...Howard Zinn continued to talk about the American Revolution. The main argument for Zinn in this chapter was that the revolution was fought mainly by the poor people, but it led by the rich who controlled and gained the most benefits of the war. In this chapter, Zinn wrote about the revolution and its results and the conflict between the poor and rich people. The first thing was the revolution and its results. The revolution was against the British rule. The American leaderships wanted the independence. So, they consisted Revolution army and colonial militia; and allowed to only white men, who Zinn described them as, “hall-marks respectability or at least of full citizenship.” But then, they allowed to less respectable white men. One of the...
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...Valerie Ridings Mr. Miroku Nemeth English 1A September 16, 2015 Howard Zinn: Civil Rights Howard Zinn was an American historian, playwright, and social activist. He sometimes referred to himself as a Democratic Socialist. In Howard Zinn’s book A People’s History of the United States his main concern was that while the government made civil rights reforms they predominantly did so not out of human interest, but out of a need to reform their international image. Zinn further addresses that in-large part the United States government failed to enforce these new civil rights reforms. With the events of the Civil Rights Movement, Zinn demonstrates the United States duplicity as early as the 1930s. In Howard Zinn’s book A People’s History of the United States he notes that while the nation denounced racism, it nevertheless “maintained segregation in the armed forces and kept blacks in low-paying jobs” (chapter 17). I think Zinn also goes to state in his book that the as the United States failed to adequately provide solutions to the race question, African Americans became increasingly aligned with Communist movements. With the volatile political climate of the late 1940s – the country had just survived World War II – it was essential that the nation demonstrate internationally that it was making a substantial stand against Communism. Zinn argues this started with African American ties to Communism. It follows that the United States government’s original motivation for enacting...
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...(Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States") Chapter 1: Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress The beginning chapter covers early Native American civilization in North America and the Bahamas, the genocide and enslavement committed by the crew of Christopher Columbus (to the West Indies), and incidents of violent colonization by early settlers. The native inhabitants, Arawak Indians, swam out to greet the European boats the first time they landed. Zinn cites Columbus' journal entries throughout the chapters, which included his reaction to the initial encounter with the Arawaks: 'They would make fine servants...With 50 men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.' This attitude ultimately led to enslavement, highjacking, murder and rape. Why did they murder thousands to millions of innocent Native Americans? The Spaniard's main aim was to prove to the royalty back home that the islands were wealthy and loaded with great resources, mainly gold. Columbus took some natives back to show the Queen of Spain (they died on route), and when he came back with numbers of men and ships, they started a regimented system of slavery and punishment on the natives of the West Indies. When looking at historical documents of this event, they all had one thing in common. They only speak of the friendliness of the Arawaks, of their genuine kindness and great hospitality. They saw the Spaniards as divine beings, meaning they would never do harm or, let alone...
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...not control and some that she could. She could not control the fact that she was black but she could control the fact she married a person of a different color. So not only was she a person of color but she also married someone of what was called the “opposite color” back then. She experienced many challenges in life because of the color of her skin. Her parents grew up as slaves and she was a sharecropper. Alice worked 11 hours a day for $17 per week to help pay to go to college. She was voted valedictorian in high school. She eventually went on to go to Spelman College and transferred to Sarah Lawrence College on a full scholarship and graduated in 1965. Alice became interested in the civil rights movement because of her professor Howard Zinn. The man that she went on to marry was named Melvyn Roseman Leventhal. After she married him she was a writer for Jackson State College and Tougaloo College. Alice was also inspired by Zora Neale Hurston. Alice went on to write lots of books among those being The Color...
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...American Pageant and one told by Howard Zinn in A People’s History of the United States , both of which in retrospect are entirely different on the way they betray Christopher Columbus. Howard Zinn’s ideology of Columbus as a villain is contradictory in nature to the American Pageant’s view of Columbus as a hero....
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...United States, Howard Zinn the author of, “A People’s History of the United States” took on this feat in 1980s when he published his book. To begin with, the book starts off with the perspective of the Arawak Indians who met Columbus. Zinn tells us that the Europeans were very cruel to the Indians while on their quest for gold. The book then jumps to the year of 1619 when America started to transport slaves from Africa for free labor, by the 1800s America had over 10 million slaves. After, the book starts to highlight the American Revolution, Zinn believes it was a fight for power between Colonial Elites and England. America was able to fight the revolution because so many citizens were armed, allowing...
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...The colonial life in the new world was not always suitable for most occupants. As the works of Howard Zinn, Deborah A. Rosen, and John M. Murrin’s indicate the hardships of the colonial residents. In the book entitled “A people’s history of the United States” Howard Zinn takes a different approach from familiar text around the time period of Christopher Columbus and described the hardships of Indians as they first made contact with foreign settlers and the horrifying ordeals salves went through just to get across the Atlantic Ocean. Zinn first points out in his book how Columbus took some Arwak Indians native to the island in the Bahamas as prisoners for the sole purpose of finding gold.(1) These Indians either faced hard labor for a prolonged period of time or death by inadequate living conditions under their captures. Moreover, Zinn describes how salves being shipped from Africa to America were plagued with crushing conditions by having been placed in shackles around their necks and forced to walk long miles just to get on a ship. The boat ride was descried as worse by Zinn because slaves were put in a compact space that one could not turn his or her head around. Slaves also faced suffocation within these ships. Deborah A. Rosen takes on a women’s prospective in her...
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...The first chapter of Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States sets the tone of the rest of the book—as any well written opening to a text of this sort should—and gives the reader a clear idea of its perspective on the history of the United States. The text simultaneously broadcasts facts and theories from historians while providing thought provoking commentary on it. This is primarily why I was so interested in this text. In particular, I found Zinn’s choice to tell the story of the United Sates through the eyes of the victims, the complete disregard for the Native Americans by the Puritans, and how life for those in the League of Iroquois seemed utopian fascinating. First, I will touch on my interest in Zinn’s decision on how...
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...I believe that Zinn chose these passages and placed them according to how they fit in the readings. I also believe he chose these passages because it shows how the communication was between the Indians and Columbus and his crew. The passages go on to talk about traditions of how when someone is soon to die their legacy or power is passed down to his brothers, then to his sisters, then to his children that Columbus learned as they began to build the Virginia colony. The passages tell us of the treatment and lifestyle of the people whether it was the Indians or even the Spanish. Yes, this class the passages paint this picture of how everything we learned about Columbus was not true and that they told us nothing but the positives of Columbus and how he deserves to be credited for the discovery. While just being in college it has changed by perspective of how to look at Columbus and if we really want to get down to it, he really wasn’t the first to discover the America’s because there were people already living here and him and his country came in and took over what really wasn’t theirs. And I believe that as students we should have been told the whole truth Christopher Columbus. Columbus’s motives were to treat the Indians like savage people and work them like dogs till they were done with one of his projects and then they would have a break then they would work again for forty straight days with no breaks and then repeat that for however long Columbus wanted or until the Indian...
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...Source: One presents a quote by American historian Howard Zinn. Zinn presents the disapproval of free market economies. This disapproval regards the distribution of wealth and the prominent rise of elitism within present day free market economies. Zinn believes that through current free markets, elitism and the ultra rich present severe harm to society. The invisible hand has favoured the one percentile, leaving the majority of society in economic unrest. Through the quote, the idea of balancing and equalizing is presented. Zinn boils down human necessities to: food, housing, medical care, education, entertainment, and vacations. Economic equalization is one key factor in socialism that Zinn entrenches his opinion in. Historical economists...
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...Civil disobedience is not always persuaded by the wrong group of people. Yet, they are the ones who get punished for the actions of trying to make the world a better place while the bad ones don’t get punished. In the article “The Problem is Civil Disobedience” By Howard Zinn, the author explains all the reasons on why civil disobedience is the problem. The allusion of the title meaning is that the problem is civil disobedience not with the people that are disobedient. The meaning to the reference is that not all people that are disobedient are bad and to punish them for something they believe in is wrong. Especially, when the ones who are obedient can be the ones who are really harming the world and not being punished for it. In the article...
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...Watch the two video clips "Zinn: The Misguided Notion of Patriotism" featuring Howard Zinn in "Howard Zinn: The Misguided Notion of Patriotism" in module # 12 "Critical Thinking and Mass Media Propaganda". Identify one main claim made by Howard Zinn in each of these two video clips and his supporting reason for the claim. Compare his views to those of Noam Chomsky in the clip "Anti-Americanism" in the same module page. Probe their claims and reasons with essential questions and justify your agreement or disagreement with them. (ANSWER) Essential Questions: What is beneficial for Americans to be aware of about World history? What does it mean to be...
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...Many see Christopher Columbus as a hero, but were his actions all that good? In this essay there are two perspectives Columbus, Howard Zinn thinks that Columbus was not a hero and his actions actually hurt and killed people, while William J Connell and John Sebastiano say that Columbus was a hero and was a genius. Howard Zinn did not like Columbus and his actions at all, because Columbus enslaved and killed Indigenous people. Zinn writes in his book A Young People’s History of the United States, “Indians who did not give gold to the Spaniards had their hands cut off and bled to death.” Howard Zinn also quotes from Columbus’s ship’s log, “They would make fine servants…. With fifty men we could subjugate [over-power] them and make them do whatever...
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...to Asian, his movements in the Caribbean and amongst its natives in his search for gold, and the eradication of tens and hundreds of thousands of natives. He writes about Columbus’ delivery of vast amounts of slaves to the Spanish monarchy, with slaves being sent to Europe or forced to labor in New World mines and plantations. Zinn further recount the historical writings of Bartolomé de las Casas, who commented on native culture, as well as chronicling and questioning the necessity of the harsh, brutal conditions that the conquering Spanish subjected the natives to. Zinn then claims that the easy casualness with which contemporary historians ignore or disregard historical atrocities as necessary for the advancement of humanity does a disservice...
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...A People’s History of The United States, by Howard Zinn, delivers a multi perspective account on how the United States came to be from the beginning to the present time. This book is able to further people’s knowledge by developing a historical story line incorporated with written pieces from past generations and Zinn’s own ideas and knowledge. Howard Zinn was a very educated man, author of multiple books, a war veteran, professor, and activist. Before going to college, he joined the US Air Force at the age of 18 in World War II. After the war he went to Colombia University and earned his Ph.D. in history. He spent most of his time after teaching at Spelman College and Boston University for over 20 years while participating in the Civil Rights...
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