Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress, by Howard Zinn

Christopher Columbus Glazed Tile Painting - 9

Image by Anthony Catalano via Flickr

by Howard Zinn
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Originally published October 13, 2009
October 8, 2023

An excerpt from A People’s History of the United States.

Arawak men and women, naked, tawny, and full of wonder, emerged from their villages onto the island’s beaches and swam out to get a closer look at the strange big boat. When Columbus and his sailors came ashore, carrying swords, speaking oddly, the Arawaks ran to greet them, brought them food, water, gifts. He later wrote of this in his log:
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Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress, by Howard Zinn

Christopher Columbus Glazed Tile Painting - 9

Image by Anthony Catalano via Flickr

by Howard Zinn
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Originally published October 13, 2009
October 10, 2022

An excerpt from A People’s History of the United States.

Arawak men and women, naked, tawny, and full of wonder, emerged from their villages onto the island’s beaches and swam out to get a closer look at the strange big boat. When Columbus and his sailors came ashore, carrying swords, speaking oddly, the Arawaks ran to greet them, brought them food, water, gifts. He later wrote of this in his log:
Continue reading

Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress by Howard Zinn

Christopher Columbus Glazed Tile Painting - 9

Image by Anthony Catalano via Flickr

by Howard Zinn
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Originally published October 13, 2009
October 11, 2021

An excerpt from A People’s History of the United States.

Arawak men and women, naked, tawny, and full of wonder, emerged from their villages onto the island’s beaches and swam out to get a closer look at the strange big boat. When Columbus and his sailors came ashore, carrying swords, speaking oddly, the Arawaks ran to greet them, brought them food, water, gifts. He later wrote of this in his log:
Continue reading

Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress by Howard Zinn

Christopher Columbus Glazed Tile Painting - 9

Image by Anthony Catalano via Flickr

It’s that time of the year again. In case you missed reading this, here it is again.

by Howard Zinn
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Originally published October 13, 2009
October 12, 2020

An excerpt from A People’s History of the United States.

Arawak men and women, naked, tawny, and full of wonder, emerged from their villages onto the island’s beaches and swam out to get a closer look at the strange big boat. When Columbus and his sailors came ashore, carrying swords, speaking oddly, the Arawaks ran to greet them, brought them food, water, gifts. He later wrote of this in his log:
Continue reading

Drawing the Color Line by Howard Zinn

Meeting the first slave ship

Image by Linda De Volder via Flickr

by Howard Zinn
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Originally published March 21, 2011
November 21, 2019

Chapter 2 from A People’s History of the United States.

A black American writer, J. Saunders Redding, describes the arrival of a ship in North America in the year 1619:

Sails furled, flag drooping at her rounded stern, she rode the tide in from the sea. She was a strange ship, indeed, by all accounts, a frightening ship, a ship of mystery. Whether she was trader, privateer, or man-of-war no one knows. Through her bulwarks black-mouthed cannon yawned. The flag she flew was Dutch; her crew a motley. Her port of call, an English settlement, Jamestown, in the colony of Virginia. She came, she traded, and shortly afterwards was gone. Probably no ship in modern history has carried a more portentous freight. Her cargo? Twenty slaves.

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Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress by Howard Zinn

Christopher Columbus Glazed Tile Painting - 9

Image by Anthony Catalano via Flickr

It’s that time of the year again. In case you missed reading this, here it is again.

by Howard Zinn
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Originally published October 13, 2009
October 14, 2019

An excerpt from A People’s History of the United States.

Arawak men and women, naked, tawny, and full of wonder, emerged from their villages onto the island’s beaches and swam out to get a closer look at the strange big boat. When Columbus and his sailors came ashore, carrying swords, speaking oddly, the Arawaks ran to greet them, brought them food, water, gifts. He later wrote of this in his log:
Continue reading

The Intimately Oppressed by Howard Zinn (repost)

Ageless Beauty by Kaleb A Woman from the 1800s 'The Works' - Kids in the Hall Bistro

Image by Kaleb via Edmonton Public Schools via Flickr

by Howard Zinn
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Originally posted August 14, 2011
October 24, 2017

Chapter 6 from A People’s History of the United States.

It is possible, reading standard histories, to forget half the population of the country. The explorers were men, the landholders and merchants men, the political leaders men, the military figures men. The very invisibility of women, the overlooking of women, is a sign of their submerged status.

Continue reading

Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress by Howard Zinn

Christopher Columbus Glazed Tile Painting - 9

Image by Anthony Catalano via Flickr

It’s that time of the year again. In case you missed reading this, here it is again.

by Howard Zinn
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Originally published October 13, 2009
October 9, 2017

An excerpt from A People’s History of the United States.

Arawak men and women, naked, tawny, and full of wonder, emerged from their villages onto the island’s beaches and swam out to get a closer look at the strange big boat. When Columbus and his sailors came ashore, carrying swords, speaking oddly, the Arawaks ran to greet them, brought them food, water, gifts. He later wrote of this in his log:
Continue reading

The Intimately Oppressed by Howard Zinn (repost)

Ageless Beauty by Kaleb A Woman from the 1800s 'The Works' - Kids in the Hall Bistro

Image by Kaleb via Edmonton Public Schools via Flickr

by Howard Zinn
Writer, Dandelion Salad
crossposted at www.greanvillepost.com, July 20, 2011
Originally posted August 14, 2011
February 3, 2016

Chapter 6 from A People’s History of the United States.

It is possible, reading standard histories, to forget half the population of the country. The explorers were men, the landholders and merchants men, the political leaders men, the military figures men. The very invisibility of women, the overlooking of women, is a sign of their submerged status.

Continue reading

The Intimately Oppressed by Howard Zinn

by Howard Zinn
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
August 12, 2011

Depiction of Amelia Bloomer wearing the famous...

Image via Wikipedia

Chapter 6 from A People’s History of the United States.

It is possible, reading standard histories, to forget half the population of the country. The explorers were men, the landholders and merchants men, the political leaders men, the military figures men. The very invisibility of women, the overlooking of women, is a sign of their submerged status.

In this invisibility they were something like black slaves (and thus slave women faced a double oppression). The biological uniqueness of women, like skin color and facial characteristics for Negroes, became a basis for treating them as inferiors. True, with women, there was something more practically important in their biology than skin color-their position as childbearers-but this was not enough to account for the general push backward for all of them in society, even those who did not bear children, or those too young or too old for that. Continue reading

A People’s History of American Empire, by Howard Zinn

by Howard Zinn
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad

Updated: June 28, 2017

A People’s History of American Empire by Howard Zinn

HenryHolt
March 28, 2008

Empire or Humanity?
What the Classroom Didn’t Teach Me about the American Empire
by Howard Zinn
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