yurienokida 's review for:

A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn

4.0

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I first heard of this book in one of my undergrad classes. It focused on young people’s social movements across the US and my professor said that the framework for the course was based on this book by Howard Zinn. It’s been on my to-read list since then and I finally got around to starting it last summer. I’ve been reading this book for months because of how dense it was. Like with any history book, you kind of have to go in with the mindset that it is going to be biased and that it can’t cover everything. It’s also worth noting that the author is a White male historian. With that being said, I think this book is really important because it showcases important historical moments in US history from the perspective of marginalized communities (BIPOC, immigrants, women, LGBTQ+, working class). I think Zinn did a really great job in ~700 pages of laying out how from the very beginning, the political and economic systems in the US have been in favor of wealthy and White men. Reading about the power of people’s movements and collective action to demand change across history was definitely empowering.