Summary Of A History Of The American People By Howard Zinn

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.

Poor people had always been the backbone of the U.S. Their contribution to building America has always been overlooked. Rich people look upon the lower class with distaste, calling the unfortunate ones, “savages.” This is why Zinn named Chapter 3 of his book, “People’s History,” “Persons of Mean and Vile Conditions.” He wanted to shed light on those who were taken advantage of while history was in the making— the slaves, the poor people, the Indians also known as the “persons of Mean and Vile Conditions,” in the eyes of the wealthy. Since the rich does not want to be categorized with the poor, they have several techniques and strategies to maintain the status quo where the rich white people were on top of the social pyramid, the poor blacks and Indians on the bottom. For example, some of the techniques are to prohibit interracial marriage between the blacks and whites so “that the white population could remain ‘pure’ and in control.” (Zinn 35), “Negroes were forbidden to carry any arms while the white….would get muskets……the distinctions of status between white and black servants became more and more clear.” (Zinn 56) Authors of history textbooks, traditional historians, and politicians will definitely argue about the assertions made by Howard Zinn. They will say something similar to, “Zinn is unpatriotic.” But isn’t it unpatriotic to call the people whose back the U.S. was built upon, “persons of mean and vile conditions”?

The colonial world of New Spain was distinctive because the development of a new and vibrant economy. New Spain had several important aspects of a vibrant economy the first being the imperial system aspect. Keeping control, of the new colony was a slow and tedious, which left most of the power of Spanish elite. This would create a positive outcome for New Spain that if the crown would issue orders that did not seem in the best interest of the local situation the viceroy would issue a note called Obedezco pero no cumplo meaning they obey the order but do no execute it. This leaves huge opportunity for the colony to grow free from irrational royal decrees. Another major factor in New Spain’s animated economy is the fact that the policies set

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

During this period, the economic policies of Latin American governments were relatively single-mindedly oriented to enhance the export sector, while doing little to promote any type of diversification of the economy or domestic industrial economic development. Swift discussed these government policies:

The grasp of colonial as widespread as it was held a firm grip on Mexico. Mexico was one of the many jewels in the crown of Spain. “It was founded by the Conqueror to serve” the conqueror (Frank 5). Mexico was a large exporter of silver for the mother country. It was a heavy contributor for Spain’s demand for luxury items as aforementioned in the previous paragraphs. Mexico’s people faced the same oppression and exploitation that most of the third world faced. Right after the end of colonialism the Mexican economy stagnated and even declined (Cardoso, Faletto 39). Silver production was half that of the colonial period. This led to the search of loans (40). However, none of the money borrowed covered the full amount of the expenditures. Great Britain and the U.S. lent money to Mexico. The lender countries competed for control of the economy in Mexico. This split Mexico between the liberals (U.S.) and conservatives (Britain). The implications of the split on the social institutes are

At the start of 1474, Spain was a non-existent entity that was composed of a series of minor kingdoms within the Iberian Peninsula. However Spain was subject to a process of change that led to the unification of the Iberian Peninsula under one monarchy, which controlled the new world and large areas of Northern Europe. This process of change was stimulated by the revenue of the new world and to varying degrees by domestic and international politics. However the New world was not always the primary factor during this period that catalysed the increase and maintenance of power. Over this time period the revenue from the new world increased, and thus directly Spain’s dependence upon it did as well. Isabella and Ferdinand had no reliance on

The Spanish the ruling class revealed little attentiveness in their restored colony, and the following period is recalled as La España Boba- “The Era of Foolish Spain”

This investigation will study the question: to what extent did the United States involvement in Mexico impact Mexican economy? The years 1900-1920 will be the focus of this exploration to allow for an analysis of United States relation with Mexico before the revolution and during the Revolution as well.

Funded by silver and gold pouring in from its American colonies, Spain was at the height of its European domination during Cervantes’s life. But Spain also suffered some of its most crippling defeats during this time, including the

Tras la captura del rey Fernando VII en 1808, grandes interrogantes acuciaron a los intelectuales criollos de comienzos del siglo XIX en nuestro país. Cuando aún estos territorios dependían administrativamente de la corona española, la llegada de ideas europeas, procedentes principalmente del movimiento ilustrado y la revolución francesa, acentuaron la energía con que estos hombres de letras comenzaron a debatir sobre gobernabilidad, legitimidad del poder, alternativas políticas, derechos sociales y libertades individuales, cuestionando la realidad que los rodeaba con el ánimo de intervenir las bases que cimentaban el régimen social y político establecido. Pero, ¿hasta qué punto es apropiado atribuir estos cambios históricos a la llegada

Under the Franco regime, the economy was based on the model of autarky (Lieberman, 1995, p. 17), or the idea of self sufficiency within the country. During this time, our economy was fairly closed off to the rest of the world. The PMAE plans to change this model, and introduce a system of capitalism. We believe that trade with other countries will be fiscally beneficial, as well as improve international relations by showing that Spain wants to interact with other countries, instead of being closed off as we previously were. A new system of capitalism will help to lessen the debt of the country, and will help pull Spain out of its current recession.

Conversely, territoriality is an elaborated action and it is rational. A territory is a defined space, something that can be measured. As a rational action, it does not have to be defined by geographical features, the human can divide a territory by other means like by satellite coordinates, fences, walls, etc. In Spain, the different territories that shape the state have not geographical features to define them. In essence, they are divided based on political principles. The founding fathers of the modern Spain in 1975 had an intention when divided the nation in seventeen autonomous territories. Whether they did a good or bad job is a question that is hard to answer and there is always a personal or biased component when analyzing it. Nevertheless, the fact that they divided the nation in seventeen autonomous Communities or states is a fact. Consequently, the main objective of this essay is to discuss the territorial tendencies that enhance the Catalan nationalist project and its imagined community; and eventually a new nation. To explain the Spanish territoriality division the book of David Sack “human territoriality” is key.

Question 1 - The Spaniards had the capability and know-how to succeed in Latin America due to the strength of the financial industry in Spain. The strength of the financial industry in Spain is a result of a regulated growth strategy that not only ensured the stability of the Spanish financial market, but in so doing developed banks that had the wherewithal and capital to expand internationally. The strengthening of the financial industry in Spain was a methodical process that occurred over several decades.

In the 1930’s , Spain was a really divided country, it was politically divided between the right-wing also called Nationalists and the left-wing or Republican parties. Both parties were made up of different organisations, in the the nationalist party you could find monarchists , land owners , employers the Catholic Church and the army. The left-wing was prinicipally made of workers and socialits. The economics of the country was really bad cause of the Great Depression after the Wall street Crash. The wall street crash had a huge consequence in spain at that time , the military dictatorship that had ruled spain since 1923 broke down. The King then abdicated after the Republicans came to power. After this event the country was suffering