Preview

The Challenges Of Change Zin Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
917 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Challenges Of Change Zin Analysis
History is the study of past events, particularly in human affairs. George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” So, society studies and is provoked by Georges words to keep learning. There are writers though who have adverse thoughts about societies and our development. Why do these writers seem to believe we aren’t learning from our past?
For instance, A People’s History of the United States written by Howard Zin was made to pursue present American history through the eyes of those rarely heard in conventional history textbooks. Starting with Columbus landing his boat on the wrong continent and then taking control of native Indians because of their remarkable sharing and hospitality. He was mostly
…show more content…
Arthur wrote
“The acceleration of change compels us to perceive life as motion, not as order; the universe not as complete but as unfinished. For people of buoyant courage like William James, the prospect was exhilarating. Henry Adams saw the change as irreversible but contemplated the future with foreboding. Others, in the midst of flounder and flux, strive to resurrect the old ways.” He describes a society in the 1900s as progressing to hastily. Society moves through life without thinking we just keep moving forward as fast as we can, because it's exciting to think of the progress. Which means society ignores the inevitable which is problematic can cause destruction and death. He says that younger generations are not looking up to elders anymore because technology is moving so fast. Society has switched positions because of this. Young people would get all their culture and moral ideals from their elders. Now that the elders look at the younger generation for help with all this new progress the system has changed. Society doesn’t see the potential harm in this even through the ground zero experiments obviously failed. Which furthermore proves we either are not learning from our past mistakes, or ignorant enough not to notice the similarities of these

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Betrayal of History by Alexander Stille was an interesting historical perspective about the evolution of textbooks used to teach our children about United States history. Prior to reading this article, I was unaware of the deliberate omissions and lies the publishers used to frame their narrative of our historical events. For example, publishers Holt and Rinehart want to create a multicultural hero for the Hispanic populations of Texas and California so they made up the story that a Spanish explorer Bartolomeo Gomez discovered the Hudson River. When, in fact, Gomez was Portuguese not Spanish and there was no evidence to support that he discovered the river.…

    • 452 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The author of the article, “Three surprises About Change” is focusing on three main ideas concerning the change of people’s behaviors. He suggests; shaping the path, motivating the Elephant and directing the Rider should happen as guidelines to make change easier for people.…

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Society’s need for instant gratification is revealed through new technology being introduced. For instance, in today’s society when the newest piece of technology is available, everyone jumps to a conclusion that since the product is new, it must be better than the old, thus they go and purchase it. Huxley had feared that what someone loves would ruin him or her, which is accurate. Civilization today has become expected of instant gratification. Therefore, it is expected to have the newer, improved piece of technology when the original one has a simple defect. For example, the Gazette newspaper had stated that when the iPhone4 presale went on they sold out in twenty hours. However when the iPhone5 presale had been released it just took about sixty minutes. Also with new technology advancing, machinery and devices are increasing. NASA created weather satellites to help distinguish the weather patterns. Today weather satellites are vital in our everyday lives; they determine the weather for the day. If NASA had never created them, today’s society would be different because it has helped with instant access to many aspects of the world. Society today revolves around the…

    • 618 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    "Neither his kind, nor his kind of thinking will survive long. They are the crown of creation, they are ambition fulfilled - they have nowhere more to go. But life is change, that is how it differs from the rocks, change is its very nature. Who, then, were the recent lords of creation, that they should expect to remain unchanged?"…

    • 454 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He states that, “…it’s all there, the great books, masterpieces, old maps, encyclopedia entries, world newspapers, science facts, and historical events. But that’s not where the kids go” (Bauerlein 134). He also ventures to say that, “…young Americans prefer to learn about one another” (Bauerlein 135), meaning that young people would rather learn about the party that happened last week over how Alexander the Great conquered almost the entire known world. His theory shows the utter lack of knowledge about young people, as from my personal experience, I have often used the Internet to research and learn about certain topics. The Internet is a conduit for…

    • 431 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Howard Zinn Ch.1

    • 888 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the first chapter of A Peoples History of the United States by Howard Zinn, the main focus is on the Indians, Christopher Columbus and the human progress and the author’s way of presenting factual information. Christopher Columbus is introduced as the famous navigator and explorer of the “New World”. We were taught in school that he discovered America and that was just enough for our tiny brains to like him because America is built on freedom and justice. We assumed that the man who “discovered” the place we call home had the same moral and ideals. Sadly, what was neglected to be taught in school was that our ideas about Christopher Columbus weren’t entirely true, infact we were even given the whole story.…

    • 888 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Howard Zinn Critique

    • 803 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A People’s History of the United States is a book that explores the history of the United States. Howard Zinn writes from an omniscient point of view, this includes the view of the European explorers, the Native Americans, and scholars who study the discovery of America. Zinn’s book isn’t an alternative history as some say, it is history told with excruciating details that allow for reasoning from bias and change the impression of readers, and something to learn off of when it comes to history in the making.…

    • 803 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the first chapter of “The Tyranny of Dead Ideas,” the author, Matt Miller, writes about our leader have unsuccessful to get read of us for lies ahead because they are in the grasp of a set of "dead ideas" about how a modern economy should work. The author argues that our families and this generation have a big income inequality because our kids will earn less than we do. For example 100 million American now live in families that earn less in real terms than their parent did the same age. According to his point of view, each generation should earn more than the previous generation, but the next generation earns less. He gave example of 2007 survey. The surveys indicate 60 percent of America expects the next generation that will be worse than their, verse 31 percent who expect they will be better off. Meanwhile, sociological “Big Bang” has two critical elements such as the founding of united state itself, and the advent of the industrial Revolution. The author mention about how the policy of equality…

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Life was simple in the society. Think about what is happening in the society, but don’t think about it too hard. Think about it just enough to where you know whether something good or bad happened. They could think about the future or what was going on at work. You couldn’t think about the past. There was no need for the past. They had no knowledge of the past. You couldn’t think about whether or not something was wrong or right other than the reason given by the government. There was no need to dig too deep into it. You couldn’t think about why. You couldn’t think about why things happened or why life went the way it did. There was nowhere near enough freedom to think what you want to think.…

    • 1548 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    After reading Peter Searns' article, it can be easily understood that history completely shapes the people within a society. History allows us to understand the change and alteration of how society came to be today. We cannot go without history because we need a basis for how society functions. Additionally, Searns expresses that an individual must comprehend how a society functions in order to run their own lives. It seems unbelievable when individuals thinks of how significant history is to their moral understanding. When thinking about the past, there are many stories that have an influence on an individual's moral ideas and eventually tests his or her own thinking. Therefore, individuals study history to develop as a person. How would an individual understand today's society without knowing about any other experiences throughout history?…

    • 358 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn Howard Zinn’s retelling of America’s past shocks audiences with it stark honesty and brutality. Heroes that have been idolized for hundreds of years are ripped from their pedestals and the audience sees revolutionary events from the eyes of the ignored and voiceless. Columbus, the sinless hero that is credited for the discovery of the new world, is publicized as a heartless, conscienceless, executioner who maliciously annihilated native american communities due to a blinding greed for gold and power. An unedited account of what everyday life was like for slaves in pre­revolutionary America. The book goes on to portray one of the impactful and inspiring events in American and World history as a scheme for the upper­class in the colonies to acquire more wealth while controlling the lower classes. Modern day American’s were told the story in a completely different way. Many historians and readers have criticized Zinn’s work, David Flynn states, “Zinn utters perhaps the most honest words of A People’s History of the United States in the conclusion of the book’s 1995 edition, conceding that his work is “a biased account”(Flynn 6). But if Zynn knows that his work is biased, then why would he write it? Howard Zynn wrote A People’s History of the United States with one goal, to show the perspective of the story that has been ignored or unknown. He says in the introduction to his book, “ Thus, in that inevitable taking of sides which comes from selection and emphasis in history, I prefer to try to tell the story of the discovery of America from the viewpoint of the Arawaks, of the Constitution from the standpoint of the slaves... I am supposing, or perhaps only hoping, that our future may be found in the past's fugitive moments of compassion rather than in its solid centuries of warfare” (Zynn 7­8). Zynn choose to retell the history of the US that was previously swept under the rug. Zynn writes…

    • 1971 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    “We will be superfluous even to ourselves, we will grow older, a few will adapt themselves, some others will merely submit, and most will be bewildered;--the years will pass by and in the end we shall fall into ruin.”…

    • 2449 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    (Page 85) ‘’Now we would wander around like strangers in those landscapes of our youth. We have been consumed in the fires of reality, we perceive differences only in the way tradesmen do, and we see necessities like butchers. We are free of care no longer – we are terrifying indifferent. We might be present in that world, but would we be alive in it?…

    • 626 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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,…

    • 1028 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The society in Fahrenheit 451, is so occupied on their phones that they don't have a notice of time. Today's society has became very similar and is going to lead to worse in the future. As it says in the book, “School is shortened, discipline relaxed, philosophies, histories, languages dropped, english and spelling gradually neglected, finally almost ignored, Life is immediate, the jobs count, pleasure lies all about after work why learn anything save pressing buttons pulling switches fitting nuts and bolts.” (Bradbury 53). The quote is saying that the society is becoming less relaxed and we are worrying about our social lives instead of work and our education.…

    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays