I had a professor who claimed to be the first in the country to add it to his syllabis. Lucky me. It could have been worse - my girlfriend at the time actually had Zinn as a professor.
First off, you end up rooting for Columbus to eliminate every one of these horrible people who got in the way of the West.
And don't forget, in the '09 edition, Zinn completely undercut Bubba's 8 years by saying the Emperor had no clothes, both literally and metaphorically. Zinn embarassed The Third Way as Socialist Lite.
The one chapter that did want to make you string Zinn up was WW2, where he had served and had outside the book acknowledged that the War had a "moral core"; so it is intentionally the dumbest chapter in the book, the most farcical, precisely because Zinn did not want to draw much analysis to the fact that he left out his idol Stalin's genocide.
But fear not! Zinn died of a massive heart attack in a hotel pool and had he been alone they'd have found his wrinkled bloated carcass the next morning. As it was, guests pulled him out and tried to beat the life back into him ie, he left this earth in suffering and he was concious of his demise. You can't wish anything worse on an atheist -- that it was 'all for naught' and you go out unable to breathe with your eyes popping out of your head and yet every synapse burns with energy and awareness.
“that it was ‘all for naught’ and you go out unable to breathe with your eyes popping out of your head and yet every synapse burns with energy and awareness.”
All while his friends were beating the **** out of him. Thanks for bringing a smile to my face this snowy Sunday.
L