A few of the many truths in Howard Zinn’s book “A People’s History of the United States” that your standard history textbooks might ignore.
AMERICAN HISTORY
It's not all about presidents, generals, and businessmen. These books and articles cover the history of the most powerful, dynamic, and terrifying country in the world.
Eight People our History Classes Lied About (or Ignored): More from “A People’s History of the United States”
Seven Events in “A People’s History” That Will Knock You On Your Ass
A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES – Howard Zinn
“In the American historical system, the people are represented by several important groups: immigrants & enslaved people, workers & indigenous. These are their stories.” [DUN DUN]
THE COLOR OF LAW – Richard Rothstein
Richard Rothstein has the receipts on how HOAs, city councils, banks, realtors, states and the federal government all actively and deliberately worked to keep our neighborhoods segregated. This read is informative, readable, and infuriating.
STAMPED FROM THE BEGINNING – Ibram X. Kendi
Don’t let the size or heavy subject matter fool you: this is a fascinating, heartbreaking, and compulsively readable history of how “race” was constructed as an idea in America.
THE “S” WORD – John Nichols
Whether you love socialism or hate it, it’s been here since the beginning and is American as they come, from Thomas Paine to MLK.
THE FIGHT FOR THE FOUR FREEDOMS – Harvey J. Kaye
Historian Harvey J. Kaye is a loud and passionate proponent for the age of FDR and the New Deal to come again, and lead the USA to build a working social democracy. Here, he shows us how it happened the first time, and what we accomplished.
STONY THE ROAD – Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. writes a compelling, brief history of what African Americans truly accomplished during Reconstruction, and how that opportunity was crushed by a racist white counterrevolution that set the tone for decades’ more oppression.
TAKE HOLD OF OUR HISTORY – Harvey J. Kaye
A lot of people think those on the left hate America and are embarrassed by our history. Harvey J. Kaye isn’t, and he argues there’s a proud, radical left history from the American Revolution to the 1960s, waiting to be told again.
THE DEFINING MOMENT – Jonathan Alter
As Joe Biden prepared to undertake his first hundred days as President, I read this history of FDR striking his first blows against the Great Depression. Spoiler alert: FDR comes off better than Biden (and Obama, who read this in preparation for his own Hundred Days).