Summary Of A People's History By Howard Zinn

Annie Haunton
Dr. Brandon – G Block
305 American Studies
4 September 2015
History as One’s Interpretation In the opening chapter of A People’s History of the United States, the author, Howard Zinn, admits that he abandons neutrality and presents bias in order to tell the history of the United States from the victim’s perspective. Howard Zinn is a well-known historian and author, who has authored dozens of historical books and articles including You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train and A People’s History of the United States, written three plays, and spoken at many political and social rallies. When his most famous book, A People’s History, was first published in 1980, Zinn’s statements caused an uproar within the scholastic community,
Nor is it “history from the bottom up” when the vantage point is clouds of narcissism (Conlin, Review of A People’s History).” Many well respected historians of the time had similar viewpoints to Conlin’s. Compared to most historical texts, Zinn takes a different approach to history by not being objective. He was one of the first authors to publish a book that did not portray the stereotypical picture of history from the standpoint of the victors. For example, many textbooks of the time described Christopher Columbus as a hero and did not expose the brutality that occurred between the Spaniards and the Native Americas. Despite harsh criticism, Zinn continued using his work as a textbook in his own classroom. Many of his college students reacted well to the book which led other professors to incorporate Zinn’s work into their teachings. Later in the
Leading up to the Great Depression, his father worked as a ditch digger and window washer, while his mother ran a neighborhood candy store. Growing up during tough times and living in a working-class household, Zinn’s family had little access to educational materials or financial resources, so he was sent to work in a shipyard before he turned 18. Coming from humble beginnings, Howard relates well with the stories of those who come from impoverished or minority backgrounds, and as a result, he focuses on highlighting their standpoints and experiences in his works. In A People’s History of the United States, chapter one introduces readers to the beginnings of the United States when Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas and the Spaniards began their efforts to colonize the New World. Within the chapter, Zinn uses primary sources to describe the way Indian women were treated in society, highlight the relationships among the Spaniards and the indigenous peoples, and expose the brutality of the times. To support these stories and firsthand accounts, Zinn also incorporates reliable facts and statistics relating to the discovery of the New World. On page 11, an “I have seen two generations of my people die…I know the difference between peace and war better than any man in my country (Zinn, A People’s History, 11).” Zinn follows this up by stating