Product Description

Here, in the magisterial yet plain-spoken style of A People's History of the United States, is historian Howard Zinn's long-awaited telling of these last six years of United States history, a time when catastrophic machinations of war have dictated our foreign and domestic policy, and when voices of resistance have appeared in the unlikeliest places.

Perhaps more than any other American, Howard Zinn has helped us understand ourselves by deepening our understanding of our own history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #55885 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 64 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781583227695
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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About the Author
Historian and activist Howard Zinn's visionary telling of our history is widely considered one of the most important and influential of our era. In A People's History of the United States, A Young People's History of the United States, Voices of a People's History of the United States, and, in Spanish, La otra historia de los Estados Unidos, Zinn affirms the power of the people to influence the course of events. Zinn's other books include the newly updated The Zinn Reader, Terrorism and War with Anthony Arnove, the autobiographical You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train, and the play Marx in Soho.

Customer Reviews

Excellent update on the USA since 2001
The most recent edition of American historian Howard Zinn's classic A People's History of the United States ended with Bush's declaration of a `war on terror'. This brief volume brings the story up to date.

Zinn explains how Bush misled people into the wars. "It was part of a historic pattern in U.S. foreign policy to tell the American people that war was necessary to defend the United States against a threat, or to bring liberty and democracy to other countries, while the real motives for war - the profits of corporations, the control of vital raw materials, the expansion of the U.S. empire - were concealed."

He sums up that Bush's two wars have not brought democracy, freedom or security to the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan and have not weakened terrorism. Far from bringing democracy abroad, the wars were violating democracy in the USA. The PATRIOT Act extended the state's power to intercept communications and gave it the power to search people's homes without their knowledge.

Zinn particularly condemns the US state's authorisation of torture. He notes that when the US Senate was considering a bill to ban torture, Vice President Cheney visited senators to argue against the bill. Late in 2006, Congress passed, and President Bush signed, a bill allowing the CIA to continue harsh interrogation - torture - of suspected terrorists in secret CIA prisons abroad. This bill also ended the right of habeas corpus for anyone, including US citizens, whom the President or the secretary of defense designated as an `unlawful enemy combatant'.

In 2006 Congress passed a military budget of $500 billion and arms and oil firms got huge profits, while education and medical care were cut. Chief Executive Officers got 400 times the wage of the average worker, while the minimum wage stayed where it was ten years ago, at $5.15 an hour.

Most Americans now oppose the war and want to withdraw the troops, and President Bush has the lowest ratings of any president in history.

The Unraveling of the Bush Presidency
Well thought out and balanced regarding how inapropriatley Bush and his administration is marshalling the unique resources of the US and not in the best interests of the world. Among the most precious of these resources is the Values it stands for and the Goodwill it had earned over centuries.

The message is not an argument but a reasoned voice for what is just.

A short book yet not a "quick" read and well worth the time.

This is a book of 48 pages! It could have been 1500!
This book recaps much of what we have already heard about "Dubya's" corrupt and incompetent administration. No theme was developed beyond a cursory brushover. But why should have Zinn regurgitated all that we already know in a long running tome? It would have been redundant. However, if you are inclined, buy this book and thirty years down the line, in 2037, give it to your grand kids so they might read a good summary of just how dangerous and disgraceful Bush's 8 years in office really were. Hopefully Zinn will have to write a postscript some day about the endless crimes for which many of Bush's lieutenants were jailed -and- hopefully Bush himself. For such a work I might stick around for another 30 years!