History As A Moral Quest Analysis

Abigail G
American History 221
Ron M
13 December 2012 History as a Moral Quest A large part of what we talked about in American history 221 was slavery and Americas ability to over come slavery. Looking back at what our nation has overcome is an amazing thing, however it seems that most of what our nation has struggled with has been brought on by our own selves and our choices as a nation. Learning history is a wonderful way to not make the same mistakes twice. It teaches todays Americans not only what happened but also how our nation was founded and what kind of foundation America was built on. Slavery a very trying and tough time in America had a large affect on both whites and blacks. Howard Zinn says “The memory of oppressed people is one thing that cannot
be taken away, and for such people, with such memories, revolt is always an inch below the surface.” (Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present). This is very true; no one affected by this horrid piece of history will ever be able to forget. And it saddens me personally to see younger generations carrying on the same emotional burdens of their ancestors. I feel like many younger generations take a view similar to Zinns when he says, “I will try not to overlook the cruelties that victims inflict on one another as they are jammed together in the boxcars of the system. I don’t want to romanticize them. But I do remember (in rough paraphrase) a statement I once read: “The cry of the poor is not always just, but if you don’t listen to it, you will never know what justice is.” (Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present) The civil war was what ended the span of slavery on America. Under president Lincolns administration on July 4, 1865 the south surrendered and slavery was abolished setting all slaves in the north and the south free. Zinn says, “Nations are not communities and never have been.
The history of any country, presented as the history of a family, conceals the fierce conflicts of interest (sometimes exploding, often repressed) between conquerors and conquered, masters and slaves, capitalists and workers, dominators and dominated in race and sex. And in such as world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, as Albert Camus suggested, not to be on the side of the executioners.” (Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present). This theory shows that we have the ability to learn from our mistakes, but America has not taken the opportunity to do change. Though we have not repeated many past mistakes we have not taken the chance to change. Zinn says we have not become communities with other nations he is correct in the fact that America is nice to other nations and that we have built cordial relationships with other nations but we have not built a community with them. If America were truly learning from past mistakes and changing we would have made efforts to build friendships and a community with other nations rather than economic
relationships. When Zinn says, “What struck me as I began to study history was how nationalist fervor--inculcated from childhood on by pledges of allegiance, national anthems, flags waving and rhetoric blowing--permeated the educational systems of all countries, including our own. I wonder now how the foreign policies of the United States would look if we wiped out the national boundaries of the world, at least in our minds, and thought of all children everywhere as our own. Then we could never drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, or napalm on Vietnam, or wage war anywhere, because wars, especially in our time, are always wars against children, indeed our children.” (Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present). Zinn shows in this statement how all nations as a whole and especially America use their armed forces as a fear tactic to other nations when in reality if we would build up better communities between other nations and in our own nation there would be better harmony in the world. This would lead to fewer wars and a happier world, economy, and civilization. Slavery was one of the greatest challenges America has ever faced as a country. Overcoming this tragic experience has not only helped America grow as a nation and society in its self but also as a nation among other nations in the world. America has learned from their mistakes enough to not repeat them but America does not seem like they have made changes in order to themselves and their views to prohibit what caused it originally to not happen again, but only enough to know not to allow it to happen again.