Zinn has been a stalwart of the American Left for many decades, and he’s a big crashing bore, but good enough and relentless enough at what he does to merit continual attention from up and coming potential Lefties, generation after generation. It’s one thing to be blindly jingoistic, insist we’ve never blundered, done anything wrong, or have nothing to be ashamed of-—it’s another thing to contend as Zinn does, that we’ve never done anything RIGHT, at least for the last century or two. Guys like Zinn keep this up because they lap up the attention of those new generations.
Men like Zinn and Chomsky remind me of the Alec Guinness character in the movie, ‘Bridge Over the River Kwai’, who realizes in the last moments of his life the treason of his actions, although with Zinn, Chomsky, and others, the truth is that they will probably never have such a moment of self-revelation—and unlike the Guinness character—any chance at redemption.
As an aside, Dante reserved the hottest part of his Inferno for the false counselors, men just like Zinn.