Chang Moon
4/14/10
English 1A
Zinn and Now
In January 2010, the world witnessed a historical election and inauguration of the first
African-American President of the United States Barack Obama. The election of the President
Obama has caused people to look back at the controversial history of the United States. The
book, A People’s History of the United States, written by Howard Zinn, is a detailed history,
which gives readers a deeper look at history of America with many untold or rather being told
stories. After reading the book, I, as a foreign reader, explored a different view of the USA
history and had a passionate recall of my own history such as the Korean War, Japanese invasion
for 35 years, exploits and victims, inequality between rich and poor, the oppression between men
and women, and so on.
First of all, the book is divided chronically into 2 parts: before the Civil War and after the
Civil War. It is possible to say that American people’s history began with Columbus's arrival in
North America and all the way up to the recent presidential election, highlighting the stories that
don't normally get told in history textbooks or mainstream media. In his book, Zinn takes a hard
look at the slaughter of the Native Americans, at the exploitation of blacks and poor whites, at
the alliance between government and business interests, at the struggles for the abolition of
slavery, for labor rights, for civil rights, for women's rights and so forth. His provocational
writing makes me disappointed in nearly every aspect of American history. For instance, the first
chapter describes the monstrous treatment of Native Americans by Christopher Columbus and
the Spanish settlers who quickly followed him. Zinn says these Europeans "thought nothing of
knifing Indians by tens and twenties and of cutting slices off them to test the sharpness of their
blades" (6). Several following chapters describe the atrocities of slavery. Honestly speaking, Dr.
Zinn is an anti-war activist. In the book, his words sound really harsh to historical events of the
wars. He knew what the true purpose of the wars was and the cruelty or atrocity of the wars.
For example, in the Korean War, he claimed that “The United States’ response to ‘the rule of
force’ was to reduce Korea, North and South, to a shambles, in three years of bombing and
shelling. Napalm was dropped” and “Perhaps 2 million Koreans, North and South, were killed in
Korean war, all in the name of opposing ‘the rule of force’.” (428) Due to the fact that the result
of the Korean War was enormous amount of people’s death and there was no particular change
between North and South Korea, he thought it was a wrong choice to declare a war in Korea.
Presumably, he believed that wars left innocent lives with indelible scars, thus any kind of wars
are not worthy it.
While I was reading this book, it reminded me lots of famous people who I have learned
before. When I was a high school student, I was told that the U.S. country was founded by white
Christian men with lots of money. In addition, I was enormously fond of reading biographies of
great people such as Thomas Edison, who was a predominant inventor of electrical devices,
Christopher Columbus, who founded the United States, one of the famous previous presidents,
Abraham Lincoln, and my favorite woman Helen Keller, who was born blind, could not speak or
hear, and became very successful later. Especially, Helen Keller’s biography encouraged me to
overcome difficulties of life. Actually, reading Zinn’s book, I got a chance to have a deeper look
at these famous historical figures.
However, after reading this book, I also have learned a lot of new (and disturbing)
aspects of American history and it has completely changed my previous perspective of the U.S.
history. For example, I used to think about Columbus as a passionate, religious, extraordinary
hero. Though, I would rather call him as a lucky manipulator because he tortured, inhumanly
murdered, and helped to decimate millions of America's natives in the pursuit of cheap labor and
gold. Throughout the evidences from the book, a hero Columbus was far from being and was
essentially a greedy imperialist. In addition, I was extremely disappointed of Abraham Lincoln
who was the previous U.S. President. According to Zinn, Lincoln was not a hero who
contributed his life to slavery freedom. He just did that for his own purpose. Zinn quoted
Lincoln’s letter in which his real face exposed was, “….What I do about Slavery and the colored
race, I do because it helps to save this Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not
believe it would help to save the Union…”(191) Generally, we had thought that Abraham had
been attempting to finish the Emancipation Proclamation. However, I was able to get a sense of
his true purpose through his letter: Lincoln’s only goal in the Civil War was to preserve the
Union, not slavery. Therefore, we should not celebrate or honor the life of Lincoln who cared
less about the outcome of slaves. Instead, we should give more honors to Marin Luther King Jr.
or Malcolm X. Another shocking example to me was about Thomas Edison who was one of the
well-known inventors. When I read the book about Edison before, he was among the famous
inventors of so-called “World’s most prolific inventors”. Ironically, he participated in bribery,
and stole the idea to create the light bulb. Obviously, he was a genius, but I would rather to call
him as a cheater and dishonest person. Lastly, I didn’t know that California, and other portions of
the Southwest had been internationally recognized as provinces of free Mexico until the U.S.
declared war on Mexico. At any rate, I had learned about the Mexico territory that there was a
fair business trade between U.S and Mexico, but the truth was not that simple. Mexican territory
was sold with $15 million by U.S enforcement. This was a lack of respect and a conviction that
Americans were hypocrites for the aim at expanding their land holdings. This remark was
enough to provoke a saint. Besides, I was very disillusioned about American history involving
discrimination on minorities, immigrants, poor people, soldiers, and women. As a result of the
facts about these, a lot of inventors and politicians were dishonest, and selfish. Furthermore, the
early American history resembled the genocide of the Jews brought on by the Nazi regime.
While I was reading Zinn’s historical facts, it made me suspicious of politicians, and
inventors. Most of all, I started to think about the prominent statement, “For the people, By the
people, Of the people” by Lincoln. It presumably was not Lincoln’s hope. Then, why is he still
famous for freeing the slaves? Although he had never shown any sincere sympathy for Blacks,
anyhow, he had finished the Emancipation Proclamation, which marks an epoch in American
history. Thus, he has become famous for it, no matter what purpose he had. Moreover, I wonder
that other well-known inventors did immoral behavior other than Thomas Edison. Due to the
fact that I cannot count on any other famous people’s achievement, I began to research some
information about the inventors who I have known well since years ago such as Albert Einsten,
who invented the theory of relativity, Alexander Graham Bell, who invented telephone, and
Galileo Galilee, who was an Italian astronomer, physicist, mathematician, and invented telescope.
All three celebrated inventors did plagiarism, stole the ideas, and were better known as a first
than second inventor. These detailed facts made me continue to look back the history carefully.
The historical facts Zinn presents absolutely made reflection on my country. For instance,
one of the historical facts from chapter 6 about injustice of Mexican War, it reminded me the
miserable life of Korea when Japan conquered Korea for 35 years (1910-1945). We couldn’t
speak and write in Korean at school. Moreover, there was no religious freedom, either. Also,
Japanese arrested and punished cruelly many Koreans who had demonstrated for independence.
At long last, Japanese surrendered to the allies. My grandmother always cried whenever she
talked to me how miserable it was when Korea lost its country. We had to do everything what
Japan asked due to our lack of power. Similarly, Mexico had to sell their territories with small
amount of money because of their weakness as well. There is no choice if we don’t have enough
strength. The misery is beyond description. Besides this sadness, I am a little suspicious about
the truth of Korean history. I couldn’t find more detailed information about Japanese invasion,
yet I started to think in another way: did Korean men sell their women or daughters to Japanese
people to make money or survive due to their weakness or poverty? It is possible to say yes. In
addition, Civil War reminds me of Korean War between North and South which was a bloody
battle of brother against brother. In June 1950, North Korean army launched a surprise attack
against South Korea, initiating the Korean War, and with it, severe hardship, loss of life or
families, and enormous devastation. Fortunately, U.S. helped South Korea during the Korean
War. However, General of the Army Douglas MacAuthur, who fired indiscriminately into the
crowd and unnecessary regions during the war. As a result, millions of Korean people died more
than we expected. Of course, we appreciate U.S. government, but we feel badly about the death
of innocent people. Finally, I’ve learned many famous Korean inventors, but I discovered a lot
of wrong facts in Korean history textbook. For instance, one of the famous inventors Moo-Seon
Choi, was known as first gun power creator. Yet, the technology was from China. Thus, I could
say that Mr. Choi is a second founder of gun power in the world. Other than Mr. Choi, I found
more untold information of other inventors which I haven’t learned in school. Whenever I
discovered new facts, it made me suspicious about the history more and more.
After I read this book, I’ve learned that change has always been achieved by direct action
in general. During last a few decades, it was depressing for Native Americans, slaves, indentured
servants, women, exploited labor, and others. However, it is also inspiring that have stood up to
power in order to demand their rights. Moreover, I think occasionally when communities act
together they can overcome enormous odds to change their lives for the better. However, I still
think a war and thousands of people death is not worthy. Therefore, we have to use our brain
and do other actions instead of a war.
All in all, some people are able to think of Zinn’s book as propaganda or the others
accept his perspective. For me, not only did this book confirm my prior knowledge, but it also
enhanced my knowledge with more information and more detail. Consequently, Zinn’s book
gave me another chance to look back the history of my country Korea that I haven’t researched.
After reading this book, I had more tragic and shocking information than grateful stories. Yet, it
is important to look back to history because we are the sum of all the events no matter how good,
bad, and indifferent, it have happened to us. Therefore, we can pick some errors of the past, and
apply then to the correct situation in order for not making any mistakes again. Frankly speaking,
I was not interested in history at all, before I read this book. However, now I am very thankful to
Dr. Zinn, who brought me a rather told stories and the instructor, who gave me the chance to
read this book.