The Destruction of American History and the Cult of Howard Zinn
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 The People’s History of the United States, which disparages the nation’s history and exceptionalism and replaces it with a pro-communist ideology. His work has become the standard text in most classrooms, which may partly explain the current violence against statues and monuments throughout the country.
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. The New York Times article series the 1619 Project, is a spiritual successor in many ways to Zinn’s work.
The problem is that Zinn’s book, and the 1619 Project, are both anti-American and really bad history.
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.
She writes, “Zinn’s history was written in a manner that spoke ‘directly’ to student’s ‘hearts,’ but his ‘power of persuasion’ was dangerous because it ‘extinguishes students’ ability to think.”
Throughout the country, young men and women are currently vandalizing and/or tearing down statues of historical figures, but for what end? 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. The charge is ridiculous but goes along with the increasing narrative that the “colonists,” in general, participated in genocide towards native populations. Washington also owned slaves, another strike against him.
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.
But, of course, that’s what Zinn wanted.
He wasn’t trying to create a complex narrative about American history by sharing the stories, both good and bad, about the Founding Fathers. What Zinn really wanted to do was push his dangerous and communist-based philosophy on unsuspecting American students.
In an “Afterword” for his book, Zinn wrote, “By the time I began teaching and writing, I had no illusions about ‘objectivity,’ if that meant avoiding a point of view. I knew that a historian (or a journalist, or anyone telling a story) was forced to choose, out of an infinite number of facts, what to present, what to omit. And that decision inevitably would reflect, whether consciously or not, the interests of the historian.”
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. He would cherry pick the facts that served his beliefs and his point of view, not look at the facts objectively and make conclusions based on all the information available.
Zinn’s brand of history is not based on fact, but his opinion and interpretation, supplemented with small grains of the truth. 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. No longer will the majority of Americans celebrate our shared history and the freedom that this nation offers, but instead some will actively seek to destroy it.
Photo from Shutterstock
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brittany Raymer serves as a policy analyst at Focus on the Family, researching and writing about abortion, assisted suicide, bioethics and a variety of other issues involving the sanctity of human life and broader social issues. She regularly contributes articles to The Daily Citizen and has written op-eds published in The Christian Post and The Washington Examiner. Previously, Raymer worked at Samaritan’s Purse in several roles involving research, social media and web content management. While there, she also contributed research for congressional testimonies and assisted with the Ebola crisis response. Raymer earned a bachelor of arts in history at Seattle Pacific University and completed a master’s degree in history at Liberty University in Virginia. She lives in Colorado Springs with her beloved Yorkie-Poo, Pippa.
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