Patricia D. reviewed A People's History of the United States : 1492-Present on + 12 more book reviews
A must read for all Americans
Wonderful book of academic history.
RUTH F. (ruthy) reviewed A People's History of the United States : 1492-Present on + 56 more book reviews
There are better books than this one. The author is telling the story of the United States from the viewpoints of the sufferers due to the discovery, creation, and progression of the life of the United States. I didn't find it particularly readable, and there are no footnotes or sources stated within the pages of the book. While it could be interesting as an essay on the probable "why's" things and events happened - there really isn't much else in the way of anything but accusation of wrongs done and who suffered through the expansion of the United States all the way through. The author is trying to take a somewhat "holistic" view of the history, but tends to always fall into the viewpoint of the fates of the people who were losers because of the progress of our country's development beginning with the "genocide" of the Arawak Indians who were first encountered by Columbus. While it is true that the numbers of that tribe dwindled so terribly quickly, there are no really hard facts or cites of sources for his statements other than Colombus sailed, Columbus landed, Columbus and his crews destroyed. He puts one man's diary or explanation of events into the narrative, but there's no real scholarship to it. The author's point of view seems to be that wherever the white man went death and destruction followed immediately. It gets very tiresome to keep reading that. And I didn't find the narrative to be very readable - it read more like a series of notes that could have become an interesting book but didn't. Mainly what I got from this book is "man's inhumanity to man" as the United States grew. And while man is guilty of that there is more to the story than the constant suffering the author harps on. I doubt that I will be reading any more of his work.
