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To start, I'm in a scientific background, where identifying your references and evidence is crucial. In reading Zinn's book, there is not much attention paid to references and identifying where certain ideas came from. Further, the sources that Zinn mentions (but doesn't cite) are atypical sources; while the diary (uncited, so others can't read it themselves) of a factory worker is an interesting piece of history, the diary of a factory worker who hates her job may not be a great source to identify geopolitical trends in worker/management relationships. Zinn, to my understanding, does not make a coherent story from the smattering of sources that he collects, because he takes a number of very subjective sources and makes no real attempt to answer for their weaknesses. Because of these reasons and others, modern historians do not take Zinn's work seriously, though many teachers still read and require students to read Zinn's work. He may have identified some real issues, but his lack of scholarship only harms that work and makes it appear fallacious. I can't, in good conscience, recommend this book. If you must read it for a class, get works from other historians, because Zinn's work can sometimes seem like he just made things up to fill in the gaps.