Are books written by Howard Zinn Bad?

In Arkansas, a bill is being introduced to ban all of Howard Zinn’s books from being used by any publicly supported schools, which does include charter schools,  as curriculum or course materials, per an article from the Arkansas Times. So, like any good homeschooling mama would do, I set out to learn about who Howard Zinn is and to find out why are books written by Howard Zinn bad!

 

So let’s start with the man himself, Howard Zinn.  Howard Zinn was born in 1922 and grew up in Brooklyn in a working-class, immigrant household. At the age of 18 he became a shipyard worker; three years later, he joined the Air Force. He flew bomber missions during World War II, after which he returned to Brooklyn, got married, and occupied a basement apartment. Per the Zinn Project These experiences in the shipyard and in the Air Force helped shape both his opposition to war and his passion for history.

He went to college under the GI Bill and received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in history. He taught at Spelman College, where he served as an advisor to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and worked with young Civil Rights Movement activists including Alice Walker and Marian Wright Edelman. His politically engaged life brought him into many arenas: imprisonment for civil disobedience, fights for open debate in universities, and activist work from the Vietnam era to the present.

His biography lists him as a historian, playwright, and social activist. In addition to A People’s History of the United States, which has sold more than two million copies, he is the author of many books, including the autobiography You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train, The People Speak, and Passionate Declarations.

The People’s History of the United States IS a best seller, having sold nearly two million copies. And he certainly writes about history from a different perspective… the impoverished farmers, feminists, laborers and resisters of slavery and war, supposedly. Unfortunately, he neglected to provide any evidence of where he got his information. The book has no bibliography. No footnotes. No references. So he writes a revised history without any evidence of this perspective as fact. Which is quite dangerous. If proof is not required, anybody can write any nonsense about anything and be considered credible. 

UPDATE: The book does offer a bibliography!! So, I guess the only reason the book is being banned in AR is because of content. While, I can agree I would not want my children taught history solely from this perspective, I am not sure I agree with banning it.

 

I’ll provide you two different perspectives and you get to choose which you want for your children. And y’all, this is why our right to homeschool is so important. Right now, we can homeschool our children using the materials and curriculum we believe is true and valuable to our children. We are not forced to include or exclude a source we find valuable. So from a homeschooling perspective, it really doesn’t matter which side of this Howard Zinn discussion you fall on… we all need to come together to protect and defend our right to homeschool.

So back to the discussion… here is essentially the two sides of the argument. YOU get to decide what is best for you and your family.

First is Glenn Beck’s study of the man and his written works.

The second is published by Noam Chomsky Videos.

As for me personally and how I will teach my children… I tend to fall into the original sources crowd. So, Howard Zinn’s books would not be on our reading list either way. But I am uber conservative… so I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t use this book as our primary source for anything history related … maybe as an example of a certain philosophy or school of thought. But that is about it. What about you? Will you use Howard Zinn’s books in your homeschool? Leave us a comment with your thoughts!!

I hope this helps clear up what all the fuss is about with Howard Zinn’s books!!

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4 Comments

  1. Thank you for this post. I am writing a section of our high school curriculum on just this sort of thing. This is a perfect example of how propoganda is made and accepted.

  2. Thanks for this, I’m teaching high school students how to write a research paper. They’re learning the importance of a bibliography and works cited. This will give me a great example of why corroborating evidence is important.

      1. Trish, that’s the shoddiest bibliography sample I have ever seen, and Zinn would be laughed out of academic circles if he published this today without proper references. That said, it is an excellent example to use for alternative versions of history. I might use it late in high school.

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