Preview

Zinn's Purpose Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
431 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Zinn's Purpose Analysis
Zinn’s Purpose On page 7, Zinn stated “ When we read the history books given to children in United States, it all starts with heroic adventure-there is no bloodshed-and Columbus is a celebration.” This quote shows how the winners writes history. History is suppose to be where we can learn from our past and progress as an society, but throughout history, there are always cases that winners writes history and they changed or ignored the facts that are important for our society progress as a whole. Zinn uses compare and contrast to show how he views the native people and Columbus and his sailors. Zinn wrote about the difference between the native people and Columbus and his sailors. He describes the native people as “naked, tawny, and …show more content…
Native people are smart because they perfected the art of agriculture, also they are non-violent society. Compare to Columbus’s group, they wanted gold and source of labor, so they refused to return same kind of generosity back to the Arawak Indians so they caused genocide to help themselves to reach their “goals”, and we can describe these people heartless and hypocritical. Up to this point native people are clearly the more advanced society as a whole compare to Columbus and his sailors. Another point of Zinn’s argument is Columbus and the Arawak Indians are not the only historic case that a group of people mistreated others because of their own needs. Zinn uses other examples to shows history is repeated and Columbus’s case isn’t the only case that happened. In order to prevent that from happening again we have to learn the history from the winner's point of view other people’s point of view as well. Overall, Zinn’s purpose is in order to let a society advance as a whole, we have to learn the past, not only the winner’s side, but as well as the other people’s perspective to understand history. Although he said he is not taking a side, but his argument clearly shows which side is he on, and who society is more advance than other. The truth about the past is the key to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    After reading the articles “Columbus, The Indians, and Human Progress” written by Howard Zinn and “The City on the Hill” written by Larry Schweikert and Allen Michael I have analyzed three specific topics/concepts that have been presented by both authors. The first topic that I observed was Christopher Columbus. Howard Zinn’s article was mainly focused on Columbus while Larry S. and Allen M.’s article covered many explorers including Columbus. Howard Zinn more wrote his view on Columbus as a story as the other authors wrote a lot of facts and what you would call “boring” information. Both of the authors included gory details of Columbus’s expedition which didn’t create the same “heroic” effect that I learnt from earlier years. These two inserts also might differ because one is a Patriot’s History of the United States and the other is a People’s History of the United States.…

    • 685 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Howard Zinn Summary

    • 301 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The people’s views of the United States focuses on the individual encounters and battles of individuals who lived in the United States from 1492-present. It is a perspective of history from the regular man's point of view, instead of the pioneers' perspective and high society of this nation. The book rotates around the perspectives of history from the persecuted perspective. Howard Zinn makes it clear from the earliest starting point that he will esteem the perspectives and encounters of the mistreated over the oppressor's perspective. He depicts the success from the Native's perspective American populace. He depicts subjugation in the south from the slave's perspective. He portrays industrialization from the laborers' perspective on the shop…

    • 301 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Howard Zinn’s “The Peoples History of the United States”, is a must read. This book is very eye opening and informative. By just looking at the title we can conclude that the approach to the history of the United States used by Zinn, is that of the people. His writes this book from a completely different perspective of most historians. He finds a way to make history become alive and present in our everyday lives. He creates awareness in things our forefathers wanted us to overlook.…

    • 900 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In my opinion the quote written by George Orwell is very important to understand because it is true. Those that are dominate and privileged are the ones who write the histories. Indeed, who controls the past controls the future as we have seen through the Columbus story. Christopher Columbus as we have read in history books in elementary school has been seen as this iconic hero. Great emphasis was always put onto his celebration not so much in Canada, but in the United States. However, Zinn shows the readers the real story of Christopher Columbus and shows how history of Western Civilization has been written based on a myth. Holmberg’s Mistake and The War Against the Indians also showed how power does play a role in who writes the history. The people that are marginalized in society it is important to see the…

    • 353 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    James W. Loewen wrote this tell-all to expose the real meaning of American History; “diffusion of ideas is perhaps the most important cause of cultural development”pg.39. Loewen realized that not one but all twelve of the top high school US History textbooks failed at making history somewhat captivating to their readers. These books eliminate any ambiguities and problems that arose during the creation of the American society. By not throwing light upon social stratification, American History textbooks allowed high school students to wonder out into a society that came into view as “the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer”.…

    • 430 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Every work of history, according to Howard Zinn, is a political document, “With all its limitations, it is a history…

    • 388 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    He describes Indians as a peaceful group of people in contrast towards Europeans, who are cruel and seek to enslave the Indians for gold and their labor. The Europeans were declared from their government/leaders to seek sources of wealth no matter what. In turn, Indians were treated as lower beings and separated from the non-natives living near them. Indians were seen as inferior, different, and as commodities by the explorers. As Zinn's book stated that a scribe for the explorers "urged replacing Indians by black slaves" (pg. 14). Zinn then states how the number of Indian population drastically dropped overtime due to violence, slavery, and disease.Proponents attempt to justify the European's actions by saying that these sacrifices are necessary for human progress. Zinn argues "that quick disposal might be acceptable ('Unfortunate, yes, but it had to be done') to the middle and upper classes of the conquering and 'advanced' countries. But it is acceptable to... the victims of that progress which benefits a privileged minority in the world?" (pg. 27). Spain did have a brief period of prosperity when all the gold and silver was shipped back. However, that was…

    • 1487 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    essay, "I Am a Native of North America" both deal with the issue of the way Natives…

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Native Americans are a group of people with a variety of political structures and numerous ways of life. Most people envision Native Americans as uncivilized; however, this is often an overlooked topic and there are multiple pieces of evidence to prove they are civilized people. The Native Americans were civilized in many forms, they lived in harmony among nature until the white men kicked them off their land. The meaning of civilized is for a group of people to have well-organized laws and rules about how people behave with each other. Natives showed the organization of laws and rules when they “adapted to their new environmental conditions and natural surroundings, and eventually developed their own political systems, religious beliefs, and…

    • 340 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He argues that “the books are too busy telling the students how great the United States was and still is to give them much real history”(Hade 568). It is true, we all know that books will never admit that we were wrong for some part, on the contrary books will brush off the real issues or the real story of the issue to present the United States as being on the right side and doing the best of…

    • 612 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the beginning of the first chapter Zinn tells us about Christopher Columbus's expedition. He tells us about the indians or natives of Haiti and other islands, and how open they were to the white man. They traded, hospitalized, and respected these men that they never knew of. In return Zinn writes about how inhumane, barbarous, and cruel the white man was to the natives. Columbus was so ambitious that he didn't take the time to understand that natives were people too, they had their human rights and emotions. Later Zinn writes about Hernandez Cortez and other spanish conquistadors that nearly annihilated tribes along their way. They too were so determined to please their kings and queens with gold, silver, slaves, and other treasures that they showed no mercy to the Aztecs, Incas, and other tribes. He thinks of the columbian exchange from different view points. One view point was from the conquers, and another from the indians and natives. The European invaders said their crimes were necessary in order to make humanity more “civilized”, But was it really?…

    • 713 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    indians

    • 1589 Words
    • 7 Pages

    When judging the advancements of Native Americans to others one might look into the perspective of the surrounding environment of certain tribes. For example, many woodland Indians such as the ones on the Eastern Coast were more advanced as to making tools and trading with other local tribes. While other Native American groups stayed in a routine of making the same crops, and using the same weapons, others experimented with what they were given and used different techniques to aid in their success. S while these more advanced tribes far exceeded other tribes in those aspects of living they also had a more advanced system of government. With a better structure they were better able to assign different tasks and ultimately lead a tribe to a better lifestyle of living. When you bring that into perspective, the more advanced tribes were also less hostile and more inviting to new, outside ideas. For example, the Western Tainos tribe accepted Columbus and his men with open arms. While trading and sharing their skills with Columbus's men, they also gained knowledge and began learning a new language.…

    • 1589 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Zinn, H (1980) A People 's History of the United States: 1492 – Present. Harper Perennial…

    • 4235 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Trinity and Columbus

    • 607 Words
    • 3 Pages

    3. Write down the five most important things Zinn says about Columbus (including page numbers) write down the two most important things he says about writing history.…

    • 607 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In The Pearl by John Steinbeck, there are two exceedingly distinct classes: The Indians and the Spanish. Not only are these two classes separated by race, but they are also separated by other factors. A clear struggle is seen between these two classes. The Spanish are superior over the Indians. The Indians have a completely different lifestyle compared to the Spanish and are substantially poorer than the Spanish and because of this the Spanish look down on the Indians.…

    • 846 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays