Speaking Truth Makes Howard Zinn as The One and Only Mutilator of American History
(author: Friska Maulani Dewi)
INTRODUCTION
This paper offers a critical on one of
the article that he wrote entitled Speaking
Truth to Power with Book. There are some points that I agree and disagree
with Howard Zinn’s perspective in his writing, especially in his article
entitled Speaking Truth to Power with
Book. Nevertheless, you may as well
know before you going on, that in this paper I will not only focus with his article,
but also with Howard Zinn as whole and his powerful thought and-of course- his
works. Well, I just try to clearly
exposed my preview from the very beginning as well as Zinn’s did on his
phenomenal book entitled A People’s
History of The United States.
SUMMARY
There are several basic points that Zinn
wrote in his article entitled Speaking
Truth to Power with Book. First, we
can see clearly in the title of the article, it’s about Speaking Truth. This article explains about how we can
speaking truth to the world through our works (i.e.: writing an article or
book). The main point is “We must
speaking truth”, just like what Zinn underline in this article “facts, nothing
but facts”.
Second, this article also talks about
how books operate in many ways to change people’s consciousness; for instance,
they can introduce an idea that the reader never thought of before. It is also about how to make a connection
between how the books affected you, and what you then did, and then the
connection between what you then did, and what other people did, and then what
connection between what everybody did and then what happened in the world. Well, yes, that is complicated. However, that is the scary power of the books
that sometime-or many times- can change people’s life.
Next, in this article also Howard Zinn
touch about his masterpiece works, a book entitled A People’s History of The United States. He said that he got many ‘complain’ from
people around the world because of that phenomenal book –especially in first
chapter- he brave to tells the world who is the real Christopher Columbus.
Like I’ve said before in the beginning
of this paper, it is not only about Howard Zinn’s article entitled Speaking Truth to Power with Book, but
also it’s about his thought and his phenomenal book entitled A People’s History of The United States. If you know about intertextuality, you will
understand why I talk over Zinn’s masterpiece works. It is because there is a connection between a
text with another text, that’s why in this article I will also touch about
Zinn’s another works.
When I tried to read that Zinn’s
masterpiece work, I finally understand why he got the prize of a lot of
‘complain’ from people around the world who have read his book, especially the
first chapter of the book. He was very
brave-or crazy?- to reveal all about the hidden facts of Christopher Columbus-a
hero who known as discoverer of the United States. He tells to the world that Christopher
Columbus was a murderer, a torturer, a kidnapper, a mutilator of native people,
a hypocrite, a greedy man looking for gold, willing to kill people and mutilate
people. He is the one and only who
amazingly reveals the history of his own country with 180 degrees totally
different with another historian. What
makes Howard Zinn different with another historian is because he tells the
story of American history from perspective of-and in the words of-slaves,
women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, working poor, and
immigrant laborers. It means that Howard
Zinn tells to the world about American history from the point of view of ‘the losers’
or ‘the victim groups’.
MAIN BODY
I want to start with the article
entitled Speaking Truth to Power with
Book, I think this article is very good and easy to understanding. However, there are several weaknesses of this
article, such as: too many example of books that Zinn’s mention on this
article, this is makes the reader-especially for me- confused because every
time Zinn’s mention one title of the book, he just explain a little bit about
it. I mean he does not explain with
‘pretty clear’ about one book, but he already mentions another book, it makes
the reader confuse. Moreover, there are
no references of this article, I think it will much better if Zinn list some reference
of this article.
Nevertheless, beside a little bit
weaknesses, this article is very good because he wrote it systematically. Moreover, he tells about the impacts of the
books which amazingly can change people’s consciousness. Indirectly, he told to the reader how great
benefit if we habituated to read many books, especially since we were
young. The main point is we must being a
literate to see the facts with the books.
Literacy. Yes, this entire topic is about literacy,
because reading is one of the main pillars of literacy. Maybe for some people in this world, reading
is a fun thing to do, but for some other people reading is something that is
very, very excruciating and they most disliked it. That is people whom eyes sill closed, they
were not ‘aware’ of literacy. They do
not realize the importance of reading.
If you have heard about the power of the
books which can changed people’s consciousness, that is totally true. It’s not about how many books that you have
ever read, or how expensive and thick is book that you have read, but the most
important thing is how much that book influential you and your life. It because
of the books can introduce the new ideas which is never ever thought of by the
readers before. This is a ‘warning’ to
the writers, because as the writer, you should instill in your mindset is “If
you want to write, then you must write truthfully and accordance with the real
fact”. Especially if you are the write a
history book, you required to ‘speaking truth’ and tell to the world about ‘facts,
nothing but facts’. Just like what
Zinn’s said in his article entitled Speaking
Truth to Power with Book.
Next, I will talk about Zinn’s
masterpiece work entitled A People’s
History of The United States. After
I’ve read his phenomenal book, I must confess that his book successfully
changed my consciousness about History of America, especially about Christopher
Columbus. Well, I was not really know
about Christopher Columbus before, I just have heard that he was a discoverer
of America. So, when I read Zinn’s book,
I found the something new about American History and-of course- about
Christopher Columbus who known as discoverer of America. I do not need to say how that book surprised
me.
The main point of this book-especially
in the first chapter which successfully invite many ‘complain’ from people
around the world- is he brave to reveal all about the dark side of Christopher
Columbus. Howard Zinn tried to break a
judgment which tell us that after all this time, the winners who write history,
that’s why almost the history always end by happy ending. Nevertheless, if the history written by the
losers, happy ending will never ever happen.
Howard Zinn is different with another historian who often deliberately
simplify reality, just show important thing (climax), and ignored the little
things which not so important, because in Zinn’s opinion that any historian
must be honest without concerned with personal interest, political, economic
and the others.
“There
is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people”,
maybe that was already in Howard Zinn’s thought and be a reference when he
wrote his phenomenal book. In the first
chapter of his book, Howard Zinn describes the real figure of Christopher
Columbus is a hypocrite, rap, kidnapper, tormentor and a man who does not
hesitate to kill with shamefully even mutilation the indigenous people in the
‘new world’ that he found. Zinn also
explained that Christopher Columbus and his followers have ‘a unique hobby’ to
cut the indigenous people’s hands and let them bleed to death. They also love beheaded children and gave it
as the dog food. That was rudeness of
Christopher Columbus which is palpable in the described by Howard Zinn in his
phenomenal book.
Nevertheless, there are also some
weaknesses of Zinn’s phenomenal book. The first-and I think this is the biggest
weakness- is in that book there is no explanation about who is the real
discoverer of ‘the new world’ which touted by Christopher Columbus. In fact, there are many statements which
tells that Christopher Columbus was not the first who arrived in Bahamas
Islands (which Columbus suppose as India). He also was not the first Europeans
who arrived in that continent since Vikings and Northern Europe had visited
North America in the 11th century. Even much earlier believed that
Chinese people and the Muslims have visited on the continent of American before.
According to Wikipedia, Columbus thought
the island was still ‘virgin’ and not inhabited at all. They are oriented to make
the island as the expansion of the Spanish territory. However, after barging
into the island, Columbus surprised to find a building that was exactly as he
had seen before when he landed in Africa. That building is a mosque which
Muslims used to their worship. Then, why
there were a mosque in that place? Because as mentioned above, Islam have been
first arrived on that continent. If you
have heard about Ibn Battuta and Admiral Cheng Ho, they were who first arrived
in that continent. In fact, according to
one of the Cherokee Indian tribe (which turned out is a Muslim!) who said,
“This Admiral who duly crowned as the first discoverer of America”. So, the statement that said that Christopher
Columbus as discoverer of America is totally wrong! And unfortunately, this
biggest fact ‘disappeared’ from Zinn’s amazing book. I don’t know why he didn’t
explain about this important fact. Maybe
he forgot or he deliberately forgot about it?
Well, who knows? I think we
should asked about it to him when he was still living on this world.
There is still one weakness of Howard
Zinn-especially in this book. Just like
the weaknesses of his article entitled Speaking
Truth to Power with Book that I mentioned before, there are no references
and footnotes in this amazing book. This
is what I did not like with Zinn’s writing style, there are so many important
facts that he should give a note where he got it, but that info is absent. Zinn’s just say at the end of his book that
he told all based on his experience of studying and teaching.
In spite of all its weaknesses, A People’s History of The United States
becomes the most popular work of history that ever written and becomes one of
the best-selling history books of all time.
First published in 1980, which just sold four thousand copies, now it
has gone through five editions and multiple printings, sold more than a million
copies, and made the author in the ranks of the elite tradition of critical –
progressive American liberals. This book
also becomes one of the most influential texts in college classrooms today –
not only in history classes, but also in such fields as economics, political
science, literature, and women’s studies.
[Howard
Zinn] changed the consciousness of a generation – Noam Chomsky
CONCLUSION
Finally, from the text above we knew
about Howard Zinn deeper than before-about his thoughts and his works (article
and book). From his article entitled Speaking Truth to Power with Book we
knew about how important to speaking truth-especially if we are a writer- and
the power of the book which amazingly can changed people’s consciousness. From his book entitled A People’s History of The United States, we knew about who is the
real of Christopher Columbus. And this
book also become one of the power of book which successfully changed people’s
consciousness.
Howard Zinn is a powerful writer that I
have ever known. His writing is good and
easy to understand by the reader. He
also was really brave-and crazy- tells the truth (although that was the
shrouded facts). He changed
consciousness of a generation by tell to world that Christopher Columbus - the
hero which they known as discovery of the United States - is a rap, kidnapper,
murderer and mutilator. What I want to
say is, if he reveals to the world that Christopher Columbus was a villain
mutilator of the Native Americans, I say that Howard Zinn is a crazy mutilator
of American History.
“The
truth is that every book we read, like every person we meet, has capacity to
change our lives.” – Susan Cooper
“The
more you read, the more things you will know, the more that you learn, the more
places you’ll go.” – Dr. Seuss, “I
Can Read with My Eyes Shut!”
“I
wanted to be a part of history and not just a recorder and teacher of history.
So that kind of attitude towards history,
history itself as a political act, has always informed my writing and my
teaching.” – Howard Zinn
REFERENCES
Zinn,
Howard. (1980). A People’s History of The
United States. United States: Harper & Row; HarperCollins
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