zinn is to history what nye is to science... neither have a degree in that which they blabber aboutPing.
Thanks for posting. Choices BUMP!
Howard Zinn, eh? I know I have probably told you this before, butI had kind of a funny experience (well, at least it was funny to me) with my introduction to Howard Zinn…
My departed mother-in-law was, in life, a major-league liberal. She was a community organizer type of liberal. Now, I didn’t know this about her before I married my wife, but it wouldn’t have made a difference to me.
As the years went on, both my viewpoints and her viewpoints became known to each of us… and we entered a phase where she would say things deliberately to get a response out of me (or to see if I would just sit and say nothing)
Needless to say, I wasn’t about to sit and get baited by my mother-in-law, so I gave back in like kind when she initiated something. This went on for a relatively short period of time, then we kind of came to a mutual understanding. Neither one of us said a thing, but the understanding was there nonetheless that we would keep the peace by keeping our tongue. Not to say she wouldn’t occasionally poke at me (or me at her) but after that, that was pretty much all it was. I was kind of got the impression she was doing it just to see if I would stand up for myself.
In any case, I received a Christmas present from her one particular year. She knew that I was a history buff, and I read history prodigiously, so it was no surprise to me when I opened one of her Christmas presents and saw a history book. It was a fairly good-sized glossy volume, and I figured I’d put my feet up when I got home and begin reading.
When I got home, I opened the book up and began reading. At first, I was puzzled. “What the heck is this?” I read little bit further, and got even more perplexed. “What the hell kind of book is this?” I thought to myself.
I immediately begin skipping through the book, preferentially stopping in key areas in American history. As I reached each section, I would read sometimes only a sentence, or occasionally a paragraph. After I had been through multiple sections in this manner, I stood up angrily and exclaimed “screw this piece of crap!”
I walked out in the garage and through the book in the trash.
The name of the book was “The People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn.
I was appalled. I had never seen a history book quite like that one. I was even more disturbed to find out later that this was an actual textbook used in public school classrooms all over the country. I’m still appalled at that thought.
In retrospect, it popped into my mind almost immediately as I was throwing the book in the trash, that this was perhaps my mother-in-law poking her finger in my eye. After a few more seconds of contemplation, I guessed that was not the case.
Knowing how my mother-in-law shops, particularly for Christmas presents, this book was almost undoubtedly on the bargain bookshelf at the front of the Borders bookstore when she walked in. I’d be willing to bet that she didn’t pay more than a few dollars for, because I doubt you could find it inside the store at regular price.
So, every time I hear the name Howard Zinn, I think of the anti-American far left political screed that was his book, that I had the pleasure to throw into a garbage can.
*ping*
The solution for our problems isn’t waiting for some other book writers to maybe show up some day and have them do it.
(This isn’t criticism of McClay, just so that is out there.)
The solution is for us to get up and do it ourselves.
We cannot leave history to “the historians” anymore. We need citizen historians - people who are specifically not connected to it in any way. Just like our biggest problem is that we don’t have enough citizen activists and citizen legislators.
The progressives never fail to show up. It’s our guys who fail to show up.
Nature abhors a vacuum.
Also here, from Ricochet Podcasting:
https://ricochet.com/podcast/powerline/the-antidote-to-howard-zinn-land-of-hope-with-wilfred-mcclay/
Question is, will school adopt this textbook?
Sounds interesting — thanks for posting.
Fifteen or so years ago a couple od Freepers wrote and published A Patriots History of America. It was well done. My Asst Prin and I ordered
a class set for our Queens JHS. Another teacher had a class set of Zinn and the AP thought it was a good idea to have an antidote to Zinn. Compare and contrast.
zinn is to history what nye is to science... neither have a degree in that which they blabber aboutNot for him. We own that market.
When I took over as Dept Chair of my high school’s history department I asked the teachers who were using Zinn to justify it. If they could give me an appropriate pedagogical or curricular use for it, I’d have no objections. None of them could justify using Zinn as there was no alignment with the book to our curricula.
In fact, the only rationale was from a teacher who did not use the book who suggested it be used to advance our historiography goals as an example of hagiography. The other teachers didn’t understand that, so we just threw out the copies on hand.
Btw, Herbert Croly in early 1900s was the Zinn of his day. Zinn isn’t a new phenomenon, just another example of the putrid lust for vengeance against success that seems to be an inevitable corollary to democracy.
If we conservatives continue to support our local ‘wonderful’ public schools and send our kids to these schools, we deserve EXACTLY the kind of indoctrination our kids are getting.
We have only OURSELVES to blame. The public schools get their money from government and will NEVER answer to us, until we’re willing to pull the plug on that cash flow - and since we are not, we lose.
Thank you!
I will check out both the book and the publisher.
The nation owes a debt of un-thanks to Matt Damon, who single-handedly vaulted the hateful lunatic Howard Zinn into the mainstream with his film, Good Will Hunting.
(I hated that movie: It was a horrendously inaccurate representation of very-high-intelligence persons. That movie made him All Things: handsome, charming, muscular, et cetera, in addition to, oh yeah, being off-the-charts brilliant. It was Damon’s fantasy.)