After reading Howard Zinn’s first chapter of A People’s History of the United States, I realized this book would be interesting because it will tell the story of a familiar historical event from an unfamiliar perspective. The perspective Zinn uses is the perspective of “the people”, not of “the heroes”. I am pretty sure everyone learned about how Christopher Columbus was a hero and sailed across the sea and found this New World, North America, in the middle of his voyage. Well Zinn uses the perspective of the Arawak to tell the story, by doing this he introduces new information to the readers that was not taught in school. New information like, Columbus being greedy, ruthless, and navigationally incompetent which leads us to the simple truth, there was nothing noble or heroic about Columbus’s expeditions to the New World. The natives welcomed the foreigners even though they were invading their land, and the invaders like Christopher Columbus, Francisco Pizarro, and Hernando Cortes still responded with violence and cruelty. For some reason the history textbooks left that part out, which led many people to believe these men were heroes for finding all this new land and getting rid of the natives.
Howard Zinn makes it clear that his book is not just another history book filled with the same typical boring history lessons. Instead it is a book responding and challenging the many history lessons that have been from the perspective of conquerors, colonizers, and etc. By writing this book Zinn is telling a version of history that is typically not taught in schools, this version holds people like Christopher Columbus accountable for their crimes which is great. Columbus and other known explorers seemed to not express any guilt about torturing and murdering innocent people that were in their way of conquering new land and new wealth. Zinn uses comparisons between the people of today and the conquerors from history, that really showed how Americans have not really changed. Just like in history we are divided between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the powerless, we definitely have changed since 1492, but not as much as the history textbooks make it seem.
The last part of your post which speaks about how things have not truly changed is one of the most important lessons to draw from a history lesson. It is so easy to think of horrific moments in history as not existing in the present moment in any shape or form as it absolves us of blame. However, it is truly important to view how the injustices of the past have carried over to modern day and actively make the effort to eliminate them in every way possible. Sadly, this doesn’t happen often as this path of change is far more difficult than sticking to the status quo.
The distinction you make between the perspective of the “people” versus the “heroes” is interesting because even in that distinction we imply that Columbus in some way was a hero. Zinn’s writing works to reverse this title given to Columbus by using quotes and evidence that describe the atrocities that he committed. It’s interesting to see how there’s so much firsthand and primary information yet so many people still don’t know the truth. This makes me wonder if we are misinformed or just don’t want to acknowledge the truth because it makes the foundation of our country so negative.