Buffalo Souljah
24th July 2010, 06:45
A selection from a Marxist.com article called "In Memory of Howard Zinn: His Life and Ideas": (http://www.marxist.com/memory-of-howard-zinn-life-and-ideas.htm)
The Method of “People’s History”
These events shaped Zinn’s life and threw him into the heart of many of the great historical events of the 20th Century. His perspective was always from the “bottom-up,” a view that shaped what has come to be known as the method of “People’s History.” It is best summed up by Zinn himself in the introduction to his magnum opus, A People’s History of the United States:
“I prefer to try to tell the story of the discovery of America from the viewpoint of the Arawaks, of the Constitution from the standpoint of the slaves, of Andrew Jackson as seen by the Cherokees, of the Civil War as seen by the New York Irish, of the Mexican war as seen by the deserting soldiers of Scott's army, of the rise of industrialism as seen by the young women in the Lowell textile mills, of the Spanish-American war as seen by the Cubans, the conquest of the Philippines as seen by black soldiers on Luzon, the Gilded Age as seen by southern farmers, the First World War as seen by socialists, the Second World War as seen by pacifists, the New Deal as seen by blacks in Harlem, the postwar American empire as seen by peons in Latin America. And so on, to the limited extent that any one person, however he or she strains, can "see" history from the standpoint of others.”1
This view is skeptical of the supposed “objectivity” of the traditional, mainstream telling of history. Rather, it states that you “can’t be neutral on a moving train,” which is the name of Zinn’s autobiography. Encompassed in this phrase is the notion that events, history, and society are already in motion, so to remain “neutral” when writing history (or when living your everyday life) is to accept its current course. This concept is not incompatible with analyzing events from a subjective point of view objectively. As Trotsky outlines in his introduction to his History of the Russian Revolution:
“The serious and critical reader will not want a treacherous impartiality, which offers him a cup of conciliation with a well-settled poison of reactionary hate at the bottom, but a scientific conscientiousness, which for its sympathies and antipathies – open and undisguised – seeks support in an honest study of the facts, a determination of their real connections, an exposure of the causal laws of their movement. That is the only possible historical objectivism, and moreover it is amply sufficient, for it is verified and tested not by the good intentions of the historian, for which only he himself can vouch, but by the natural laws revealed by him of the historic process itself.”2
Through the historian being upfront as to which side of the barricades he or she stands on, Trotsky’s history of the Russian Revolution, and Zinn’s history of the United States stand head and shoulders above the pompous aloofness of traditional histories. Both Trotsky and Zinn were participants in the struggles about which they were writing; to deny that role would be dishonest, however their “bias” does not prevent them from writing histories that accurately depict their respective subject matter.
Through Zinn’s tireless work, this “bottom-up” approach to historical studies has caught on and an entire series of “People’s Histories” have popped up, ranging in subject matter from sports to science to the history of the world. In the last years of his life, Zinn presented a tour featuring readings of selections from his Voices of a People’s History, which is an accompaniment text, co-edited by Anthony Arnove and containing selected source material from A People’s History. The readings featured celebrities such as Matt Damon, Danny Glover, Marisa Tomei, Viggo Mortensen, Morgan Freeman, Rosario Dawson, Sean Penn, and others. This popular presentation was filmed and broadcast in December of 2009 on the History Channel, only a month before Zinn’s death.
One of Zinn’s main goals in life was to make his “bottom-up” history of working class struggle available to the working class itself. Toward that end, he made teaching aids and adaptations of his works available in youth and high school level reading formats, in comic book form, etc., all with the purpose of presenting the untold side of US history to youth from the perspective of the class, racial and ethnic backgrounds, or genders, whose history had been silenced. He became an advocate of “critical pedagogy,” which is a fancy way of saying “teaching youth to think for themselves,” and helped found the Zinn Education Project (www.zinnedproject.org (http://www.zinnedproject.org/) ), which seeks to teach classrooms across America the untold history of their own communities and class.
The entire book is availabe online: Chapter XVI on the Great Flint Sit Down Strike is available here (http://www.urbanhabitat.org/node/842) (and in PDF (http://www.urbanhabitat.org/files/RPE14-1_Zinn-s.pdf))*; Chapter XV on Eugene Debs is here (http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/EDebs_Socialism_HZOH.html); the rest is available on Google Books (http://books.google.com/books?id=4EiO7OHy91MC&dq=the+people+speak&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=Z3NKTJmKJ8H-8Aazq-E0&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CD4Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&q&f=false), erm. The edited version of performances and pieces read by Zinn that originally aired on the History Channel (http://www.freemediatv.com/video/14147-The_People_Speak_2009_DVDRIP_2S_LAP.html) is also available. Individual clips (http://www.history.com/shows/the-people-speak) of most of the program are also available at the History Channel website. Another selection of readings from A People's History... as featured on Democracy Now (http://www.archive.org/stream/dn2004-0705_vid/dn2004-0705_512kb.mp4) is also available at the Internet Archive (there is an MP3 version on the DN! site). Additionally,
I think the perspectives that Zinn brings/brought into view are severely underrepresented in the cultural mainstream, and these constitute a very powerful message that I think have had a significant impact on the understanding of American society by the general public. Any thoughts?
An animated clip narrating Zinn's essay "Empire or Humanity? What the Classroom Didn't Teach Me about the American Empire" out of A People's History of American Empire narrated by Viggo Mortensen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn3lF5XSUg&feature=player_embedded
* There is also a Facebook group for the strike (http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Great-Flint-Sit-Down-Strike/106553722710170?v=wall), where relatives of some of the UAW workers tell stories of their experiences.
The Method of “People’s History”
These events shaped Zinn’s life and threw him into the heart of many of the great historical events of the 20th Century. His perspective was always from the “bottom-up,” a view that shaped what has come to be known as the method of “People’s History.” It is best summed up by Zinn himself in the introduction to his magnum opus, A People’s History of the United States:
“I prefer to try to tell the story of the discovery of America from the viewpoint of the Arawaks, of the Constitution from the standpoint of the slaves, of Andrew Jackson as seen by the Cherokees, of the Civil War as seen by the New York Irish, of the Mexican war as seen by the deserting soldiers of Scott's army, of the rise of industrialism as seen by the young women in the Lowell textile mills, of the Spanish-American war as seen by the Cubans, the conquest of the Philippines as seen by black soldiers on Luzon, the Gilded Age as seen by southern farmers, the First World War as seen by socialists, the Second World War as seen by pacifists, the New Deal as seen by blacks in Harlem, the postwar American empire as seen by peons in Latin America. And so on, to the limited extent that any one person, however he or she strains, can "see" history from the standpoint of others.”1
This view is skeptical of the supposed “objectivity” of the traditional, mainstream telling of history. Rather, it states that you “can’t be neutral on a moving train,” which is the name of Zinn’s autobiography. Encompassed in this phrase is the notion that events, history, and society are already in motion, so to remain “neutral” when writing history (or when living your everyday life) is to accept its current course. This concept is not incompatible with analyzing events from a subjective point of view objectively. As Trotsky outlines in his introduction to his History of the Russian Revolution:
“The serious and critical reader will not want a treacherous impartiality, which offers him a cup of conciliation with a well-settled poison of reactionary hate at the bottom, but a scientific conscientiousness, which for its sympathies and antipathies – open and undisguised – seeks support in an honest study of the facts, a determination of their real connections, an exposure of the causal laws of their movement. That is the only possible historical objectivism, and moreover it is amply sufficient, for it is verified and tested not by the good intentions of the historian, for which only he himself can vouch, but by the natural laws revealed by him of the historic process itself.”2
Through the historian being upfront as to which side of the barricades he or she stands on, Trotsky’s history of the Russian Revolution, and Zinn’s history of the United States stand head and shoulders above the pompous aloofness of traditional histories. Both Trotsky and Zinn were participants in the struggles about which they were writing; to deny that role would be dishonest, however their “bias” does not prevent them from writing histories that accurately depict their respective subject matter.
Through Zinn’s tireless work, this “bottom-up” approach to historical studies has caught on and an entire series of “People’s Histories” have popped up, ranging in subject matter from sports to science to the history of the world. In the last years of his life, Zinn presented a tour featuring readings of selections from his Voices of a People’s History, which is an accompaniment text, co-edited by Anthony Arnove and containing selected source material from A People’s History. The readings featured celebrities such as Matt Damon, Danny Glover, Marisa Tomei, Viggo Mortensen, Morgan Freeman, Rosario Dawson, Sean Penn, and others. This popular presentation was filmed and broadcast in December of 2009 on the History Channel, only a month before Zinn’s death.
One of Zinn’s main goals in life was to make his “bottom-up” history of working class struggle available to the working class itself. Toward that end, he made teaching aids and adaptations of his works available in youth and high school level reading formats, in comic book form, etc., all with the purpose of presenting the untold side of US history to youth from the perspective of the class, racial and ethnic backgrounds, or genders, whose history had been silenced. He became an advocate of “critical pedagogy,” which is a fancy way of saying “teaching youth to think for themselves,” and helped found the Zinn Education Project (www.zinnedproject.org (http://www.zinnedproject.org/) ), which seeks to teach classrooms across America the untold history of their own communities and class.
The entire book is availabe online: Chapter XVI on the Great Flint Sit Down Strike is available here (http://www.urbanhabitat.org/node/842) (and in PDF (http://www.urbanhabitat.org/files/RPE14-1_Zinn-s.pdf))*; Chapter XV on Eugene Debs is here (http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/EDebs_Socialism_HZOH.html); the rest is available on Google Books (http://books.google.com/books?id=4EiO7OHy91MC&dq=the+people+speak&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=Z3NKTJmKJ8H-8Aazq-E0&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CD4Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&q&f=false), erm. The edited version of performances and pieces read by Zinn that originally aired on the History Channel (http://www.freemediatv.com/video/14147-The_People_Speak_2009_DVDRIP_2S_LAP.html) is also available. Individual clips (http://www.history.com/shows/the-people-speak) of most of the program are also available at the History Channel website. Another selection of readings from A People's History... as featured on Democracy Now (http://www.archive.org/stream/dn2004-0705_vid/dn2004-0705_512kb.mp4) is also available at the Internet Archive (there is an MP3 version on the DN! site). Additionally,
I think the perspectives that Zinn brings/brought into view are severely underrepresented in the cultural mainstream, and these constitute a very powerful message that I think have had a significant impact on the understanding of American society by the general public. Any thoughts?
An animated clip narrating Zinn's essay "Empire or Humanity? What the Classroom Didn't Teach Me about the American Empire" out of A People's History of American Empire narrated by Viggo Mortensen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn3lF5XSUg&feature=player_embedded
* There is also a Facebook group for the strike (http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Great-Flint-Sit-Down-Strike/106553722710170?v=wall), where relatives of some of the UAW workers tell stories of their experiences.