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A review by lewreviews
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
4.0
Being an Australian student, I wasn't taught much about American History. The most I can remember is the idea of 'Manifest Destiny', and the subsequent devastation of Native American populations (in fact, after reading this book, I think we get taught more about that then the Americans!). Basically, I was going into this book very naive and expecting the history of America to told to me as it would be usually, through the Founding Fathers and all that jazz that rings most prominently when we think of the country's history. However, this is the unique thing about APHUS: it presents a history through the view of the people, putting significant importance on people's movements. Here's how I felt about this book.
As I've said, I don't know much about American history, so I won't go into anything about what I feel should have been included and not included, as it is important to note this book was written for the common American with an education on their history. So I'll start off by reviewing Zinn's craftsmanship of this book. APHUS was an extremely engaging read. It made me laugh, smile, but also shake my head in disgust at some of the atrocities that we just don't learn about - something that happened a lot. The book is written very well, seamlessly integrating hundreds of sources throughout without making it feel like a history textbook. Whether it is without bias, I also cannot comment due to my limited knowledge of American history. However, this brings me to my next point.
The book is very anti-capitalist. Every time that capitalism is brought up (a lot), something bad is recounted from history. And no, I am not defending capitalism at all (still haven't made up my mind as to which side I lean, hence me reading books like this) but the insults towards the system can seem opinionated at times. And this becomes more obvious towards the end of the book, as Zinn starts to talk about his ideal 'Utopia' - essentially a Socialist wonderland (something I believe we cannot necessarily achieve). At times I thought this was overdone and would have appreciated some recognition of the benefits of capitalism for human progress but this was seemingly non-existent. This disappointed me because, with such a global superpower that America is, you would expect there to be positive elements to its history. Of course, negative elements are there for us to learn from, but more emphasis on the triumphs of some of the movements and leaders would have been a nice mood change, rather than the bleak outlook of history that Zinn so often describes.
Another quarrel of mine that I will touch on (I'm not the first to mention this, definitely not the last), in a book that Zinn proclaims to be about the people, he focuses an awful lot - especially in the more recent years (the Clinton chapter especially) - on the people in high places that the book was meant to ignore. This is needed to some extent, as it links with how the people reacted and all that, but I think there was a bit much considering the aim of the book.
But I digress. Overall, no regrets with this book and highly recommend it, if you have the time (super long book). I really appreciated Zinn's flow through history, making clear links between time periods to show how certain movements evolved. As originally a sceptic on the power of the people and organized movement, I took a lesson in the great effect it has and can have. I think that this is an incredibly important book as a result of this, and lessons certainly can be learned from history to teach current protest groups on how to get the job done right, rather than push people away from a good cause (we see it today with the radical left pushing people away from gay marriage in Australia by rallying for it).
I'm giving this a strong 4 to a light 5.
As I've said, I don't know much about American history, so I won't go into anything about what I feel should have been included and not included, as it is important to note this book was written for the common American with an education on their history. So I'll start off by reviewing Zinn's craftsmanship of this book. APHUS was an extremely engaging read. It made me laugh, smile, but also shake my head in disgust at some of the atrocities that we just don't learn about - something that happened a lot. The book is written very well, seamlessly integrating hundreds of sources throughout without making it feel like a history textbook. Whether it is without bias, I also cannot comment due to my limited knowledge of American history. However, this brings me to my next point.
The book is very anti-capitalist. Every time that capitalism is brought up (a lot), something bad is recounted from history. And no, I am not defending capitalism at all (still haven't made up my mind as to which side I lean, hence me reading books like this) but the insults towards the system can seem opinionated at times. And this becomes more obvious towards the end of the book, as Zinn starts to talk about his ideal 'Utopia' - essentially a Socialist wonderland (something I believe we cannot necessarily achieve). At times I thought this was overdone and would have appreciated some recognition of the benefits of capitalism for human progress but this was seemingly non-existent. This disappointed me because, with such a global superpower that America is, you would expect there to be positive elements to its history. Of course, negative elements are there for us to learn from, but more emphasis on the triumphs of some of the movements and leaders would have been a nice mood change, rather than the bleak outlook of history that Zinn so often describes.
Another quarrel of mine that I will touch on (I'm not the first to mention this, definitely not the last), in a book that Zinn proclaims to be about the people, he focuses an awful lot - especially in the more recent years (the Clinton chapter especially) - on the people in high places that the book was meant to ignore. This is needed to some extent, as it links with how the people reacted and all that, but I think there was a bit much considering the aim of the book.
But I digress. Overall, no regrets with this book and highly recommend it, if you have the time (super long book). I really appreciated Zinn's flow through history, making clear links between time periods to show how certain movements evolved. As originally a sceptic on the power of the people and organized movement, I took a lesson in the great effect it has and can have. I think that this is an incredibly important book as a result of this, and lessons certainly can be learned from history to teach current protest groups on how to get the job done right, rather than push people away from a good cause (we see it today with the radical left pushing people away from gay marriage in Australia by rallying for it).
I'm giving this a strong 4 to a light 5.