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A People's History of the United States

Highlights from the 20th Century

Audiobook
0 of 3 copies available
0 of 3 copies available

THE CLASSIC NATIONAL BESTSELLER

Read by Matt Damon and Howard Zinn

""A wonderful, splendid book—a book that should be read by every American, student or otherwise, who wants to understand his country, its true history, and its hope for the future."" –Howard Fast

Historian Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States chronicles American history from the bottom up, throwing out the official narrative taught in schools—with its emphasis on great men in high places—to focus on the street, the home, and the workplace.

Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research, it is the only volume to tell America's story from the point of view of—and in the words of—America's women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, the working poor, and immigrant laborers. As Zinn shows, many of our country's greatest battles—the fights for a fair wage, an eight-hour workday, child-labor laws, health and safety standards, universal suffrage, women's rights, racial equality—were carried out at the grassroots level, against bloody resistance.

Covering Christopher Columbus's arrival through President Clinton's first term, A People's History of the United States features insightful analysis of the most important events in our history. This edition also includes an introduction by Anthony Arnove, who wrote, directed, and produced The People Speak with Zinn and who coauthored, with Zinn, Voices of a People's History of the United States.

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  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      This book is well read but wrongly titled. A better title would be a history of radicalism in modern America. Matt Damon's reading captures the spirit of the text. Like the book, Damon's voice has an edge to it. He expresses the author's outrage regarding the exploitation of certain groups in American history. He also communicates Zinn's admiration for the courage and determination demonstrated by protest leaders. While Damon reads the main text, Zinn reads the introduction and conclusion. His is not an actor's voice, but his reading is evenly paced and authentic sounding. M.L.C. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 1, 2003
      According to this classic of revisionist American history, narratives of national unity and progress are a smoke screen disguising the ceaseless conflict between elites and the masses whom they oppress and exploit. Historian Zinn sides with the latter group in chronicling Indians' struggle against Europeans, blacks' struggle against racism, women's struggle against patriarchy, and workers' struggle against capitalists. First published in 1980, the volume sums up decades of post-war scholarship into a definitive statement of leftist, multicultural, anti-imperialist historiography. This edition updates that project with new chapters on the Clinton and Bush presidencies, which deplore Clinton's pro-business agenda, celebrate the 1999 Seattle anti-globalization protests and apologize for previous editions' slighting of the struggles of Latinos and gays. Zinn's work is an vital corrective to triumphalist accounts, but his uncompromising radicalism shades, at times, into cynicism. Zinn views the Bill of Rights, universal suffrage, affirmative action and collective bargaining not as fundamental (albeit imperfect) extensions of freedom, but as tactical concessions by monied elites to defuse and contain more revolutionary impulses; voting, in fact, is but the most insidious of the"controls." It's too bad that Zinn dismisses two centuries of talk about"patriotism, democracy, national interest" as mere"slogans" and"pretense," because the history he recounts is in large part the effort of downtrodden people to claim these ideals for their own.

    • Library Journal

      February 15, 2003
      According to this classic of revisionist American history, narratives of national unity and progress are a smoke screen disguising the ceaseless conflict between elites and the masses whom they oppress and exploit. Historian Zinn sides with the latter group in chronicling Indians' struggle against Europeans, blacks' struggle against racism, women's struggle against patriarchy, and workers' struggle against capitalists. First published in 1980, the volume sums up decades of post-war scholarship into a definitive statement of leftist, multicultural, anti-imperialist historiography. This edition updates that project with new chapters on the Clinton and Bush presidencies, which deplore Clinton's pro-business agenda, celebrate the 1999 Seattle anti-globalization protests and apologize for previous editions' slighting of the struggles of Latinos and gays. Zinn's work is an vital corrective to triumphalist accounts, but his uncompromising radicalism shades, at times, into cynicism. Zinn views the Bill of Rights, universal suffrage, affirmative action and collective bargaining not as fundamental (albeit imperfect) extensions of freedom, but as tactical concessions by monied elites to defuse and contain more revolutionary impulses; voting, in fact, is but the most insidious of the"controls." It's too bad that Zinn dismisses two centuries of talk about"patriotism, democracy, national interest" as mere"slogans" and"pretense," because the history he recounts is in large part the effort of downtrodden people to claim these ideals for their own.

      Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      The late Howard Zinn attempts to correct the "historian's distortion" of the past with a detailed account of the struggles of African-Americans, Native Americans, women, labor, and others. Jeff Zinn, the author's son, reads with a passionate anger that occasionally overshadows the stories he tells. The historical accounts will prove interesting and important even to listeners who believe George Washington and our Founding Fathers intended more than "the most ingenious system of control in history." The author's socialist leanings will likely irritate rank-and-file Democrats as much as Republicans; he considers both parties gatekeepers of "the system." This is a tough listen--the sheer weight of Zinn's critique could well leave listeners feeling disheartened and powerless. J.A.S. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:1260
  • Text Difficulty:9-12

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