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Are you under the impression that this is a textbook for schools?
"since 1970", are you saying that before 1970 history was different?
I am saying that since 1970 there has been a decided left leaning revisionism in history textbooks. I started looking for a new book that told something like I had been taught and had been teaching since 1960 in about 1975 and there just weren't any I could accept. Yes, I am saying that the strong left leaning revisionism has had a strong affect on what is being taught in our schools these days and the "history" is much different. Just look at how the Founders are treated in the modern books.
I am saying that since 1970 there has been a decided left leaning revisionism in history textbooks. I started looking for a new book that told something like I had been taught and had been teaching since 1960 in about 1975 and there just weren't any I could accept. Yes, I am saying that the strong left leaning revisionism has had a strong affect on what is being taught in our schools these days and the "history" is much different. Just look at how the Founders are treated in the modern books.
Whatever, but this isn't a textbook.
But you seem VERY uncomfortable that unflattering history would be made public. You'd rather have.... what?
OK, now tell me how the next step of Marxist theory comes to replace the Dictatorship. It can never happen because those being dictated to and for will eventually realize that it will never go away. I love the flowery sounds of what communism will bring "the masses".
OK, now tell me how the next step of Marxist theory comes to replace the Dictatorship. It can never happen because those being dictated to and for will eventually realize that it will never go away. I love the flowery sounds of what communism will bring "the masses".
You're off on a strange tangent. Want to stay on topic?
However, it is used by many to "flesh" out the story of our history and Zinn just happened to be one of the people that old Joe McCarthy was after along with all those in government.
However, it is used by many to "flesh" out the story of our history and Zinn just happened to be one of the people that old Joe McCarthy was after along with all those in government.
And that was evil of Zinn, to color outside the lines Joe set.
I am saying that since 1970 there has been a decided left leaning revisionism in history textbooks. I started looking for a new book that told something like I had been taught and had been teaching since 1960 in about 1975 and there just weren't any I could accept. Yes, I am saying that the strong left leaning revisionism has had a strong affect on what is being taught in our schools these days and the "history" is much different. Just look at how the Founders are treated in the modern books.
Historiography constantly changes. A history book written in 1960 would have been very different from one written in 1930 (and not just because of the lack of coverage of the Depression, WW2, and Cold War). Furthermore, a history textbook used in an American school in the Northern or Western US in 1960 would have been different than one used in an American school in the Southern US or Texas (which is really a region unto itself in the US).
Re: Zinn, like many works of popular history Peoples' History does have a decided political slant. It's definitely slanted towards the left just as Paul Johnson's works of popular history are slanted towards the right . Zinn's specialty was labor history and he did a very good job of covering labor history. He was quite weak when it came to cultural history and Latin American history and those weaknesses show in the book. However, regardless of his former CPUSA membership and former SWP membership (not sure when he left the SWP, I'd guess by the late '60s?), he was not an authoritarian ; Peoples' History is chock full of accounts of oppression of the working classes and poor by excessive government power or collusion of government with corporations as well as corporations themselves. Zinn himself helped the cause of freedom by helping to get the Pentagon Papers published. He was a self admitted Marxist but did believe in democracy and civil liberties.
You may not agree with his politics - I don't agree with some of them - but he is worth reading. I don't think Peoples History should be regarded as an authoritative source but rather one that leads to reading other, more thorough, less slanted sources.
I remember Jim Carroll, and nice quote: it proves that Jim Carroll's dad was aware that he himself was a helpless, hopeless prole who couldnt expect to live comfortably or provide for his family because he wasn't a part of the ruling class. I dont see what you mean by "convenient". Look at the knee-jerk posts in this thread as a tiny example of how POVs such as Zinn's are feared and shunned.
OK...I am no knee-jerk right winger and I even voted for Obama...but to tell the truth, I think Jim Carroll's dad had it right--and furthermore Carroll himself sort of got the point, or he wouldn't included it in such a poignant and telling vignette in his autobiography.
P.S. I happened to see Carroll perform live in 2000 and it's an experience I'll never forget.
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