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The Untold History of the United States Paperback – October 15, 2013

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,592 ratings

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The companion to the Showtime documentary series, director Oliver Stone and historian Peter Kuznick challenge the prevailing orthodoxies of traditional history books in this thoroughly researched and rigorously analyzed look at the dark side of American history.

A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE

In this riveting companion to their astonishing documentary series, which the
Washington Post declared is “grounded in indisputable fact,” Academy Award–winning director Oliver Stone and renowned historian Peter Kuznick challenge prevailing orthodoxies to reveal the dark truth about the rise and fall of American imperialism.

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Oliver Stone made such iconic films as Platoon, Wall Street, JFK, Born on the Fourth of July, Natural Born Killers, Nixon, Salvador, and W., and is the author of the highly acclaimed memoir Chasing the Light.

Peter Kuznick is professor of history and director of the award-winning Nuclear Studies Institute at American University and is currently serving his sixth three-year term as distinguished lecturer with the Organization of American Historians. He has written extensively about science and politics, nuclear history, and Cold War culture.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Gallery Books; Reprint edition (October 15, 2013)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 784 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1451613520
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1451613520
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.85 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.13 x 1.7 x 9.13 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,592 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
1,592 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the information in the book thoroughly researched and well-documented. They describe the book as a great, well-written, and interesting read. Readers also mention it's full of painful truths and shocking. They appreciate the sturdiness of the book, saying it has stood the test of time. Opinions differ on the picture quality, with some finding it honest and sassy, while others say it's not pretty.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

178 customers mention "Information quality"167 positive11 negative

Customers find the book thoroughly researched and well-documented. They say it provides facts that were never taught. Readers also mention the narrative is laced with many interesting facts and quotes. Overall, they say it provides an excellent overview of the last 115 years of American history.

"...The editing is genius. His Stalinist comments hilarious and always surprising...." Read more

"...look at the cold war from a Soviet point of view they provide an informative vantage point. No real story has only one side...." Read more

"...more so now in the Internet world, will help us and this great book is like a road map to see where it is coming from...." Read more

"...While Oliver does seem to have his biases, this book appears thoroughly researched and well documented...." Read more

155 customers mention "Readability"135 positive20 negative

Customers find the book great, interesting, and well-written. They say it's riveting and difficult to put down. Readers also mention it's a worthwhile undertaking.

"The topic,information,and vocabulary were above average." Read more

"...Despite these qualifications, I think that this is a very valuable book -- though I fear that it may not be read much outside liberal circles." Read more

"...As were our high school books, these writings are riveting!..." Read more

"...This makes for great reading – and evidently passionate controversy -- but Stone’s reliance on counterfactual to “prove” that his desired future..." Read more

15 customers mention "Suspenseful"13 positive2 negative

Customers find the book suspenseful, full of painful truths, and shocking. They describe it as a heavy dose of reality. Readers also appreciate the side incidents that they were unaware of.

"...most professional email documentary Formats I’ve ever seen, and it is all the truth, this is one of the most important series for all Americans and..." Read more

"I found the book fascinating and frightening...." Read more

"I would definitely recommend this book as it filled in many side incidents that I was unaware of...." Read more

"Eye opening and disturbing. It was an easy read even though the level of detail was amazing...." Read more

9 customers mention "Sturdiness"9 positive0 negative

Customers find the book to be sturdily constructed and well-researched. They appreciate that it has survived the test of time. Readers also mention the book is put together well and sheds light on some not-so-fine moments.

"...1991 film, JFK -- and was very impressed how it has stood the test of time." Read more

"...Delivery was fast and courteous, arriving in great shape. A historian, movie maker and book dealer who care." Read more

"Some of the things I already knew, but, some I didn't. The book is put together well and sheds light on some of our not so fine moments and actions...." Read more

"A superbly crafted and well researched perspective on American history. It takes us up to our current time too. Excellent!..." Read more

10 customers mention "Picture quality"4 positive6 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the picture quality of the book. Some mention it's painfully honest and almost unreal, while others say it's not pretty.

"...It's not a pretty picture (although there are many bright spots) and, while it may be untold, for the most part, it is not unknown...." Read more

"Very good, and painfully honest look at U.S. history" Read more

"...If there's any fault to the book it's that it paints an overly negative picture of every U.S. President since Wilson. No one is spared...." Read more

"A fascinating look at what historians often leave out, "The Untold History of the United States" provides solid analysis of the 20th Century." Read more

7 customers mention "Bias"0 positive7 negative

Customers find the book biased. They say it's not an unbiased work.

"...And it will make some others very skeptical. This is not an unbiased work, and there is a lot of selectivity about what facts are included..." Read more

"...Yes, a few things are a bit biased here and there, but they never claimed to be writing an exponential piece...." Read more

"My impression is that the historical account, while accurate, does have a built in bias...." Read more

"This book is criticized in the mass media for its bias. It is biased. Biased, however, is not the same as inaccurate and I have not read any..." Read more

Important Book
5 out of 5 stars
Important Book
Great book to accompany the television series for more in-depth study.
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Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2024
The topic,information,and vocabulary were above average.
Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2013
It is the first History of USA from the point of view of Stalin!!!! So great to know that finally Stalin has sons whose he could be proud of - two sons who are doing their best to show how himself ( Stalin) was a great man, a man of peace, a man of kindness. I find this idea to tell the history of USA through Stalin's eyes absolutely genius.

Of course nobody asks to Stalin to be totally fair. Each reader asks Stalin to be right, to kill all of those who are anti-communist, all the types of social-traitors among them not only the Republicans but most of the Democrats.

Of course Stalin will have had always right. He will have won all the battles - he was a genius - even the ones he has not really done as the one against Japan in 1945 and against South Korea "fascists" in 1953.

Of course Stalin have lost no time to read the best new researches made by among the best historians regarding the events such as why the japanese Emperor has decided to surrender - i.e. Herbert Bix "Hirohito and the making of Modern Japan" (2000) neither the great book by Timothy Schneider "Bloodlands" neither numerous American, European ( included the Russians ones as Vassily Grossman "Life and Fate" ) , Asian ( Japanese, Chinese, etc ) Historians and writers who have demonstrated precisely step by step all the non sense of what these two great sons of Stalin ( Oliver Stone and his friend) have written in this book.

[...]

[...]

[...]

But it is the reason I love this book so much - first because I love Oliver Stone's films so much - I love his provocative attitude. I am totally sure that he doesn't pretend to become an Historian - he wants simply to make a good provocative film - and he has succeeded. His serie is brilliant. The editing is genius. His Stalinist comments hilarious and always surprising. I know that he dreams will have been to have met Stalin, to have made an interview of him. What a pity! Stalin who has had a great sense of black humor ( cf Martin Amis's book "Koba" ) will have appreciated to discuss with Oliver Stone - probably after he will have ordered to shoot him . But that it is another story.

I find this book really great for all the lovers of dictators - and specially for the lovers of Putin. I suggest to Putin to propose that Oliver Stone becomes like Gerard Depardieu a citizen of this great peaceful nation.

One of the most funniest things of the book is the way they treat George F. Kennan. They hesitate to make him in the category of "Cold Warrior" or of an anti-Cold Warrior. But one thing they don't do for sure is to read George F Kennan's essays and his incredible deep understanding of Russia.

[...]

But we don't ask to these glorious sons of Stalin ( Oliver Stone and his friend) to understand Russia or the incredible suffers that Ukrainians, Polish, Jewish Russians and all these minorities have supported from a part of the elite and of the slaves of Ethnic Russians have done during the last two centuries until today.

Please read this book it will make you so so furious because of this way to make History as pure propaganda than just after who will ri-ush to read some great historical books as the one by Giambattista Vico "New Science"

[...]

or Niccolo Machiavelli

[...]

etc etc

or Karl Marx

[...]

The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon, 1852

or Fernand Braudel "Civilization and capitalism"

[...]

Oh how great historians help us to understand the present and our future. Surely they have had influenced them by their deep visions of the Past Events.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to Oliver Stone and his friend to have made such effort to write this book and to make their TV serie. It will be for all of us a reference to what must NOT be done.

One detail: how is it possible to be a "moralist" when you pretend to speak about History? After what Niccolo Machiavelli told us? Is it possible to think that there are good and bad leaders who are making history? Only children could think that way. People with no great culture.
8 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2013
Wow! The Untold History of the United States will tell you lots and lots and LOTS that you didn't hear in school. And it all shows that the U.S. is not a selfless, noble, exception to the rule that great powers behave badly. The book will make some readers very angry; national myths are dearly held. And it will make some others very skeptical. This is not an unbiased work, and there is a lot of selectivity about what facts are included (and what are not).

This book, however, well worth reading, whether or not you agree with it. Yes, it's biased,but so is most of the U.S. history we read -- only biased the other way. Moving the point of view helps to clarify current U.S. policy issues. For example, do we really need to have a military establishment that is as powerful as all the rest of the military establishments in the world?

The book begins around 1900, as the European powers scrambled for de jure control of Africa and anything else that wasn't nailed down. At that point, the U.S. (perhaps more subtly) was establishing de facto control of much of Latin America and the Caribbean. The most egregious U.S. imperialist, the authors argue, was not TR, but Woodrow Wilson. They put this in the context of U.S. corporate interests, which they also argue played a key role in getting the U.S. into World War I.

The next part of the book looks at the interwar period and at World War II. Mssrs. Stone and Kuznick show the degree to which anti-communism blinkered U.S. policies. They also remind us of how little of World War II -- in Europe -- was fought by the U.S., and of how much was fought by the Soviet Union.

The discussion of the immediate post-war period is the most interesting in the book. The authors present what is to me a convincing case that dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was NOT necessary. The Japanese, they argue, were desperately looking for a way to surrender, because they were terrified of a Russian invasion. Many U.S. generals and politicos argued against the bombs. One is left with the conclusion that the main reason for the bombs was to scare the Soviets.

From there, the authors proceed to the emergence of the cold war, which they regard as largely the fault of the U.S. They understate, I think, the "contribution" of Stalin's Soviet Union, but by encouraging the reader to look at the cold war from a Soviet point of view they provide an informative vantage point. No real story has only one side.

The part of the book which covers our more recent wars -- Vietnam, and then the Middle East -- is less startling, because U.S. miscalculation and cruelties in those wars have been more widely reported than those in earlier periods. Also, it is in the more recent period that the book seems to me most seriously biased; per Mssrs. Stone and Kuznick, no American president since John Kennedy has done anything that was not almost unequivocally evil.

There are faults in this book. It seems to me to overstate the iniquities of the U.S., to understate the bloody-mindedness of our enemies, and to underestimate the fact that politicians have to deal with social and economic realities. The only real heroes in the book are Henry Wallace and Mikhail Gorbachev -- FDR comes off as a sometime waffler, while JFK comes off as someone who experienced a major change in view shortly before being killed. Also, the book does in some instances take comments out of context, and/or leave off important explanatory information. I look forward to reading the upcoming review in The New York Review of Books, which is (internet gossip reports) most unfavorable.

Despite these qualifications, I think that this is a very valuable book -- though I fear that it may not be read much outside liberal circles.
4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Rene Puskas
5.0 out of 5 stars The Truth
Reviewed in Germany on September 25, 2024
This should be made compulsory reading in every high school, nipping indoctrination in the bed. People might start seeing the USA for the monster it has been and still often is.
Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Hegemon USA
Reviewed in India on July 1, 2024
The book systematically and with references and citations exposes the settler colonist nature of the US government. How the successive governments firstly using the bogey of USSR and communism in the could war years and after that of islamic terrorism has meddled and messed up so many countries right from south America to the middle east. Terrorism take a bow to the USA government.
Cliente Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars Da leggere
Reviewed in Italy on September 30, 2017
Un magnifico libro di storia. Quella vera. Da leggere, se si vuole capire non solo gli stati uniti, ma anche la nostra storia.
Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Objective History
Reviewed in Canada on September 28, 2013
Having a University Degree in History and being Canadian, which allows me to view American history at a distance I would say that this book is one of the most objective histories of the United States I have read. Unlike many other American History books which bury the historical context of a time or event under American values and views (such as patriotism, freedom, individuality, self determination, etc,,,, ad nauseum) "The Untold History of the United States" presents all the facts of the event, from all perspectives. Much of what is written here is not new as it has been recorded in other historical texts from other nations but has been discredited by American Academia as "America Bashing". It is not a criticism of the United States to point out all the errors, misjudgements and false assumptions it has made historically which has caused tremendous upheaval in the world, its just the facts. If you are considering buying this book here is a simple test; Was America justified in involving itself in Vietnam and fighting the Vietnam War? If your answer is "yes" then this book is not for you. If you answered "No", then this book will give you the facts to support the established view that the Vietnam War is recognized globally as an American Political and Military disaster, which wasted the lifes of American soldiers for no clear gain.
An excellent history book, Americans need to step out side their self righteous bubble and read it.
javier babe
5.0 out of 5 stars The untold History of Unitaed States
Reviewed in Spain on September 22, 2014
Se desmontan las autoalabanzas USA referentes a su democracia, libertad, imperialismo , superioridad moral...etc
Eduardo Galeano ya nos contó mucho. Kunizk y Stone nos completan la Historia.