A People's History of the United States

Highlights from the Twentieth Century

By: Howard Zinn

Narrated by: Matt Damon

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.

the second half is better

As much as I like Matt Damon, I really didn't like him reading this book. It sounds like he's falling asleep reading a long list of atrocities. The book gets much better when the author takes over about half way through. The message is pretty dark, that this country is on evil auto-pilot, and that it takes huge movements of people to change its course. My feeling is that we'll only change when someone takes away our TV's and french fries.

Great Work

Couldn't stop listening. A must listen if your interested in learning about America's Dark History.

Eye opening but with a bit if a liberal spin

wrote a long review explaining where I felt the author was biased but it wouldn't post ... not gonna spend another 30 minutes to re-write it.
short answer ... his account of Waco, Texas was extremely one sided and his view on welfare is too liberal in my opinion.
Other than that the author shines a way overdue light on atrocities committed by our government and founding fathers

Loved it

Great perspective! inspires me to .seek change in our political system reveals how we are being played by the politicians and corporations.

Existential history of the United States

Sometimes uncomfortable to listen to, Zinn's book covers topics like race relations (black and native American), gender rights, war, immigration and others from the perspective of the less fortunate victims. Zinn puts the light on the stories that show that they are not simply good versus evil questions. Many undesirable stories that have been under reported but are key to understanding the fabric of our society