A People’s History of the United States

Book Review

Howard Zinn is a well-known American historian, who wrote the book A People’s History of the United States. This book takes the interpretation of certain historical events under non-traditional interpretation of the angle. The author makes us think and rethink some historical events took place from colonial times to the present day. The book is interesting to read not only for historians and politicians but also for ordinary people who are interested in the American history.

The chapter “Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress” is devoted to Columbus’ time. The vast majority of the history books mention Columbus as the great navigator and discoverer of new lands. But the authors of these books try to describe briefly or not at all, the other, darker side of his expeditions to the New World. The truth is that the original purpose of Columbus’s expedition was not peaceful. Thus, his main goal was to defeat and take the assets of another land and culture, not just discovery and trade. Because, for instance, “in return for bringing back gold and spices, [the Queen of Spain] promised [Columbus] 10 percent of the profits, governorship over new-found lands, and the fame that would go with a new title: Admiral of the Ocean Sea” (2).

In the chapter “Drawing the Color Line” Zinn touches on an important topic in American history – racism. The demand for slaves from Africa grew tremendously in America because of the agricultural needs including growing tobacco for export. Black slaves were never treated equally with the white servants. Even before regulated and legalized slavery, “the lists of servants show blacks listed separately” (30). Also they performed more hard work and their punishments were more violent than for white servants. But this inequality called racism is not “the result of a ‘natural’ antipathy of white against black” (30). Because in the same time there are many examples when whites and blacks worked...