A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
This book has to be the best historical, non-fiction book I have EVER read. I truly enjoyed every second of it. The book doesn’t repeat what we learn in school, where the elite, white political and economic leaders are the stars and heroes. No. This is a story about the real people of this country: the African Americans, the Native Americans, the poor lower class, the workers, the immigrants, and the liberated women. The author wanted to “awaken a greater consciousness of class conflict, racial injustice, sexual inequality, and national arrogance,” and he did just that.
I love that I learned something new within each chapter. I liked that Zinn didn’t go into detail about battles and war leaders in the Revolution, Civil War, or World Wars, but instead discussed the citizens in the US that were most affected by the violence. I also appreciated that Zinn showed the ugly truth instead of hiding it, such as the slaughter of Native Americans by the “great” Christoper Columbus, the hypocrisy of our founding fathers, and the US’s everyday actions that embraced the corporations and the rich but left the poor and oppressed to suffer.
A People’s History of the United States is a book I highly recommend to anyone who loves history and wants to see from a different point of view than what is pushed on us throughout our schooling.
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