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A review by huerca_armada
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
4.0
"What is America?" On its surface, a trite and open-ended question. Too open-ended, even. How can you conceive of a satisfactory answer to it? Where do you even begin with the idea of America? With the establishment of the nation in 1776? With the first settlers that landed in what was to be Jamestown? Perhaps when Columbus and his men landed on the shores and met the Arawak -- when the seal that separated two distinct hemispheres of the world was broken, and something was forced to emerge to define it?
Its a question that underscores the late Howard Zinn's most famous work, and for good reason. The concept of America is nebulous, but we all have experience in schooling around the key pillars of it. The settlements, the Revolutionary War, the freeing of the slaves, and later that of World War 2, Vietnam, and more. We are familiar with the men who defined this history as presidents, generals, and as political leaders. But for all that, there is a key element missing to all of this.
At its core, A People's History of the United States is an essential window into the popular struggles that have defined all of the peoples of America: the native inhabitants who were forced out, the slaves imported to the country, and the poverty of the working-class from the tenant farmers to the industrial workers. Zinn's work is a critique of the national mythmaking that has defined America from its inception, and demolitions the fables of American exceptionalism and promise. It is an exhaustive narrative of betrayal, of class struggle that has permeated the whole course of America's history from the tail end of the 15th century up until the present day. Again and again, the point is clear -- that popular upwellings of discontent against conservative political caretakers, the rich and capital owners, have pervaded our shared history for centuries. That mutual aid, solidarity between classes and disparate groups of people, has persisted and flourished in spite of efforts to drive wedges between them.
While I do find that Zinn retread his own ground at certain points during his accounting, and that some instances I already knew what he was working his narrative towards from other materials I've read, A People's History of the United States and its detailed accountancy of America's history remains vital to every reader.
Its a question that underscores the late Howard Zinn's most famous work, and for good reason. The concept of America is nebulous, but we all have experience in schooling around the key pillars of it. The settlements, the Revolutionary War, the freeing of the slaves, and later that of World War 2, Vietnam, and more. We are familiar with the men who defined this history as presidents, generals, and as political leaders. But for all that, there is a key element missing to all of this.
At its core, A People's History of the United States is an essential window into the popular struggles that have defined all of the peoples of America: the native inhabitants who were forced out, the slaves imported to the country, and the poverty of the working-class from the tenant farmers to the industrial workers. Zinn's work is a critique of the national mythmaking that has defined America from its inception, and demolitions the fables of American exceptionalism and promise. It is an exhaustive narrative of betrayal, of class struggle that has permeated the whole course of America's history from the tail end of the 15th century up until the present day. Again and again, the point is clear -- that popular upwellings of discontent against conservative political caretakers, the rich and capital owners, have pervaded our shared history for centuries. That mutual aid, solidarity between classes and disparate groups of people, has persisted and flourished in spite of efforts to drive wedges between them.
While I do find that Zinn retread his own ground at certain points during his accounting, and that some instances I already knew what he was working his narrative towards from other materials I've read, A People's History of the United States and its detailed accountancy of America's history remains vital to every reader.