Zinn Compare And Contrast Essay

Post civil war, America saw itself amidst an Industrial Revolution. Machinery began to replace human power, steel began to replace the iron with the Bessemer process. Oil began to lubricate machines and light homes, streets, and factories. Steel rails made transportation easier. However, with this came a lot of corruption in big businesses, and both Howard Zinn and the American Pageant had their own perspectives on this issue. The American Pageant’s and Howard Zinn’s perspective were similar in the fact that they both believe that the government did part take in big business corruption; however, the American pageant believes that the government was effective in curbing big business corruption, while Howard Zinn did not. Both the American Pageant

On one hand, the American Pageant believed that the government did attempt to effectively curb the corruption, while on the other hand, Howard Zinn believed that the government was ineffective. In Howard Zinn’s chapter one notices that the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, which was originally created for the sole purpose of “forbading combinations in restraint of trade”, becomes ineffective due to the U.S vs E.C Knight Co. court case, which limited the power of the government to regulate monopolies due to the loopholes in the Sherman act created by the government, rather it was used to stop strikes which in turn helped monopolies. Based on Howard Zinn’s perspective, one can argue that the government was unsuccessful in curbing the corruption. Moreover, Zinn argued that the Interstate Commerce Commision (ICC), whose purpose was to regulate the railroads. Instead, it helped the railroads, as it helped them gain public support as the railroads are supposedly being regulated by the government when in reality, the ICC’s “supervision was almost entirely nominal.” Nevertheless, the American Pageant had a different perspective on this. According to the Pageant, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, though not very successful, was a great attempt by the government as it threatened big business corporations. Moreover, the Interstate Commerce Commision was argued by the American Pageant to have stabilized the business system and was the first large-scale legislation passed by the federal government to regulate businesses. With the help of the two documents, one could see two different perspectives on it. Zinn strongly advocated that the government did not do an effective job in curbing corruption, while the Pageant believed that, though the government wasn’t always effective, they made good attempts to curb the corruption and set an example for the