Summer Reading assignment for AP U.S. History!! "A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn, this is the standard barer for the Social History approach to learning about our nation's past.  Howard Zinn relies on primary documentation from those who experienced the events that have shaped who we are, for example life as a slave examined by slaves and indentured servants who worked side by side with them, Native American history from those tribes who were subjected to US expansion, immigration from those groups who created this melting pot of a society, women's movement defined by those women who paved its path, etc.  Also, and maybe more importantly, Zinn has become the authority to use when College Board develops the AP U.S. History curriculum and subsequently the AP Exam. The first 8 chapters need to be read before the beginning of school.  These chapters will cover more extensively the history prior to the Civil War Era.  We will move very quickly through the early American History during the fall semester so this reading will go a long way in the overall success of the student in the fall semester.  This book will also become a supplemental reading to our textbook throughout the year.