Study Guide Essay example

From a conservative standpoint, Schweikart and Allen lists Columbus as “the best of the new generation of navigators: resilient, courageous, and confident” (Schweikart), retelling history as a counterpoint to Social Activist Howard Zinn’s A People's History of the United States. Rather than list the accomplishments of Columbus, Zinn instead chooses to focus on the more gruesome side of Columbus’ voyage. Steven Mintz points out in Digital History that over time, depiction of Columbus has evolved, stating “The four hundredth anniversary of Christopher Columbus's "discovery" of the New World was commemorated with a massive "Columbian Exhibition"... [During] the five hundredth anniversary of Columbus's first voyage… many peoples of indigenous and African descent identified Columbus with imperialism, colonialism, and conquest” (Mintz). Historians with more conservative values, will tend to stand by continuity and traditional views, while history told from a leftist point of view typically

1. Zinn’s main purpose for writing A People’s History of the United States is to show history from the viewpoint of others.

     Conversely, James W. Loewen, who did extensive research of high school history lessons to write his book Lies my Teacher Told Me, feels Columbus wasn’t really as great as he is made out to be. Loewen writes, “The history books make up all kinds of details to tell a better story and to humanize Columbus so that readers will identify with him” (38). Just as Hart pushes the idea that Columbus made a great new discovery finding the Americas, Loewen argues that “Columbus’s voyage was not the first, but the last discovery” (39). His importance has to do with the changes that were made in Europe and not having “discovered new land”. People from other continents had gone to America long before 1492. “Daring sailors reached America in a series of voyages across the North Atlantic, establishing communities on the Faeroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland. The Norse colony on Greenland lasted five hundred years (982-c.1500)”. Loewen further goes on to argue against Hart on the issue of the Turks and their supposed land route control and describes the claims as a “falsehood”. Loewen also points out the several times Christianity is used as an excuse

Later on in A People’s History of the United States, Zinn questions whether “all this bloodshed and deceit – from Columbus to Cortez, Pizarro, the Puritans – [was] a necessity for the human race to progress from savagery to civilization.” Zinn

So far, it has become very clear that Zinn and Johnson view history in almost completely different viewpoints. Johnson comes from a conservative background with an Oxford degree while Zinn, was more of an activist from a Jewish immigrant background. Johnson has pride in America and almost always sugarcoats major events to keep his country looking great, much like what we learn in our current high schools. However, Zinn shows us the left out facts of our American history and his novel is referred to as an anti-history book. Both authors make significant points and it’s great to have both sources available for comparison as well as chance to see both sides of the story.

A Peoples History of the United States was written by Howard Zinn. Zinn’s main purpose for writing this book was to give a precise and detailed exposition of American History from the victim’s point of view. “I prefer to try to tell the story of the discovery of America from the viewpoint of the Arawaks, of the Constitution from the standpoint of the slaves…” He wants to uncover hidden episodes of the past, be skeptical about the government and even talk about the cruelties the victims put on each other because of their oppressors. He wants to understand why the oppressors killed the victims and how these victims felt and what actions they took. Zinn wants to tell history’s greatest achievement from the point of view of the people who get slaughtered, robbed, taunted and anything else that happened to the victims while

a.) According to Zinn, the main purpose behind the writing of A People’s History of the United States was to tell the history of the United States through the losers POV.

Howard Zinn is one of the few historians who purposely wrote with a bias; he ‘abandoned neutrality’ and took sides when writing about historical topics. Generally people expect historians to just state objective facts and not show any bias. In school, students commonly read books depicting Pilgrims as great people, who were peaceful towards their Indian neighbors, but they actually massacred and tried to convert them. As Winston Churchill once said, “History is written by the victors.” This statement is true in most cases, and it needs to be changed. Most high school and college history classes stick to reciting objective facts not paying attention to the moral and ethical implications behind them. However, today’s readers should develop their

So just as Zin uses fact to establish who columbus really was I'm using fact to prove that between the two articles Zin is the clear choice. Because even though both articles have sufficient evidence to support there accusations the minuplations of emotions doesn't come into play in Zin’s article. Making his theories more believable then the exaggerations of

Writing a book with an uncommonly taught perspective, Zinn tried to verify his take on U.S history. There are inserts from various documents, such as diaries, ledgers, and newspapers used as supporting documents to his claim,

Before the pre-civil war period, in the novel the first chapter summarizes Columbus and the English encounter with the Indians and its progress. A quote from Zinn, “the Indiana’s, Columbus reported, are so naive and so free with their possession that no one who had witnessed them

Zinn responds to different points of view by taking the different perspective and points out the flaws in the actions of the character, then points out the effects. An example of Zinn putting this into his book is on page twelve , paragraph two were he first wrote about what Morrison did, ¨Morrison did not lie about columbus. He did not leave out the mass murder. But he mentioned the truth quickly and then went on to other things.¨ He then went away quickly about the flaws of doings this, ¨By burying the fact of genocide in a lot of other information, he seemed to be saying that the mass murder wasn't very important in the big picture. By making the genocide seem like a small part of the story he took away the power to make us think differently

While David M. Kennedy and Lizabeth Cohen’s account of Christopher Columbus’s discovery is told with an original approach telling the story from the standpoint of the Europeans, Howard Zinn’s Columbus, The Indians, and Human Progress, tells the story using an unconventional method, telling from the viewpoint of the Arawak Indians. Zinn talks about the violent acts of Christopher Columbus and the Spaniards and alludes to the Black Legend being semi-accurate, yet Kennedy and Cohen discuss how the Black Legend isn’t really a correct description of the Spaniards, as they built colossal empires that deserve acknowledgement and respect. Mr. Zinn also implements his opinion throughout the chapter, saying: “Nations are not communities and never have been. The history of any country, presented as the history of a family, conceals fierce conflicts of interest” and “in such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people… not to be on the side of the executioners.” On the contrary, Ms. Cohen and Mr. Kennedy do not implement their opinion, they only tell the story how it happened.

Howard Zinn’s decision to write a subjective history gives people a more well-rounded view of U.S. history. Rather than presenting American history solely from the view of elites,

In the book “A Peoples History of the United States” writer Howard Zinn expresses his opinion on history from long ago. He explains in his book how certain things in history have happened and how it is now taught very differently to our elementary and high school students. “Past the elementary and high schools, they are only occasional hints of somethings” (Zinn 7717). Zinn bases his book on criticizing how history has been told, because he believes that there are different parts of every story so Zinn begins to tell his story of history.