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Marxist Historian Howard Zinn, 87, Consigned to the Ash Heap of History

Posted on | January 27, 2010 | 19 Comments

Funny how the Boston Globe can’t bring itself to describe Howard Zinn as the avowed Marxist he was, but you get the drift here:

The focus of his activism became the Vietnam War. Dr. Zinn spoke at many rallies and teach-ins and drew national attention when he and the Rev. Daniel Berrigan, another leading antiwar activist, went to Hanoi in 1968 to receive three prisoners released by the North Vietnamese.
Dr. Zinn’s involvement in the antiwar movement led to his publishing two books: “Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal” (1967) and “Disobedience and Democracy” (1968).

At age 87, Zinn has become the only kind of good Commie.

UPDATE: A commenter writes:

What pisses me off is that almost every AP program in the country uses his book.

Is this true? Are advanced-placement programs in high schools teaching America’s children Marxist history?

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Category: Education

Comments

19 Responses to “Marxist Historian Howard Zinn, 87, Consigned to the Ash Heap of History”

  1. gahrie
    January 27th, 2010 @ 11:31 pm

    What pisses me off is that almost every AP program in the country uses his book.

  2. Indentured Servant Girl
    January 27th, 2010 @ 11:58 pm

    His book is a P.O.S.

    What kind of history book doesn’t have footnotes? Seriously.

    Can you imagine what kind of grade a normal plebe like me would have received in grad school if I’d told my profs “I don’t believe in footnotes”?

    Puh-leeze. He was a propagandist for the liberal elite, not a historian. And Matt Damon can shove it.

  3. Alo Konsen
    January 28th, 2010 @ 2:18 am

    Zinn is no longer an atheist.

  4. thatsright
    January 28th, 2010 @ 2:28 am

    Someday, somewhere, a free man today is smiling.

    RIP Howard. May God have mercy on your soul.

    Philip P…where y’at?

  5. Mike LaRoche
    January 28th, 2010 @ 3:46 am

    Zinn challenged the status quo, write the Boston Globe reporters in that article? In academia, Zinn’s views *are* the status quo.

  6. dennymack
    January 28th, 2010 @ 6:00 am

    Best description of Zinn I have ever heard:
    His version of American history is like picking out the black grains of sand from a white sand beach, and holding them up to prove that the sand you are standing on is black.
    Can’t remember where I read that, but hey, who needs footnotes?

    …and yes, he is the standard text for many(most, I think) AP and I.B. American Studies courses.
    But they also use texts by conservatives… Okay, that’s a lie. I just wanted to see what it would look like in print, ’cause I’ll never see it in the classroom.

  7. Turning on Morning Joe and I’m amazed… « DaTechguy's Blog
    January 28th, 2010 @ 7:23 am

    [...] RSM and the Jammie Waving Fool are less shy. [...]

  8. uberVU - social comments
    January 28th, 2010 @ 8:44 am

    Social comments and analytics for this post…

    This post was mentioned on Twitter by rsmccain: Marxist Historian Howard Zinn, 87, Becomes the Only Kind of Good Commie http://bit.ly/9atFAf...

  9. Thomas L. Knapp
    January 28th, 2010 @ 8:52 am

    Words mean things, and sometimes two words don’t mean the same thing.

    Zinn was a socialist (he described himself as “something of an anarchist, something of a socialist. Maybe a democratic socialist”).

    Zinn was not, however, a Marxist.

  10. The SOTU Fallout: Rage Against “False Consciousness”
    January 28th, 2010 @ 9:34 am

    [...] Perhaps the speech will be seen in historical retrospect as a high-water mark for a certain strain in American historicism. [...]

  11. Reaganite Republican
    January 28th, 2010 @ 9:46 am

    Good stuff sir, linked at the Reaganite Republican-

    http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com/2010/01/dear-leader-delivers-tedious-propaganda.html

  12. Joe Marier
    January 28th, 2010 @ 10:32 am

    I’ll concur; People’s History was used in my AP class. Not as the main text, mind you! As a supplement. And it does give you a good idea of what the Left tells themselves about America…

  13. emerson
    January 28th, 2010 @ 12:17 pm

    Took AP US History about 6-7 years ago. Used the book as a supplement, teacher raved about it.

  14. Mikey NTH
    January 28th, 2010 @ 3:24 pm

    dennymack:

    IIRC it was Bill Whittle describing Noam Chomsky.

  15. Dagpotter
    January 28th, 2010 @ 10:39 pm

    I think you have to teach the book. It is an important part of American historiography even if it is crap. Just like you have to read Foder’s Reconstruction despite his Commie beliefs.

  16. Liber Ex Machina
    January 29th, 2010 @ 12:08 pm

    My AP US History class did not really use People’s History.

    Sure, the teacher recommended we get it first day of class but she never really mentioned it again.

    Then again, she referred to us as her indentured servants ’til we passed the AP test (had a whole Davey Butcher Society stchik), so she may not have been normal.

  17. Why Aren’t You Home-Schooling Yet? : The Other McCain
    January 31st, 2010 @ 3:06 pm

    [...] just one report from Massillon, Ohio, but it’s everywhere now. When Howard Zinn became a good Commie this week, comments pointed out that Zinn’s Marxist history is now standard reading in high school [...]

  18. Public Prisons, er, Schools
    February 5th, 2010 @ 1:46 pm

    [...] just one report from Massillon, Ohio, but it’s everywhere now. When Howard Zinn became a good Commie this week, comments pointed out that Zinn’s Marxist history is now standard reading in high school [...]

  19. FBI Files Reveal Historian Howard Zinn Lied to Hide CPUSA Membership : The Other McCain
    July 31st, 2010 @ 5:59 pm

    [...] Brooklyn CPUSA section meetings. So we may therefore presume that Kirschner is, like Zinn, now the only kind of good Communist.UPDATE V: FBI files from the 1960s connect Zinn to a Who’s Who of the New Left anti-war [...]

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