Howard Zinn Summary Chapter 1 Analysis

1）In Howard Zinn’s “A people’s History of the United Stated,” he puts more attention on the event of how Columbus invaded the new continent and impacted native Americans through opinions how Columbus and others people like victims and follower thought about Columbus’s behavior. First of all, Zinn describes Arawak Indians and their similarities to other indigenous people of the continent, and he then explained invaders’ explorations into historical, political, and economic fields. Zinn emphasizes the relative hospitality and peacefulness of Indians and the cruelty Europeans exercise in their quest for gold. Furthermore, Zinn states how the number of Indians’ population dropped down rapidly because of enslavement, violence, and disease. And then,

Divine, the author explains the events about earlier America history and the facts which caused the events. The author begins with the origin of Native American, and the changing process of different cultures in past long time. About the first contact between European and Native American, the author explains the reasons why Spanish let Columbus sailed to North America and how Columbus came to North American. After the first contact, the author discusses the effect of Europeans to Native American and the reason why Europeans decided to replace Native American by North African as the labor force. Later, the author mentions the changing of Spain, England, and France after the first contact. Thus, basically, in “A.S.,” the author logically review the whole history about the period of the first contact between European and Native

“A people’s America History” emphasizes the impact that invader caused on Native people and the cruelty how colonizer were, and the tone of how Zinn describes colonizer is full of condemnation. On the other hand, “A.S.” emphasizes the process of development about North America. Compare to Zinn, the tone of “A.S.” is more gently, and even the author justifies the behavior of colonizer. For example, “Ethnocentric Europeans tried repeatedly to ‘civilize’ the Indians” (Zinn, page11). And later, about “Columbian Exchange,” the author considers the decimation of Native American peoples was an aspect of ecological transformation. In many ways, the author has omitted the colonizers’ cruelty by quickly describing the decimation of Native American in two paragraphs.
4) Compare to “A People’s America History,” “A.S.” focuses on academia, college students, and normal citizen, and try to provide a comprehensive account in the shaping of America. However, the author has omitted some facts because of requirement of Public or of government. Compare to “A.S.,” Zinn’s “A People’s America History” pays more attentions on revealing the history, and gives more viewpoints and distinct perspectives about colonizer to reader like historian and history