A History of the American People

By Paul Johnson,

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Why read it?

1 author picked A History of the American People as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Essentially a conservative response to Zinn’s wildly successful book.

Paul Johnson, who started out on the political left in England and shifted to the right with works such as Modern Times, writes in a style that is superior in its command of the material than Zinn but also a bit cranky at times or just simply odd.

His loathing of Thomas Jefferson and Woodrow Wilson is palpable, just as his veneration of Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge is puzzling. Yet his passages on jazz, the eclectic architecture of Southern California, or the origins of the Coca-Cola x Pepsi rivalry…

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