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Reddit mentions of A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present (Perennial Classics)
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Reddit mentions: 32
We found 32 Reddit mentions of A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present (Perennial Classics). Here are the top ones.
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We must've had different history classes. :/
But yep. I'm finally going to have to read this book, huh?
A People's History of the United States, but only if you are an American
I won't give any direct answers because this is something you need to know for yourself, not because someone told you.
So if you want to know how to approach this, first you need to know the history. Read for example A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn to see specific instances how was government behaving in last 500 years. Watch documentaries from John Pilger. Watch Assassination of Russia to see how Putin got into power. Read War is a Racket. I could go on and on; there are hundreds and hundreds of great books and documentaries and unclassified documents which you can get today and check for yourself.
Also I need to point out - don't make a (common) mistake thinking of any government as a single entity. It is made of people, each of them having his own agenda. More proper question then would be, could some people in government have so much power and skill and at the same time be so unscrupulous, that they plan, commit, and get away with committing terrorist (false-flag) acts for their own profits?
To be fair, the textbooks most of us studied in school (in the US anyway) tended to gloss over some of these more uncomfortable truths about our history. I highly recommend reading A People's History of The United States by Howard Zinn. It really put things in perpective for me.
Its not about preference. That's like saying the difference between slavery, feudalism and capitalism is whichever someone prefers living under. Its mutually exclusive.
Communism is not your "life your life to the fullest" type of philosophy akin to Buddhism. Its not a way of life or a way of thought, its a set of viewpoints and conceptions about the nature of society, and of its respective institutions, with private property being its main focus. Communism is about viewing the contemporary world as a result of its logical, material precedents, known as historical materialism. Its about gaining an understanding into the nature of property relations and essentially of capitalism.
Marx's viewpoint in looking at history essentially centered these principles
>1. The basis of human society is how humans work on nature to produce the means of subsistence.
>2. There is a division of labour into social classes (relations of production) based on property ownership where some people live from the labour of others.
>3. The system of class division is dependent on the mode of production.
>4. The mode of production is based on the level of the productive forces.
>5. Society moves from stage to stage when the dominant class is displaced by a new emerging class, by overthrowing the "political shell" that enforces the old relations of production no longer corresponding to the new productive forces. This takes place in the superstructure of society, the political arena in the form of revolution, whereby the underclass "liberates" the productive forces with new relations of production, and social relations, corresponding to it.
From this viewpoint he went on to conclude that capitalism inherently was a class system, based on an economic and political hierarchy, which give rise to many phenomenon that is harmful to humanity. Marx for example explained Imperialism as being the result of such a construct. This is a widely documented study and something you can find so easily.
Michael Parenti gives a good talk here which encompasses these ideas. I highly recommend watching it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEzOgpMWnVs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZTrY3TQpzw
If you never heard of the book "A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn, I also highly suggest it. Its a great and popular book that tells the history of the US through the perspective the American proletariat, and clearly explains how dominant role economic hierarchy plays in history.
You see, communism is not just an opposition to commercialized lifestyle, and what not, its an explanation as to very contemporary problems within society itself. Problems that are very much deeply rooted within the system. For example, the mass media and its operation as a business. Noam Chomsky, considered US's best intellectual, along with Edward Herman wrote a great book called Manufacturing Consent that
deals with this topic.
You're operating on a huge straw man. You see, communism is more about understanding society from a logical, scientific perspective, rather than creating some utopia. I can point you to a few more sources that you might find of interest. Or at least start with Wikipedia articles. But I do recommend at least watching the Michael Parenti clip. Chomsky has good talks to but I don't like hes style as much. You don't even have to call yourself a "communist" to accept that world view and knowledge.
You aren't going to change his mind, but for your own peace of mind, here is a start off the top of my head:
> He didn't even know about it...
Then tell him he is literally living under a rock. It is listed in 10,000+ plus articles via Google news at the moment. While it is not likely to receive proper treatment in the conventional media, it has reached critical mass, they can no longer ignore it. And for the people who are there, they can verify that it is people from all walks of life, and now in cities all around the country. This just in as an example of senior protesters
> He says all the protesters don't have jobs because they made poor career choices with their lives.
Ask him to prove this (hint: he can't). Don't let him slide on sweeping generalization. There are people protesting across the spectrum including those who have jobs. They aren't protesting unemployment, but rather greed and corruption. While the unemployed might have more time to occupy, its not simply the unemployed who are there.
Edit: In fact, you can meet some of them in this article
Ask him if people in the Tea Party had jobs. Because while they aren't identical people, both movements have some similar populist origins. Also ask him if he smeared the Tea Party in the same way he is OWS. Because before they were corrupted by corporate interests, while I didn't agree with part of their message, at the time I could applaud their original effort. Look up various populist movements through US history and quiz him on them and draw parallels.
Also ask him why people are allowed or even celebrated in making poor choices when they are rich, but are condemned if they actually don't make bad choices (or even if they are human and make some) but get screwed by the system. Ask him if it is right that the class you are born into is a stronger indicator of upward mobility than education. (I can't find the link right now, but here is one and here is another one that can perhaps point you in the right direction.
> He says they're all to lazy to go find jobs.
Really? Then ask him about the number of places that make HAVING A JOB a REQUIREMENT for getting a job.
Ask him if he understands the law of supply and demand and can understand that The main reason U.S. companies are reluctant to step up hiring is scant demand, rather than uncertainty over government policies and then ask him if he knows something that a majority of economists don't know (because that's what they said in the survey referenced).
Edit: Also this self post looked pretty good regarding addressing that question
> He says they're all socialists looking for entitlements
Ask him if he likes weekends off, an 8-hour workday, minimum wage, or even just not dying while at his job then he can thank a socialist.
Check out the condensed version of The "S" Word and the book
Also for good measure, check out A People's History of The United States to find a lot of things neither he, nor probably you (no offense, just sayin'), would have learned in school.
Even though he may not like it, the current quality of life he enjoys was fought for by progressives, socialists, even anarchists and him denying that fact doesn't make it not true.
> He says they do not represent the 99% but the deadbeat 5% who can't do anything with their lives.
Tell him that both they, and he, whether he likes it or not, ARE part of the 99% percent unless he is tucking away millions that he hasn't told you about because this is what inequity looks like in numbers Also via NPR and this explains a lot in 11 graphs. You can also take a peek at 2012
> Talking to him is like talking to O'Reily...
But remember that there are people who can stand their ground with him, like Jon Stewart, or even Marylin Manson.
If Marylin Manson can do it, so can you. Don't sell yourself short, stand your ground! (I know it makes Thanksgiving and Christmas difficult, but if he is not an idiot, it still can be worth it in the long run).
> OH and he said that I'm messed up in the head cause I go on socialist websites...like Reddit
Ask him to define the word socialist. If he gets it wrong, ask him how his education failed him. Ask him if he thinks most of the other industrialized countries in the world are "socialist" too, and if so why are the leading in many quality of life metrics, health care, and general happiness? Ask him why our life expectancy is shorter or why we are working ourselves to death with other countries being able to have several weeks of vacation with people here who may not take any.
> OH OH and then he and my little brother then come in and say, "Is that gonna be your excuse when you can't find a job?" (I'm a college sophmore.)
Tell him that perhaps someone sold you and your brother a bill of goods
that "working hard" is the key to the American Dream while the banksters are offloading it out the backdoor. Ask him if it is called the American dream because you must be asleep to believe it
Ask him why your education costs 1000's and others abroad may not cost anything at all.
Ask him why teachers are treated as scum in recent sentiments when they agree to concessions but want to preserve their right to assemble and bargain as a group yet CEO's get paid for failure based on a peer system and half the country is lead to believe that the richest group of all are the "victims".
Ask him why foreign companies like Toyota can make products in America, but "Made in America" brands like Ford may be made in Mexico.
Ask him if he knows what NAFTA is and why it was bad (and do your homework to learn more, and surprise him by suggesting that Clinton was wrong to support it -- so he can't say you just cheerlead for one party -- but tell him that both he AND a Republican congress are at fault for screwing up our banking sector by repealing Glass-Stegall under Republican pressure, but at least Clinton at least is man enough to open regret the decision)
Ask him why it is right for people to do all these things, to make inequity on par with the 20's before the stock market crash, yet when people stand up to fight that he has nothing but ridicule.
> Edit: As for what to discuss, can anyone put together a clear and irrefutable counterargument? I'm sick of his condescending attitude.
There is not magic bullet. Even this list here is simply a stream of consciousness off the top of my head. But your best friend is true education and enlightenment. It means not accepting the status quo, not relying on only domestic, conventional sources for news and information. It means digging into history with true historians.
In the long run you may not win the battle, but you will be more prepared to try and win the war, even if its not with him. (P.S. I may add more links later if I have the time.)
Good Luck!
A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present
I keep hearing good things about this... it'll get you thinking outside the box.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_People's_History_of_the_United_States
Good catch. I edited it before I saw your reply.
A People's History of the United States? That should spark some discussion.
Clown, read your history, while you are at it look up the words corporatist and oligarchy. No taxation without representation, live free or die. Liberty was the foundation, not socialist nanny state horse shit. You are very obviously bereft of any historical context.
http://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-United-States-1492-Present/dp/0060528370
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/histdox/fedpapers.html
http://www.reddit.com/domain/tenthamendmentcenter.com
Your inability to understand your mom is a side effect of no education.
Read http://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-United-States-1492-Present/dp/0060528370
If you really don't know any physics I guess I can see how it could be a difficult read. I think you should push through it slowly and try to understand it. That kind of understanding can blow your world up so large it's beyond description. I found it to be leisurely but I've had an interest in physics for at least five years. If you want to learn more about physics after this I recommend Brian Greene.
But if you want to move on to something else that won't make you feel stupid maybe try A Short History of Nearly Everything which tells of the scientists lives as they discovered important things through history. A People's History of the United States, on a different track, gives you American history through the eyes of the common people. Just thought I'd throw that in.
Don't abandon every hard book - we're all guilty of it but pushing your mind through some tough ones is never something you will regret on your deathbed. Know what I mean?
My source is largely Who Built America? and A Peoples' History of the United States. What are yours?
I don't have a thorough knowledge of 19th century international property law, but a lot of it has carried by principle from then until now.
Suggested reading [fixed]
Howard Zinn - A People's History of the United States
Start reading
-The Economist
-Slate
-The Atlantic
-Foreign Policy Magazine
(Just to name a few well rounded publications.)
A People's History of the United States By Howard Zinn is a great primer, but I'm sure some people will say that it leans too far to the left. Either way I thought it was great, regardless of your political view.
EDIT:
I have a book called From Sea to Shining Sea I haven't erad it but it looks like something you're after.
I know you said fiction/pleasure, but I read A People's History of the USA. It's certainly not fictional, yet it is gripping.
What?
Read the book. You can get a used copy for $5 at amazon. Great summer reading, well written, fascinating. You might just learn a few things you never knew.
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Canadian history. All those battles for independence and civil wars......so god damn fascinating
EDIT: or this
This is a good resource that explains it pretty well. At least the American side of the story. Unions originated mostly in Europe. In the beginning as just a bunch of workers fighting mostly against child labor. Then it evolved into a whole regulatory system. An essential regulatory system that's been forgotten and neglected here in America.
Looks like you have something to learn about the working class in America. Read some labor history.
I second this, also Economics in One Lesson
http://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-United-States-1492-Present/dp/0060528370
http://www.amazon.com/Economics-One-Lesson-Shortest-Understand/dp/0517548232
Ideas and time and mass social conflict. Quick history lesson:
The American Revolution was based upon the idea of Liberty. That the people should have control over their lives and their government. The idea of a "republic" only came back into being because of the return to classicalism (Greeks, Romans, etc.) during the Enlightenment. The enlightenment happened because of an invention called the Printing Press, making the works of classical authors available to the masses.
From the 16th century to the 18th, hundreds of authors were writing about these ideas of republicanism and liberty. You know the names of the big ones. Locke. Rousseau. Hobbes. They weren't all on the same side of the debate for sure (Hobbes was conservative, Locke created liberalism, Rousseau was the radical) but they all talked about ideas like the Social Contract, Mixed Government, and the State of Nature.
The leaders of the American Revolution were not fighters, they were scholars. They read these books, formulated their own ideas about them, and put them into effect. They owned printing presses and wrote articles and disseminated these ideas into the public.
It took hundreds of years for the ideas to take hold, but ideas are not enough. What pressed these scholars from the books to the battlefield was social conflict. The colonists and the british empire had irreconcilable differences that led to war.
There are similarities between this time and then. Ideas about the issues with capitalism and how government is run are circulating everywhere. Printing Press = Internet. We are coming into a second enlightenment. The majority of people are fed up with how our government works. Look at OWS, the Tea Party (which are two sides of the same coin, one just got co-opted by the Koch Bros). People are willing to go out and protest, which leads to more social conflict. The worse things get, the more people will pay attention to whats going on, the more people will act. Remember the masses are a mob, and follow mob mentality. 99.9% of people have no conception of what's actually going on in the world, because its only just beginning to be understood (see my second book link below).
What you can do personally is research. Read. Find out more infomration about what is going on. When you are confident in a topic talk to people about it. Try to inform them. Plant seeds. When enough are sown, there will be fruit. I'd recommend starting here and here.
If you want to make the whole process go faster, vote for romney. The social upheaval that will happen when they cut medicare will be nuts.
you may like this book: http://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-United-States-1492-Present/dp/0060528370
You should take a look at The People's History of the United States. It's very broad and isn't always able to hunker down for a long time on one subject but it gives you a lot of starting points to jump off from and you can use that to dig deep and do your own research. It is very good to be suspicious because society has become too comfortable.
If you look at the history of the U.S there is an amazing amount of political work done by people when they don't vote. They get together and bring cities to standstill, etc. It doesn't have to be violent though sometimes I believe it is necessary. Yet now we have to "legally" protest which is a bunch of bullshit in my opinion. It pretty much defeats the purpose if I have to stand around in a designated protest area while nothing gets done around me.
Yes, that is exactly my point and it isn't a new tactic either. War is often used to gain mass support while glossing over the problems at home. It provides people with something else to fight rather than the system in which they live. I mean look at Afghanistan and Iraq. Every day people are coming under increased surveillance. Even the democratic president, Obama, continues to use his predecessors policies. Why? Because there are only two choices in a two party system. He hardly has to please his own base, just keep them hanging by a hairline because they don't want to go the other way and vote republican.
Edit: I don't advocate not voting. I'm Canadian and do. Though I support anti capitalist movements and if push comes to shove will stand with them.
A good place to start to learn about the war the US Government has waged on its people since its inception:
http://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-United-States-1492-Present/dp/0060528370
The US government has never really been 'of the people.' Blue-collar workers don't have the time and money to do serious campaigning. The federal government in particular has always consisted of the upper-middle or upper class. George Washington was the largest private landholder in the US when he was elected president.
It has always been a government by the rich, supported by the middle class, and vaguely aware of the poor. Read A People's History of the United States
Spoiler: politics is 90% about the money.
I agree with this. A great pair for general American history is A People's History of the United States and A History of the American People - the former will give you a liberal perspective and the latter a more conservative one.
http://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-United-States-1492-Present/dp/0060528370
Howard Zinn would say you're wrong. The Gilded Age was full of riots, protests, strikes, and other events that corporate colluding police and national guard broke up. The most famous of which being the Battle of Blair Mtn that brought in the army.