Summary Of A People's History Of The United States By Howard Zinn

The glorified, translucent history written by “The Establishment”, better known as the government or those in power, is torn apart to expose another side of history in Howard Zinn’s, “A People’s History of the United States.” All history reflects the interest of the individual recording it, which for the majority of recorded history has been a well-established, rich, white male. Given this, there are many aspects of U.S. history that have been omitted from teaching in schools because it was not what the government, wealthy or white-males wanted to be taught to children. Not only was the hidden history omitted from children in schools, it was omitted or manipulated by the media so citizens would be kept in the dark as well. In writing this

Zinn tells another side of history than that of what most U.S. citizens know as true because history books are predominately one-sided. The most well-known story is how the heroic Christopher Columbus discovered America. In school, children learn how he came to these lands in search of the Indies to find gold and other riches. Children learn of his voyage with the famous three ships, the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. His encounter with Native Americans is mentioned briefly and then Columbus sails back home to Spain. Zinn discusses the side of history left out of the textbooks. Columbus brought mass genocide to the Native Americans. He and his troops killed men, women and children alike. He cut their fingers and hands off if they could not produce gold and captured many to take to Spain as slaves. Columbus Day is celebrated once a year and most American citizens do not truly know that they are celebrating mass genocide. Zinn states, “The treatment of heroes (Columbus) and their victims (the Arawaks) – the quiet acceptance of conquest and murder in the name of progress – is the only one aspect of a certain approach to history, in which the past is told from the point of view of governments, conquerors, diplomats, leaders”

All three political ideologies are very different, but they are all associated with being evil and bringing fear to the United States because they are portrayed negatively to the public by the government, media outlets and others in power. Capitalism fears these political ideologies because citizens might realize capitalism is not the only answer. Negative terms are associated with Anarchism, Marxism and Socialism to deem them as oppressive and unacceptable. In reality, Anarchism does not want a centralized government, but it still wants order and not chaos. In history books, it is never mentioned that many social movements stem from these ideologies because “the Establishment” wants to keep it a secret. Zinn discusses the social movements in United States History that use these ideologies as a framework. During the Labor movement, the Socialist Labor Party formed and quoted Marx Communist Manifesto in their manifesto. Anarchists came together in the Haymarket Square meeting. They were organized and peacefully giving a speech when a bomb went off and they were blamed for it to emphasize how they spread chaos, even though no one could be found guilty. Also, the Populist movement had many parallels with the Marxist idea of “alienation from his human self under capitalism…” (Zinn