Happy Monday! I sit here Friday afternoon grateful for a passing thunderstorm. It didn’t last long but dumped enough rain to make the grass, trees, and my plants happy. Yesterday three of the Grands got to hang with Nana and Papa while their new little sibling had a first doctor visit. We asked them how things were going, using the sibling’s given name. “It’s Cuke (quewkee).” We stood corrected. Cuke, like cucumber, the name we called the baby during pregnancy. I’ve heard worse nicknames. So going into the week of America’s birthday and 250th Anniversary all is well through my window. I hope you had some refreshing, joyful moments this week too.
Two years ago, during my mostly annual writers’ retreat at Table Rock Writers, I spent a lunch talking with fellow attendee, Beverly, a lovely Black writer. I only mention her race because our conversation centered on racism, prejudice, bias, and misperceptions about ‘other’. The conversation was spirited, thoughtful, respectful, and absolutely wonderful. I was ‘…you Catholic woman.’; she was ‘… you Black woman.’ When we saw each other at the retreat last year, we embraced and recalled the conversation. And I told her I’d gotten the book she recommended.
During Covid, Beverly homeschooled her granddaughter, and for American History she used Howard Zinn’s, A People’s History of the United States. Earlier this year I committed to finally reading it, and another book I’ll mention later, in honor of our country’s anniversary. I started it a week or so ago so not nearly finished, but I’m hooked.
A People’s History of the United States is written in short chapters, most are 20-30 pages, around specific topics within a set timeframe. For instance, Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress covers the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries and the impact of first explorers on the Indigenous Peoples. But Zinn writes mostly from the perspective of the Arawaks, the victims of that early exploration, instead of the conquerors’ viewpoint. That changes the narrative considerably and the reader sees how much more the civilized nations lost when the Europeans arrived.
In Drawing the Color Line Zinn lays out how early the division between Native Americans, Blacks, and whites was created and codified through various laws and simply ruthless behavior. Rebellion was not uncommon, but ‘Only one fear was greater than the fear of black rebellion in the new American colonies. That was the fear the discontented whites would join black slaves to overthrow the existing order.’ I found it interesting that in the case of whites being kidnapped by Native Americans, that when given the opportunity to leave their captors, many whites chose to remain with them.
As you can see, I’m marking and taking notes like I’m going to be quizzed at some point. What I’m finding fascinating is how current politics echoes what was happening 250 years ago. In recent pages about the American Revolution, ‘Those upper classes, to rule, needed to make concessions to the middle-class, without damage to their own wealth or power, at the expense of slaves, Indians, and poor whites. This bought loyalty … the ruling group found, in the 1760s and 1770s, a wonderfully useful device… the language of liberty and equality, which could unite just enough whites to fight a Revolution against England, without ending either slavery or inequality.’
Unfortunately, the book ends with the 2000 election and the War on Terrorism. Zinn died in 2010 so we’ll never know his thoughts on Obama, Biden, and Trump, and the last quarter of a century.
A People’s History of the United States is an easy read, in that the writing is accessible, but the story is often uncomfortable because our history is uncomfortable. While the victor gets to write the story, the silence of the oppressed doesn’t mean those voices no longer exist.
As I mentioned last week, Zinn’s book is considered controversial, because he gives voice to the oppressed. Critics accuse Zinn of being biased. But I’d venture a guess that we all look at events through our own ‘filtered light,’ as do most news outlets and other historians. One supporter of Zinn’s work–this book as well as his others–says, ‘He adds a great perspective to the study of history–no one person or book should be taken as absolute gospel.’ Isn’t it a grand thing that at the moment we still we have access to so many varied perspectives.
The other book I’ll tackle this year, again from a friend’s recommendation, is Black Elk Speaks.
I’ll leave you with one of Zinn’s quotes. “To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage and kindness.”
And I am hopeful. One of the many things I’m proud of about our country is the strength of the people to rise and give voice, to flesh out, ‘…all men [and women] are created equal…’
I hope you have a wonderful week. I’ll actually be back at my window on Wednesday to celebrate the beginning of July. I’d love for you to stop by!
A Writer's Window 