What do you know about Christopher Columbus? Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, there is a much greater understanding of what Columbus actually did. History needs to be through different viewpoints or the true history of life isn’t told; learners can’t perish to one view on history. Nations and communities have different viewpoints for example. Nations view history as Columbus viewed it while communities view history as the oppressed viewed it. While the views are associated with two different history writing styles in the chapter that Zinn provides, different views are essential when it comes to learning history. National collective memory is associated massively to the leader’s perspective, for example Columbus’s viewpoint; communal collective memory is linked heavily to the oppressed perspective such as the experiences of the Arawaks. The first chapter titled Columbus, The Indians, and Human Progress Zinn analyzed the untold history of what Columbus actually did back in 1492. Zinn provides us two different types of history writing. One type is the history of Columbus in Columbus’s own point of view. This is the type that students briefly learned about in high school modern history courses and of historians. Some historians basically sympathize with Columbus’s perspective. He was a hero for finding new land and supposedly bringing gold back to the King and Queen. Many students didn’t know there were other viewpoints so they believed in that one view. Zinn states, “When we read the history books given to children in the United States, it all starts with heroic adventure – there is no bloodshed – and Columbus Day is a celebration” (7). It is the utmost truth that kids enjoy the day off from school because who wouldn’t? The problem arises with the children’s knowledge about the holiday. We know that Columbus is considered heroic as Zinn points out but it is only because we are given only one side of the story. Henry Kissinger is a great example of type 1 history writing. Henry Kissinger wrote about the history of Europe in the nineteenth century in his book A World Restored. This is the first type of history writing because the history is told from the leader’s perspective. Zinn points out, “… in which he proceeded to tell the history of … from the viewpoint of the leaders of Austria and England, ignoring the millions who suffered from those statesmen’s polices” (9). After the French Revolution, the national leaders assumed there was peace but in actuality from the viewpoints of the factory workers, colored people in Asia and Africa, and women and children everywhere, there wasn’t any peace. These indigenous people and communities were a part of hunger and violence. Violence isn’t peaceful and communities suffered as a whole. The second type of history writing is of the oppressed peoples perspectives. Zinn provides us is from the viewpoints of the indigenous people. Columbus did much more than just discover land and brought back gold to the King and Queen. Zinn quotes Las Casas, “There were 60,000 people living on this island, including the Indians; so that from 1494 to 1508, over three million people had perished from war, slavery, and the mines” (7). Many of the natives of the lands Columbus took over were killed due to abuse and genocide. Only knowing Columbus’s point of view, a student would celebrate Columbus Day assuming he was a courageous man but looking at it from another historical viewpoint such as of the indigenous people, a student should think twice for celebrating a day for a man who helped commit genocide. Zinn agrees by stating, “[His] viewpoint, in telling the history of the United States, is different that we must not accept the memory of states as our own” (10). He is telling us that we as learners can’t succumb to one view on history. Columbus’s adventure wasn’t the only thing that was taught by his viewpoint alone.
Nations are larger groups of people that typically have something common. Communities are smaller groups of people that are all associated with at least one thing. Zinn tells us, “Nations are not communities and never have been” (10). Nations are larger identifiers that connect people. An example of a nation is Columbus’s perspective. Many people know his famous voyage from his own view but that isn’t necessarily what happened. Communities are smaller identifiers that connect one another. An example of a community is the oppressed perspective of Columbus’s voyage. There’s a smaller amount of people who know of what happened to the Arawaks when Columbus sailed over to what he thought was the Americas. The future goal of nations and communities should be they are equal. Schools around the world should teach students that there’s more than one view on many things but more specifically history. They learn more and they also share to other people about this new idea of realizing there’s multiple sides of history verses one side from which is being spoken by the government, conquerors, leaders, or diplomats.

Zinn, Howard. "Columbus, The Indians, and Human Progress." A People's History of the United States: 1492-2001. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 1-22. Print.