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Howard Zinn people's history of America, I'm reading it at the moment, is there any alternative? (lemmy.world)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hello, I'm Italian and I'm reading what I understood to be a classic in American HIstory. I'm throug 100 pagesi in and I have the feeling that the author is a bit too partisan and unbalanced. Sometimes I feel that he had already decided what happened and then he tries to find facts that confirm his prejudices.
Hence, I'm asking if someone out there knows another book about the same subjecst that is not at all celebratory toward America, actually I'm looking for a book that is very critic and severe toward America, but at the same time that is more balanced. Any advice?

(Sorry if this message could sound confused or badly written, I'm not mother tongue and, also, the feeling toward the book is there but still blurry, but there's something about this book that doesn't convince me.)

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

im an american and had never heard of this book before so i had to look it up. it seems extremely impressive that someone would undertake such a breadth of american experiences through its entire history. however, i also saw a lot of criticism that matches what you described. ill give you the same advice id give anyone studying any history: no book is perfect. if you really want to know as much as you can, you'll have to read a ton of books from a ton of different sources. plenty of people love criticizing america, its very easy to do, but most authors wont try to write with such the breadth that this guy has, due to it often including bias and poor sources. its an easy thing to do poorly. if you want a factual overview of american history, id go for a textbook. you can then deep dive into anything that interests you. if you are interested in varying perspectives, there are plenty of african american, native american, feminist, etc. books. you can look up plenty of different book lists online. just look up the author/book before you leave, as there are plenty of frauds. hope that helps! whats gotten you interested in american history?