I saw him speak at Fresno State in about 1990. This was frankly before I really understood the new communism in the U.S. The Boston Globe has the report, "Howard Zinn, Historian Who Challenged Status Quo, Dies at 87." I can't imagine any other public intellectuals who've contributed more to the soft-thinking destruction of generations of young Americans. Michelle Malkin has some background. See, "Hollywood & Howard Zinn’s Marxist Education Project," and "'Social Justice' for Grade-Schoolers: The Howard Zinn Education Project."
Via Memeorandum. See also, Joshua Pundit (some background on Zinn's contribution), and JammieWearingFoo, "Marxist Crank Assumes Room Temperature: Chomsky, Affleck Hardest Hit."
how do you feel about the people recognized in the book regardless of your feelings about zinn?
ReplyDeleteAnon asks a legitimate question. Many of Zinn's portrayals of those on the underbelly of US history are interesting, particularly labor union disputes in the late 1800s or anti WWI fervor in 1916. To this extent, some of his perspective is supplemental and valuable. Turning the tables and treating Zinn as "true history" is dangerous & wrongheaded. As Dean's World says, it creates "a funhouse mirror look at America as nothing but a racist, sexist, oppressive, imperialist monster".
ReplyDeleteLike Chomsky, Zinn reveals much more about himself by those whom he failed to critize- say, Stalin & Mao, for example.
I like this comment by Scott M at Althouse:
ReplyDelete"If Zinn didn't know the object of discussion, he would describe the actions of the grass in my yard as expansionist, warlike, and imperialist."