Before heading off on winter vacay our lovely Office Manager and my office buddy, Vanessa, rushed over to my desk. She just came back from the Border's down the street. The store is closing so the clearance sale had commenced. 40% off everything! Vanessa was heading back East to visit her family in Boston over the holiday break and needed a book to read for the flight and beyond.
She had been meaning to pick up a copy of "Voices of People's History of the United States" after seeing a documentary of it on the History Channel. Vanessa explained that Matt Damon, among others, appear in said documentary. How apropos since he's from Boston, too!
The book talks about how history is shaped differently from the history books we are so used to versus hearing about the stories first hand from people who were actually there. "These are the people who were there in that moment. They saw how things actually went down. You hear these stories or read letters from soldiers in the war. Their perspective is not all black and white or sterile."
Vanessa got a copy of the 2nd edition so it includes everything through 2009. The first edition went all the way up to the 1980s. She was pretty excited to start the book all because of this documentary.
What did you read over the holiday break?
2 comments:
a note from my sister about this from the Facebook page:
i saw this performed in san francisco and it was in.cred.i.ble. absolutely inspiring. when i saw it, benjamin bratt, josh brolin, diane lane and others were performers. however, it was kerry washington that blew me away completely. if this performance is still happening, i recommend anyone and everyone check it out. or read the book! we need more people like howard zinn out there.
I hope you're feeling better! I have reader's block right now so though I keep picking up books and starting them, I haven't finished one in weeks. :-( I think I'll add this to my ever-growing TBR list. I would love to see a performance of this if it ever hits L.A. or Long Beach.
Post a Comment