A People’s What?

I have not read Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States and truth be told; it is probably because of the title. I am put off by anything that claims to be the people’s history, party, or republic. Same goes for the term “democratic republic” as it relates to a name for a country, and any political party or organization with a name that contains “liberation”. I would sooner read a “socialist” or “communist” party pamphlet. At least they are being honest.

I did just start listening to Mary Grabar’s Debunking Howard Zinn. Dr. Grabar wrote her book almost 40 years after Zinn published his people’s history. This fact alone shows that Zinn’s work has had an impact on how many in the country view the United States and her history. I just went to Amazon to see how many pages Zinn’s book is and discovered that the 784-page book is currently #1 on the Amazon US Civil War History Best Sellers List! It is also 1,244 in the overall best sellers list.

Grabar took on a huge challenge as Zinn’s book covers more than 500 years of history. This means that neither Zinn nor Grabar can possibly be expert in all the 500 years covered. As such, they both are relying on other historians. Zinn to create his perspective of the sinful and unworthy United States and Dr. Grabar taking what Zinn claims and investigating it to determine for herself what is likely true.

The most noteworthy revelation for me so far is that Zinn seems to side with the Confederacy in terms of what caused the Civil War. He has an agenda of course. Dr. Grabar does a predictable job defending Lincoln and laying out the reasons he should get credit for ending slavery beyond it being a tactic to win the war. My interpretation is not as kind to Lincoln, and I believe Dr. Grabar oversimplifies the causes of the war as distinct from why some states seceded.

Dr. Grabar is a brilliant writer and thinker, and she took on a mammoth task. I am glad she did.