Welcome to week four of A People’s Readalong. A group of us (see the end of the post for the group, and please shout out if I’ve overlooked you) will be reading one chapter a week from Howard Zinn’s classic history book, A People’s History of the United States. We’ll be finished sometime in July. 
This week we’re focusing on Chapter Four: Tyranny Is Tyranny. Zinn discusses the years leading up to the American Revolution, which gave our forefathers an excuse to direct the masses unhappiness towards England. Since England saw the colonies as a source of needed revenue, and the colonies were increasingly wanting less rule from England, the time was right for rebellion. Zinn states that this was the beginning of the trend in US politics of the upper class mobilizing the energy of the lower classes. The ruling class would recognize grievances and give just a bit, but not enough to jeopardize their own power and wealth. Instead, they would channel the energies of the unhappy to meet their own agendas. And this is what happened with the Revolution. Except for a few holdouts (Zinn offers up the Regulators as one unhappy group who later remained largely neutral during the Revolution), the educated and wealthy who were in positions of power were able to channel the lower classes into rebelling against England…instead of them.
I’m still enjoying the book, and finding it surprisingly easy to read, with one exception. Okay, two. 1) I find it hard to the grasp Zinn’s point for each chapter. While I understand what he’s getting at, I struggle to summarize his points for each chapter. And this is tied to 2) the almost overwhelming amount of info he packs into a short chapter. The names and groups get to be too much sometimes. I’m not getting a sense of the characters behind any of the names, and consequently, I find it hard to remember any particulars. So I’m left with the feeling that Zinn is trying to over-prove his point.
Still, this is a minor criticism. I’m not unhappy with the book…just finding it difficult to reframe into my own thoughts, if that makes sense.
How are you guys doing doing with the reading?
Readalong Participants:
I’m with you … writing these posts has becoming increasingly hard as I kind of lose focus about what is going on about midway through the chapter. He does pack a lot of information into each chapter and I kind of lose the main thread at times. This chapter in particular felt all over the place. Still, I’m glad to be reading this — though why do I feel like I’m making little progress in the actual book? It feels like my bookmark is barely moving.
Good summary — you did better than I did in getting the main point. : )
Here is my post: http://www.lifewithbooks.com/2012/02/a-peoples-readalong-tyranny-is-tyranny/
I didn’t get all my reading done, but will be going back to it. I also find that Zinn packs a bunch of information into each chapter, which makes things seem a little dense. I do like that he is so informative, but it sometimes washes over me or confuses me when I can’t remember all the details.
Totally agree about not being able to keep up with all the details – especially in this chapter as there was so much going on.
I kind of took this chapter as the rise of the Politician. The best leaders became those who could bridge the gap between the poor and the rich – making them feel like brothers instead of extremely distant cousins several times removed.
I agree that it is hard to keep track of all the details. Zinn was trying to pack so much into each short chapter that on my first reading I found it overwhelming. I somehow fell behind you but posted a list of resource books for chapters two and three today. Thanks again for doing this!
Non-senior senior moment: I just realized I’m reading the wrong book. Oops. I’ve got “A History of the American People”, not “A People’s History of the United States.” In my defense, they’re both red, white, and blue… Luckily I was only a few pages into chapter one when I realized it. I’ll make another trip to the library, and try to do it right this time. And then I’ll try to catch up, by … July, maybe?
I’m still catching up on blog reading, but I completely agree with your assessment about summarizing the chapters. The last three in particular I really struggled with identifying the main points. It’s slightly maddening, but I’m thoroughly enjoying the book overall!