Howard Zinn The Politics Of History Summary

History of one’s nation can be misleading by only showing the benevolent side, leaving out the mistakes and conflicts. Howard Zinn wrote A People’s History of the United States about the history of America from the viewpoint of the victims to see the genuine side of America. Zinn argued against Kissinger that history should not be the memory of states to hide away conflicts between the victims like the Indians, slaves, and poor whites because these events shaped America to become one of the most powerful nations. The aggressors like Columbus, Cortes, Pizarro, and the English colonists in Virginia and Massachusetts overlooked these conflicts. The viewpoints from the conquered, which gave a wider understanding of history to truly analyze what

In Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History” he tells history from the point of the view of the common people instead of from the political elites and government officials. He believes that there is always more than one side to every story. He wrote this book so that he could tell the truths about what happened behind the scenes of historical events and to share his own opinion as well. In chapter 16 Zinn talks about World War II and the oppositions with the war.

In chapter four of A History of the United States by Howard Zinn, he explored the condition and state of the English colonies concerning the American Revolution. He implored on how the American Revolution successfully supplanted the tyrannical system of England with the same kind of tyranny. He continued expanding on all components of the American Revolution such as what led to the rebellion and dissatisfaction of the people and how after the American Revolution, nothing had really changed other than who became the current puppet master.

1. Each author had their own objective in writing each of the books. Both books tell the tale of history much like any other textbook. However, each book leaves out certain events creating a noticeable bias between the two. In The People’s History of the United States, the liberal author Howard Zinn writes about American history in a particularly unconventional way to convince the reader that there is another side to the history of the United States, one that does not necessarily invoke a feeling of patriotism, but rather showcases several flaws. On the other hand, Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen write about American history in a very patriotic way in A Patriot’s History of the United States to persuade the reader that one should feel a sense of pride in the history of the United States. Although they bear many similarities due to history not changing, the differences between The People’s History of the United States and A Patriot’s History of the United States are very pronounced due to the bias of each author.

In, A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn, on page eight the author states that “a historian's distortion [of history] is more than technical, it is ideological;”. I found this statement to be true in a number of ways. It is impossible to account for every detail of history that occurred because there is too much to account for and because no one person ever knows the whole story. This allows for a margin of error when condensing history into a book. Authors can write about the same time period, but the contents can vary heavily depending on what the author deems important or unimportant and what perspective they were taught and side with. With these factors history can be told a multitude of different ways as shown in The

In A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn tells America’s history from the perspective of those who did not necessarily prosper as a result of America’s creation. Through the eyes of the Native Americans, African slaves, and poor white servants, Zinn tells a story different from the typical tale of a prosperous and virtuous young nation attempting to make its place in the world. Instead, Zinn tells a tale of brutality, genocide, and greed, along with the prosperity told in other versions. By exploring America’s history through the many people groups involved, the reader can better understand the paradoxes of equality for all that still exist today.

essay. Hook is a much better writer than Zinn. Hook is able to point out all

History does repeat itself. If we would just read the notes of wisdom our ancestors left us called books, maybe we wouldn’t make the same mistake over and over again. But then again, maybe ignorance is bliss. We are taught since the time we could walk to do good.

Historians analyze facts and sources to discover and understand the mysteries of the past. Based on the sources, a historian’s perspective is influenced a great deal. They also include their own points of view from their own research, influencing their thinking. With different sources and different perspectives, disagreement is bound to rise. Variation in history results in multiple ideological frameworks. Howard Zinn was a historian, author, and social activist who grew up in a poor Russian family in Jewish Brooklyn. He was an industrial worker and labor activist who was incredibly politically involved resulting in trouble with the law. Zinn’s experiences have influenced his views in history as shown in one of his famous works, A People’s

crime of sorts. It is a crime because it distorts the truth rather than advances it and justice

History is such a significant thing in the United Sates, and to our counterparts all over around the world. It has many purposes that help advance us, and it creates a source to learn from what was successful and unsuccessful. History in simpler terms is a preservation of thought during a certain period of time, documented by a person. This is why, it is important to think about how history has currently been documented and written. Often the source of our history comes from a person on one side, which usually is the more privileged side. This privileged side is able to fabricate a perfected image of themselves, and leave out the details of people with different perspectives. This is why I agree strongly with Robert Zinn’s Quote on history, and I believe that because of the amount of subjectivity in history there is not a such thing as impartial history.

Chapter one of Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States discusses the differences between the culture and attitudes of the Europeans and the Native Americans. It further describes how the Europeans came to the New World and committed genocide against the Native Americans in order to get land and gold from them, which displayed the cruelty and greed of the European explorers coming to the Americas. However, many historians consider these actions by the European Conquistadors to be necessary in order for human progress to occur, but Zinn argues whether human progress needed all of these barbaric actions. He

The book People’s History of the United States by the author Howard Zinn represents the history to the readers in a different perspective, making the readers look into the history in a difference lens making it insightful. What is a history? To answer this question, we must first establish a commonality in language: namely, what is history? It is a continuous, systematic narrative of past events as relating to a particular people, country, period, person which is usually written as a chronological account. The author discusses about how the major events were recorded and mainly the stories which were untold to the people and were left out of the mainstream history books. In the first few chapters he gives critical details about how America was founded by Christopher Columbus and gradually moving into detail about how he killed hundreds of native Indians in the process of capturing the country. The author then moves into giving the readers about hidden class struggles and the period of time where racism was affecting a majority of the people. Howard Zinn also mentions about the wars, the Vietnam war and the Civil war that had changed the lives of many in the past and how it has made a major impact in the past and today to the people. Some of the details in the book are real life experiences by the author, because he is not only a writer but had also served in the army in the world war two as a pilot, which makes the readers understand every detail of some events as it is told

I do believe that history repeats itself because we are making the same mistakes from the past. The cyclical and spiral theories are the ones that I agree with and can relate to and see happening right now. For instance, with all of our advances in technology, why is it so hard to control ISIS or other terror groups that are causing such destruction? You would think we would have learned from past war tactics; however, wars are being fought like we have made no advances. I believe we should care about history because history documents the circumstances that cause major events. For instance: plaques, wars, major catastrophes, monarchies, changes in government, social and economic changes, population, etc. By being knowledgeable of the

Now and days every person must take at least two years of history in order to pass high school. Many people, including myself, ask the question,“Why must we take history?” Well the answer many of us get is, “ So that history does not repeat itself.” The real question of the matter is, Does history repeat itself? History has repeated itself over and over again. An example of this would be the genocide that occurred in the Ottoman empire in 1915, nearly 88 years later another genocide has occurred in Darfur in 2003. These two events are both similar and different in ways, but none-the-less are proof that history does in deed repeat itself.