Critical Review 3
Behind of Leading History
(By : Evi Alfiah)
Introduction
Howard Zinn is great American activist and historian
who make many people motivated with his books.
The author of “Speaking Truth to Power with Books”
had changed every people’s mind and people thinking to be
a critical person with the article. In the article’s “Speaking Truth to Power with Books”,
Zinn gave understanding to the readers that do not easily believe in history
that has been written, because it could be it is not the truth. However, he never
said hand over to make clear the history it is self. It made the reader got new insight about the
truth of history. Moreover, his courage
that reveals the historian purity through the story of Christopher Columbus is
known as the hero or the discoverer of America Continent. The historians that include are Harvard and
Samuel Elliot Morison.
Summary
Every particular emphasis in writing of history would support an interest
like the interest of social, politic, culture and so on. Zinn said that there is something is wrong
when historian consider their profession same with cartographers. He said something about Christopher
Columbus. When his book, A People’s History of the United States Came
Out. He began to get mail from
around the country. He found that most
of the mail dealt with the first chapter of the book, which course made him
very suspicious. In Zinn’s article,
there are several points that Howard Zinn wrote on Christopher Columbus in his
article, those are: First, Columbus was not the first to discover the New
World. People - Scandinavians (Vikings) explored the North American
continent in the 11th century and founded the colony of L'Anse aux Meadow.
Second, Columbus is a criminal that
be 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. Statements that show the
Columbus is a hero, great discoverer, the pious Bible reader are wrong. Third, whether known what the
real reason Columbus went sailing, Columbus raping the daughter of one of the
Spanish nobleman who was aged 13 years. Courts can not decide he should be
put to death, and eventually Queen Isabella sent him on a mission looking for a
new continent (when it was the main goal is to find India) and with
expectations, Columbus can not go back. Fourth,
Columbus regarded as the archetype of good and evil in Spain and North
America. He also became a cultural symbol.
Main Body (Critique)
Zinn wrote different versions of history.
History from perspective of the losers or be beaten. So he told about the discoverer of the
American Continent tribes of glasses Indian Arawaks, of the civil war. But there are four points on Columbus that
are neglected in Zinn’s article, they are: First, Zinn did not explain who the
first discover of the continent of America.
Howard Zinn did not enlarge in his great book about Columbus itself
truly. So, this is the weakness of Zinn, why he did not want to say correctly
who had discovered the America continent.
Christopher Columbus called America as “The New World” when he first set
foot on the continent on 21st October 1492. But for Muslim in the golden area, America is
not a new world. Therefore, 603 years
before the Spanish invaders found the American continent, Muslim explorers from
Western Africa has built a civilization in America. However, many studies suggest that the
American continent were discovered Islam.
The evidence put forward by historian Ivan Van Sertima in his book They Came before Columbus. He proved the existence of contacts between
African Muslim with natives Americans.
In other book, African Presence in
Early America, Van Sertima found that Muslim traders from the Arabian is
also very active trade with the people that living in America. Is it because Zinn was a Jewish so he did not
reveal about the inventor of the American continent that regard with
Islam? This could be due to the ideology of
Zinn. Ideology can influence the content
of writing’s someone to show an identity. Ideology is of
course both a medium and an instrument of historical processes (Fowler 1996: 12).
Second, what the real reason Columbus went sailing? It because
Columbus raping the daughter of one of the Spanish nobleman who was aged 13
years. Courts can not decide he should be put to death, and eventually
Queen Isabella sent him on a mission looking for a new continent (when it was
the main goal is to find India) and with expectations, Columbus can not go
back. Then, he wanted to fulfill his
financial necessary. The casus not
explained clearly by Zinn. Knowing about
this, that is why literacy is so very important to be cultivated. With a lot of reading we know the truth of
history there. The importance of
literacy makes us know science. People
who multi-literate able to interact in a variety of situations. (Chaedar
Alwasilah : 2012)
Third, I wonder
with Zinn’s article, why Zinn did not write any references in his article when
talking about Columbus and others. For this reason, reference is the strength
of any readings, without it the reader still perceive that the writer is like
playing or pretending in his writing. The reference is one of the most
essential things that will convince the reader when knows the writer’s writing.
The relationship between Writer and
Reader are closely and can create a sense.
Conclusion
There are two
basic points that can be concluded from Zinn’s article are First,
history is flexible when finding other truths.
This is a literacy practice that was done by a Howard Zinn on an
American history, because Literacy is
something we do (Ken Hyland :2006). Second, there is always a hidden
side of history, we as literate people must able to understand the turmoil. The article of Speaking Truth to Power with Books can
be made the new people thinking that we did not easy to accept history without
analysis more, and the truth evidences to good life. It is the relationship between history and
literacy.
REFERENCES
Zinn, Howard. 2009. Anthropology off the Shelf: Anthropologists on
Writing. United Kingdom. Wiley-Blackwell
Ken Hyland (2006) on Literacy
Chaedar
Alwasilah : 2012. Pokoknya Rekayasa
Literasi
Fowler 1996: 12
Ivan Van
Sertima, African Presence in Early
America
Ivan Van
Sertima, They Came before Columbus
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