He is almost relentless in depriving the US of any credit at all. Howard Zinn's critical history of the American Revolution against British rule and its impact on ordinary people. Had Lincoln emancipated the slaves by decree upon assuming the presidency—had that even been possible—more states might have joined the Confederacy, which would have meant that the North would have lost the war and slavery would have persisted for longer.Christopher J. Ferguson is author of Moral Combat: Why the War on Violent Video Games is Wrong as well as the historical mystery novel Suicide Kings. His A People’s History of the United States is a best-seller that routinely sells more than one hundred thousand copies every year, despite being published 35 years ago. Most went to South America and the Caribbean.Contrary to the belief that whites landed raiding parties that went into peaceful African villages and captured people for enslavement, black African tyrants maintained slave markets on the coast, where anyone could land a ship and purchase slaves. He is a professor of psychology at Stetson University in Florida. His forthcoming book How Madness Shaped History will be available in January. Mao’s brutal and murderous revolutionary faction, which caused the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese is described by Zinn as “a Communist movement with enormous mass support.” If older historians’ celebration of Columbus’ adventures and omission of their effects on indigenous peoples is, as Zinn suggests, irresponsible history telling, this certainly is too.Zinn also fails to provide broader historical context.

This does not mean that we should excuse the serious moral lapses of slavery and aggressive wars against indigenous people, but we should understand these in the context of generally poor human behavior at that time. Around 1776, certain important people in the English colonies made a discovery that would prove enormously useful for the next two hundred years. Editor's Note July 31, 2020: Checkout The Best American History Book for a detailed review of all the top american history books. Do they even really know why they’re attacking history, or are many just following the path set for them by history teachers using the flawed work of Howard Zinn?For example, a statue of George Washington in Portland, Oregon was spray-painted with “genocidal colonist” and torn down and his head set on fire with a U.S. flag.
Every decision made by the US—including our involvement in both world wars—is interpreted in the worst possible way, while atrocities committed by other cultures are barely mentioned. For instance, Zinn seems almost desperate to paint Lincoln as unconcerned about slavery, yet even the examples Zinn provides suggest a president wrestling with the practical realities of the Civil War—not someone indifferent to the plight of slaves. The charge is ridiculous but goes along with the increasing There is merit in having a meaningful historical and philosophical discussion about America’s heritage and the flawed characters who created it, but this mob mentality that anything or anyone who does not fit the progressive, liberal mold must be erased from the history books is both wrong and suggests a growing level of historical ignorance.He wasn’t trying to create a complex narrative about American history by sharing the stories, both good and bad, about the Founding Fathers. after Lepanto.Part and parcel of White Guilt — whitey responsible for every problem in the world.If you enjoy our articles, be a part of our growth and help us produce more writing for you: As I note in my own book Zinn rightly criticizes past historians for skipping past inconvenient details, but then does the same thing in his own narrative. Before the mid-twentieth century—and all too often afterward—the history of humankind in most cultures was one of aggression, barbarism, elitism and ethnic strife.

The horrors of Maoist China are brushed off entirely, as are the failings of Communism wherever it has been tried. For the full ranking, see below. Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States considers the history of the US from the perspective of the underdog: the lower classes, workers, women, immigrants, African slaves and their descendants and indigenous people.The Washington Post has described Zinn as a hero of the modern far-left, with his pessimistic reading of US history and socialist or even neo-Marxist leanings. In the United States, propaganda has replaced history in most classrooms.This is the legacy of Howard Zinn, a “historian” who wrote a book called From George Washington to Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, no American historical figure is currently safe from the woke mob who believes a lie propagated by Howard Zinn: That the United States is “a racist criminal enterprise built on murdering Indians, exploiting slaves, and oppressing the working man.”Though the book was originally written 1980, it has gained a cult following and is now the basis for much, if not most, of the history taught in public school classrooms and universities across the country. Zinn is correct that the narrative of American exceptionalism often glosses over inconvenient truths. I’m skeptical of the insinuation that the world would have been better had the US made Zinn’s morally pure choices at every turn. But Zinn is equally guilty of promoting what might be called Zinn also presents historical moments as exceedingly simple moral choices, in which the US consistently fails to make the right choice. It’s dangerous and has directly contributed to the violence towards the Founding Fathers and their memorials.He has inspired a generation to hate and not think, to be emotional and not rational, and to destroy history rather than learn from it.As a result of this violence, this Fourth of July feels more poignant than most.

Zinn’s writing can be dense, and is broken up by multiple lengthy quotations. The problem is that Zinn’s book, and the 1619 Project, are both anti-American and really bad history. Zinn’s history promotes a moral ideal devoid of practical ramifications. What Zinn really wanted to do was push his dangerous and communist-based philosophy on unsuspecting American students.What Zinn is essentially saying is that he understands all historians have bias, which they do, but instead of combating that bias he wanted to embrace it. In the book “Debunking Howard Zinn: Exposing the Fake History that Turned a Generation Against America,” author Mary Grabar exposes Zinn’s beliefs and how he manipulated history to meet his own ends, not educate Americans.