The Mythic Columbus / Howard Zinn.

Historian Howard Zinn, author of A Peoples History of the United States, examines the popular misperceptions and the realities of Christopher Columbus. While researching a book on Columbus, he read Columbus’ journal which depicted Indians as kind, loving, generous and peaceful. But Columbus’ obsession with finding wealth lead to cruel and brutal treatment of the Indigenous peoples. In the end, most of the Indians on Hispanol were killed, for they were not considered humans — only barbaric heathens. Zinn goes on to demonstrate how those original perceptions of non-European peoples have shaped the way Euramericans operate in the world. The profit motive leads to various levels of domination and exploitation. The United States now confuses patriotism with expanisionism and National power. The goal of free market advocates is really an expansion of United States markets at the expense of non-Euramericans. Question and answer session follows the talk.
|r.1. Talk (55 min.) — r.2. Question and answer session (30 min.).