Important Books I Recommend Everyone Read #1

Today's Book Rec Is: A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn

Read this one ESPECIALLY if you are American.

Read it especially if you are American and believe the whitewashed, nice-nice, we're-the-heroes version of history they taught you in school.

That being said, it's a very dense book. This is not light reading, and I say this as a lifelong book nerd. It took me a long time to work my way through it. I would read a bit and then put it down and then read a bit and then put it down. You will not devour this in a weekend (or at least, I don't imagine anyone would, if you do, you have my admiration). Know that this is probably not your relax-by-the-beach-vacation read. ;)

Another important note: white people, our history (at least in the US) is SO sanitized, it's probably going to be hard for you to read the first section of this book. Even if you know, or think you know, the horrible things white people have done (see: genocide of Native Americans, slavery, racism), I've seen more than one well-intentioned white person START this book, get a chapter or two in and then stop. Why? Because they couldn't handle it. It will make you uncomfortable. It will make you feel guilty, even if your ancestors were not here during the events described. My earliest white ancestors came to Canada in the mid-19th century, and to the US in the early 20th, and still I was reading this feeling shame and disgust for white people as a people. The fact that my personal ancestors were escaping Nazis or the Irish famine and shit and not murdering First Nations people at Wounded Knee was irrelevant. I felt ashamed and sick. You probably will, too. But it's important for us to know the horrible, disgusting truth. In Germany, from what I understand, they DO NOT sugar coat their past like we do here: kids are taught the horrible, disgusting truth about WWII and the Nazis in school, there are monuments everywhere, and even on the sidewalk you'll come across a plaque saying essentially, "this Jewish family used to live in this house, they were killed at Auschwitz in x year" or some such. There are inescapable reminders all over the place. Consequently, as a culture, they deal with their shit and they don't put up with the level of white supremacist bullshit currently seen in the US because they learned that lesson about how nasty it gets, real fast. If you ever wonder how people can be so damn ignorant, well, it's because we don't learn our lessons here; we sweep it under the rug and paint it over and pretend it didn't happen. Until we drag those skeletons out of the closet and stare into their eye sockets, we're going to keep making the same mistakes and horrors will keep happening. So read the hard parts. Take a break if you need to, feel gross, get mad. But then go back and read some more. It's on us to do the work and stop the cycle of violence. The American habit of "we don't talk about our shit in polite company" is bad for our collective psyche. Talk about it. Read about it. We can't make it right if we don't face it.

Now, that being said, it's not just about racism and how terrible white people can be. The book discusses class, war, politics, sexism, everything. But I've seen enough white people give up on it because of the first section that I had to mention it. You know how people talk about the fragility of white feelings? That's kinda the thing. We can't bear to hear the truth, but other people have to live with that truth. We have to educate ourselves. It's literally the least we can do. Also? You'll see the manipulation that causes racism sometimes as well. In the civil war era, rich whites told poor whites that it was in their best interest to keep slavery around, too, because the freed slaves would take their jobs. Or if the freed slaves got 40 acres and a mule, then the poor whites would be the lowest class, because they didn't have 40 acres and a mule. Etc. Sounds like every anti-immigrant fearmongering campaign that has ever been since, right? Yeah. Keep poor people fighting over scraps and killing and hating each other instead of the rich guy sitting in Scrooge McDuck's vault. It's super effective.

The entire book is available to read for free online here:

I hope you give it a shot! Let me know what you think! :)

That Red Fish your momma always warned you about

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