A People's History of the United States: Teaching Edition. Howard Boone's Zinn
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definition that best describes the applicable group.
b. Write ten short sentences using the selected adjectives—one adjective for each sentence. For example:
c. Then look for details/facts in the text that you think illustrate the definitions of the selected adjectives.
Important: In defining a word, you cannot use any part of that word in the definition. Furthermore, useful definitions for this exercise will be ones that do not employ the opposite of the word. An example of a useless definition would be: primitive = not civilized. The problem here is what does “civilized” mean? Not primitive? If you have a dictionary that gives you such circular definitions, go find a more detailed dictionary or use a thesaurus.
3. Choose an infinitive to finish each of the sentences below.
a. Use a dictionary to define the infinitive.
b. Look for details/facts in the text that you think illustrate the definitions.
The purpose of Columbus’s voyage(s) was…
The result of Columbus’s voyage(s) was…
Some options: to civilize, to explore, to exploit, to conquer, to establish trade, to discover, to Christianize, to destroy, to convert, to destroy…
4. Write down the five most important things Zinn says about Columbus (include page numbers). Write down the two most important things he says about the writing of history.
Compare your list with a classmate(s). Why are your lists different? What are the criteria you each used in making your choices? [This is a real brainteaser.]
5. Was Columbus responsible for the behavior of his men?
a. Identify what the soldiers’ behaviors were.
b. For each act, identify what Columbus could or could not have done to alter that behavior.
6. Compare Columbus’s log entries with Las Casas’s journal entries.
a. Identify differences and similarities (e.g., how each describes the Arawaks).
b. Identify topics the other did not discuss.
c. What accounts for the differences? the similarities (their personalities, their goals, their job functions, their status in relation to the other Spaniards)?
7. Write a two-page story of Columbus that you would want read to a third-grade class at the point when the students are first being introduced to Columbus.
8. For each of the suggested phrases below that completes the sentence, identify the passage(s) in the book that either supports or challenges each assertion. Identify irrelevant phrases with NP (no passage applies). When choosing a relevant passage, note its page number and whether the passage supports, challenges, or doesn’t apply.
Zinn thinks that Morison.…
a. omits the truth.
b. believes that all readers share a common interest.
c. writes the kind of history that allows atrocities to continue to be committed.
d. is critical of Columbus.
e. idealizes Columbus.
f. is as accurate as a mapmaker.
g. allows his opinions of Columbus to select out only the positive.
h. buries the negative facts with positive facts.
i. omits the bloodshed.
9. If communities share common interests, did Columbus and Las Casas belong to the same community? If so, what are their common interests? (What was Columbus in the Caribbean for? Las Casas?) If not, what interests separate them into different communities? Did Las Casas have more in common with the Arawaks than he did with Columbus?
10. Zinn argues (p. 10) that most history texts pretend that there is such a thing as “The United States”—a community of people with common interests.
a. What are the “communities” that Zinn identifies? What “interests” do you think these groups have in common? What “interests” do they not share? What “interests” of one group might be in opposition to an “interest” of another group?
b. Identify the community that you belong to, your community’s interests, and other communities that share your interests, as well as those communities that do not share or oppose your interests (possibilities: students, teachers, administrators, male, female, young, old, ethnic and racial identities, neighborhood, city, suburb). Do the policies of the United States government favor some communities over others?
11. Brainstorming from details:
a. Choose a detailed description of an event from the text.
b. Then write down a series of questions that knowledge of the event may enable one to answer.
c. Choose two of the questions and answer them.
Example
a. detailed description of an event from the text: on page 5, Columbus “got into a fight with Indians who refused to trade as many bows and arrows as he and his men wanted. Two [Indians] were run through with swords and bled to death.”
b. a series of questions that knowledge of the above event may enable one to answer: What does the above event reveal about Columbus’s personality? about the purpose of the voyage? about Spanish culture? about Arawak culture? about the comparative military strength of the Spanish and Arawaks?
c. answers to two of the questions above: The Spanish had military superiority—swords versus bows and arrows. Columbus wanted to dictate the terms of trade.
12. Hollywood Movies: Fact or Fiction? Much controversy has surrounded the making of the films Mississippi Burning and JFK. Many critics complain that when Americans see these films, they will believe falsely that the events and circumstances dramatized in these films accurately represent what happened during the periods in question. And for unstated reasons, this is wrong. The Left has criticized Mississippi Burning for leaving the impression that the FBI was honestly trying to help the civil rights advocates when “in fact” the FBI was aiding the KKK. Most of the mainstream media excoriated JFK for implying that John Kennedy’s assassination was engineered by Lyndon Johnson. Several questions are begged by this criticism. Do fictional movies (as opposed to documentaries) have a responsibility to reflect history accurately? Or do they have poetic license with reality, as art claims to have, in order to make a point about universal truth? But, more to the point with regard to Columbus, is “history” accurate? If films are supposed to convey “accurate” history, who decides what is the official version of the past? In order to explore this issue in more depth:
a. Watch a movie made about Columbus.
b. Compare the content of the movie with Zinn’s chapter about Columbus in addition to any other historical sources you may wish to consult (the more the better).
Possible points comparison: reasons for the voyage, Columbus’s first perceptions of the native inhabitants, Spanish treatment of the native inhabitants, success of the voyage(s), failures of the voyage(s), degree of Columbus’s navigational skills, Columbus’s leadership skills, the nature of the reception of Columbus by the native inhabitants, the portrayal of native inhabitants.
c. Respond to any of the questions raised in the introduction to this assignment above. For example: