I’m a 21-year-old guy and since they unfortunately didn’t teach us about American history in school I wanna learn it all on my own from the beginning to the present.

I’m really looking forward to a deep dive to not only understand American history better but also to get a better grasp of the culture, people, economics, politics and social aspects that influenced America to become what it is now.

I was wondering what the best ways and resources are to do this. Maybe someone can recommend some good media resources. It doesn’t matter what it is, it could be books, videos, podcasts, documentaries, documents, articles, movies and so on.

I’m open for everything :)

  • @[email protected]English
    4•15 hours ago

    Seconding “A people history of the united states” by howard zinn. It should be THE high school history curriculum in the u.s.

    • @PugJesusEnglish
      3•12 hours ago

      It’s very poor scholarship. Challenging the dominant narrative of nationalist mythology is important, but not in a way that disregards history.

      • @[email protected]English
        2•12 hours ago

        I’ve also heard this. Do you have any recommendations for a similar book that’s more historically accurate?

        • @PugJesusEnglish
          1•12 hours ago

          Unfortunately, I don’t know many general histories of the US in, uh, general. Modern academia has left behind most of the stuff we think of kids being taught by moldy school textbooks, but those selfsame textbooks are often resistant to academic consensus (thanks, Texas) that has been around since the 1970s.

          There’s a Cambridge History of America and the World that’s an excellent starter, but it’s several volumes long and, uh, in the true spirit of academic literature, horrifically fucking expensive. I hear there are places on the Fediverse which give good advice about the high seas for such matters though

          • @[email protected]English
            1•8 hours ago

            Yeah I like history but it needs a good writer to make it interesting. It can be very dry. I also am far more interested in movements and politics of ordinary people then the “great men” of history, so this book sounded appealing but I am hoping somewhere out there exists another that is more scholarly.