The Wall Street Journal recently published an editorial by David J. Bobb titled, "Howard Zinn and the Art of Anti-Americanism"
Here's my reply:
Mr. Bobb,
It is not anti-American to criticize America. It can be a deep expression of patriotism. I'm sure you didn't think yourself anti-American when in a lecture you said, "Washington, D.C. has banned common sense and fiscal sanity."
I wouldn't want Howard Zinn's books to be the only ones my kids were taught by, but I would definitely want them to be part of the mix. All my schooling until college taught me Columbus was a hero. Zinn was the first person to complicate that picture (in large part by quoting extensively from Columbus's own journals). I'm grateful to have been given information to help me get closer to the truth, even if I did lose a bit of innocence.
I was a student of Howard Zinn's in the late 80s. His classes (which were held in a movie theater because they were so widely attended) always ended with an extended period of class discussion. There were plenty of conservative voices and Zinn treated everyone with respect. He never resorted to name-calling or labeling when speaking to people he disagreed with, unlike you, who do not offer a single substantive argument against any of Zinn's teachings.
Have you ever demanded "hard evidence" of positive results from the teaching of a conservative history book? (What would that hard evidence be?)
Zinn often spoke against the illusion of objectivity, against the judges and teachers and historians who tried to cloak their feelings in a pretense of dispassionate observation. Over and over again you're basically saying "Howard Zinn is a liberal and I hate liberals!" Sometimes you try to dress that up with words like "divisive" and "pessimism", but you seem to give no thought to the actual meanings of those words.
"Divisive"? Is that an inherent flaw? Would you have a problem with divisiveness coming from a conservative historian? Your editorial is pretty divisive with its talk of Marxists and Hollywood liberals. When you say "divisive" you really just mean un-conservative. Likewise "anti-American."
And likewise "Pessimism." Howard Zinn was a harsh critic of this country, but he had great love and sympathy for its citizens. He celebrated courage and compassion and people who fought for survival and dignity and basic human rights and peace. I find your extended ad-hominem dismissal of such a man the height of pessimism.
__
To their credit, The Wall Street Journal published a different version of this letter, albeit slightly neutered.
Note: This was originally posted on August 14, 2013 (as the comments below indicate) but I pulled it once the WSJ expressed an interest, until they had their version up.