Friends, conservatives, my fellow Americans, lend me your ears; I come to bury Howard Zinn, not to praise him.
Unlike the eulogy famously delivered by Marc Anthony in the second scene of the third act in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, I will not speak in double entendre. I will not describe the late Mr. Zinn as being an honorable man, but I am sincere when I say that he was ambitious.
I cannot call this writing a eulogy, but neither will I celebrate Mr. Zinn's death. Unlike our liberal pundits, who routinely hope for the death of prominent conservatives or opponents to their cause, I do not make light of the death of any man. I cannot cheer for the death of anyone for any reason. Nor can I in good conscience pretend to celebrate his life, especially in view of the damage done by his life's work.
The professor emeritus of political science at Boston University gained considerable fame for authoring A People's History of the United States, a book described by David Horowitz as "Marxist", though his assertion might actually be a bit of an understatement. In Howard Zinn's eyes, Maoist China, Castro's Cuba and Stalin's Russia came far closer to achieving utopian societies than our American founding fathers. In Zinn's mind they wrote the Declaration of Independence not as a statement of rights but "a cynical means of manipulating popular groups into overthrowing the King to benefit the rich." [i]
Zinn explained his book was not objective and openly admitted his bias toward "the victims" of American heroes. History books that are not written from an objective point of view do not in fact recount history. In Zinn's account of America, Columbus was a genocidal murderer. America was to blame for Pearl Harbor. American capitalism, not the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand started World War I. In other words, facts are inconvenient and have nothing to do with history as it "should have been."
Nevertheless, Zinn remained celebrated by other professors and his work heavily utilized in class. Columbia history professor Eric Foner wrote in a glowing New York Times review A People's History should be required reading and "[h]istorians may well view it as a step toward a coherent new version of American history." If Foner had said "an incoherent" new version of history, his review would have made more sense.
Nevertheless, liberal professors in economics, political science, literature and even women's studies liberally use the text as curriculum material in spite of its dubious relevance to their subject. With over two million copies sold, it remains one of the most influential books on any subject in universities today.
Of course Zinn's passing will not go without mourners. Liberal Hollywood elites are sure to be wearing sackcloth and ashes. The History Channel recently presented a special titled The People Speak which was produced by Zinn with actors Matt Damon (a huge fan of Zinn) and Josh Brolin. The show featured Danny Glover, Viggo Mortensen, and a star-studded cast full of Hollywood's finest. In an interview with Zinn promoting the special, Bill Moyers playfully asked "So history and Hollywood - is this the beginning of a new career for you?"
Uh, Bill...the answer to your question would be no. Hollywood's love affair with Zinn is old hat. It dates back more than a decade.
In the movie Good Will Hunting (which was released in 1997), the titular character played by Matt Damon told his shrink Robin Williams (not AT's Robin of Berkeley) "If you want to read a real history book, read Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. That book will knock you on your ass."
Damon and Ben Affleck co-wrote the script for the movie which became their big break, and the influence of Zinn is remarkably clear. The common-man janitor is superior intellectually to the best and brightest society has to offer. Certainly the janitor who digests organic chemistry and books by Nietzsche when he isn't getting smashed with his buddies is atypical to say the least.
It isn't remarkable Zinn's writing heavily influenced young Matt Damon. As a child he grew up a neighbor of Zinn's and became a disciple of the political scientist's work early in life. Their long term acquaintance resulted in Damon narrating A People's History of the United States for the audio CD while still a teenager.
A particularly troubling comment Zinn made regarding his ability to influence our future understanding of history through his biased rewriting of it was "I wanted my writing of history to be part of social struggle. I wanted to be part of history and not just a recorder and teacher of history. So that kind of attitude toward history, history itself as a political act, has always informed my writing and my teaching." [ii]
Zinn was remarkably straightforward about how his revisionist perception of America shaped his writing. In his foreword to the audio CD version of A People's History of the United States Zinn said in his own words:
When I tell about Columbus and emphasize not his navigational skill and fortitude in making his way to the Western hemisphere, but his cruel treatment of the Indians he found here, torturing them, exterminating them in his greed for gold and his desperation to bring riches back to his patrons back in Spain. In other words, my focus is not on the achievements of heroes of traditional American history, but on all those people who were victims of those achievements, who suffered silently but fought back magnificently. To emphasize the heroism of Columbus and his successors as navigators and discoverers and to de-emphasize their genocide is not a technical necessity, but an ideological choice. It serves unwittingly to justify what was done. My point is not that in telling history we must accuse, judge, condemn Columbus in absentia. It's too late for that. It would be a useless, scholarly exercise in morality. But the easy acceptance of atrocities as a deplorable but necessary price to pay for progress-Hiroshima and Vietnam to save Western civilization...nuclear proliferation to save us all. That is still with us.
In Zinn's perverse world, American achievements are accomplished at the expense and suffering of innocent people and brutal murderers in Communist regimes are excused from guilt, and their crimes ignored. The Gettysburg Address - not worth mentioning. Reagan's courageous "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" - didn't make the cut. The Normandy invasion might have been discussed if it didn't require space on the several pages that were needed to excoriate America for the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.
After all, A People's History was only 700 pages long. There just wasn't enough room.
The most appropriate closing to note Zinn's passing is also borrowed from Shakespeare: "the evil that men do lives after them." Howard Zinn may be dead, but the legacy of his polluting young minds with anti-capitalism, socialist rhetoric will continue as long as A People's History of the United States is considered reference material.
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[i] The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America, written by David Horowitz from Regnery Publishing, page 361.
[ii] Ibid, page 359.
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John Leonard is the Atlanta Creationism writer for examiner.com. His first book, titled Hybrid Theory: Reconciling Creationism and Evolution Theory, is pending publication by epress-online.
Contact John at john@southernprose.com
