Thursday 8 December 2011

What are the main points of argument raised by Howard Zinn in chapter 5?

In the
chapter "Some Kind of Revolution," Zinn seeks to undermine the traditional American
idea that the Revolutionary War was fought by and for the liberty of common American people.
Rather, according to Zinn's argument, the wealthy business elite in America were interested in
having more direct control over their enterprises and in avoiding losing profits to the British
empire through taxation; the American Revolutionary War was fought according to their
interests.

Zinn explains that there was genuine popular unrest occurring
during the time leading up to the American Revolution, and many conflicts, undertaken by
overburdened colonist poor people against the wealthy colonist politicians and businessmen who
constantly robbed them, would complicate the fight.

Zinn also describes the
process by which many poor colonists were coerced into anti-British sentiment through the
language of the Enlightenment and through the colonists' desire to align themselves with the
concept of "whiteness."...

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