionism that aims to shatter all the comfortable myths of American political discourse." -- --Los Angeles Times

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Perennial (October 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060921080
• ISBN-13: 978-0060921088
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #595,810 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An essential manual for understanding the world, February 3, 2001

By	Matthew Cheney (New Hampton, NH USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Declarations of Independence is one of those few books with the power to change your life and blow your mind if you read it at the right time. There is no better introduction to modern progressive philosophy. When I stumbled on the book (soon after it first came out in 1990, in the midst of the Gulf War), I was in high school and trying to figure out some way of understanding the world beyond myself, and this was the book that helped me begin exploring. I found the insights so fresh, exciting, and provocative that I devoured the book in a few days, then returned to read it again and more carefully. I have returned to it many times since, and with every reading I am amazed at the clarity of Zinn's writing and the common sense and great decency which fills his thinking.

Declarations of Independence seeks to uncover the motives and hypocrisies in many of the ideas Americans take for granted. As a historian and the reknowned author of A People's History of the United States, Zinn is in a position to offer an incisive perspective on our present from someone who understands so much of our past. In one elegant chapter after another, Zinn meditates on American foreign policy, violence and human nature, law and justice, the American class system, just and unjust war, Communism and anti-Communism, and, of course, the use and abuse of history. In many ways, this is a broader and even more accessible book than A People's History of the United States, and just as necessary for anyone concerned with thinking their own thoughts and living a humane life.

47 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Unforgettable Trek Through American Mentality, March 10, 2000

By	Aaron Carman (USA) - See all my reviews

"Declarations of Independence" should be required reading at every high school in America. The focus of this work is on the plethora of facts and events that never reach the minds of school children. It thankfully takes a swing at everything we as Americans take for granted. This book will be of great use to anyone who has ever asked of the "American system", "Why does it have to be that way?" and has gotten the answer, "Because that is the way it has always been." Zinn illuminates the social and economic struggles of the common man, woman, and child that are all too often overlooked in textbooks that strive for a glowing and idealistic reckoning over the darker, more realistic truth. In a challenging piece of reading, Zinn takes us on a journey through the common myths and misconceptions of American ideology and begs us to stop seeing the status quo as unalterable. This is a first-class book that deserves to be read by everyone calling themselves "Americans".

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Zinn wants us to live in a better world, July 3, 2002

By	Bert Ruiz "Author" (Pleasantville, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Howard Zinn will never be a mainstream policy wonk. He is a maverick and proud of it. In a nutshell, Zinn wants a government that represents the interests of the majority...not a select few. Moreover, he dares the reader to challenge conventional wisdom and examine events through his special prism. "The struggle for justice should never be abandoned on the ground that it is hopeless," the author nobly argues. It is a major theme in chapters one through eleven of his book. Overall the author points a lot of fingers at our leaders for promoting aggression in foreign policy. In my opinion, Zinn's "cross-examination" of American idelology is a good book to read during our 4th of July holiday.