A People’s History of the United States
The author of the book A Young People’s History of the United States is Howard Zinn. He was born on August 24 1922 and he died on January 27 2010. He was an American historian, playwright, and social activist. He was the chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College and a political science professor at Boston University. He was a very popular author writing over twenty books. His best selling and most influential book being A People’s History of the United States. Later in 2007 he published a spin off of the original And called it A Young People’s History of the United States. This was a version for young readers to understand.
A People’s History of the United States is about American history with little stories that support the authors theory’s. He begins with Christopher Columbus and ends with the present day. Zinn goes into detail about various issues regarding the hidden class struggles, the racist agendas, and the fight to replace a broken political system. He talked about the conquest of the New World in 1492. Also about the European explorers wiped out all of the Native Americans tributes, which brought them wealth. The English settlers came to the North America in the early 1600s. They were in a war with the Native Americans. Early during the same time frame was slavery in North America. The English settlers used slaves and kidnapped them from there homes and used them for free labor.
He also talked about how the Founding Fathers organized a revolution against British. The wealthy and powerful people took advantage of the working class. They put them against the enemy manipulated them to become more powerful. “The history of any country, presented as the history of family, conceals fierce conflicts of interest between conquerors and conquered, masters and slaves, capitalists and workers, dominators and dominated in race and sex.”They often took advantage of their opportunities. Until the Revolutionary War the American leaders put in place freedom and equality. In 1780 the Founding Fathers developed the Constitution which provided a strong national government. During the 18th and 19th century is when the woman started noticing the sexism. They were upset about the sexism of their society. It became more common for women to attend college in the 1960s century. The woman became more educated and active in the feminist cases.
He also touched on the Civil War. “The Civil War was one of the first instances in the world of modern warfare: deadly artillery shells, Gatling guns, bayonet charges–combining the indiscriminate killing of mechanized war with hand-to-hand combat”. This was an event that wanted to end slavery but the federal government only did so because they were pressured by slave movements and people having the right to petition the government. When the government finally did end slavery, they only gave little support to the African-Americans. However a couple years following the Civil War they did provide some financial and military support for the African-Americans. After 1876 the federal government backed away from supporting that African-Americans.
Later in the 19th century the federal government became more passionate about helping with the businesses. They supported military interventions that were designed to help American business. Also throughout the 19 century the the government did not protect American workers. So they went on strike and protested in the streets and demanded better wages and shorter hours. The federal government showed support for the business by deploying troops to break up the strikes and enforcing businesses as well. When the government did not help the normal worker and instead provided reforms to the system. Which was there to satisfy the American people without actually helping them.
Zinn touched on the fact that World War One was a corrupt and a imperialist conflict. “The war between the Axis Power and the Allied Powers as an imperialist war, now called it a “people’s war” against Fascism.” The government sent the poorest citizens to die in a conflict that had nothing to do with them. World War Two caused the government to see the chance to become the world's leading power. When the war was over America made ties with a lot of leaders around the world. During the 1969s the people made an uprising. The people fought for civil rights, women’s rights, gays rights, and environmental protection. The government would enforce reforms because of all the people’s actions, but these reforms often didn’t address the problem.
Finally he talks about the war on terror where the government delays troops to the Middle East. Zinn ends with he does not know what the end result will be for the war of terror but the people need to decide if they will support it or not.
The book has various strengths. The biggest strength is what perspective the book is written in. The book is written in the common man perspective instead if the wealthy or most powerful mans perspective. Also how simplified it is and easy to read and understand for the younger adults. The little stories he told about American history helped people learn and have a better understanding. The book also has some weakness. The book be simplified can be a strength and a weakness. He simplified some things so much that he left out details. He focused on the class conflict which lead to a lack in evidence to support his argument. He stated that the wealthy class control the people and has the most power. He wanted the lower classes to fight back in a non classical war way but a quiet way. He got a lot of criticism for his views on class conflict so this was considered a weakness.
I agree with Zinn approach to writing this book. He comes with a different perspective that is easy to understand and read. He brought light to a lot of subjects such as when he talked about Vietnam War in his books. He touched base on the secret bombing, killing of innocent people, and other cover ups. The stories he told were not mentioned in textbooks during that time period so he put he insight into his book. However his agreements with American history were valid but he did it in such a way where he under emphasized specific details. He lacked evidence to support his argument.
I would highly recommend the book A People's History of the United States. It shows a different insight of American history rather than the typical textbook. Although it got a lot of criticism, the books different perspective showed character. I would recommend this book to any young adult that is struggling to understand American history overall. This book was a very popular and influence book in the 1900s. It even was runner up for the National Book Award in 1980.