Quotessence
Home / Books / A People’s History of the United States: 1492 - Present

A People’s History of the United States: 1492 - Present

Book by Howard Zinn · 2 quotes · History, Slavery, America

Filter quotes by topic

AllHistorySlaveryAmericaUnited States Of AmericaUsaAmerican HistoryAmerican ImperialismBlue CollarCapitalismFood For ThoughtFreedomPoliticsPovertySlavery HistorySlavery In The United StatesUs HistoryWarWealthAmerican RevolutionArmy

A People’s History of the United States: 1492 - Present Quotes

“In Guatemala, in 1954, a legally elected government was overthrown by an invasion force of mercenaries trained by the CIA at military bases in Honduras and Nicaragua and supported by four American fighter planes flown by American pilots. The invasion put into power Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas, who had at one time received military training at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The government that the United States overthrew was the most democratic Guatemala had ever had. The President, Jacobo Arbenz, was a left-of-center Socialist; four of the fifty-six seats in the Congress were held by Communists. What was most unsettling to American business interests was that Arbenz had expropriated 234,000 acres of land owned by United Fruit, offering compensation that United Fruit called "unacceptable." Armas, in power, gave the land back to United Fruit, abolished the tax on interest and dividends to foreign investors, eliminated the secret ballot, and jailed thousands of political critics.”

WarAmericaUsaImperialismCiaGuatemalaCoup
Book:A People’s History of the United States: 1492 - Present
Create image

“When Chief Black Hawk was defeated and captured in 1832, he made a surrender speech: I fought hard. But your guns were well aimed. The bullets flew like birds in the air, and whizzed by our ears like the wind through the trees in the winter. My warriors fell around me. . . The sun rose dim on us in the morning, and at night it sunk in a dark cloud, and looked like a ball of fire. That was the last sun that shone on Black Hawk. . . He is now a prisoner to the white men. . . He has done nothing for which an Indian ought to be ashamed. He has fought for his countrymen, the squaws and papooses, against white men, who came year after year, to cheat them and take away their lands. You know the cause of out making war. It is known to all white men. They ought to be ashamed of it. Indians are not deceitful. The white men speak bad of the Indian and look at him spitefully. But the Indian does not tell lies. Indians do not steal.”

WarIndiansBlack Hawk
Book:A People’s History of the United States: 1492 - Present
Create image