Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 766
 As a veteran history teacher, I find this book very lacking. July 29, 2010
Alan B. Rogers (York, SC United States)
As a veteran history teacher, I found this book to be very lacking. It is very biased and ignores much of history. If you are a progressive, you will love it. If you are looking for real history, I suggest A Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror. It is accurate, better written and is very well sourced.
 History that you never learned in school or from the main stream media July 27, 2010
alprince
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Howard Zinn gives a sobering and humbling account of the sad state of colonization and subsequent governance for the past 500+ years
Truth in History July 25, 2010
Brian Page (Phoenix)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Howard Zinn is my new favorite historian and I now rise to belatedly mourn his passing and praise his work. This is the best history book I've ever read, and I read a lot of history and historical fiction. What a radical concept, the history of radicalism.
Not just radicalism for the sake of radicalism, as this stuff is often presented in conventional history, but rather with the whole backstory. It's history from the perspective of the losers, so to speak, although "the loser now may be later to win. For the times they are a changin'."
This is also the best description of history-as-watching-grass-grow that I've ever come across. Significant historical changes are usually slow and halting in their approach and often Earth shattering in their arrival, and Zinn describes the process brilliantly in this exposition. He focuses more on the process of change than change itself and on those that gave the last full measure of devotion to the cause.
This book contains heartwrenching stories of dedicated individuals that helped change history despite the opposition of the wealthy and powerful. Human nature can be ugly at times and Zinn exposes some of the worst excesses of the US government in the exercise of its power. He also explains power as both an end and a means of suppressing the unruly masses. It was particularly interesting to read about the founding fathers as a group with common economic interests in a revolution rather than as a noble collection of political altruists. Sure they were great men, some of them anyways, but they occasionally may have put their personal interests ahead of those of the country as a whole. What a heretical concept!
The rich, powerful and privileged have always had folks available to tell their history and the history of their "country", but there are other perspectives to history and in this book Howard Zinn proves that the stories of the downtrodden and powerless are often much more interesting, and infinitely more thought provoking.
A must read July 20, 2010
Mordecai R (Peekskill, NY)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If any American is to consider themself educated, Zinn's book must be on their shelf.
more like the "History of Brutality in the New World" July 16, 2010
SCT (PA, USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
What a great, powerful, thought provoking, and truly educational read.
So many things make more sense, now. I recommend getting this book just so that the true history is not lost forever to the propaganda that passes for history in the mainstream.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 766
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