Essay on Howard Zinn 's Views On The American Revolution

Gordon S. Wood and Howard Zinn are both brilliant professors whom are great and entertaining writers. Beside the facts that they see the origins of the American Revolution with different views. One argues that the true origins of the American War were a social revolution while the other argues that it was a war used by colonial elites for their own personal gains for power and status. And I felt Howard Zinn and his arguments were better presented due to the fact that he gave a different perspective to the reader and viewer of how a war is seen differently than what it is documented in history.
Howard Zinn’s argues that the true nature of the American Revolution were not a social revolution, but instead considers it a contrived product of the colonial elites, a series of hostile responses to British policy, trade and taxation that exaggerated the dangers of these things. In his book, A People’s History of the United States published in 1980s, he argues that the aim of the revolution was to divert colonial class anger of the 1760s, shifting it away from colonial assemblies and on to the British government. In doing so, the revolutionist elites were able to seize the British Empire and control it as their own. Zinn also mentions that because of the concerns with class conflicts, the members of the Continental Congress were concerned about the poor rising to start a rebellion against Congress and the social elite. So in order to deflect possible rebellion, they pushed the blame…