1492-1992: The Legacy of Columbus

Discussing the legacy of Columbus, including 500 years of indigenous resistance, “bothers the defenders of Western civilization, those people who have benefited from Western civilization, or who think they will benefit from it in some way. They are bothered by the fact that more and more Americans want to look at what happened then from a different point of view. Because we’ve been looking at it from one point of view for all these hundreds of years, looking at slavery from a white point of view, at Columbus from a white point of view, at women and the issue of sexual equality from the male point of view, looking at history from very specific, limited points of view. People have begun to look at history from the point of view of those people who have been invisible, overlooked, oppressed.” —Howard Zinn, from the CD

In this instant classic, recorded on the eve of the quincentennial, legendary historian Howard Zinn returns to the themes he popularized in his masterful A People’s History of the United States — how we interpret history, and what that tells us about the struggles of the vast majority of folks typically written out of the narrative. With his trademark wit, erudition, and generosity, he stands history on its head, to better illuminate, understand, and act upon the past, present, and future. [Publisher’s description.]