A People's History of the United States Paper

In A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, many issues are discussed that seem to be reoccurring topics of our class on Comparative Ethnic Studies.  The biggest of these, in my opinion, are the struggles between those of the lower class, ethnicities, and genders and those of the historically higher groups through out the long but oh so short (globally speaking) history of these United States.  Howard Zinn sheds light on to subjects not generally touched by "mainstream" idealists and historians, in order to provide a prospective not normally viewed by the general American populous.  Some of these views I had previously been informed of, but many of them were yet to be discovered by me in my standardized general education.

Chapters one and two delve into the dark sides of early American colonization and westward expansion.  While much of the book holds the same theme, it's interesting to note that it started from the first ever man to set foot on North American soil from Europe.  The treatment of the natives by Christopher Columbus is outright cruel and disgusting.  From the time he laid eyes on them he figured them as inferior for speaking a different language and not being as modernized as the people of his land.  Slavery was institutionalized right from the start more or less to save face for Columbus.  He returned with almost no gold, and was far short of what he had promised those that funded his trip.  In his eyes offering them slaves was easily enough to cover what he had promised, and it sets a tone for humans as an almost monetary unit in the new world.  The explorers are directly related to thousands of Iroquois deaths, wiping out entire villages for a lack of cooperation or simply not obeying the new visitors to their lands. These native people were killed for being different, all because of the ignorance of a few settlers from a far off world.  Chapter two delves into the same problems that rise on American soil, where the color line is drawn very early, and is very clear.  If you are not white, you are inferior, and you'll work until your death because of it.  Laws were passed to forbid the mixing of blacks and whites, as well as laws the forbid slaves to learn to read or write, to keep them from revolting against the upper race and class, and thereby collapsing the foundations of the new world.

In chapters nine and 10, Zinn discusses the economy of the United States, and how Slavery played a direct roll in its power.  By 1860 over one million tons of cotton was produced in southern plantations and farms, and the number of slaves jumped to over 4 million.  With the civil war "freeing" the slaves, the government set up regulations of a very strict emancipation, and a freedom very much lacking actual freedom.  The southerners (as well as many northerners) refused to recognize former slaves and even always blacks that were always free as true citizens.  Racism and hatred only grew in the south because they had been beaten, and they weren't going down without a more of a fight.  Although the war ended and the slaves were emancipated, the southern society did very little to loosen its reigns on the control of blacks.  The entire economic and power system they knew rode the back of slavery and domination, and the last thing they were going to do was release the choke hold on the power they had accumulated by holding down the blacks.  With the civil wars end, and the legal "emancipation" of the slaves, the dominating white class turned back to the blacks and poor to rebuild the southern economy.  The crops they grew were still needed by the capitalistic dominating class, so they forced them to work hard for little pay in poor conditions.  The dominating society continued, nation wide.  The working class in the north was hit harder then ever.  With the end of slavery, the upper classes had to turn to immigrants and the poor to do the jobs that no one else in the upper classes wanted to do.  There was no price control, and the poor workers that were making the goods couldn't even afford to buy them.  Even the basics; flour, meat, rent and fuel shot to prices that they could not dream of purchasing them at.  People were without even the worst of jobs, starving, and dying, all while the class divides were widening.  Riots broke out, mobs storming the symbols of the upper class, theaters, factories, and churches, nothing was safe.  These people were demanding only what they needed to just live, and all their demands were falling on the deaf ears of a plush society.  Thousands were killed or wounded as a result of the riots, and all the upper class did was look at these people with a poor taste in their mouths, thinking of them as nothing more then infidels trying to ruin the utopia of the rich, regardless of scraps the poor were left with.

It was only a matter of time with all the moving of the Indians, the racism against the blacks, and the dominance of the rich lead to the US looking beyond its borders for power and resources.  They called it education and uplifting to civilize and Christianize those outside our borders, including the islands in the eastern pacific.  President McKinley looked at these places and saw the situation as his Christian duty to civilize them.  It was yet another example of religion being used for the wrong reasons.  Thousands of American soldiers became causalities in battles to stop revolutions on lands they would never see if they had a say in it.  All pawns in a game of chess that was stacked so that the king would never be touched.  These only strengthen when the United States found a new enemy, communism.  Corporations played more of a role in government decisions then the average voter, and when socialism came to change the ways of the people, and try to spread the wealth evenly throughout all people.  The 112 corporations that owned more than the assessed value of all the states and territories west of the Mississippi river were not ready to give up what they had.  All socialists and communists, even the most tame and thoughtful, were viewed as radicals that had to be stopped.

Communism was viewed as a pockmark on the American dream, the dream that said you could be rich too one day.  The upper class of the American society knew they could not continue their rule and domination if everyone was equal both fiscally and in control.  Because of this, a major assault was campaigned by them against communism.  And behold, the Vietnam War.  Soldiers were told to fight against and enemy they barely knew, on a land that wasn't theirs, for a cause that didn't even help them.  And when the enlisted soldiers ran dry and ragged, the draft was called back up to help fuel the fire of the anti communist leaders of our country.  The freedom that had been granted to all citizens by this time meant nothing more then something on paper.  Just because you had the right to vote and own property didn't stop the government from strapping a gun to your hand and saying "Defend your country," regardless of the fact that you weren't defending your country, you were fighting another one.  "Remembering Mai Lai" is a classic example of the horror stories of Vietnam.  Troops were trained to kill for the war, regardless of who they killed.  The nation as a whole was against the war, and even turned against the troops that had no choice in the killings of innocent Vietnamese.  Even with all the riots, all the turmoil both in Vietnam and on our homeland, the government refused to admit any wrongs had been committed, and sent more and more troops in to die in a country that we had never even technically declared war against.  "Remembering Mai Lai" was a prime example of why the hatred for the government was so deep.  Hundreds of innocents were killed in just one instant because the troops were ordered to go in and fight communism, regardless of the fact that they had no proof they were actually fighting the communists.  This all in recent history, yet very few texts and teachers today recognize the cold hard facts, and just preach the victories and efforts.

            A People's History of the United States goes in depth on many of the topics that most texts, even in today's Information Age, refuse to acknowledge.  Zinn does a great job and backing his personal views with many different resources and personal accounts of the times and turmoil's presented in the book.  Some of the topics I had been previously taught, but many I had not.  I don't personally agree with everything said in the book, and with the context of all the accounts, but it was definitely and eye opener for me and a great alternative source that got me to think outside the box and question some of the topics I had been preached to in a different manner during my K-12 education.  I believe he clearly conveys all the topics he brings up, and offers insight to many situations that are normally overlooked or placed under a rug so that many American's can sleep tight at night, not knowing they are there or ever happened.