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. Speaking Truth to Power with
Books. Blackwell
Publishing Ltd.
Zinn,
Howard. (1980). A People’s History of The
United States. United States: Harper & Row; HarperCollins
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