...given about his arrival to the Americas, and much of the information that is given is incorrect or inaccurate. Howard Zinn's A People’s History and Charles C. Mann’s 1491 talk about the facts of the before and after of the voyages of Columbus and how they are misinterpreted. Zinn’s and Mann’s views of the Americas before and after Columbus compare to the traditional more vague notions, because they present the idea that the Native Americans were as advanced as the Europeans , and that Columbus and his men oppressed the natives soon after interacting with them. Both Zinn and Mann have written in their texts that before Columbus came into contact with the New World,...
Words: 902 - Pages: 4
...Paul Johnson and Howard Zinn are both famous historians; however, they have different viewpoints on early American history. Paul Johnson, a right-wing activist, was born in England. Concerning early American history, Johnson strongly believes that colonization brought by Christopher Columbus was beneficial and vital for the economic, social, and political development of America. Howard Zinn, a left-wing activist, was born in New York City. Zinn believes that Columbus is not the hero that most people think. Zinn believes that the mass slaughter of Indians and colonization that Columbus brought greatly harmed America and the local Indians. My opinion is similar to Paul Johnson’s because I believe that Columbus’s voyage and discovery of America brought various positive impacts and helped shape the America today. Paul Johnson is convinced that Columbus’s voyage to America is the greatest of allhuman adventures. As a right-wing activist, Johnson supports the leaders of thegovernment and affluent...
Words: 680 - Pages: 3
...Christopher Columbus: The Original American Hero? Was Columbus a hero or a villain? Maybe it’s neither. Columbus was brave and daring, and did things that were important to world history. But he wasn’t heroic in the sense of displaying great moral qualities. Courage, while generally a good character trait, isn’t necessarily heroic or even highly honorable and praiseworthy unless it’s deployed in certain kinds of actions or causes. But he also wasn’t especially villainous in the sense of displaying particular evil qualities. His arrival in the Americas caused a great deal of death to American Indians, chiefly from disease. And it caused the subjugation and literal or virtual enslavement of the Indians. But this didn’t stem from Columbus’s being an unusually evil person. It stemmed from the brutality of the time, coupled with the contact between one culture that was much more powerful than another (and that carried many communicable diseases to which members of the other culture lacked resistance). I’m inclined to say that we shouldn’t celebrate Columbus Day, precisely because such national celebrations should be focused on honoring people who did things that were both especially important and especially honorable (such as veterans, President Washington, or Martin Luther King, Jr.) and not just on people who did things that were especially important. This might conceivably include not-necessarily-good people who did things that were unambiguously good. But European expansion...
Words: 2988 - Pages: 12
