In the excerpt provided from "Howard Zinn's A peoples history of the United States", Howard Zinn makes many statements that should be validated and emphasized.
In the excerpt Zinn proclaims that "Understanding the complexities, the book will be skeptical of governments and their attempts, through politics and culture, to ensnare ordinary people in a giant web of nationhood pretending to a common interest". I agree we should be skeptical of anyone who tries to control the outcome of history and how it is portrayed, clearly our government and politicians are not worthy of having unmitigated authority over their own actions.
I appreciate Zinn's take on Columbus and his ability to look at the truth and as he says "emphasize new possibilities by disclosiong those hidden episodes of the past". It would be so easy to let the misconceptions of Colombus and his voyages and adventures go on as historical positives. However, it is apparent that colombus was not a hero as much as a ruthless pillager according to the text that followed, the atrocities discussed by Zinn in chapter 1 of his book are details that are left out of every elementary school discussion of the famous voyages. I cannot help but wonder if current day events will not mimic the contradictions similar to the Colombus famous voyages and discoveries.
In one of the last paragraphs of the statement provided Zinn procalims, "I am supposing, or perhaps only hoping, that our future may be found in the past's fugitive moments of compassion rather than its solid centuries of warfare. " This is a wonderful sentiment, however based on current events we are not only seeing less moments of compassion, but continued aggresion and warfare. Hopefully our future does not lie in the forcefull takeover and pillage of peoples land and resources, maybe our politicans should be wary and learn from the mistakes made in the past.
In the excerpt Zinn proclaims that "Understanding the complexities, the book will be skeptical of governments and their attempts, through politics and culture, to ensnare ordinary people in a giant web of nationhood pretending to a common interest". I agree we should be skeptical of anyone who tries to control the outcome of history and how it is portrayed, clearly our government and politicians are not worthy of having unmitigated authority over their own actions.
I appreciate Zinn's take on Columbus and his ability to look at the truth and as he says "emphasize new possibilities by disclosiong those hidden episodes of the past". It would be so easy to let the misconceptions of Colombus and his voyages and adventures go on as historical positives. However, it is apparent that colombus was not a hero as much as a ruthless pillager according to the text that followed, the atrocities discussed by Zinn in chapter 1 of his book are details that are left out of every elementary school discussion of the famous voyages. I cannot help but wonder if current day events will not mimic the contradictions similar to the Colombus famous voyages and discoveries.
In one of the last paragraphs of the statement provided Zinn procalims, "I am supposing, or perhaps only hoping, that our future may be found in the past's fugitive moments of compassion rather than its solid centuries of warfare. " This is a wonderful sentiment, however based on current events we are not only seeing less moments of compassion, but continued aggresion and warfare. Hopefully our future does not lie in the forcefull takeover and pillage of peoples land and resources, maybe our politicans should be wary and learn from the mistakes made in the past.
