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gracieec's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
sad
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Misogyny, Sexism, War, Xenophobia, Classism, Physical abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Violence, Antisemitism, Colonisation, Child death, Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, and Gun violence
Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Confinement
Minor: Homophobia, Miscarriage, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Addiction, Death of parent, Deportation, Islamophobia, Suicide, Abortion, Ableism, and Domestic abuse
maiagaia's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
This is a great book to get a general overview of American history from a different perspective than most people have learned in school. The writing style is more academic than literary, so it can be pretty dry. It's very low fluff and straight to the point because there's a ton of ground being covered in a relatively short book. It's a great jumping-off point to discover specific eras or organizations that you might want to look into further. The biggest draw back for me is that after the chapter on the Vietnam war, the chapters lost a lot of their detail and focus. For example, chapter 19 "Surprises" covers women's rights movements, prison riots and strikes, Native American protests, and general cultural changes occuring in the younger generation of the time. Each of these could have been their own chapter, or Zinn should have made more of an effort to connect them. Overall, I really enjoyed this read, and I'd recommend it to people just getting into American history.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Racism, and Slavery
It's a history of the United States in all its imperialist glory. Be wary.
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