The Feud of the Patriot and the People: A Comparison and Discussion of Zinn’s and Schweikart - Allen’s Histories of the United States When traditionally defined, the terms “patriot” and “people” have oftentimes been considered complementary constructs. The term “patriot” is defined as an emotional, positive attachment to a homeland. It alludes to memories of nationalistic revolution, of the Revolutionary War and Glorious Revolution, where the oppressed and exploited “people” rise up in mutiny and restore justice and integrity. In contemporary history, however, the concepts of the people and patriotism are often contradictory; the masses are often have a very strifeful relationship with the nation. This dissociation is eloquently exemplified
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The conflicts of World War I and the Spanish-American war, specifically, provide remarkable examples of the contrast between the “people’s” and “patriot’s” viewpoint. When the Spanish American war is covered in encyclopedias and by less aureate, subjective sources, one usually finds an amalgamation of topics covered ranging from “American business interests and citizens… Cuba's desire for independence… Spanish atrocities… competition between the World and the Globe [rival newspapers]…” (Axelrod et al.). Zinn, Schweikart, and Allen, contrastingly, choose to exclusively emphasise only one reason for war: for Zinn - American business interests, for Schweikart and Allen - sympathization for democracy and “American humanitarianism” (Schweikart and Allen 420). Zinn specifically cites sources such as the Bureau of Foreign Commerce of the Department of Commerce, which wrote “The Spanish-American War was… a general movement of expansion which had its roots in the changed environment of an industrial capacity… to find foreign purchasers for our goods, [and] to provide the means of making access to foreign markets easy, economical and safe” (Zinn 283). With “$30,000,000 to $50,000,000 of American capital are invested in the plantations and in railroad, mining, and other business enterprises on the island” ( Zinn 280), Zinn once again approaches history through the lense of the disgruntled laborers of the U.S, a viewpoint which, while valid, narrow mindedly avoids other reasons for
The conflicts of World War I and the Spanish-American war, specifically, provide remarkable examples of the contrast between the “people’s” and “patriot’s” viewpoint. When the Spanish American war is covered in encyclopedias and by less aureate, subjective sources, one usually finds an amalgamation of topics covered ranging from “American business interests and citizens… Cuba's desire for independence… Spanish atrocities… competition between the World and the Globe [rival newspapers]…” (Axelrod et al.). Zinn, Schweikart, and Allen, contrastingly, choose to exclusively emphasise only one reason for war: for Zinn - American business interests, for Schweikart and Allen - sympathization for democracy and “American humanitarianism” (Schweikart and Allen 420). Zinn specifically cites sources such as the Bureau of Foreign Commerce of the Department of Commerce, which wrote “The Spanish-American War was… a general movement of expansion which had its roots in the changed environment of an industrial capacity… to find foreign purchasers for our goods, [and] to provide the means of making access to foreign markets easy, economical and safe” (Zinn 283). With “$30,000,000 to $50,000,000 of American capital are invested in the plantations and in railroad, mining, and other business enterprises on the island” ( Zinn 280), Zinn once again approaches history through the lense of the disgruntled laborers of the U.S, a viewpoint which, while valid, narrow mindedly avoids other reasons for