 2008-11-16 - History falls somwhere in the middle, and this is an important side of it
Everyone needs to take Zinn's magnum opus here for what it is --> It's no more fact or propaganda than what we were fed in elementary school.
The only fact we know about the past is that you can't trust any account of it. To borrow the setting of Plato's cave....all we see of history are shadows of the past on a wall, and each version is projected through a different lens and light source. It's safe to say that nothing we see of it accurately reflect the events....it's impossible. There is no factual reality for things we weren't alive for - hell even things we are alive for are questionable (Bush won the election in 2000 and Clinton didn't inhale).
So, what we learned in school was as much fact as fiction and as much indoctrination as learning. The same can be said of this book.
The truth falls somewhere in the middle, and that's what makes this book so important. That's what makes it as great a book as it is.
I don't care if you have a man crush on Hannity or spend your spare time protesting at WTO meetings.....you should read this book if you are a student of history.
2008-11-12 - Everyone should read this book.
This book is simply one of the best books I have ever read. Zinn and the people tell it like is. We never learned this in History class. From Columbus to the Revolution, slavery, the Civil War, the Robber Barons, labor unions, the World Wars, Viet Nam and the 2000 election, the people speak. America building its empire while keeping the poor and minorities down and giving a little something to the middle class to keep them moderately satisfied so as not to revolt and keeping the labor strikes to a minimum. The struggle of women, blacks, migrants and the middle class is covered. The People speak in this book. You have never read anything like this. Howard Zinn has fought for the down troddin for half a century.
It's just wonderful. I highly reccomend Howard Zinn's documentary "You Can't Be Neutral On A Moving Train, 1994."
2008-10-24 - History of the U.S. book
A must for high school, jr. high/middle school students who want a good, solid summary understanding of U.S. history!
 2008-09-28 - Socialist Propaganda
Only avowed Socialists would find this propaganda book intellectually honest. If you're in college right now you'll probably run into this book in one of your courses; if so you know your professor is a loon and you're better off dropping the course immediately.
2008-09-28 - Hate speech
In an important recent article (9 September 2008) by Ian Jobling entitled `What is Leukophobia?", Howard Zinn's book is analyzed from the point of view of the stereotypes it is based on and which it fuels. These are:
Stereotype #1: Whites are greedy; non-whites are communal and generous
Stereotype #2: Whites are hierarchical and authoritarian; non-whites are egalitarian and libertarian
Stereotype #3: Whites are violent; non-whites are peaceful
Stereotype #4: Non-whites live in harmony with the natural world; whites exploit and destroy it
Stereotype #5: The white establishment is unwaveringly racist and has never behaved generously towards non-whites
Stereotype #6: Injustice flows in one direction only--from whites to non-whites
Stereotype #7: All of non-whites' problems are due to whites
Stereotype #8: Western culture has not resulted in any positive achievement.
This sounds like a tedious rehash of the poison coming from the Frankfurt School, the ADL, the SPC and other hate organizations in their attempt to destroy Western culture. Perhaps this book, to appreciate the full extent of its political agenda, should be read in conjunction with Kevin MacDonald's Culture of Critique and Rabbi Emanuel Rabinovitch speech, delivered in Budapest, on the 12th of January, 1952 before the "Emergency Council of European Rabbi".
"A People's History fo the Unites States" is not research, it's hate speech.
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