Very Biased and Unbalanced Account of History
|
|
This is among the worse history book I have ever read on the History of the United States.Just pinpointed the cruelty of White People inflicting on natives and color people like myself IS NOT THE WAY TO PROPERLY LEARN HISTORY.
|
|
Biased, yet enjoyable.
|
Like several fellow reviewers, this text was assigned to me for a university American history class. Initially I was quite taken with the text, as Howard Zinn is an excellent writer, capable of taking complex ideas and threads and binding them into coherant highly readable prose that is peppered throughout with many damning quotes.
The problem for Zinn is that his text is unabashedly biased. He makes this unflinchingly clear early on and readers will note that he takes a prolonged look at the "little guy" and those classes that are oppressed or otherwise enduring hard times - such as Native Americans, the African slaves, or other downtrodden classes. Likewise, readers will quickly note that Zinn has a pronounced socialist bent to his writing, and is remarkably hostile towards notions such as nationalism or war. That said, despite the issues I might personally take towards the authors ideas on these and other issues, Zinn does something extremely important. This is a text that will often force the reader to look at things at a way they hadn't done previously - seeing the growth of railways west through the eyes of the plains natives for example and as such, is an important piece of historiography.
Those that aren't interested in taking such a view, or just wanted a standard text on American history should look elsewhere. Zinn, while a great writer doesn't do justice to many parts of American history that other texts will most likely do better.
|
|
|
Another Hate America Rant
|
|
I have read the book and have seen Mr. Zinn on C-Span and have come to the conclusion that this is another Chomskey liberal gasbag that blames America for much of what is wrong in the world and falls victim the simplistic talking points of the left.....Bush invaded Iraq for oil....what he did constitutes high crimes and misdemeanors and he should be impeached.... He does not explain, however, if we invaded for oil, why we don't have it cheaper and why aren't we running Iraqi oil fields and exporting it back home. He also doesn't explain how he would hold Congress accountable for voting for the resolution to wage war in Iraq, saying only that it is Congress' job to go along with the president to war. Has he read the Constitution? I didn't see that in there. Under the Zinn doctrine, we need to take back government and express ourselves. We don't have to obey the government and the government is the people.....precisely, Mr. Zinn. We have a system for that called elections and we put in who we wanted to wage the policies that we wanted. According to this so called great intellect, every president who he dislikes fooled the people into voting for him. No they didn't. People knew what they were voting for and wanted it. People get the government they deserve. Has this country made mistakes? No question. Is most of the world better off because of our technology, economic system, inventiveness, our influence toward freedom and free markets and our willingness to fight for others' freedoms? Absolutely. Mr. Zinn criticizes the U.S. for supporting some dictators in the past. That's true, but I never hear liberals rant against the genocide and mass human murder on an unprecedented scale wrought under communism and socialism. He also was strangely silent about the fantatisicm of fundamentalist Islam. However, he did seem to distance himself from the crackpots who think the government set up 9/11. Maybe there is some hope for Mr. Zinn.
|
|
The Truth Hurts
|
An absolutely jaw dropping account of our history. Rather than including blacks, natives, women, immigrants, workers and the poor's history in this book, I would say that Zinn basically excludes rich white men's history. The difference is beyond dumbfounding, its terrifying.
Indeed, this book is as scary in its implications as it is in its accounts of history. When 95% of books, television, and music come from exactly the people Zinn omits from this book, the phrase that comes to mind is "propaganda is to democracy - what violence is to totalitarianism."
A great book exposing the bias, propaganda, racism, oppression and murdurous nature inherent in our system.
Read.
|
|
|
There were no "American Masses" in the Colonial Period
|
|
The entire text, which I reviewed for a History class when it was first released, is based upon the false assumption that America was a place of "masses of the people" and that some great eglatarian war similar in structure and purpose as that ongoing in Europe was replanted and flourishing in the colonies. For those who believe that communistic ideology has a place in real life and benefits real people, this is a great argument for them and referrence. However, America was not and is not and has not been a "socialist democracy" or a society of equality. America, historically, is a country founded on the essence that individuals have a right to express themselves within certain constraints in a manner that is not necessarily popular or preferred. This individual liberty is what allows our nation to grow and evolve into a nation that is REACHING but has yet to achieve "equality". Often, we forget that Equality is the Goal not the Fact.
|
|
|
