[laurav]

Ok, Howard Zinn should NEVER be required as a primary text for studying American history, but it will probably keep the kids' interest as a supplement (most textbooks are so dreadfully dull anyway, and Zinn is at least lively). I read it and remained uncorrupted. He simply sees history as, to borrow words from Marx, a series of class struggles. Which makes him a good starting point for discussion: Why haven't the revolutions he keeps saying are on the cusp of happening, come about? He completely forgets the rise of the shareholder class, the upward mobility of minorities and immigrants, and that it's been conservative ideas that have been winning.

[MHT]

Zinn also denies alot of basic economic principles in his constant canonization of societies' underclasses. Unless a student understands why socialism fails everytime it's tried, Zinn will be convincing. Maybe high school is a good time to read Zinn (if there ever is a good time to spend any more time with him than necessary) because by the time you have had Econ 101 in college, you can see the holes in his arguments.