Sucking up to ruling class figures - Democrat or Republican - is not
the way for any professional historian to be guaranteed " credibility "
for the ages.
If History teaches anything it is this : don't trust the words and perspective of " official " historians, of complacent VOICES stupefied by applause, flattery, and privilege.
Democratic socialists think Karl Marx got it right way back in 1848. There is an irrepressible class conflict in history, you see.
In his popular text book, " A People's History of the United States ", Professor Howard Zinn gets much closer to TRUTH : see the world from the point of view of the oppressed.
Lenin did- a hundred years ago. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution.
What are Doris Kearns Goodwin's thoughts on that ?
Another slant on historian Goodwin : " quote by Nora Connolly
[ Listening to this discussion, my thoughts turned to the late great American historian, Howard Zinn. I wondered what he would have thought about this annual dinner. I have a feeling that the event wouldn’t have been as much of a “fun dinner” with the late Dr Zinn among the diners, though Zinn was a man of great wit and humour. He surely would have drawn some perceptive parallels with President Obama`s foreign policy and Theodore Roosevelt`s agenda. Zinn might also have pointed out some important points about Andrew Jackson, “responsible for the brutal treatment of the Indians in the South-East driving them across the Mississippi. Thousands of them dying. Jackson is racist. Jackson is a slave owner.” Professor Kearns Goodwin doesn’t name any of the historians who attend her annual dinner but I think it`s safe to assume that Howard Zinn was never a guest – which is a pity.] "
If History teaches anything it is this : don't trust the words and perspective of " official " historians, of complacent VOICES stupefied by applause, flattery, and privilege.
Democratic socialists think Karl Marx got it right way back in 1848. There is an irrepressible class conflict in history, you see.
In his popular text book, " A People's History of the United States ", Professor Howard Zinn gets much closer to TRUTH : see the world from the point of view of the oppressed.
Lenin did- a hundred years ago. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution.
What are Doris Kearns Goodwin's thoughts on that ?
Another slant on historian Goodwin : " quote by Nora Connolly
[ Listening to this discussion, my thoughts turned to the late great American historian, Howard Zinn. I wondered what he would have thought about this annual dinner. I have a feeling that the event wouldn’t have been as much of a “fun dinner” with the late Dr Zinn among the diners, though Zinn was a man of great wit and humour. He surely would have drawn some perceptive parallels with President Obama`s foreign policy and Theodore Roosevelt`s agenda. Zinn might also have pointed out some important points about Andrew Jackson, “responsible for the brutal treatment of the Indians in the South-East driving them across the Mississippi. Thousands of them dying. Jackson is racist. Jackson is a slave owner.” Professor Kearns Goodwin doesn’t name any of the historians who attend her annual dinner but I think it`s safe to assume that Howard Zinn was never a guest – which is a pity.] "
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Ron