Debunking Howard Zinn

by Mary Grabar

  Introduction: Howard Zinn: Icon, Rock Star

  1. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, Good Will Hunting, https://www.thescriptsource.net/Scripts/Good%20Will%20Hunting.pdf, 48.

  2. “[Great Movie Scenes] Good Will Hunting— Bar Scene,” Youtube, June 23, 2007, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymsHLkB8u3s.

  3. “Matt Damon Heats Up History,” CBS News, December 11, 2009, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/matt-damon-heats-up-history/; Anonymous, Dennis Lewis, and Charles Caro, “Matt Damon: Biography,” IMBD, no date, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000354/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm; Davis D. Joyce, Howard Zinn: A Radical American Vision (New York: Prometheus Books, 2003), 238.

  4. Howard Zinn (adapted by Rebecca Stefoff), A Young People’s History of the United States (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2009), ix-x.

  5. John M. Dunn, The Vietnam War: A History of U.S. Involvement (San Diego: Lucent Books, 2001); John M. Dunn, The Relocation of the North American Indian, (San Diego; Lucent Books, 1995); John M. Dunn, The Civil Rights Movement, (San Diego: Lucent Books, 1998).

  6. Stanley Kurtz, “How Zinn Gets In: Road to a National Curriculum,” National Review, August 17, 2015, https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/how-zinn-gets-road-national-curriculum-stanley-kurtz/.

  7. These include Teaching with Voices of A People’s History of the United States; a teacher’s edition of A People’s History of the United States; and A People’s History for the Classroom, with updated editions coming out periodically—not to mention online resources.

  8. “New History Instructor Engages Students with Role-Play Exercises,” The Ranger, October 8, 2018. http://theranger.org/2018/10/08/new-history-instructor-engages-students-with-role-play-exercises/.

  9. “Howard Zinn: The Historian Liberals Love,” College Insurrection, December 28, 2012, http://collegeinsurrection.com/2012/12/howard-zinn-the-historian-liberals-love/.

  10. W. Jeffrey Ludwig, “We Must Fight for Family Values,” American Thinker, September 2, 2018, https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/09/we_must_fight_for_family_values.html; Jeffrey Ludwig email to the author, September 7, 2018.

  11. Emily Rentz email to the author, October 5, 2018.

  12. Sam Wineburg, “Undue Certainty: Where Howard Zinn’s A People’s History Falls Short,” American Educator, Winter 2012–13, 27–34, https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/Wineburg.pdf.

  13. Peter Charles Hoffer, Past Imperfect: Facts, Fictions, Fraud—American History from Bancroft and Parkman to Ambrose, Bellesiles, Ellis, and Goodwin (New York: Public Affairs, 2004), 14–43. The Ambrose and Goodwin cases are discussed at length in chapter 6, pages 172–207, the Joseph Ellis case in chapter 7, pages 173–229, and Michael Bellesiles in chapter 5, pages 14–71. See also Patricia Cohen, “Scholar Emerges from Doghouse,” New York Times, August 3, 2010, https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/04/books/04bellisles.html.

  14. “David Irving,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Irving; Richard J. Evans, Lying About Hitler: History, Holocaust, and the David Irving Trial (New York: Basic Books, 2001), 4–6.

  15. “Doris Kearns Goodwin Leaves Pulitzer Prize Board,” Wall Street Journal, May 31, 2002, https://archive.is/NGCMG.

  16. Hoffer, Past Imperfect, 217.

  17. Ibid., 155, 162, 166–67. For a more accurate and devastating account of how blatantly Bellesiles distorted the truth and Cramer’s pivotal role in exposing him, see Larry Schweikart, 48 Liberal Lies about American History (New York: Penguin, 2009), 119–24.

  18. Jen Matteis, “Michael Bellesiles: Bartender, Writer, History Buff,” The Day, September 19, 2012, http://www.theday.com/article/20120917/NWS10/309209649.

  19. Joyce, Howard Zinn, 238; Martin Duberman, Howard Zinn: A Life on the Left (New York: New Press, 2012), 309.

  20. James Green, “Howard Zinn’s History,” Chronicle of Higher Education, May 23, 2003, B13–B14.

  21. Ibid.

  22. Gilbert Sewall, “The Howard Zinn Show,” Academic Questions, May 5, 2012, 209–17.

  23. David Detmer, “History Distorted: Sam Wineburg’s Critique of Howard Zinn,” HowardZinn.org, September 21, 2018, https://www.howardzinn.org/history-distorted-sam-wineburgs-critique/.

  24. Author interview of Eugene Genovese, September 1, 2010, Atlanta, Georgia.

  25. William Blum, “Shunning Howard Zinn’s History,” February 6, 2010, Howard Zinn.org. https://www.howardzinn.org/shunning-howard-zinns-history/.

  26. Michael Kammen, “How the Other Half Lived,” Washington Post, March 23, 1980, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1980/03/23/how-the-other-half-lived/ce505900-12fd-427d-a689-90edf3836309/?utm_term=.0dffeb33f831.

  27. Eric Foner email to the author, August 8, 2018.

  28. Eric Foner, “Majority Report,” New York Times, March 2, 1980, BR3.

  29. Rebecca E. Klatch, A Generation Divided: The New Left, the New Right, and the 1960s (Los Angeles: The University of California Press, 1999), 194.

  30. Michael Kazin, “Howard Zinn’s History Lessons,” Dissent, Spring 2004, https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/howard-zinns-history-lessons.

  31. Wineburg, “Undue Certainty.”

  32. Oscar Handlin, “Arawaks” (review of A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn), American Scholar 49:4 (Autumn 1980): 546, 548, 550, https://d3aencwbm6zmht.cloudfront.net/asset/97521/A_Handlin_1980.pdf.

  33. Daniel Flynn, “Howard Zinn’s Biased History,” reprinted from Front Page Magazine in History News Network, June 9, 2003, http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/1493.

  34. David Austin Walsh, “David Barton’s The Jefferson Lies Voted the Least Credible History in Print,” History News Network, July 16, 2012, http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/147149.

  35. Jennifer Schuessler, “TBR: Inside the List,” New York Times, February 14, 2010, A22; Howard Zinn, You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train, (Boston: Beacon Press, 1994), 2.

  36. David Greenberg, “Agit-Prof: Howard Zinn’s Influential Mutilations of American history,” The New Republic, March 19, 2003.

  37. Jennifer Schuessler, “TBR: Inside the List.”

  38. Gil Kaufman, “Howard Zinn, ‘People’s’ Historian, Dead at 87: Leftist Activist Was Admired by Bruce Springsteen, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Others,” MTV News, January 28, 2010, http://www.mtv.com/news/1630657/howard-zinn-peoples-historian-dead-at-87/.

  39. “Obituaries and Tributes,” HowardZinn.org, http://howardzinn.org/about/obituaries-and-tributes/.

  40. Schuessler, “TBR: Inside the List.”

  41. “Even the Rain,” iTunes Movie Trailers, 2011, https://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/eventherain/. “Film Even the Rain/Tambien La Lluvia Dedicated to Howard Zinn,” February 5, 2011, Howard Zinn.org, https://www.howardzinn.org/film-dedicated-to-howard-zinn/.

  42. Chris McCoy, “Music Video Monday: Alex Greene and the Rolling Head Orchestra,” Memphis Flyer, October 8, 2018, https://www.memphisflyer.com/FilmTVEtcBlog/archives/2018/10/08/music-video-monday-alex-greene-and-the-rolling-head-orchestra.

  43. “Riz Ahmed to Star in ‘Englistan,’ BBC Series about Three Generations of an Immigrant Family,” Scroll.in, May 1, 2018, https://scroll.in/reel/877472/riz-ahmed-to-star-in-englistan-bbc-series-about-three-generations-of-an-immigrant-family.

  44. “The People Speak,” Brooklyn Academy of Music, March 21, 2017, https://www.bam.org/talks/2017/the-people-speak.

  45. Loren Hunt, “Maybe He’s Right: Bob Weick, Currently Playing Karl Marx,” Philebrity, January 25, 1017, http://www.philebrity.com/blog/2017/1/25/maybe-hes-right-bob-weick-currently-playing-karl-marx.

  46. “Karl Marx Comes to Kings Arms Salford,” Salford Star, May 26, 2018, http://www.salfordstar.com/article.asp?id=4528; Henrik Eger, “Touring Marx in Soho in Britain and the US: Interview with Bob Weick, Celebrating Marx’s 200th Birthday, Part 2,” Phindie, June 6, 2018, http://phindie.com/touring-marx-in-soho-in-britain-and-the-us-interview-with-bob-weick-celebrating-marxs-200th-birthday-part-2/; Henrik Eger, “Dramatizing Rev
olution: Howard Zinn’s ‘Marx in Soho,’ ” Progressive, May 5, 2018, http://progressive.org/dispatches/Dramatizing-Revolution-Howard-Zinns-Marx-in-Soho-180505/.

  47. “April 29–May 1: Grrrl Brigade, Decorator Showcase, S.F. Dance Film Festival, Dia de los Libros, Harp Concert, Earplay, Ty Segall, Magic Lantern 3-D Show,” San Francisco Examiner, April 28, 2018, http://www.sfexaminer.com/april-29-may-1-grrrl-brigade-decorator-showcase-s-f-dance-film-festival-dia-de-los-libros-harp-concert-earplay-ty-segall/.

  48. Brendan Kiley, “The Truth Is Out There: Monolinguist Mike Daisey on Lies, History and Howard Zinn at Seattle Rep,” October 29, 2018, https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/theater/the-truth-is-out-there-monologuist-mike-daisey-on-lies-history-and-howard-zinn-at-seattle-rep/.

  49. “Voices of a People’s History,” City Parks Foundation, August 28, 2018, https://cityparksfoundation.org/events/voices-of-a-peoples-history/?date=20180828; Andrea Park, “Viggo Mortensen Urges Americans to Look to History to Understand Current Political Climate,” CBS, August 28, 2018, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/viggo-mortensen-urges-americans-to-look-to-history-to-understand-current-political-climate/.

  50. Alexia Nader, “The Occupy Wall Street Library,” New Yorker, September 29, 2011, https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-occupy-wall-street-library; Emily Shugerman, “ ‘Frustration, Anger, Helplessness’: Virginia Pipeline Protesters on What Drove Them to Live in the Trees: The Independent Spoke with Protesters about Why They’re Staging Tree Sits along the Proposed Pipeline Route,” Independent, May 5, 2018, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/tree-sit-mountain-valley-pipeline-west-virginia-red-terry-franklin-county-protest-a8337311.html.

  51. Alex Reimer, “Martellus Bennett Tweets Out Scathing Criticism of Columbus Day,” Radio.Com, October 8, 2018, https://weei.radio.com/blogs/alex-reimer/martellus-bennett-twitter-former-patriots-tight-end-writes-scathing-criticism.

  52. Mike Finger, “Turning Back Time, Gay Gets Spurs Moving,” San Antonio Express-News, October 18, 2018, https://www.expressnews.com/spurs-nation/article/Turning-back-time-Gay-gets-Spurs-moving-13316420.php.

  53. Sarah Giddings, “Making People’s History in Arizona: Educators Rise Up: We Had No Other Choice but to Demonstrate Our Basic Civil Liberties in Pursuit of Real, Transformative Change—by Walking Out of Our Classrooms Together and into the Capitol on the Historic Day of April 26, 2018,” Common Dreams, April 30, 2018, https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/04/30/making-peoples-history-arizona-educators-rise.

  54. Sean P. Means, “Utah Students Rap and Sing Their Way onto the ‘Hamilton’ Stage: About 2,000 High School Students from around the State Heard Advice from the Show’s Cast, Then Got to See the Tony-Winning Musical,” Salt Lake Tribune, May 4, 2018, https://www.sltrib.com/artsliving/arts/2018/05/04/utah-students-take-their-shot-rapping-and-singing-about-history-on-the-hamilton-stage/.

  55. “Call for Proposals! #zinn2018: 5th Annual Howard Zinn Book Fair,” December 2, 2018, San Francisco, https://howardzinnbookfair.com/; Melanie West and Joan Bender, “A People’s Book Fair,” Socialist Worker, November 15, 2017, https://socialistworker.org/2017/11/15/a-peoples-book-fair.

  56. Lisa Butterworth, “The Books High School Students Should Be Reading, according to USC Professors: Sure, Everyone Reads To Kill a Mockingbird, but Faculty Members from USC’s Department of English Have Updated Suggestions for Today’s Teens,” USC News (University of Southern California), August 8, 2018, https://news.usc.edu/146764/the-books-high-school-students-should-be-reading-according-to-usc-professors/.

  57. “Events Calendar: Howard Zinn’s Play, ‘Marx in Soho,’ ” February 13, 2018, Grand Valley State University, http://www.gvsu.edu/events/howard-zinns-play-marx-in-soho/.

  58. “Economics Department Presents Performance of Howard Zinn’s ‘Marx in Soho,’ ” Carleton, September 27, 2013, https://apps.carleton.edu/media_relations/press_releases/?story_id=1048664.

  59. “All-School Seminar Day 2017,” New Trier High School, no date, http://www.newtrier.k12.il.us/seminarday/.

  60. Howard Zinn, “Quotable Quote,” Goodreads, no date, https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/163932-civil-disobedience-is-not-our-problem-our-problem-is-civil.

  61. David Detmer, Zinnophobia: The Battle over History in Education, Politics, and Scholarship (Hampshire, UK: Zero Books, 2018).

  62. Sam Allard, “High Note: Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird Soars,” San Antonio Current, November 15, 2017, https://www.sacurrent.com/sanantonio/high-note-greta-gerwigs-lady-bird-soars/Content?oid=7249558.

  63. Wineburg, “Undue Certainty.”

  64. “Bashing Howard Zinn: A Critical Look at One of the Critics,” Zinn Education Project, November 18, 2013, https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/bashing-howard-zinn-a-critical-look-at-one-of-the-critics/.

  65. “San Francisco Unified School District Hosts People’s History Workshop for All District Librarians,” Zinn Education Project, September 13, 2018, https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/san-francisco-unified-school-district-workshop; “Workshops,” Zinn Education Project; Request Form: Zinn Education Project Workshop, no date, https://zinned.wufoo.com/forms/request-form-zinn-education-project-workshop/.

  66. Paul Bowers, “Reconstruction Era Comes to Life in New Initiative for SC History Classes,” Post and Courier, October 19, 2018, https://www.postandcourier.com/news/reconstruction-era-comes-to-life-in-new-initiative-for-sc/article_f7ffcf04-d231-11e8-9f57-cb23942ffdc2.html; Paul Bowers, “Proposed S.C. Social Studies Standards Don’t Mention MLK, Rosa Parks or John C. Calhoun,” Post and Courier, February 2, 2018, https://www.postandcourier.com/news/proposed-s-c-social-studies-standards-don-t-mention-mlk/article_8492b92c-075d-11e8-bfaa-0fa934b57487.html.

  67. Adam Sanchez, “When Black Lives Mattered: Why Teach Reconstruction,” September 19, 2017, https://www.zinnedproject.org/if-we-knew-our-history/when-black-lives-mattered/. “Teach Reconstruction Campaign,” https://www.zinnedproject.org/campaigns/teach-reconstruction/.

  68. “Abolish Columbus Day Campaign,” Zinn Education Project, https://www.zinnedproject.org/campaigns/abolish-columbus-day; “Teaching Materials,” Zinn Education Project, https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials; Perry Stein, “Rush Limbaugh Attacks the Bookstore at Busboys and Poets,” Washington City Paper, June 17, 2014, https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/city-desk/blog/13068736/rush-limbaugh-attacks-the-bookstore-at-busboys-and-poets; Susan Berry, “Zinn Education Project Launches Campaign to ‘Kick Koch Brothers Out of Our Schools,” Breitbart, December 15, 2014, http://www.breitbart.com/Texas/2014/12/15/ZINN-Education-Project-Launches-Anti-Koch-Campaign/.

  69. Wineburg, “Undue Certainty.”

  70. Will Bunch, “Howard Zinn Book in Philly Schools? Yes, Please!”, Philadelphia Inquirer, October 24, 2103, http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/Howard-Zinn-book-in-Philly-schools-Yes-please.html.

  71. “A Discussion with Howard Zinn,” in A People’s History of the United States (New York: HarperCollins, 2003), 3.

  72. Ivan I. Kurilla and Victoria I. Zhuraleva, “Teaching U.S. History in Russia: Issues, Challenges, and Prospects,” Journal of American History, 96:4, (March 2010), 1138–44.

  73. Ahmed Akhtar, “A Power Governments Cannot Suppress by Howard Zinn, a Companion Guide to Present-Day Life in America,” Daily Princetonian, February 20, 2017, http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/blog/intersections/2017/02/zinn-book-review; Zoe Ervolino, “Cornel West’s History,” Yale Herald, February 16, 2018, https://yaleherald.com/cornel-wests-history-1446f43627c7.

  74. Rochelle Riley, “Parkland Shooting Should Have Spurred More Political Disobedience,” Detroit Daily News, February 25, 2018, https://www.freep.com/story/news/columnists/rochelle-riley/2018/02/25/riley-parkland-shooting-political-disobedience/365506002/.

  75. Associated Press, “Camille Cosby’s Statement: ‘Lynch Mobs’ Led to Conviction,” Philadelphia Tribune, May 4, 2018, http://www.phillytrib.com/news/camille-cosby-s-statement-lynch-mobs-led-to-convictions/article_886edb04-430b-5742-aaf6-ea908ed86a79.html.

&n
bsp; 76. James Kloppenberg, Reading Obama: Dreams, Hopes and the American Political Tradition (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011), 27.

  77. Peter Wood, “Defending a Debased Version of the Liberal Arts,” National Association of Scholars, June 7, 2018, https://www.nas.org/articles/pushing_american_history_as_a_long_tale_of_oppression.

  78. “Pearls of Wisdom,” The Rush Limbaugh Show, December 20, 2016, https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2016/12/20/pearls_of_wisdom-137/.

  79. “Indiana Schools Host People’s History Workshops,” Zinn Education Project, April 19, 2018, https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/indiana-schools-host-peoples-history-workshops/.

  80. Bill Bigelow “Arkansas’ Howard Zinn Witch-Hunt Fizzles,” Zinn Education Project, April 4, 2017, https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/arkansas-howard-zinn-witch-hunt-fizzles/.

  81. Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States (New York: HarperCollins, 2003), 10.

  82. Bruce Kuklick, “The People? Yes.,” The Nation, May 24, 1980, 634–36.

  83. “Books—Authors,” New York Times, January 1, 1959, 29.

  84. Sam Roberts, “Carl N. Degler, 93, A Scholarly Voice of the Oppressed,” New York Times, January 14, 2015, 22.

  85. Charles A. Barker, review of Out of Our Past: The Forces that Shaped Modern America by Carl N. Degler, The American Historical Review, Vol. 65, No. 1, (October 1959), 131–32.

  86. Vincent P. Carosso, review of Out of Our Past: The Forces That Shaped Modern America by Carl N. Degler, The Business History Review, Vol. 33, No. 4 (Winter, 1959), 582–583.

  87. “Oscar Handlin,” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Handlin; Stephan Thernstrom, “In Memoriam, Oscar Handlin (1915–2011),” Perspectives on History, January 2012; https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/january-2012/in-memoriam-oscar-handlin.

  88. Oscar Handlin, Truth in History (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Cambridge University Press, 1979), 82–83.

  89. Green, “Howard Zinn’s History,” B13–B14.