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Howard Zinn Analysis

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Everyone has heard it before: Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue in 1492, but is it factual? Columbus’s discovery of the new world led to victory and havoc, even though these two words appropriately describe Columbus’s expedition, they still oppose one another. In history and life, there are always two sides to a story, two different perspectives of the same story. Therefore, there are two perspectives of Columbus’s voyage, one told by the American Pageant and one told by Howard Zinn in A People’s History of the United States , both of which in retrospect are entirely different on the way they betray Christopher Columbus. Howard Zinn’s ideology of Columbus as a villain is contradictory in nature to the American Pageant’s view of Columbus as a hero. …show more content…
Zinn’s approach is more of seeing the victims side of things and telling from different perspectives. He even says, “to the limited extent that any one person, however he or she strains, can “see” history from the standpoint of others” (Zinn Ch.1). Zinn perceives history from the point of view of a socialist and liberalist and his observations are slanted. In other words, he focuses on the darker side of history, the negative side that no one is brave enough to talk about. He even says “we should not accept the memory of states as our own” (Zinn Ch. 1), therefore, meaning that we need to develop our own perspective on history. Zinn also touches on “progress” and even talks about the causalities that progress may cause people. As time changes, things will improve for society, and as always people will be hurt by the changes. For example, people who made their money off of selling horses, will no longer be as successful, when the invention of cars reach its peak. Zinn says, “If there are necessary sacrifices to be made for human progress, is it not essential to hold to the principle that those to be sacrificed must make the decision themselves?” (Zinn Ch.1). Therefore, saying that what we do in this world to develop human progress, such as what Columbus did to the Indians, worth the human sacrifices? Zinn tells of human progress more of something that is not worth the mass murders and something that helps our community, but at the same time inflicts pain on one another. After reading these two different viewpoints we should now perceive Columbus as neither a hero or a villain, as he is a mix of the two. He discovered land and made the world what it is today, but in the process he killed people. Therefore, he is the perfect blend of a villain and a hero. To sum up, Howard Zinn approaches the study of history very

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