A Slippery Fish Named "Progress"

Society changes over time. Some optimistic person named this "progress." In Chapter 1 of A People's History of the United States, Zinn uses the word in strange and surprising ways. This post attempts to untangle what progress means, and what Zinn means.

My preconceived notion of the word the word progress is that health, education, strong economies, peace, and technological advancement all cause each other. A new medical imaging technique improves health and creates jobs for educated professionals. A war will tax the economy, focus research efforts on new weapons and kill people.


This idea of progress is not universal. Still, it has worked fine for everything that I've read, up until A People's History of the United States. According to Zinn, early settlers in the Americas used progress justify the slaughter of Indians. This would accomplish none of the objectives I've described. What the heck is Zinn talking about?

Because nearly everyone in the America's was dead shortly after the arrival of the Spanish, the Spaniards had to import enormous numbers of African slaves, sparking intercontinental trade and the industrial revolution (with delightful consequences for Europeans). The industrial revolution was the beginning of rapid progress in society, but Columbus couldn't have known that. The world is the way it is today because Columbus thought the world was 1/3 the size educated people thought it was and got lucky. It's difficult to accept that somebody like Columbus had the impact that he did. Historians use progress to justify this in retrospect, and that's what Zinn is talking about.