Non-Fiction American History

11. A People's History of the United States 1492 - Present by Howard Zinn - history is often written by the victors. This book helped me see all the others in history. 

12. A History of the American People by Paul Johnson - American history seen through the lens of someone not American. 

13. Through Women's Eyes: An American History with Documents Volume 1 and 2 edited by Ellen Carol DuBois and Lynn Dumenil. A more intersectional look at American history. Very academic but still quite readable.

Non-Fiction Disaster

14. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis - it was hard to pick one Lewis book because I am such a fan of his writing, but this was the first I read so on the list it goes. 

15. The Mercy of the Sky: The Story of a Tornado by Holly Bailey - the story of how the Moore, OK tornado happened and the aftermath. Heartbreaking but also the writing kept me turning pages quickly.

16. Lights Out: A Cyberattack, a Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath by Ted Koppel - a what if? premise that is a very realistic threat. Infrastructure matters.

Date Published: February 4, 2003

Format: Paperback

Source: Own Copy

Date Read: April 1-14, 2019

Blurb:

Containing just the twentieth-century chapters from Howard Zinn's bestselling A People's History of the United States, this revised and updated edition includes two new chapters -- covering Clinton's presidency, the 2000 Election, and the "war on terrorism."

Highlighting not just the usual terms of presidential administrations and congressional activities, this book provides you with a "bottom-to-top" perspective, giving voice to our nation's minorities and letting the stories of such groups as African Americans, women, Native Americans, and the laborers of all nationalities be told in their own words.

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Review:

I shouldn't have bothered buying this book, seeing how only the last two chapters are new. I think this book is for those who want to know more of the backstory of the issues Americans face today, but the last two chapters are a bit on the skimpy side considering the chapters that came from Zinn's comprehensive book were much more indepth. I felt that the chapter on the Bush, Jr. administration was especially light, and could've used some analysis with his time as Texas governor and the number of players from his dad's administration who worked in his administration. I also think he didn't spend enough time on certain events that affect us today. So much of the 1990s were glossed over. Still, I would recommend this book to readers who want a comprehensive book on US history without starting from Columbus (which is what Zinn's original work does).

It is the 8th day of Spring Break and I (and the kids) are still alive. Three more days...just three more days.

Anyway, I finished Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq by Thomas Ricks. It was very good and critical look at OIF (of which I served in) but the book stopped around the end of 2005 while the war went on another three years and gave rise to ISIL/ISIS and the continuing mess that is the region, so it can't be read as a definitive source on the war. Recommend.

I am at the 70% mark in The Twentieth Century, reading one chapter a day (at 35-50 pages per chapter, it's A LOT). I should be done with it by the middle of next week. Since it is my Snakes and Ladders book choice, I hope to be done a bit sooner so that I can roll the die and move. But my focus for the weekend and next week is to get The Fever done and back to the library.

I am a little over halfway up the Snakes and Ladders board, so hopefully I will be having my BL friends voting on my final book sometime this month. My NOOK and physical book shelves are gathering a lot of dust since I went on my library binge, so April will be mostly about my own copies (probably May's reading list too).

1. Jambusters: The Story of the Women's Institute in the Second World War by Julie Summers (Physical Non-Fiction List)

2. The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,00 Years by Sonia Shah (Science Reading List)

3. Colour Bar: The Triumph of Seretse Khama and his Nation by Susan Williams (Physical Non-Fiction List)

4. Abigail & John: Portrait of a Marriage by Edith B. Gelles (Physical Non-Fiction List)

5. 1968: The Year that Rocked the World Mark Kurlansky (Nixon Reading List)

6. Eisenhower 1956: The President's Year of Crisis/Suez and the Brink of War by David A. Nichols (Physical Non-Fiction List)

7. The Twentieth Century by Howard Zinn (Physical Non-Fiction List)

8. Tom's River by Dan Fagin (Science Reading List)

Plus I have a separate list for the Dewey Read-a-thon (April 6, 2018).

In many ways, this is not my typical five-star review. The People's History of the United States is tedious, repetitive, and an overall slog to get through. Though so much of the information provided is wholly interesting, some of the Zinn's examples are merely empty fodder and these cause the already long book to slow. Zinn was anti-oppression, and this means that sometimes he seems pro-whatever-is-being-oppressed, though I don't think this is always the case. For instance, it's easy to surmise from the many examples that Zinn is pro-socialist, but I'm not entirely sure that's true. Certainly, he backed the socialist stance when it was the voice that was being oppressed. And certainly, of the major forms of government, Zinn likely felt the most affinity with socialism. But in later chapters as well as in the conclusion, it seems that Zinn acknowledges that socialism is also a broken system—a step forward, but not the solution. Additionally, Zinn's anti-oppression position means that he sometimes illustrates a part of history from an angle that obscures some bit of inconvenient truth. This is unfortunate, because it gives the naysayers cause to spit on this book and declare it “communist propaganda” (or whatever the taboo phrase of the day is). These moments are few and far between and majority of this book is quite historically accurate, in my layman's opinion.

The People's History of the United States was also difficult for me to get through because I've long studied this history and I already knew the more major events covered in this book. Perhaps many of those other narratives I've read owe their information to Zinn, but having come to this book later in my journey, I found much of the story to be old news. That's not to say Zinn doesn't provide considerable history I have not come across in my previous studies. In fact, what Zinn most convinced me of was how so many of these events that I thought were motivated by various reasons primarily (perhaps exclusively) came about because of money.

The reason The People's History of the United States deserves a five-star rating is because, though it's not an enjoyable read, it is such a immense labor of love and passion for the subject. Zinn put his heart and mind into every page of this book and it shows. Even so, I was tempted to slap four stars on this book and move on until I came to Zinn's afterword. Prior to this, Zinn had merely provided over six-hundred pages of dry facts without much commentary or call-to-action. Here, in these final pages, Zinn stirred my emotions. He took all the information he'd provided and agitated it within me and said, “now what are you going to do?” It was an effective challenge.

The People's History of the United States is the kind of book that is difficult to read straight through. Did I learn some things? Absolutely. But so much of what I learned has already sifted straight through my brain. This is the sort of book one who is passionate about the subject should own. It is the kind of book one should keep handy in case someone is eager to argue about the perfection of the state. It is the kind of book that should be picked up from time to time and serve as a reminder to the people of their history and the vicious circle that has been built up around them, keeping them caged for over five hundred years.