Book: A People’s History of the United States of America
A People’s History of the United States: 1492 to Present by Howard Zinn
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Initially I bought this book thinking it would be a good primer on USA history.
Over the years it sat on my bookshelf I realized I should not expect that as I learn of Howard Zinn, hear him on NPR a few times etc.
So, what do we end up with?
A long history of the USA from the “losers” (aka “people’s”) side. This is how Zinn portrays it. There are few victories, no joyous moments and only endless oppression and cruelty. And a repeated contrast on how history is written and how it was received by some segments. For readers who need this wake-up call, this is well done (and I’ve chatted to one person who was in University where this book made them realize that history was “written by the winners” as the cliche goes), for others it gets…. depressing.
Especially without a lifetime of alternative/standard US history indoctrination this comes across strong, often without the needed context. And it’s neither truly impartial or biased in as much as it’s clear there is an agenda here but it’s not clear what the agenda is other than showing the ‘other side’. No solution is offered for a better way, no new doctrine or different ‘historical winner’ is forthcoming, its lose, lose, lose for the People’s History.
All I can say is that I’m glad I read it in the summer when the skies are blue, but I was glad to lay it down and move onto other things (the etext of Scott Lynch’s Queen of the Iron Sands and then James Feurst: Huge: A Novel with Iain Banks Transition in the wings).
