Howard Zinn recently died. In case you weren't aware, Zinn was a historian of sorts who wrote a book titled The People's History of The United States. It is really a simple concept. Deciding that the vast majority of the history taught to impressionable young schoolchildren was damned lies, he decided to redress the balance by writing a book of more damned lies from the opposite end of the spectrum. A current series on The History Channel chronicles this book, and is produced by another great lover of history, truth, and justice-Matt Damon.
Zinn hated Columbus, and in this article he rips him a new one for the way he treated the American Indians with whom he came in contact during his initial overseas voyages.
That Columbus was a real ass. Before he came along, the Indians of Hispaniola lived idyllic lives, noble savages all, running naked, communing with nature, castrating young males of other Indian tribes to fatten them up for the harvest-that sort of thing. Then along came Columbus and ruined all that.
