Thursday, August 31, 2006

The Twentieth Century: A People's History

I finished "The Twentieth Century: A People's History", by Howard Zinn, just today.

It has taken me forever to get through this book. I am handicapped in having taken a dislike to history from an early age (probably because of the way it was taught). In addition, though, the book is brutal: Zinn relentlessly pounds out a laundry list of horrifying American atrocities, from the beginning of the twentieth century until George W. took the White House. There is no way I could call this book enjoyable. I felt like the guy in Edvard Munch's The Scream every time I finished another chapter.

Despite that, I consider this book extremely important. Everyone should read this, if only to get some balance to the history that was written by the victors. At that, it's only a brief intro to the subject, but it's a good start.

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