Howard Zinn’s Horrible History

The Wall Street Journal ^ | July 2, 2026 6:16 am ET | James B. Meigs

[E. Pluribus Unum]

In the film “Good Will Hunting,” Matt Damon’s character looks with disdain at a U.S. history book he spots in the office of his therapist, played by Robin Williams. “You want to read a real history book, read Howard Zinn’s ‘A People’s History of the United States,’ ” Mr. Damon’s character says. It will “knock you on your a—.”

When that movie came out in 1997, Zinn’s ruthlessly negative alternative history was poorly regarded by professional historians but beloved by legions of left-leaning readers. First published in 1980, “A People’s History” became popular mostly by word of mouth. It was the sort of book that a cool Marxist social studies teacher, the kind who sat cross-legged on his desk and asked kids to call him by his first name, might’ve slipped to his brighter students.

With periodic updates over the decades, Zinn’s opus ballooned to more than 700 pages. But its message could be summarized in two words: America stinks. The author believed most history textbooks offered only a whitewashed “nationalist glorification of country,” he told the New York Times. In response, he oversimplified the story in the opposite direction. America’s Founding Fathers? Just wealthy white men guarding their fortunes. Abraham Lincoln? A half-hearted abolitionist who was concerned about protecting “the interests of the very rich.” World War II? Sure, the Nazis were bad, Zinn concedes, but the U.S. and her allies didn’t really “represent something significantly different.”

“A People’s History” reads like a cross between a children’s book and a prosecutor’s brief. America’s downtrodden masses are uniformly brave and heroic; its leaders are one-dimensional villains. The author catalogs our nation’s every moral failure and unfulfilled promise. Every American should know about the evils of slavery and other stains on our past. But Zinn’s indictment scrupulously avoids...

[A strike]

Zinn has been most impactfull
=
Democrat socialists, communists maleducated in half the high schools in America by leftist school boards and administrators..

[DoodleBob]

What the WSJ didn’t do, was follow up with Sean Williams’ (played by Robin Williams) magnificent shredding of Will’s “expert” comment. In reality, this shredding is is a takedown of every communist/socialist/revisionist “book smart” snobbery:

SEAN: I thought about what you said to me the other day about my painting. I stayed up half the night thinking about it. Something occurred tome. I fell into a deep, peaceful sleep and haven't thought about you since.

You know what occurred to me? You're just a kid. You don't have the faintest idea what you're talking about.

WILL: Why thank you.

SEAN: It's alright, you've never been out of Boston

WILL; Nope.

SEAN: So if I asked you about art you’d probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written. Michelangelo? You know a lot about him. Life’s work, political aspirations, him and the pope, sexual orientation, the whole works, right? But I bet you can’t tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You’ve never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling. Seen that.

If I asked you about women you’d probably give me a syllabus of your personal favorites. You may have even been laid a few times. But you can’t tell me what it feels like to wake up next to a woman and feel truly happy.

You’re a tough kid. I ask you about war, and you’d probably, uh, throw Shakespeare at me, right? “Once more into the breach, dear friends.” But you’ve never been near one. You’ve never held your best friend’s head in your lap and watched him gasp his last breath, looking to you for help.

And if I asked you about love you probably quote me a sonnet. But you’ve never looked at a woman and been totally vulnerable. Known someone could level you with her eyes. Feeling like! God put an angel on earth just for you…who could rescue you from the depths of hell.

And you wouldn’t know what it’s like to be her angel and to have that love for her to be there forever. Through anything. Through cancer. You wouldn’t know about sleeping sitting up in a hospital room for two months holding her hand because the doctors could see in your eyes that the term "visiting hours" doesn't apply to you. You don’t know about real loss, because that only occurs when you love something more than you love yourself. I doubt you’ve ever dared to love anybody that much.

I look at you; I don’t see an intelligent, confident man; I see a cocky, scared sh**less kid. But you’re a genius, Will. No one denies that. No one could possibly understand the depths of you. But you presume to know everything about me because you saw a painting of mine and you ripped my f—kin’ life apart.

You’re an orphan right? Do you think I’d know the first thing about how hard your life has been, how you feel, who you are because I read Oliver Twist? Does that encapsulate you?

Personally, I don’t give a s*** about all that, because you know what? I can’t learn anything from you I can’t read in some f—kin’ book. Unless you wanna talk about you, who you are. And I’m fascinated. I’m in.

But you don’t wanna do that, do you, sport? You’re terrified of what you might say.

Your move, chief.

[sauropod]

Bkmk

[T Ruth]

Thanks for the link.

Did you know, by the way, that a simplified link will bring up that page without disclosing private data that the full Amazon link from your browser gives. Try it:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RQW9WG8

All you need is dp/[Amazon product ID]

[chickenlips]

No thanks.

I’ll stick with Paul Johnson’s “A History of the American People”.

[OrangeHoof]

The People’s Court.

[Franklin from Florida]

I can recall having to purchase that textbook for a college history course in the 1980s. “People’s “ in the title was a dead giveaway for what was inside.

[ChessExpert]

“Every American should know about the evils of slavery”

For starters, tell Americans that the Democrat party was pro-slavery, in both the north and south. Tell Americans that when the Civil War started, 99% of the slave owners were Democrats.

[WhiteHatBobby0701]

I warned of this in our local newspaper after the George Floyd debacle led to enforcing Zinn History.

[dfwgator]

The People’s Court.

---

Judge Wapner or Judge Freisler?

[AppyPappy]

A conclusion in search of facts to back it

[LS]

Now in its 46th printing (!!), fifth edition, with a new 25th anniversary edition in the works.

Meanwhile, check out my newest-—probably my last book-—”American Biography.”

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=american+biography+larry+schweikart&crid=3V8TWDDIB5JA1&sprefix=%2Caps%2C382&ref=nb_sb_ss_recent_1_0_recent

Email me at Larry@wildworldofhistory.com for autographed bookplates for any of your LS books.

[LS]

Don’t suppose the WSUrinal mentioned “A Patriot’s History of the United States,” which at the time of publication said was “a fluid, accurate account” of America’s History.