If there is a phrase which makes my socio-political antennae begin to quiver, that will be anything that begins with the words “The People’s – whatever.” The People’s Park, the People’s Republic – the People’s Whatever. I suppose at one time – around the early part of the 20th century, perhaps – dubbing something as belonging to the ‘people’ sounded fresh, innovative, democratic, not the exclusive preserve of some elite or other. Alas, by the middle of that century, it usually meant some grim, joyless and grinding totalitarian establishment, with a rhetorical smiley-face painted on the front, which increasingly fooled only the starry-eyed true believers.
And so it is with the late Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” – not so much a straight history, but a grim and joyless Marxist slog through American history. Which in the end amounts to an unrelenting snorkel through the sludge at the bottom of the national sewer, as seen through the lenses of a late 19th century political thinker, with the helpless lumpenprolitariat being royally screwed over and over by the capitalist and plutocrats . . . oh, and we murdered the Indians! And lynched black people! And slavery – don’t forget about slavery! From the way the man banged on and on about imperialisms of every stripe, war, social injustice, and all the rest of the progressiveist bug-bears you’d have thought that no other nation in the world evah! had perpetuated any of those numerous crimes against humanity which the Zinneastas gleefully charged the United States with. And God help us – the whole grim polemic is frequently assigned as a history textbook.
And yes, we should know our history, including the inglorious parts – but all that, only that, and to the exclusion of anything else? Debunking is a worthy exercise to be sure, but there ought to be some bunk there in the first place, some basic knowledge and understanding, nay, even some appreciation for those people who built their little corner of America, who made a life for themselves, built towns and railroads, fought to end slavery, and to devise a political system which invested citizens with rights as well as responsibilities. That kind of history is endlessly fascinating to those of us imbued with ordinary curiosity about ‘what happened way back then,’ and lacking a mindset which insists on jamming the square peg of events and people into the round hole of ideology.
The trouble with Zinn and his ilk, when it comes to history – there is no place for complicated stuff, nothing meaningful exists outside the round hole of ideology. Which is a pity as well, for history is a treasure-store of riches, in the experiences of people, of fame and name, or no-name and no fame. I make a part of my living from telling some of their stories – and now and again readers have written to tell me how they wish they had been able to learn such stories in school, for then they might have taken more of an interest at the time. What is also a pity is that a relentless diet of Zinning our history is to leave us guilt-tripped, short-changed and ashamed – instead of seeing our history whole, and steadily.
It could be that this is what the Zinneastas intend – for how much easier it is to destroy a people, once you have demoralized them from within.
