A People's History Analysis

A Student’s Analysis: A People’s History A book unlike any other before about American history was published in 1980. The author, a former bombardier in World War II, shows the way most people would view the history of the United States, and that is why the title is A People’s History of the United States. He (the author, that is) has written many other books that also have much merit to them. The author’s thesis in this work of literature is to unveil many misconceptions in the way people view our nation’s history and some lies that are involved in how it is presented. The author is writing to show people and persuade citizens to ask questions of what they were taught while reading. The theoretical assumptions one can make by looking
This may be more relevant to AP US History than any other book, and if not the most relevant, it certainly is near the top of the list. It covers the topics of APUSH that are the most prominent on the exam, and follows the same timeline. It does a much better job of engaging students in the material than the textbook does. One topic that is written about in great depth is the Indian culture before Columbus or any other Europeans arrive and begin to “explore” the Americas. Howard Zinn’s book along with the US History course seems to offer a very complete and in depth look at our nation’s
After almost every concrete fact stated, he notates. This amounts to a bibliography that is almost 20 pages long. It is fair to state the author’s show of facts as reliable. You can tell the amount of research that had to be done for this work to come together is massive. An instance that demonstrates the amount of research Zinn did is the numbers and percentages throughout this book in relation to worker’s unionization. The author cites many different documents to help him state his case, and does so in a very impressive and seamless way. The way that Howard Zinn argues his thesis is very brash and straightforward. The work is structured into many chapters with a paragraph describing what the section is about. Following that is a list of many paragraphs containing arguments about the topic and misconceptions that the author hopes to clear up. The author does a marvelous job of stitching various articles and documents together in his work. One example I found to be particularly relevant is the chapter where the author lists his scandals involved in Watergate put into order by number. (531-532) Many other factors of the scandal could’ve made it difficult for even a very skilled writer to make clear to the reader what was important, but Zinn does a phenomenal job of taking a step back and making it clear to his