Howard Zinn American History

“There is an underside to every age about which history does not often speak, because history is written from records left by the privileged,” –Howard Zinn. The author of the book, “A People’s History of the United States” shares U.S. History from the infrequent viewpoint, “history from the standpoint of others” (pg. 10). I believe that the way Howard Zinn views history is very precise because we don’t just read the accomplishments of the executioners, but we read the “hidden episodes of the past” that reveal what specifically happened. As readers, through the words of Zinn, we are able to view these many different eras of U.S. History, beginning with Christopher Columbus discovering the Americas and ending with terrorism in the 20th century. Chapters 1, 2, 4, 16, 18, and 25 are very imperative

Columbus was the first person to sail west of Europe. He believed that he reached Asia, but actually discovered the Americas. In 1492, when Columbus, his sailors, and his three ships arrived in the Canary Islands, they were greeted by the welcoming and ignorant Arawak Indians, who brought offerings of food, water, and gifts to give them. While the oblivious Arawak’s were sharing and attempting to befriend Columbus, he had different ideas. “With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.” Columbus took some of them aboard ship as prisoners to guide him to the source of gold. He sailed to Hispaniola, where he built the first European military base in the Western Hemisphere called “Navidad,” so he could find and store gold. However, when Columbus returned on his second expedition, Fort Navidad sailors had been killed in a battle with the Indians because they had roamed the island in gangs taking women and children as slaves for sex and labor. Soon after, in 1495 came the great slave raid, in which fifteen hundred Arawak men, women,