I was struck by the ambition of Columbus's expedition. An ambition founded in personal greed, to be sure, but it was also the greed of the entire Spanish nation. Columbus conquered, raped, pillaged, massacred in the name of a country that was not even his own. No wonder Zinn can write an entire book of exploitation in the name of national interest: when Americans conquer, rape, pillage, massacre, they have the name of their own country to put on a banner and stick in the sand.
One idea I would have liked to see Zinn develop more: the idea of race as a social construction to keep people in their place. I think this is an idea that is getting more and more attention in race studies and I think that it makes perfect sense. How do you get poor whites to side with the elite rather than their enslaved brothers and sisters? Tell them that they are not brothers and sisters, that Africans are beneath them. Of course, Europeans capturing tribes of Africans and exporting them to the Americas did much to perpetuate that idea anyway.
--Colin Shevlin, SLU senior and history major
