A PEOPLES HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES

People's history of the United States

People's history of the United States

Introduction

The evaluation and summary of the first three chapters of Howard Zinn's A People's History.( Howard 2003)The Zen of Zinn: A look at the first 3 chapters of A People's History of the U.S. Dr. Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States can be better titled a proletarian s History of the United States. In first three chapters Zinn looks at not only the history of the conquerors, rulers, and leaders, but also the history of slaves, the oppressed, and the led. As with any book covering American History time period 1492 until the early 1760's.

Thesis Statement

A People's History tells the story the discovery of America, early colonization by European powers, in charge of the colonies, and the rising discontent of the colonists toward their leaders.

Zinn, however, stresses the role of number of groups and ideas that most books neglect or skim to: the plight of Native Americans who had their numbers reduced by up to90% by European invasion, the equality of citizens in many regards to their European counterparts, the importation of slaves to their travel America and unspeakable conditions and treatment, the agricultural economy callous buildup around slaves, colonists the discontented that the situation is ignored by ruling bourgeoisie, and more importantly, the rising class and racial America struggles in Zinn correctly credits as being the root of many of the problems that we as a nation has now. It is refreshing to see a book that space spends proportionately based around people who lived this history. When Columbus arrived on the Island of Haiti, there were39 people on board his ships than 250,000 Indians on Haiti. If the white race accounts for less than 2 / 100 of a percent of the island's population, it is only fair that the natives get more than the two or three sentences to get them in most history books. Zinn cites population numbers, first person accounts, and his own interpretation their effects to create an accurate and fair depiction of the first two and a half centuries of European life in North America continent of. The major part of any book of history is obviously history. Sa first three chapters of the book, Zinn presents the basic historical facts of the first 250 years of American history from the beginning when Christopher Columbus s Ni a, pint, and Santa Maria landed in the Bahamas in October12, 1492. It has to be Europeans and Native Americans first came into contact: the Arawak natives came out to greet the white, and the whites are only interested in finding gold. From the Bahamas, Columbus sailed to Cuba and Hispa Ola, the present-day Haiti home and the Dominican Republic. One-hundred fifteen years later and 1,500 miles to north, the colony of Jamestown was founded by a group of English settlers led by John Smith, shortly after the Massachusetts Bay Colony was founded ...