A People’s History of the United States is a book that explores the history of the United States. Howard Zinn writes from an omniscient point of view, this includes the view of the European explorers, the Native Americans, and scholars who study the discovery of America. Zinn’s book isn’t an alternative history as some say, it is history told with excruciating details that allow for reasoning from bias and change the impression of readers, and something to learn off of when it comes to history in the making.
Howard Zinn’s history shows an alternative point of view, but not an alternative history, compared to many historians. If many historians considered Columbus great, Zinn shows how he is not so great; if many historians say the Native…
Mainly, the mass killing of Native Americans. History can be used to create a better future, humankind learns from the past. Zinn states that “What Columbus did to the Arawaks of the Bahamas, Cortes did to the Aztecs of Mexico, Pizarro to the Incas of Peru, and the English settlers of Virginia and Massachusetts to the Powhatans and the Pequots.”(Zinn, 12) and argues that “The cruel policy initiated by Columbus and pursued by his successors resulted in complete genocide.” (Zinn, 9). The definition of genocide is the deliberate killing of a large group of people, so is Zinn really saying that Columbus’ intentions were to kill the Natives at all costs? As said, Zinn showed a very different and anti-heroic point of view of US history and especially Columbus. Zinn also states that he would not like readers to accuse Columbus of wrong doings that he may or may not have intentionally done. Instead, Zinn argues “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. 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.”(Zinn, 10), suggesting that historians follow his path and observe history in an almost alternative point of…
