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edm1206 's review for:
A People's History of the United States
by Howard Zinn
This should be required reading for all Americans who grew up in the US public school system. Zinn offers another perspective to many of the historic narratives learned through textbooks in the US public school system. While unarguably more liberal, he does hold both Democrat presidents and Republican presidents to the same stakes, calling their misfalls and depicting how both parties are actually more alike than they are different once in the White House and that the real "bi-partisan" in modern society are the classes of wealth. It is for this reason that I would recommend this book to anyone regardless of political affiliation.
As a millennial who grew up in the 90s, I admittedly had very little knowledge of much of the history post-Reagan to pre-9/11 as I was very young during these events and textbooks had not caught up in detail with this time period by the time I had reached high school. This book helped fill in that gap of knowledge which in turn helped me more fully understand the present. It has helped me understand my parents' and grandparents' generation and the events that took place that helped shape many of their political beliefs. Most importantly, it has opened my mind to understanding the political landscape the generation before me navigated through and how that was different than my own, which in turn has helped me feel less animosity and internal frustration towards what very much feels like a generational gap in political, and sometimes moral, beliefs. In a time with as much political turmoil as we have currently, it has helped me better understand the foundation for which this history has come about - and how we can use history as a guide to move forward, for all Americans regardless of race, class, gender-identity etc.
As a millennial who grew up in the 90s, I admittedly had very little knowledge of much of the history post-Reagan to pre-9/11 as I was very young during these events and textbooks had not caught up in detail with this time period by the time I had reached high school. This book helped fill in that gap of knowledge which in turn helped me more fully understand the present. It has helped me understand my parents' and grandparents' generation and the events that took place that helped shape many of their political beliefs. Most importantly, it has opened my mind to understanding the political landscape the generation before me navigated through and how that was different than my own, which in turn has helped me feel less animosity and internal frustration towards what very much feels like a generational gap in political, and sometimes moral, beliefs. In a time with as much political turmoil as we have currently, it has helped me better understand the foundation for which this history has come about - and how we can use history as a guide to move forward, for all Americans regardless of race, class, gender-identity etc.