Wow, Howard Zinn is opinionated... And BOY DOES HE LIKE TO SHOW IT. Throughout his entire book, I believe Howard Zinn has several purposes. There are two purposes that stand out among the others. On one hand, Zinn is (quite literally as you can tell from the title) offering a new spin on history. It is so often told from the view of the winner (understandably of course, I mean who wants to record personal loss? Especially in detail?) and therefore is glorified and made to seem much more glamorous than it actually is. Instead of conforming to the traditional ways of telling history, Howard Zinn chooses to provide facts and information on the other side of history.
On the other hand, Zinn serves to do much more. He criticizes government and society, all supported in his writing of the ways of history. This book is his professional platform for expressing his political views and criticisms. His use of primary sources hits home for readers as a giant appeal to pathos. In fact, I guess you could say that this whole book is an appeal to pathos. Zinn tries to get people to feel anger and hatred for the oppressors in history, and sorrow for those who were affected so harshly. In doing so, Zinn casts the anger onto modern government as the people feel that these historical events are the fault of their own leaders, as if they had something to do with it (they may have in certain cases). Even though he offers a very clearly one sided view of history, I believe that Howard Zinn’s intentions in writing this book were not ALL about casting a terrible view on modern society and government (although it was definitely a factor). I think he really did want to offer the people new perspectives and I think in that sense he truly achieved his purpose.
No comments:
Post a Comment