| |||||
A People's History of the United States
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Most students have very little regard for reading their textbooks. After all, textbooks do have a somewhat negative connotation to them. So how on earth did Howard Zinn manage to write a textbook that remains on the bookshelves of standard bookstore shelves and has been reaching a significant non-academic audience successfully for twenty five years.
In A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, Howard Zinn presents an intriguing look at American history through the eyes of those who would be considered disaffected members of the population. Native Americans, African Americans, Unions, Immigrants, etc are presented in a manner that drives home many of the struggles that these people faced as well as providing aspects of history that have been forgotten about or pushed the rug because the image of American History would be much less than flattering if the complete story was told. The problem with Zinn, however, centers around the fact that Zinn uses his tome to push forward a Marxist ideological response to the United State's perceived inequalities. That is to say, Marxism provides all the solutions to the ills that the United States has caused. You would think that a student of history such as Mr. Zinn would have noted the brutality of the Soviet regime in comparison. Then again, the book is not a history of the Soviet Union so Mr. Zinn gets a mild pass in that regard.
Truth be told, there is an inherent weirdness to people who prescribe to Marxism and Marxist tenets. The reason for this is, of course, the fact that the failure of Marxism on the world stage has been quite pronounced. In fact, many of the nations that have prescribed to Marxist theories were generally totalitarian nations designed like a military industrial complex. The number of Marxist utopias that slipped into third world level poverty is mind boggling. Now, it is not mind boggling that these Marxist states were economic disaster area, as the entire concept of Marxism is essentially a countdown to a country suffering an economic collapse. What is bizarre is the fact that there are significant number of people who still people that Marxism can yield an effective form of government. Why do people still prescribe to such foolish ideologies? Perhaps because they desire to see positives in something that is woefully flawed; oftentimes, the reasoning behind Marxism's failure is that it is the United States who is to blame as it pressured Marxist regimes into militarizing to save themselves. Regardless, the system is flawed and the only people seemingly still prescribing to it are those, ironically, in the academic world. Perhaps working in a University is the only place on the planet where one can claim to be an avowed Marxist and your colleagues will not decry the person making the statement to be a loon. What a strange world!
So, if nothing else, it is important to take Zinn's work with a grain of salt as it is a highly biased perspective on the sins of what it means to be an American. Zinn, despite having been a World War Two veteran, is very much against the military of the United States and spends a great deal of time presenting a very negative portrayal of US military actions throughout history. Some of these condemnations are pretty strong. The problem is that Zinn never puts the military struggles in perspective with the Soviet Communism or European Imperialism that the US had to contend with at certain points in history. In history, context is often everything!
It is also important, however, to note than Zinn makes many excellent points about the cruelty that has been presented in American history. To ignore or to make apologies for crimes committed in history would be intellectually dishonest as well as fraudulent. So, the mere presence of Zinn's book should not be offensive, although there are certain right leaning ideologues who will condemn Zinn's material without providing a decent counterargument in order to support their dissent.
That said, this is still a book that is recommended. To discount Zinn and his work because of a disagreement on his politics is abhorrent and the epitome of ignorance. Read it, review it, contemplate it, and then form an opinion of agreement or disagreement. But whatever you do, never flippantly discount!
7:27 PM
Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home
| I have always imagined that
paradise will be a kind of library. -Jorge Luis Borges |
