A People's History of the United States

by Howard Zinn

Book Overview

THE CLASSIC NATIONAL BESTSELLERA wonderful, splendid book--a book that should be read by every American, student or otherwise, who wants to understand his country, its true history, and its hope for... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060838655
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
• Length: 729 Pages
• Weight: 1.24 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 1.2" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

A story, not a history

The book has value as an alternative perspective on American history. That said, it is not a disinterested account of the facts of history. The book teaches Zinn's opinions about -- rather than the details of -- events, and every historical fact is accompanied by extensive unannounced ideological interpretation. (I mean "ideological" in Hannah Arendt's sense: coming to a conclusion, then selecting and interpreting evidence to support that conclusion.) Information comes exclusively from sources which share Zinn's biases, and those sources are treated uncritically. Opposing views are not addressed at all; they are ignored rather than rebutted. The presentation of information is also often misleading. For instance, Zinn mentions that American immigration quotas for Germany were higher than those for Baltic states. He uses this fact to support his argument that American government was guided primarily by racial bigotry; Germans, he says, were allowed to immigrate in greater numbers because of a racist preference for them. He neglects to mention that the population of Germany is roughly 30 times that of a Baltic state and that viewed as percentages of countries' populations, the immigration quotas are not radically different. The book is full of arguments like this, so it's about as poor a work of political philosophy as it is a work of history. If you can differentiate the facts from the story-telling, though, you can gain insight into a state of mind and a political outlook.

Different view of American History

It’s very interesting to see history through the lenses of the regular people.

Great book

I am a long time fan of this book but, unfortunately, in this edition (97) the index does not match the abridged text. I was forced to order the 1995 version directly from the publisher for use in my class room.