Our Understanding of U.S. History is Often Misunderstood

America teaches its history from an idealized perspective, which views the discoverers and important historical figures of our country as none other than heroes. This is evident in many different forms especially in traditional American textbooks. After reading A People’s History of the United States, in order to write a synthesis on whether I thought Columbus should be viewed as a hero or villain, (above) I used the textbook The American Tradition to compare information and perspectives. I realized through this process that, while Zinn writes from a biased prospective of the Americans’ victims, (such as the Indian’s who inhabited America when Columbus arrived,) traditional textbooks refer to Columbus as an idol. The chapter covering early America exploration praised Columbus and gave limited information as to how Columbus formed new colonies. In reality, (according to Zinn and a number of primary source documents,) Columbus took land by brutal force and is argued to be responsible for the decimation of the Indian population. Many people consider with good reason, that the Indians would be in a much higher status and economic class had it not been for Columbus who claimed land from the Indians and manipulated their generosity for the short-term gain of Spanish wealth and status.

The understanding of Columbus and his motives are often very misunderstood throughout the U.S. We as American’s view him as the same idealized symbol that our country used when it needed history for national stability and sense of freedom.