A Justice-Focused Communist History of the US
4 stars
This book would be more accurately titled "A Communist History of the United States," since much of the analysis is explicitly Marxist. That's not to say it's a bad history - I especially appreciated the focus on US labor history, and the critical examination of US history overall is interesting. Still the analysis can get grating, veering extremely far into long discredited communist tropes. Beyond that, the history starts to degrade as we approach the modern era - saying that the US was no different than Nazi Germany was particularly egregious. Zinn also doesn't show his work, reaching conclusions based on single anecdotes without any evidence that these were broader trends. Similarly frustrating are when numbers are thrown out without context (e.g. $1.35 per day salary in 1863, 28 sailors out of 800 dead from disease on a one month voyage).
Despite all of this, overall the book stands …
This book would be more accurately titled "A Communist History of the United States," since much of the analysis is explicitly Marxist. That's not to say it's a bad history - I especially appreciated the focus on US labor history, and the critical examination of US history overall is interesting. Still the analysis can get grating, veering extremely far into long discredited communist tropes. Beyond that, the history starts to degrade as we approach the modern era - saying that the US was no different than Nazi Germany was particularly egregious. Zinn also doesn't show his work, reaching conclusions based on single anecdotes without any evidence that these were broader trends. Similarly frustrating are when numbers are thrown out without context (e.g. $1.35 per day salary in 1863, 28 sailors out of 800 dead from disease on a one month voyage).
Despite all of this, overall the book stands as a useful counterpoint to claims of American exceptionalism which are easily refuted, as well as showing how shockingly consistent the US's policies have been over the centuries. Highly recommend.