Review Of Howard Zinn´s A People's History Of The United States

Throughout the years, individuals have learned U.S. History through the perspective of the governments, leaders, the conqueror. However, through Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, the reader saw a different perspective. They saw the views of slaves, of women, of the underdogs. This was Zinn’s purpose for writing A People’s History of the United States, to show the reader the other side of historical events, because too much of history is written by the elite. The thesis that seems to be maintained throughout is that the minority shaped America to what it is today. That the Indians, the slaves, the poor, helped to make America the free country it is today through their various forms of rebellion and wars to receive the rights

It showed the individual a new perspective of U.S. History. There were many items a person could both like and dislike in the book. A likeable aspect of Zinn’s approach to history is that it was easy to read and understand the information. Unlike reading a typical history book that just states information, Howard Zinn allows the reader to be thoroughly interested in reading the content, without it being monotonous. It allowed the individual to learn history in a way that hasn’t been taught to them before. While there were likeable aspects, there were also parts of the book that a person may dislike. For example, Howard Zinn was very biased towards the white majority. According to Howard Zinn’s Biased History, Flynn states that according to Zinn, “the separation from Great Britain, the Civil War and both World Wars all were the result of base motives of the ‘ruling class.’” As well as this, Zinn also fails to mention the positive parts of key events in history. For example, when Zinn talks about the American Revolution, he fails to mention how it inspired movements for freedom and self-government throughout the world, as stated in Howard Zinn’s Biased History. Zinn had a lot of criticism put forth by Flynn in Howard Zinn’s Biased History. Flynn criticised how Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States was “full of inaccuracies and poor judgment.” As well as this, Flynn also states how Zinn left out important information about the Pequot War and the American Revolution. Despite all this, if an individual were to choose between Howard Zinn and Daniel J. Flynn to be their history teacher, it would most likely be Howard Zinn. While Zinn may be biased, he makes the individual long to learn more about U.S. History. The person wants to learn history from the perspective he teaches it from because it is new and is not the “traditional” style of teaching. Although Zinn’s teaching may have a couple flaws,