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ejrathke 's review for:
A People's History of the United States
by Howard Zinn
Been several years since I read this for the first time. I decided to read it again since I've been somewhat haphazardly going through american history, so I thought it'd be a good time to revisit this big summary. In the intervening years, I've gone through a lot of random historical eras in an equally haphazard and somewhat random way so I think I have a better sense of how this book works.
It really is more of a rapid summary of american history from the perspective of the voiceless, or at least oft-ignored. It's definitely very interesting and insightful counterpoint to what we typically get taught about american history. Also interesting to compare it to books like Ron Chernow's biographies which are very much from the perspective of generals, presidents, and industrial tycoons.
But, yeah, it's all quite fitting with many of the histories I've been reading from a more anarcho-anthropological perspective.
But, yeah, I still find many of the heavy criticisms against Zinn to be more ideological than anything else. Of course, that's the purpose of this book, to represent the ideological otherside of the very ideologically driven history of america generally presented by historians, teachers, media, and politicians.
It really is more of a rapid summary of american history from the perspective of the voiceless, or at least oft-ignored. It's definitely very interesting and insightful counterpoint to what we typically get taught about american history. Also interesting to compare it to books like Ron Chernow's biographies which are very much from the perspective of generals, presidents, and industrial tycoons.
But, yeah, it's all quite fitting with many of the histories I've been reading from a more anarcho-anthropological perspective.
But, yeah, I still find many of the heavy criticisms against Zinn to be more ideological than anything else. Of course, that's the purpose of this book, to represent the ideological otherside of the very ideologically driven history of america generally presented by historians, teachers, media, and politicians.