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People's History of the United States
People's History of the United States | Howard Zinn
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
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iread2much
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Pickpick

This was quite the slog, but it offers a view of history mostly through class struggle, that‘s not a lens I use as much I should.
It is kind of depressing, as it appears that the only time things get better for the non-rich is when there‘s enough violence and death to cause change, and even then the change is tiny.
3/5, it‘s a classic and I think everyone should read it, but maybe better to read when younger, & when more optimism is available

dabbe Hello, sweet pup! 💙🐾💚 10mo
iread2much @dabbe hello! 10mo
22 likes1 stack add2 comments
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Esin
Pickpick

An must-read and re-read.

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Awk_Word_Smith
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I mean I started this book 8 years ago. I think I should finish it soon.

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CRR
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Pickpick

This one took me longer than I expected but it was really good. At nearly 700 pages and several thousand years of history it was immense. I really enjoyed it and learned so much about our countries history from another angle not often taught. It changed the way I think and is causing me to think more.

Suet624 I‘m glad that people are still reading this important work. 3y
CRR Hundreds...not thousands. 🤦‍♂️ 3y
38 likes1 stack add2 comments
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CRR
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Made it to page 443 tonight which brings me through the more recent events of the 1950‘s. Been amazing to read all of history but especially more recent things I had no clue about. I feel like this book is giving me more depth and understanding about a lot of things happening nowadays. I

46 likes1 stack add
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CRR
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254 of 688–getting bogged down but it is good. Have worked from Columbus through the Civil war. So interesting to see things different than what I was ever taught in school. I prob didn‘t pay attention then either!

39 likes1 stack add
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CRR
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I am aiming to read at least a chapter a day in this book which would take me through almost all of February. It is one of the foundational books needed for better understanding the history and practices in the history of the US, especially as they relate to the white rich male getting even more rich. So far the chapters have helped me begin constructing an understanding of how many historical decisions were made to benefit the rich.

Scochrane26 Sounds interesting 3y
40 likes1 stack add1 comment
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Cortg
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Pickpick

This was a good history lesson highlighting the oppressed and how historical events in the US has effected them. It‘s basically a big history book of the US highlighting all of the county‘s (and presidents) faults. I found parts to be interesting but it was really long.

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Cortg
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Well that‘s a bust! I had about an hour left of my ginormous history lesson and the loan expired. No worries though, I put it back on hold and I was just starting the George W. Bush administration so I should be able to pick up where I left off easy enough, in ~6 weeks 😂

Eyelit I‘ve had that happen to me SO many times. Frustrating (but admittedly I‘ll sometimes wait too long to start listening, lol) 3y
Cortg @Eyelit I definitely started this a bit late but it‘s seriously 30+ hours and I figured it would happen. 3y
45 likes2 comments
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Cortg
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Well, I jumped into this 34 hour audiobook today! I‘m super grateful for my tedious book inventory project I have going on at work that let me listen for 4 hours today and hopefully continue for another week or so to get me through this gargantuan chunkster! So far, I‘m really enjoying it!

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MsLeah8417
Pickpick

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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MsLeah8417
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The TRUTH is NOT an elective.

Saknicole I have owned a copy of The Peoples History for years, but haven‘t ever gotten past the conquistadors portion. This reminds me to pick it back up! 4y
CRR I have both but haven‘t started into either yet. Hope to soon. 4y
MsLeah8417 @Saknicole : I have owned my copy for many years as well. I read several sections before but feel compelled to read it in its entirety now. 4y
MsLeah8417 @Clint The sooner the better. There is so much to highlight and absorb. Good luck. 4y
14 likes1 stack add4 comments
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Chrissyreadit
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Amandajoy I‘d be interested in what you find. I‘d like some positivity to balance out all the rest of what you find in history. 4y
8little_paws Maybe some of these books? https://seattle.bibliocommons.com/list/share/73249911/1314525267
Search for Black boy or black girl joy!
4y
See All 14 Comments
8little_paws It's so important for kids to see kids of all other colors living their every day kid lives! We risk sending the message that Black/Brown people lives are centered on suffering, otherwise, I fear.
(edited) 4y
TheBookHippie I did a post on my page ❤️ 4y
TheBookHippie @8little_paws I‘ve been following her a long time her recommendations are so good!!! 4y
8little_paws Sorry, I went down the rabbit hole and had a lot of fun with looking up diverse children's books. Here's another excellent list! http://hereweeread.com/2019/11/the-2020-ultimate-list-of-diverse-childrens-books...
4y
TheBookHippie @8little_paws ha we posted together. You can talk to her too she‘s helped me a ton. 4y
Chrissyreadit @8little_paws @TheBookHippie thank you! I should add he‘s 16 and going into his 2nd year of college. It won‘t stop him from reading kids books, but we do not typically. His middle name is Atticus and we read TKAM when he was around 7 or 8 with my daughter who was 8 or 9. So older reads and adult reads would be amazing! 4y
Chrissyreadit @8little_paws @TheBookHippie he is reading A People‘s History now, but we read Born A Crime, Mans Search for Meaning, American Colonies by Alan Taylor to name s few. 4y
TheBookHippie @Chrissyreadit I have found reading the books brings narrative I‘ve read these k4-12 and had an impact I‘d recommend finding social justice people to speak to as well. Find memoirs of protestors and journalist and photographers who over decades document the fight. 4y
Chrissyreadit @TheBookHippie thank you 😘 4y
8little_paws @chrissyreadit sounds like he's old/mature enough for a lot of YA or new adult then, of which there is an absolute ton out there featuring diverse characters by diverse authors. 4y
57 likes14 comments
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paulareadsallthetime
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Pickpick

I was not taught most of this in school or it was sugar coated. SMH 💔😭

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jveezer
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The chapter on Carter-Reagan-Bush: the Bipartisan Consensus makes me realize my country‘s politicians have never been there for me my whole political life. (My first election was yuck and yuck in 1980) 😞

Leftcoastzen I‘m with you, let‘s go back to the 90% taxes on the very rich. I never got over the election of Reagan ,dark times . 4y
3 likes1 stack add1 comment
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Yahui07
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Pickpick

A informative book I enjoy reading. Some portions were heavy but it expands our knowledge of the history of the US!!! That is exactly why I love reading nonfiction.

7 likes1 stack add
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BooksEyeFind
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“The present system has enabled capitalists to make laws in their own interests to the injury and oppression of the workers.”

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alyxyo

The military conflict itself, by dominating everything in its time, diminished other issues, made people choose sides in the one contests that was publicly important, forced people onto the side of the Revolution whose interest in Independence was not at all obvious. Ruling elites seem to have learned through the generations -- consciously or not -- that war makes them more secure against internal trouble.

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alyxyo
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There is no country in world history in which racism has been more important, for so long a time, as the United States.

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alyxyo
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If there are necessary sacrifices to be made for human progress, is it not a central to hold to the principle that those to be sacrificed must make the decision themselves? We can all decide to give up something of ours, but do we have the right to throw into the pyre the children of others, or even our own children, for a progress which is not nearly as cleaner or present as sickness or health, life or death?

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alyxyo

The treatment of heroes (Columbus) and their victims (the Arawaks) -- the quiet acceptance of conquest and murder in the name of progress -- is only one aspect of a certain approach to history in which the past is told from the point of view of governments, conquerors, diplomats, leaders.

alyxyo It is as if they, like Columbus, deserve universal acceptance, as if they -- the Founding Fathers, Jackson, Lincoln, Wilson, Roosevelt, Kennedy, the leading members of Congress, the famous justices of the Supreme Court -- represent the nation as a whole. The pretense is that there really is such thing as "the United States," subject to occasional conflicts and quarrels, but fundamentally a community of people with common interests. 4y
alyxyo It is as if there really is a "national interest" represented and the Constitution, in territorial expansion, in the laws passed by Congress, the decisions of the courts, the development of capitalism, the culture of education and the mass media. 4y
1 like2 comments
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alyxyo

My viewpoint, in telling the history of the United States, is different: that we must not accept the memory of states as our own. Nations are not communities and never have been.

alyxyo The history of any country presented at the history of a family conceals fierce conflicts of interests (sometimes exploding, most often repressed) between conquerors and conquered, masters and slaves, capitalists and workers, dominators and dominated, in race and sex. 4y
alyxyo And in such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, as Albert Camus once said, not to be in the side of the executioners. 4y
1 like2 comments
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Insightsintobooks
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Saw this on sale and as its one of the books I lost due to unforeseen circumstances, I had to get it (this is also why I buy mostly kindle books, so I don't loose them in unforeseen events).

#kindledeal #kindledeals #ebooksale

35 likes2 stack adds
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keithmalek
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astro_chica
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Mehso-so

The book is a tedious read but with an over load of info, worth reading from all you gain. Covers from the arrival of Columbus to America to the end of the 20th century. It's got a lot of references if the reader wants to dig deeper into a certain part of it's history. I believe we should consider using this book in middle school history class. The book is not judgemental, it present as much truth possible from all sides.

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LaComtesseJamie
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“... it could create the richest ruling class in history and still have enough for the middle classes to act as a buffer between the rich and the dispossessed.”

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LaComtesseJamie
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“Outright lying or quiet omission takes the risk of discovery which, when made, might arouse the reader to rebel against the writer. To state the facts, however, and then to bury them in a mass of other information, is to say to the reader with a certain infectious calm: yes, mass murder took place, but it‘s not what‘s important—it should weigh very little in our final judgments; it should affect very little what we do in the world.” Damn.

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silentrequiem
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I had the fortune to see Howard Zinn speak at Politics and Prose in DC less than a year before he died. I also managed to grab the very last signed copy of A People's History (he wasn't doing a formal signing) from the bookstore. I have always felt a bit guilty about the guy in line after me...

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nudibranch
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Mehso-so

First book for @Riveted_Reader_Melissa 's #nonfiction2019 challenge is complete!

Very mixed feelings TBH. Important simply because it describes U.S History without the typical "All Hail Old Glory!" that you find in other U.S. histories; but it obviously lacked the sort of journalistic precision with facts and consequences that I feel are necessary in history books...and the revising & editing were just plain awful, sloppy, and careless.

Riveted_Reader_Melissa Great job! But bummer about the book, that stinks. 5y
nudibranch @Riveted_Reader_Melissa thanks! Yeah, well, there you have it. At least I got a good u understanding for the Labor Movement's perspective... 5y
67 likes3 comments
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nudibranch
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First crack at the #nonfiction2019 challenge with @Riveted_Reader_Melissa is going to be Howard Zinn's "People's History of the United States." Tells the history of the US, from the beginning, from a Laborer's perspective, instead of a capitalist/governmental perspective. I hear it's a real mind-bender...can't wait!

Riveted_Reader_Melissa That sounds like a great book. I can‘t wait to see your review later! 5y
30 likes1 comment
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MJSanty
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Pickpick

This is the best history book that I have read this year. It is a nice narrative that dispels the rosy image that is typically taught in the U.S. about our history. Despite being filled with an unapologetic look at my country‘s dark history it also presents the facts that those events never happened without resistance.
So this book is also a history of the people who fought against slavery, genocide, and oppression and stood up for other people.

Oblomov26 Great book. Opened my eyes about the history which we do not tell. 5y
5 likes1 comment
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walryan5
Pickpick

Above and beyond the best historical writer. This book is extremely accurate about the birth of our country, all the way to present day.

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SaraBeagle
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Audio-stitching bibs for an upcoming baby shower

Reggie This is the cutest!!!! Lolol 6y
SaraBeagle @Reggie thanks! Expecto Vomitus is next 6y
ErickaS_Flyleafunfurled HA!! Love it! 6y
37 likes3 comments
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ReadGreen
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Pickpick

I was raised on a very rosy image of the United States, and Zinn helps snap your focus away from that gilded history to see the consequences of the dark chapters in the United States. Good post-Fourth of July read.

RaimeyGallant Interesting. And welcome to Litsy! #LitsyWelcomeWagon Some of us put together Litsy tips to help new Littens navigate the site. It's the link in my bio on my page in case you need it. Or if you prefer how-to videos, @chelleo put some together at the link in her bio. @LitsyWelcomeWagon 6y
Chelleo Welcome 🤗 6y
Eggs Welcome to Litsy 🤗 6y
MaleficentBookDragon Welcome to Litsy! 💙 📚 6y
BarbaraTheBibliophage Welcome! I need to get to this book. 6y
13 likes5 comments
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SomedayAlmost
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Pickpick

Writes the ignored heroes and heroines of our great country back into history. Dense but worth the read. #5stars #realAmerica #history

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jveezer
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Re-reading this chapter of this amazing book for #juneteenth

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peacegypsy
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Chose this fabulous book to represent many on World Book Day. And, this is now my favorite Snapchat filter. Ever. 😃

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MelanieMefford
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Already learning what a _____ Columbus was.

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Julsmarshall
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#literalbookends #24in48 hour 36 of the #readathon Love this prompt!

64 likes1 stack add
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Deborah42
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Pickpick

A refreshing counterpoint to the sanitized, winner‘s history that most of us got in high school and/or college. Zinn focuses on the stories that are ignored or glossed over in most textbooks. His left-leaning bias shows, but he also cites lots of primary sources for further reading.

5 likes1 stack add
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katrrosee
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After reading People‘s History, book club needs to make a fiction pick! What to choose?? 🤔🤔🤔

Cinsai The Martian! 6y
Rachel.Rencher The Martian was sooo good 😍 6y
britt_brooke Slaughterhouse-Five is amazing and would also provide a great book club discussion. I loved The Martian, too, but I gotta vote for Vonnegut. 💚 6y
See All 7 Comments
OrangeMooseReads Slaughter-House Five 6y
katrrosee @OrangeMooseReads @britt_brooke I voted for Slaughterhouse-Five but Howl‘s won 😔 My pick never wins. 6y
britt_brooke @KatrinaRose Aw, at least you tried! 😉 6y
OrangeMooseReads @KatrinaRose 😔 but I‘ve heard good things about 6y
66 likes7 comments
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bohemian_yogini
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A necessary, eye-opening, read for all humans living in the USA. 📚

#BooksWithBohemianYogini

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melissa1bunny
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Darker than I was expecting... Also an awful picture.

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Brie
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Natasha.C.Barnes Fuck yeah Howard Zinn 6y
71 likes1 stack add1 comment
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Yeah_I_Read
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This quote is from Christopher Columbus‘ log upon reaching the Bahamas and regarding the Arawak nation of people - “...They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword...and they cut themselves out of ignorance....They would make fine servants...with fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”
From “History of the Indies” by Bartoleme Las Casas... ( continued in comments)

Yeah_I_Read “Endless testimonies...prove the mild and pacific temperament of the natives...But our work was to exasperate, ravage, kill, mangle, and destroy...The Admiral (C.C)...was so anxious to please the King that he committed irreparable crimes against the Indians.” (edited) 6y
DivineDiana Shocking to read! 😓 6y
Yeah_I_Read Celebrate Indigenous peoples day! Let‘s stop glorifying a murderer. #endColumbusday 6y
See All 6 Comments
Yeah_I_Read Quotes taken from the tagged book 6y
cocomass Thanks for posting this! ✊🏽 6y
Buddys_Momma Yaassss!!! Happy Indigenous Peoples Day!!! 6y
92 likes1 stack add6 comments
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JacquelynLovesYou
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New boyfriend and I have been reading A People's History to each other. Also, read some of this book about New Orleans before we met my childhood friend there/MS for a little vacation. I'm 4 books behind on my goodreads challenge!

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BookInMyHands
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#redwhiteblue #redswhitesandblues

One of the most patriotic thing I've ever done is shut up and listen.

I'm white and cis. I've benefited from systemic racism in my country. For too long I thought it was enough that I was not intentionally racist, that I was not intentionally prejudiced toward gender and sexual minorities.

I still have a lot to learn, but I'm listening now and I'm speaking out. Happy Independence Day.

Lcsmcat ❤️❤️ 7y
55 likes1 stack add1 comment
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VioletBramble
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#redwhiteandblue
Here are some Macy's 4th of July fireworks direct from NYC- and a bit of the 59th Street Bridge blocking the view. I was almost trampled in a stampede when hundreds of tourists realized too late that they could not see fireworks from the spots they had saved all day. 🎆🗽🎆🇺🇸

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VioletBramble
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#sizzlinsummerbooks #redwhiteandblue
My father was career Coast Guard. I grew up on CG bases where the biggest events of every summer were the July 4th Independence and Aug 4th Coast Guard day celebrations. I'm not into Americana. The few things I have are mainly CG related. The glasses belonged to my father. My copy of the Declaration of Independence was bought at Fraunces Tavern Museum in 5th grade.
Happy 4th to all the American Littens!

VioletBramble 🇺🇸🎆🗽🛥🇺🇸 7y
17 likes1 comment
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Jas16
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There is a #wholelottahistory in this book which I have purchased twice (once as an ebook), started once, and never finished. I will get back to it... #melodicmay

37 likes1 stack add