Every story has two sides. It all depends on who you hear it from. To me, Zinn's book tells the whole story, both sides. We all know how Christopher Columbus discovered American and lived happily ever after. In my high school history classes, I do not recall ever learning about the greed Columbus had for gold nor the cruelty he supressed onto the natives.
In todays society, it seems that cover up's of political mess ups and governmental wrong doings are only half way told. We hear the side of the story that gives us information that yes, something the government did or that politican messed up because, is only partially told to us Ameican's while what's really is going on behind that curtain is unknown of. There's been so many conspiracies noted as to why the stock market crashed a couple of years ago, but no actually reason has ever been put out into the public limelight. What a lot of people also dont know is that many of the CEO's that where running the corporation's that went bankrupt and asked for bailouts, are now working as our current Presidents financial advisors and other postions within his cabinet.
I am excited to know what else I may discover while reading Zinn's book. I respect his boldness and not beat around the bush type of writting. Like he says, "I don't want to invent victories for people's movements." I think what he means by that is, he's not writting this book to sugarcoat historical events and make the reader feel that he's picking sides, he's not. Zinn is provided us readers with discriptive events that occured during a time of what a lot of people believe where remarkable discoveries and positive historical highlights.
Hi Garrett,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that Zinn's book is very upfront and honest about both sides of history. I also remember history class where Columbus was always celebrated as a victorious man who made amazing discoveries. About 7 years ago when I lived in Denver I remember half of the city offices closed for the Columbus day parade and the other half remained open, it was interesting to me how the city was so divided over a holiday that I children were taught about in such a positive light. I now understand how devastating his discoveries and greed was to the people that originally called those places home.