Zinnsane American History

There's a fight right now over the content of textbooks used to teach American History in Texas schools.

And in related news... Howard Zinn recently passed away.

Hopefully his influence dies with him. Texas has a good chance right now to deliver a "kill shot".

This cartoon depicts the America portrayed by Zinn in his widely used textbook "A People's History of the United States".

Zinn's America is a place of oppression and imperialism. Of racism and bigotry. Of exploitation by the moneyed classes.

Read this about Zinn from The History News Network:

If you’ve read Marx, there’s really no reason to read Howard Zinn. The first line of The Communist Manifesto provides the single-bullet theory of history that provides Zinn with his narrative thread— “The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggle.” It is the all-purpose explanation of every subject that Zinn covers.

Howard Zinn's Biased History

Here's Zinn himself on his view of his role as a "Historian":

“I wanted to be a part of history and not just a recorder and teacher of history. So that kind of attitude towards history, history itself as a political act, has always informed my writing and my teaching.”

In other words, Zinn's approach has been to write history in a way that tells a narrative about America from his own viewpoint. His view is Marxist, so his narrative is one of class warfare.

In Zinn's America, we find that all American wars were fought over money and profit.

We don't find The Gettysburg Address, or Reagan's speech at The Brandenburg Gate.

We don't learn of the Wright Brothers, or Jonas Salk, or Alexander Graham Bell. (but we do learn of Joan Baez and the Berrigan brothers).

Makes you consider the very real possibility that educators endorsing Zinn are trying consciously to both "dumb-down" American students AND give them a deep sense of antipathy to the United States.

What's that about?

Geniuses like Matt Damon now carry on the work of Zinn.