4. The People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn

Category: 50 Books

This was the 20th anniversary edition. It covers from 1492 to the Clinton Administration.

If you’re looking for a socialist view of  U.S. history, but not anything too in-depth, just a nice overview of how the United States has managed to keep it’s people down, then this is the book for you.

It was not a light-hearted read, and was in fact, depressing. I do think our country is awesome and great and the best one ever!  But I also know that it is flawed and run by the very wealthy.  This book was a reminder to me that it has always been that way. Which make me feel like it will never change. And that’s sad.

I found it best to read a bit at a time so as not to overwhelm myself with too many negative thoughts at a time.

A lot of this book may seem to read like Bad Stuff We Already Know especilly stuff like, “Yes, we came over on ships and killed all the indigenous peoples.” and “Yes, slavery was bad.” And of course the old arguement about slavery is that “My family wasn’t wealthy. It’s not like we owned slaves.” and while that is probably true, most of us would have been servants or something, and not wealthy landowners. But Zinn makes an excellent point of what happened to the black people after slavery and before the civil rights movement? I think the word he used was they were invisible. I’d never thought if it that way. Invisible? Who let that happen? Everyone.

This book has reminded me to be kinder to people, because we’re all humans and we deserve that from one another.

I was hoping that Zinn would talk more about HUAC in more detail, but he did not.

I probably won’t read this one again, but I do see me consulting it from time to time.

I give it three Roxy thumbs up.

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