A People's History of the United States

Why I'd hand it to you

Zinn sets out to tell American history from the bottom up: enslaved people, Native nations, factory workers, women, soldiers and protesters. It is a useful corrective to textbooks that only follow presidents and generals, and it will make you ask who usually gets left out. My honest caution is that Zinn isn't neutral and doesn't pretend to be. He leaves out a lot that complicates his argument, and many historians across the spectrum fault it for that. Read it as one strong argument, not the whole story, and pair it with a more traditional survey. If you want balance in a single volume, look elsewhere.

— Matt Jordan