1.
What is history?
A reconciliation of the past, that serves a purpose in shaping our future.
2.
What is ideology?
It is basically a set ideas that help build up someone’s goals or achievements.
3.
Can history be neutral? Why or why not?
History is usually neutral because it is mostly just stating what happened in the past. However, depending on how a person sees it can be either bias or unbiased. Like in the iPhone article, he is stating that Apple is using more workers in foreign countries than in the US., but we can tell that he is very biased about the fact that Chinese workers are skillfully better than the American workers in making their products.
4.
Zinn discusses what he considers the typical way Americans study or understand history. How has your experience (either in school, or simply in your life) been similar?
Well, I think that what is trying to say is that in most schools, they will only teach you what they want you to know. So most Americans don’t know that much history or are ignorant of their history because they don’t have all of the details, because they were never taught all of these things. Me personally, I didn’t really follow history that much until I got into High Tech High. I really didn’t really think that all I learned was just basic stuff.
5.
When you consider Zinn's discussion of the typical American study or understanding of history, how has your experience (in school or in life) been different?
Well for me I always loved history, so I never really just stayed with the basics, because I just wanted to learn more. I wanted to learn more on history but at the public schools that I used to go to they would never tell us more than what they wanted us to know.
6.
What did you read that stood out to you positively? Why?
I liked this one quote from the iPhone article about the amount of people working in the Foxconn City, because the way he words it puts in you in the article. “The facility has 230,000 employees, many working six days a week, often spending up to 12 hours a day at the plant. Over a quarter of Foxconn’s work force lives in company barracks and many workers earn less than $17 a day. When one Apple executive arrived during a shift change, his car was stuck in a river of employees streaming past. ‘The scale is unimaginable,’ he said.”
7.
What did you read that you disliked? Why?
I disliked the article on the History teaching in America, because the article was really long, even though it was very informative.
8.
How were some of your biases or preconceived notions confirmed by what you read?
9.
How were some of your biases or preconceived notions challenged by what you read?
10.
What unique perspective, element of creativity, or new questions do you bring to our study of history?
