This book changed me from being a "conservative" to a "liberal"....

[hfojvt]

43. I was already a progressive, a self-proclaimed socialist

when I read it in 1989 or so. I thought it was great then.

Now, having done more research, I think it is kinda hackwork in some ways.

For example, as I now kinda skim the first chapter. First, in a People's history of the United States he spends a fair amount of time talking about Columbus, and Peru, and Mexico, rather than the United States.

Secondly, he quickly strays away from facts to put his own interpretation on events Here's how he describes King Phillip's war, something which I have studied fairly extensively.

"The English found their excuse, a murder which they attributed to Metacom, and they began a war of conquest against the Wampanoags, a war to take their land. They were clearly the aggressors, but claimed they attacked for preventive purposes. As Roger Williams, more friendly to the Indians than most, put it: "All men of conscience or prudence ply to windward, to maintain their wars to be defensive."


Yeah, I call bullshit on that. The story is not nearly as simple, as black-and-white, as Zinn portrays it here. Here's how Ellis and Morris describe it in a much more detailed account.

Ellis and Morris seem to give the most complete account, if not the most modern (1906). Here's how they describe the immediate cause.

"The trial and execution of the three Indians (who had been accused and convicted of killing Sassamon who had apparently been spying on King Phillip) aroused the Wampanoag warriors to madness. From all sides came reports to the authorities of excesses on the part of the Wampanoags. Cattle were shot, corn stolen, houses robbed; in some places outbuildings were fired. The attitude of the warriors had become defiant, while spies reported that strange Indians were swarming into Phillip's villages and the women and children were being sent to the Narragansetts....The authorities held back from all agressive action, in the belief that such a course would allow the excitement among the warriors time to abate, but as Phillip made no attempt to clear himself, James Brown of Swansea, who had been on friendly terms with him, solicited and obtained permission to inform Phillip that the Plymouth authorities disclaimed all injurious intentions and urged him to discontinue hostile preparations." KPW pp 49-50

Although some mind-reading authors claim that the colonists had no real desire to avoid war, Ellis and Morris also write this:

"Rhode Island, alarmed at the state of affairs, made ineffectual attempts to compromise the
matter and bring Philip to an agreement. Deputy Governor Easton of that colony, and five others,
including Samuel Gorton, met Philip and his chiefs at Bristol Neck Point on the 17th of June, and
(1673) proposed that the quarrel and all matters in contention should be arbitrated. It might be
well, was the reply, but that all the English agreed against them. Many square miles of land
were taken from them by English arbitrators." (KPW p. 51)

Yet, Zinn describes it as a war of conquest, happily embarked upon under the pretext of the death of Sassamon.

And, of course, it is mostly about those darned whites massacring those mostly helpless, and purely peaceful Native Americans. Things like thie following are just swept under the rug in Zinn's account.

However, when the war finally began, I do note this:

"Panic already reigned among the scattered farmhouses that stretched along the eastern shore, and Major Bradford, with the company from Bridgewater, leaving Swansea on the 23rd, marched down to Jared Bourne's house at Mattapoiset where nearly seventy people had collected. Everywhere along the march were to be met people flying from their homes, wringing their hands and bewailing their losses." (KPW p. 59)

and this

"The spring (of 1676) was opening with terror. No man dared go out to his fields unless guarded by his neighbors and soldiers. Food was scarce. No husbandman stirred from his door save with arms in hand, and at night the town guards watched upon the stockade. Families on the outskirts dared not occupy their homes, and even in the villages people left their homes at night for the protection of the garrison." (KPW p. 184)

and this

"Everywhere there was terror and fear and every day brought news of buildings burnt and settlers killed. The towns around Narragansett Bay were abandoned save by the soldiers and the most resolute, who took refuge in the garrisons, and even Providence could count but fifty of its five hundred inhabitants." (KPW p. 188)

Instead, Western civilization is disparaged, Indian civilization glorified and the Europeans are just conquerors, annihilating races in the name of a false idea of progress.

Rather than a more truthful account of history, it just seems more like propaganda from another direction.