Sunday, March 30, 2014
Created By:
#Progress Test 2,
Suneti Alawiyah
Name : Suneti Alawiyah
Class : PBI-D/4th Semester
NIM : 14121330390
#FREE WRITING
Howard Zinn:
Influential Mutilation of American History
‘If history is to be creative, to anticipate a possible future without
denying the past, it should, I believe, emphasize new possibilities by
disclosing those hidden episodes of the past when, even if in brief flashes,
people showed their ability to resist, to join together, occasionally to win. I
am supposing, or perhaps only hoping, that our future may be found in the
past’s fugitive moments of compassion rather than in its solid centuries of
warfare.That, being as blunt as I can, is my approach to the history of the
United States. The reader may as well know that before going on’ (Howard
Zinn, 1980).
Introduction
Extremist. Radical thinking. Revolutionary movement. It looked in the every single book that he
written. He writes many books, and one
of them is about the controversial ‘A people’s History of the United States,’
and the well-known Cristoper Columbus is the target that he was shooting. He
talked many things with books, such as about the truth, the goverment of the
United States, the politics and the conflict in Vietnam. Howard Zinn successfully mutilated American
history in drawing the actions and voices that changed the consciousness of a
generation. Again, Zinn protected himself
by stating his belief that ‘there is no such thing as objective truth,’ from
that reason he want to serve that speaking truth is the most crucial issue of
all with relate to writing, and this paper offers a
critical intention perspective
on Howard Zinn’s
article entitled ‘Speaking
Truth to Power with Books’.
Summary
There
are several basic points that Zinn’s
wrote on Columbus, whom we hard
to believe that perceive as the discoverer of United States, Such as the first ‘ideologically
motivated seem in the every single book that he written-especially about ‘The People’s History of United
States,’ which makes the text visible bias and unfairness. The second point is ‘Zinn’s writing his
courage in exposing the dark side of the history of the discoverer of the
American continent-Cristoper Columbus In addition, the third point is about
his voice ‘speaking truth’ has
been influenced a young people in the United States, and the equally important
as the last point that we can take from Zinn’s article is about there is a
massive relation between history and literacy.
Critique (Main Body)
The frameworks became central to the discipline. This mainstreaming of radical expressed
through activism. Howard Zinn
(1922-2010) was a American left-wing activist, author, historian, professor of
history and political science (Gde Dwitya.blogspot.com, 2010;2013. Chap. 2). Actually, there are many aspects to response
the Howard Zinn’s article on Columbus.
However, here will present four of the most central theme that related
with the topic, namely: The first is about ‘Ideologically
motivated that seem in to the text’.
Everyone knows that Zinn is distinguish take on speaking truth about the
Columbus. But, this is contrast to Zinn
that why he does not include in his book about the sailors who had been to the
America continent before Columbus, such as Cheng Ho as the muslims sailor that
ever do expedition to the American continent.
Additionally, some of sources mention that the Columbus’s expedition is
led by two muslims brothers who became captain of Nina and Pinta ships (Salam
Online.blogspot.com, 2014), but it was missing in Zinn’s article. To emphasize, Zinn’s is the son of Jewist
immigrants. Again, ideology is sets
of beliefs and its omnipresent in
every single text (spoken, written, audio, visual or the combinations of all of
them) (Fowler, 1996). For that reason,
the text production is looked like bias.
Also, the second central theme is about ‘Bravery Zinn’s
writing in disclosing the dark side of the history of the ‘hero’-Cristoper Columbus.’ As time of
evolution, our perceptions of the past change.
What we know today may be show to be false fifty years from now. Most of us are taught the same heroic sailor
profile to have discovered new countries and so forth of Columbus (Yo
yo.blogspot.com, 2007. Chap. 2). Based
on Zinn’s article, Columbus was also a very cruel and sadistic murderer that
allowed his greed to get the best of him founded many golds. The complete story of Columbus tortured the
Indians and made them less than human; he treated them as animals. In addition,
there is a much darker side to this story. Zinn, clearly and courageously show
American historical fact that ‘accidentally’ removed in the paper folds. Zinn is telling the untold truths of
Christoper Columbus which are not found in our textbooks and school. Moreover, Zinn’s goal to provide readers with
the unknown facts of the story has been left behind in the past. For that reason, we realized that the text
production is never neutral (Miko Lehtonen, 2000) and literacy is
never neutral (Chaedar Alwasilah, 2012).
The third aspects is about ‘his voice ‘speaking truth’ has been influenced a young people in the United
States.’ Zinn (personal
interview, n.d) said that ‘should we tell to kids that we should be honest
to young people, we should be honest about the history our country, and we
should not only taking down the traditional hero like we want to give young
people ideal figure like Hellen Keller.
But, that young people not learn about the figure in their school’. Zinn’s
goal is to provide alternative viewpoints and to make readers think critically
about the ‘official’ version of stories as well as the theoretical neutrality
of textbooks. Everyone believe that
Zinn’s was succsessfully changed people’s thinking by reading a book. For example Vernon Wes (2010) wrote in his
website that ‘Howard Zinn is gone, but his ‘evil’ deeds live on,’ as can
be seen that it means Zinn’s voice was in influenced not only for young people,
but also most of the citizen of the America.
Likewise, the last point of view is about ‘There
is a massive relation between history and literacy.’ Baynham as
cited in Hyland (2006: 50) said that investigating literacy as a
practice involves investigating as ‘concrete human activity.’ Not just what people do with literacy, but
also what they make of what they do, the values they place on it and the
ideologies that surround it. Like
the historian critical linguist aims to understand the values which underpin
social, economic, and political formations, and diachronically, changes in
values and changes in formations
(Fowler, 1996). Then, based on the
values of history reflected on and taken through in to language as
literacy. Zinn views knowledge of one’s history as crucial to
anyone wishing to make positive social change with literacy.
Conclusion
It has been shown that Howard
Zinn’s thinking is about asking questions, challenging authority and the fighting
of power. Again, Zinn believe that he hope it gives people the History of previous social
movements to show how they can bring about change, to show that it is possible,
to give people faith that if they participate, if they do even small actions,
that might have an effect, if not today, tomorrow or next year. Zinn with his
‘naughty’ thinking not only was doing a mutilation of the American history, but
also affected people world wide thinking.
Howard Zinn has used writing for a specific purpose. As he has said in
past interviews, ‘I’ve tried to join my writing with social issues’. His A
People’s History of the United States has been used in high school and
college classrooms around the country. In this growing acceptance there is the
evidence for at least a willingness to not only re-examine but also remember
the importance of the past. The retelling of our history, no matter how
unrecognizable it first strikes us, is hope for our future. Wineburg
states, “In the last 30 years...A People’s History has arguably had
a greater influence on how Americans understand their past than any other
single book (Kysia, Alison.blogspot.com, 2013).
Referencess
Alwasilah, A. Chaedar. 2012. Pokoknya Rekayasa Literasi.
Bandung: PT. Kiblat Buku Utama.
Hyland, Ken. 2006. English
for Academic Purposes. London: Routledge.
Lehtonen, Miko.
2000. The Cultural Analysis of Text. London: SAGE Publication.
Dwitya, Gede.
2010;2013. Howard Zinn dan Sejarah Orang-orang Kalah. Retrieved March 5, 2014 from
Kysia, Alison.
2013. Bashing
Howard Zinn: A Critical Look at One of the Critics. Retrieved March 20, 2014 from http://zinnedproject.org/2013/11/bashing-howard-zinn-a-critical-look-at-one-of-the-critics
Online, Salam.
2014. Penemu Benua Amerika adalah penjelajah Muslim, Bukan Columbus.
Retrieved March 1, 2014 from http://salam-online.com/2014/01/penemu-benua-amerika-adalah-penjelajah-muslim-bukan-columbus.html#sthash.quWobLw9.dpuf
Vernon, Wes. 2010. Howard
Zinn: Communist Liar. Retrieved
March 26, 2014 from http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/vernon/100809&q=young+people+has+been+influence.
Yo, yo. 2007. Columbus,
the Indians, and Human Progress.
Retrieved March 26, 2014 from http://roblesyolandareadingassignment.blogspot.com/2007/08/columbus-indians-and-human.
Zinn, Howard. n.d. Honesty
in History. Personal Interview. United States. Retrieved March 6, 2014 from www.youtube.com
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