Have you read Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" yet?

[StellaBlue]

This book changed my political views more than any other. It radicalized me. I wonder what percentage of DLC cheerleaders and corporate-capitulation-status-quo enablers on the Left have read it. This book, more than any other, led me to, first, do more research into the struggle for civil rights and freedom in this country (from Shay's rebellion to the Haymarket to the SLCC to...), and, second, to realize that we do, in fact, live in an oligarchy (or perhaps plutocracy, take your pick). This isn't just an abstract notion; it is, and has been, from the beginning. The country was purposefully created to maintain the oligarchy at all our expense.

Hence I am not very likely to compromise, support Hillary, etc. (no flames, please - I will support Hillary if she is the nominee, I am just disappointed/enraged at the prospect).

I strongly recommend this book, and the independent investigation it instigated, to my fellow DUers who are Zinn virgins. Then move on to Chomsky.

Thoughts?

(edited for html mistake)

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Yes, highly recomendable

hell I also gave it to my niece as a bat mitzvah gift, with a copy of the US Constitution, how evil am I?

:-)

[madaboutharry]

2. It changed the way I view the world.

It also made me understand that everything that I learned in school was bullcrap.

[kath]

13. Another great book about all the crap you learn in school is "Lies My

Teacher Told Me", by James Loewen.

Here's Loewen's website:
http://www.uvm.edu/~jloewen/

It's quite interesting to take his American History Quiz on the website.

[realisticphish]

3. i actually

listened to it, but yes

[Viva_La_Revolution]

4. You need more options!

I voted "yes" but you need one that says "more than once, recommend to everyone, and have loaned it out so often I'm on my third copy"

:)

[StellaBlue]

5. haha

:hi:

Me, too!

I just wanted a clear, graphic representation of the breakdown of have-reads/have-not-reads.

[proud patriot]

6. I've read it twice

:shrug:

[StellaBlue]

7. Edited to reflect the correct title!!!

nt

[BrewerJohn]

8. I also gave away my first copy

An eye-opener if ever there was one. Very high on my "Every DUer
(not to mention every American) should read this book" list.

[StellaBlue]

9. what else is on the list???

I am looking for some more good reads, and the public library is only five blocks' walk away!

[dad]

20. Lies My Teacher Told Me

As someone else mentioned, "Lies My Teacher Told Me". That's a better book than Zinn's in my opinion.

[WindRavenX]

10. Yes. Changed my life

:hi:

[StellaBlue]

11. hi again

:hi:

In fact, I am thinking about finding it and rereading it... don't remember coming across it when unpacking, though.... hmmm

[clyrc]

12. I read about half of it

and I intend to read the rest, some time. I got so angry at the point I stopped, I figured it would be better to give it a bit of a rest. I told my mom to read it, too.

[kath]

14. Haven't read it yet. Have a copy, and really should try to get to it soon

[Kenergy]

15. A must read n/t

[Spider Jerusalem]

16. I've read it...

and I'm not as enamoured of Zinn as most others here are. I see the book as a fairly good political document; as history, it's extremely bad. Zinn has countless shortcomings as a historiographer, including but not limited to his utter failure to cite any sources, his tendency to make sweeping generalisations and flat assertions based on biased interpretations, and a rather startlingly naïve view of the cultural and political influence of the 'underclasses' vis a vis the 'elites' that views most Americans as being in little better position than serfs in eighteenth-century Russia.

Zinn may be a skilled polemicist, but he is neither a scholar nor an historian.

[StellaBlue]

17. shameless kick

[Swamp Rat]

18. No, not yet.

But after Spider Jerusalem's post above, I am more curious about it than before. :D

I was about to order it for a grad history class, but hurricane Katrina got in the way.

[davekriss]

19. Manufacturing Consent, Necessary Illusions, and...

...Deterring Democracy -- to be read after Zinn's People's History (just a shameless plug for Chomsky). :)

[donheld]

21. One of the best books I've ever read

Should be required reading.