Review 611: A People’s History of the United States: 1492–Present

A People’s History of the United States: 1492–Present by Howard Zinn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A history that needed to be told. A history that about the people who get abused, ignored, discriminated against, and worse. And why we got to where we are today – a dysfunctional political system, dispirited citizens, and blame put in the wrong place.

There is so much that can be said about this book, but I don’t want to write a long essay. Much of the material was not new to me, and maybe won’t be to many others. However, I suspect there is many historical facts that many people do not know. Some of the book was a little confusing, as it generally was linear, but not entirely. For example, while discussing the early 1900s, Zinn would backtrack to a specific incident that took place in the late 1800s. I wish the book was organized better.

Just want to note one specific item mentioned in the book about how few eligible voters actually vote a president. Since the 1900s, generally around 33% of the eligible voters actually vote in the president. While the most recent past two presidential elections turn out has been slightly higher, it hasn’t effectively changed the fact that around a third of the population gets the president they voted for. Which means two-thirds of the country voted for the other candidate or not at all. Dismal.

The version of the book I read ends around 2001, so today it is already over two decades past. There was an earlier version. It appears this book gets updated every couple of years, but usually only with a new introduction or foreword, the overall material isn’t changed.

I listened to the very long audiobook and do not recommended to read the book this way. The author’s son narrated it and he is definitely not a professional narrator. The narration is uneven and awkward in many places. I only got through this by going slowly, and it took me months to get through.