It has been about a week since I heard the news that Howard Zinn passed away of a heart attack at 87. Although Zinn had a long and fulfilling life it was a bit shocking to me as I found him to be someone who would live forever. For the next two hours I searched the web for any material, articles, news stories, anything relating to the late historian. I found some heart-felt reflections by many people, historians and other s who felt the world’s moral spirit got lighter as Zinn left our world. Unfortunately, and not surprisingly his name was not mentioned on any mainstream media outlet. Some op-ed pieces in a few major newspapers, but that was about it. Along with the praise for ZInn, came a flood of people taking the opportunity to bash the historian for his biases and his “abuse” of a scholarly field. I found this to be especially disturbing. Not only because the man had just died, but because they were full of such contempt for a man who has changed an entire generation’s view of American history.
Anyone who knows me well enough knows that Zinn is the reason I want to teach history. I am not unique in this story. I have met many people at school and elsewhere that have had their entire minds changed by Zinn’s famous book, “A People’s History of the United States.” I’ve also met many people, including myself who have been led to become activists based on Zinn’s work and inspiration. For those who don’t know much about Zinn, his message was clear: Throughout US history there was a whole ton of racism, class warfare, sexism, and other forms of oppression. People often fought these obstacles and sometimes they won. Without radicals in our history we would not have had abolition when we did, women would not have had the right to vote, black people would still be segregated, we would have stayed in Vietnam much longer ect ect. To me, that is the most important thing to take from Zinn.
Yet, as the week went on I found just as many Zinn bashings as I did Zinn accolades. The most alarming of the bunch was an article called “America the Awful,” by a historian named Ron Radosh. His premise was that Zinn was not a historian at all, he was a “propagandist.” He says this due to the fact that Zinn claims to serve a higher purpose with his writing. Rather than presenting some analysis of the past that only scholars are going to read, Zinn uses the past to urge people to solve the problems of the present. He does not do this in a way that distorts history, nor lacks evidence, or anything else that he is accused of by the intellectual right. Zinn presents this like any historian would. Those who disparage Zinn act like the left historians are the only ones to use their craft for some political purpose. I also find it obnoxious that there is this idea that because someone lets their bias be known in historical writing that they are writing "bad" history. That's nonsense. Every piece of writing has a bias and I commend Zinn for having been up front about it.
He never once said this is the be all end all of American history. The title of the book is "A People's History of the United States" not "A Complete History of the United States from Everyone's Perspective" It's also a fleeting history, and intended for non scholars, so he inevitably is going to have to leave stuff out and make it accessible to the public. Any mainstream history does the same thing. It does not make him a "propagandist.” Zinn used history for something much greater and more meaningful than most "scholars” and that is the most courageous thing I find anyone in academia has done.
Every historian interprets history differently, something you learn in your intro classes. Zinn's work shows the voices of the past that are usually left out of our historical memory. Radosh says he presents the people as weak and always succumbing to the will of those in power. To me that says he has not read anything written by Zinn, and it suggests that his view of Zinn is solely based on Zinn’s reputation.
Our textbooks and most other mainstream history present our leaders and powerful businessmen as heroes and idols. Zinn brings them back to earth and shows that, like those in power today, they were often not willing to give up their power and wealth for the sake of the people. Howard Zinn brought balance to mainstream American history. His work indeed needs to be complemented with other works. It should not be taken as the definite history, but there is no history that should be taken as a complete history. Unfortunately, not everyone is a scholar, and they indeed do take certain books as the only historical reality, but there is no reason to bash Howard Zinn for this reality.
Howard Zinn will always be in my heart, not just as an aspiring historian, but as an activist and an intellectual who had the courage to practice what he wrote about. His legacy is comprehensive, his spirit will be with an entire generation of activists and writers. Howard Zinn’s death not only shocked me as I thought he could live forever, but it also put two contrasting emotions in my heart: fear that there wouldn’t be anyone to take the torch, but also hope. His death has given me hope that people will start talking about him again and will pick up his book and read his message. It gives me hope that they will see the wretched position of our ancestors and see that they often responded by breaking unjust laws, and fighting back in the masses. We need that today as much as we needed it in any other period of history. Our politicians are bought off by corporations, we continue to wage war for resources and markets, we have something called drone bombs where people in the US control remote bombs that indiscriminately kill innocent people on the other side of the world. We lose aspects of our democracy daily and it seems like most people don’t care. They don’t care because they flood their brains with mindless entertainment, and are misinformed about their own society.
I had the pleasure of being able to see Howard Zinn speak at The College of New Jersey in 2007. I wasn’t even officially enrolled in the school yet, but I snuck in to the lecture room to hear the man speak in person. His lecture was entitled “Bringing Democracy Alive.” His idea was that those who organize and break unjust laws are the most patriotic of all. We don’t currently have a true democracy. We have a corportocracy. My hope is that we use Zinn to look in the past at those who were fed up with their oppressive situation and rebelled. As Zinn put it, when people without any guns, power, or wealth organize and get together for a certain cause they can create a movement that no government can suppress.
-Greg
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