Blogging A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn

This blog entry will be considerably different than others you may find here. I am going to challenge myself to read as much of A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn over the next two weeks as possible. I am guessing that I will not make it through the entire tome in that time, or if I do it will not be a detailed reading (especially if I keep blogging it!). In either case, it became apparent to me in just the opening pages that it will be an interesting read.

Join me in the read if you please. I welcome your comments, corrections, and other feedback. It is my goal to discern Zinn's goal in this book. All histories have a purpose. From Egyptian pharaoh's to Biblical chroniclers to Zinn, anyone who recites a history does so with a goal in mind. A certain narrative is to be served by the telling of certain facts and not others, or by the order of events presented (or omitted). What is Zinn's goal? We shall see.

The comments will appear in chronological order with the newest appearing at the bottom. It was just too confusing to put the newest notes at the top. I will try to keep the comments organized by chapter.

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Ch.1 Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress


This thought had occurred to me a few weeks ago, before beginning this book: what was the last major advancement in technology or economy that did not benefit from exploitation or human rights abuses? Will we ever expand or profit without exploitation? I always return to that kicky little ditty "Kiss Me Son of God" by They Might Be Giants.

I built a little empire out of some crazy garbage
Called the blood of the exploited working class
But they've overcome their shyness
Now they're calling me Your Highness
And a world screams, "Kiss me, Son of God"


I destroyed a bond of friendship and respect
Between the only people left who'd even look me in the eye
Now I laugh and make a fortune
Off the same ones that I tortured
And a world screams, "Kiss me, Son of God"




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Referring to the natives that he encountered on his arrival in the Bahama Islands, Columbus wrote, "They would make fine servants...With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want." And with that the door was opened to the New World.
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Columbus really was incredibly lucky. He set out for Asia--spice routes and what-not. With his supplies, ships, and crew he never would have made it that far. He vastly underestimated the distance. It was really lucky for him (not the natives) that he came upon the Caribbean islands just a quarter of the way to Asia.
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In less than three generations, the Spanish had essentially depopulated Haiti of its native Arawak inhabitants. This genocide was economically motivated, royally funded, and religiously justified.
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This quote from Las Casas' History of the Indies regarding the nature of an oppressive occupying force still has relevance today:
"...our work was to exasperate, ravage, kill, mangle and destroy; small wonder, then, if they tried to kill one of us now and then...The admiral, it is true, was blind as those who came after him, and he was so anxious to please the King that he committed irreparable crimes against the Indians..."
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By page 14 Zinn steps into the narrative to criticize the lack of bloodshed in the school textbook version of Columbus. He goes on to acknowledge that all historians have an ideological interest. Good. Will he identify his own for us and save us the trouble of trying to divine it? It seems he is asking the historian to lay bare atrocities so that we may learn from them and not repeat them. As I ask in the opening to this blog post, has any progress been made without exploitation? If not, then exploitation and atrocities must be told as part of all histories. Zinn asks for balance in telling history from the perspective of the lower classes or working classes and not just from the perspective of the state (contra Kissinger, A World Restored). This narrative interruption by Zinn is precisely what I was looking for, a description of the author's approach to history. Zinn's history is essentially a view of the world from the people being acted upon, not the drivers but the driven, not the masters but the slaves, not the patrons but the clients, not the invaders but the invaded.
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Chapter Two: Drawing the Color Line
Zinn asks how racism in America started and how may it end.
* "The Virginians needed labor, to grow corn for subsistence, to grow tobacco for export." (32)
* Because they were outnumbered, the colonists could not force the Indians to work for them. (32)
* Black slaves were the answer. (33)
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It is incredible to realize anew that millions of human beings were stolen from their homes are sold into forced labor. Because the Indians were on their own land, they had something of an advantage in addition to their numbers. They had the advantage of the home field. Once captured, subjugated, and transported, black slaves lost this advantage. They were made helpless. Brutal force and physical violence were the tools for transforming this population into a subjugated mass. Nothing indirect in this type of domination. At other times and in other places such domination must by hidden behind less obviously noxious methods of domination such as commerce, politics, and religion.
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In seventeenth-century America, all the conditions for black and white were characterized by subordination and money incentive. (my paraphrase)
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