A People’s History of the United States
This book tells the history of the United States from the perspective of the common people rather than from the perspective of political leaders and elites. I think it is a useful supplement to the usual historical narrative, though for me it was quite boring and hard to get through. I finished it because I knew it was good for me even though it wasn’t entertaining. It focuses heavily on the oppression of demographics like Native Americans, Blacks, Women, and the poor. As a complement to a standard history this might be a reasonable approach since most readers are probably less familiar with this part of the picture, though it does make the book sound very one-sided, politically biased, and almost entirely negative. Although it is important to understand the negative side of the story, I’m not convinced that an almost purely negative retelling (in a book of this size) is the best antidote to the perhaps positively biased standard narrative.
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