Censorship of American History

[Chris James]

Let's start here:  https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/8917fa7f-9aef-3651-80ec-f6e4b8e73bd8/ss_censoring-howard-zinn-and.html

 

There have been revisionists in every nation on the planet who would change the facts of history to suit their own interests. The most prominent textual changes have probably been in religious books....the Bible comes to mind. But the history of the Americas has been under assault ever since the first white man set foot on these shores, decided this was an uncivilized land, and claimed it all in the name of some foreign power.

Howard Zinn is famous, or infamous, depending on your point of view. Needless to say he will not be celebrated as a great scholar in Arkansas any time soon, but what do they know? Radical thoughts about American history beyond the flag waving apple pie bunch of conservatives means his latest book had to be banned.

In all honesty, I have not read this book, yet. Needless to say it will not be high on the list of acquisitions my local library will order this year. But it is available from Amazon at a reasonable price and I am awaiting delivery. A Peoples History of the United States, sounds like a good read to me.

So read the article and try to see how the contents might fit into your way of thinking. I will read the book and get back to you here once that is accomplished. I love a good story, especially when someone digs thru the American trash bin to write it. I don't doubt the residents of Arkansas will be thrilled to know their state is protecting them from certain knowledge. I intend to read and find out what they don't know, evaluate the words in the book and compare them to  what I already know. Arkansas won't find out until Breitbart  News tells them what to think. Sad.   

[ChrisR]

You'll likely enjoy the book. It was great many years back in its first iteration, and I'll hope it has even more to say to contemporary America in this rewrite. It's a bit of a diversion from the truism 'history is written by those who win'. Do let us know whether you feel the author makes valid points without trying to turn the world upside down simply for the sake of being controversial.

[Addym Kehris]

Hey, folks,

It seems Yahoo! has superseded the article Chris sites above. More important matter to cover, apparently. But Huffingpost has one here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/censoring-howard-zinn-and-censoring-american-history_us_58bcb202e4b02b8b584dfd6a

 

Hey, just trying to help out.  See ya later.

[Chris James]

I lied, unintentionally, but I did. Perhaps the mind is failing, but I have read this book before a long time ago. It was first published in 1980 and became the focus of much radical thinking on the founding of our nation.

I received the book in the mail this morning and immediately remembered the reading, but I intend to read it again. Good thoughts, strong ideas, and the need to understand how the masses have failed to uphold truth in our society compels me to read it again. Howard Zinn was given every dirty label in the conservative playbook for his writing. But most of that came from the 1 percent we now loathe, and so it is hoped that the ninety-nine percent will further embrace the ideals that urged Zinn to write this book.

[Merkin]

I don't think you lied, Chris.  I think you  misremembered your earlier self.  We'd all like to believe that we never change who we are, but the me I so faintly recollect from  the 1970s and 1980s--nearly a half-century ago--certainly isn't the same as the me of today.  Howard Zinn was just right for questing minds then, all of us desperate to see behind the curtain of doctrinaire histories and cultural myths.  Perhaps he is right for us again today, so recently shaken out of our complacencies and the mind fog of acceptance and conformity that had managed to creep unseen over that generation of once-heroic rebels.