Reddit mentions of A Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror

And for those that would rather be dead than red.

I found that book punishing to get through. I know my ancestors did some terrible shit, but Zinn seems to find glee in flogging the reader with the sins of the past. It should have a subtitle along the lines of "How White People Ruined the Entire World".

Edit: For those of you willing to put yourselves through the experience, one of my old professors wrote a book in answer to Zinn's, called A Patriots History of the United States. I've never read it, but if it's anything like his class, it's full of fruitcakey goodness. Ferinstance, every year he used to tell a story about how he got crabs while playing drums for a "Communist heavy metal band that used to open for Megadeth".

Edit: Oh sweet Jesus, they let him write another one.

To me, exhaustive means more than one perspective, so in that spirit, here's your yin & your yang.

PS- Schweikert (co-author of the yang) was a college prof of mine. The man is so libertarian it hurts.

And a bonus fun fact, he got crabs once in his youth (while playing drums in a Communist rock band named Rampage) and, I shit you not, now tells the story to all of his classes in a canned lecture. Fun class, if you don't mind being graded on your political leanings.

I believe it's this atrocity which was written in response to Zinn's history

I took APUSH to and there's actually a number of pitfalls to it. Remember that APUSH is focused towards the AP test, so while everyone else will be starting from the Civil War/WWI to the present, you'll be racing through American History from Columbus to Bush Jr all about a month before you have to take the test. The teachers that take AP responsibilities are good, but the knowledge is still incomplete. If you want to get more knowledge (going through my history BA right now) check out a couple of these resources:

A Peoples History of the United States by Howard Zinn: https://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-United-States/dp/0060838655

In the interest of impartiality, I'll mention the more right leaning version of the People's History, A Patriot's History of the United States: https://www.amazon.com/Patriots-History-United-States-Columbuss/dp/1595230327 Note that a large amount of it was written not by the centrist historian Michael Allen, but the more politically motivated Larry Schweikart. Regardless, both of these books are used by APUSH classes throughout the country. I'd just pick one.

Also (this is going to sound really stupid) but a series of documentaries entitled A Walk Through the 20th Century with Bill Moyers where LBJs press secretary Bill Moyers talks about history from a perspective that helps us understand what (in general) people were thinking at the time. Here's one episode on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7eg5TBwJ-Y

Finally, if you want to have some entertaining yet deep history, check out Dan Carlin. He has plenty of extremely informative (if slightly editorialized for entertainment purposes) podcasts. His Blueprint for Armageddon series is one of the most intriguing narratives of World War One I've ever seen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFMT_BVBBsA

If I have to spoon feed you every fact about the US and its involvement on the global stage, I'll never get anything done.

I would start with reading Larry Schweikart's work:
https://www.amazon.com/Patriots-History-United-States-Columbuss/dp/1595230327

I usually recommend that people read A Patriot's History of the United States along with Zinn's book, so that you can see two totally different takes on many of the same events. As I recall, Patriot's was specifically written in response to Zinn's book, so they do work well together. It also allows readers to compare and form their own conclusions.

That was actually a textbook in my moderately conservative high school's AP history class, alongside http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1595230327/ref=s9_k2a_gw_ir01?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=09GZWMZFJZV7RF2AGD53&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938131&pf_rd_i=507846 .

For sure, I do agree with that. His take on the cold war and the Japanese willing to surrender before the dropping of the Atomic Bombs were wrong, but I still think, compared to the glossed over history we got in grade school, is insightful and worth the read. To counter the bias of Zinn, I also recommend A Patriot's History of the United States

(1) 2010's Democrats: Bill Clinton about Obama "A few years ago this guy would have been getting us coffee."
Harry Reid (about Obama) "light skinned" African-American "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one"
Joe Biden (about Obama) "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man."
(2) The pro-segregation Democrats switching to the Republican party is a myth. Why would they switch to the party that was even more pro-Civil Rights Act? Only two did. Robert Byrd never switched. Neither did Al Gore Sr. Of those that voted against the CRA of 1964 only one switched.
"The idea that “the Dixiecrats joined the Republicans” is not quite true, as you note. But because of Strom Thurmond it is accepted as a fact. What happened is that the next generation (post 1965) of white southern politicians — Newt, Trent Lott, Ashcroft, Cochran, Alexander, etc — joined the GOP.
So it was really a passing of the torch as the old segregationists retired and were replaced by new young GOP guys. One particularly galling aspect to generalizations about “segregationists became GOP” is that the new GOP South was INTEGRATED for crying out loud, they accepted the Civil Rights revolution. Meanwhile, Jimmy Carter led a group of what would become “New” Democrats like Clinton and Al Gore." Here's a book: http://www.amazon.com/Patriots-History-United-States-Columbuss/dp/1595230327/ref=pd_sim_b_8