Book Review: A People's History of the United States

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

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Zinn’s famous book hardly needs an introduction. But if you need one, it goes something like this: History books are written from the vantage point of those on top: wars won, elections won, lands conquered, business success, etc. History should be told by those on the bottom- the poor and the picked upon. Zinn’s book goes about righting that wrong. Almost four decades later, Zinn is surely the reason for the success of some of his goals- for example; Columbus is no longer universally revered. Also, we have seen (albeit a small number of) individuals from minority groups recognized for their role in history. It’s no longer all white men (just mostly all white men).

There are of course, certain people who hate Zinn. I am strongly aligned with him politically, but realize not everyone does, and some vehemently hate him. The irony of course is that my friends who identify strongly on the Right actually would get a lot out of this book. There’s plenty here for the “Love my Country, Fear my Government crowd, going back to Daniel Shays, of course, but on many contemporary issues – there’s not a lot of difference between Bernie Sanders and Ron Paul at times- so here it is – NAFTA, WTO, the War in Iraq, to name a few, and a healthy cynicism about those in DC.

Indeed, if there is a thread in the book, it’s that no matter who you vote for, the government wins. At the time the country made it’s boldest, most progressive moves (1880s, 1920s, the New Deal), were also the times the government worked hardest to pull back. Indeed, what would have been a breakthrough moment at Watergate, only served to solidify control. It is no surprise to me, but it is worth noting, that some of our most progressive politicians (Clinton, Carter) were controlled by business and military interests. In some case, trying to be ‘tough on crime’ or ‘tough on terror’ made them do the same things that we would expect from the GOP.

It’s a huge book and Zinn uses primary sources, so it can get a bit tedious, particularly in the early days of the country when the language is quite different. Also, as Zinn has revised and appended onto the ending, it occasionally seems like he is just doing a laundry list of public nonviolent demonstrations. It does become a bit of a slog. This version ends with the election of Dubya and the War in Afghanistan. It would be nice to have Zinn around to give us his take on Obama (who also sold out a great deal of the party platform on his way to social progress, bombed foreign countries, etc) the Occupy Wall Street movement, Bernie and HillRod and of course, Trump.

That said, although it is a slog at times, I am not denying the importance of the book. Others like James Loewen and Michael Moore have taken the similar ideas and made them more accessible for a modern audience. There is so much covered here, that I could expound on but the best idea is to pick it up.




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