By Zack Stenz
A proposed exhibit of the Enola Gay at the Smithsonian Air and Space
Museum provokes a firestorm of criticism. The renaming of the Custer
Memorial Battle-field becomes a political hot potato. The adoption
of new national history standards in the nation's high schools is
bashed from the podium by presidential candidates. Who says
Americans don't care about history?
Not Howard Zinn. This professor,
activist, and author has dedicated his life to the notion that the
knowledge of history is important to people's everyday lives, and
can be a powerful force for social change. Zinn is a champion of the
notion that historical change occurs more through mass movements of
ordinary people than through the wisdom and insight of so-called
Great Men. His best-known book, A People's History of the United
States, was one of the first major looks at American history from
such a perspective, and has sold a phenomenal 400,000 copies. Zinn
is coming to Sonoma County on Monday, April 22, to speak on the Cold
War and its legacy for the 21st century, at Sonoma State University
and Santa Rosa Junior College.
But despite his popularity, Zinn's
brand of "bottom-up" history has been reviled by political
conservatives, and he confesses that he isn't surprised by the level
of passion in recent controversies like the one surrounding the
Smithsonian's portrayal of the dark role the Enola Gay played in the
bombing of Hiroshima. "Whenever you introduce a new view of
historical events, the guardians of the old order will spring to the
attack," Zinn says. "And a lot of people feel threatened by the idea
that our side also committed atrocities in the Second World War. I'm
actually encouraged by the controversy, though. It wouldn't exist if
changes were not taking place in the way history is being taught."
If anything, Zinn sees the recent attacks by the right on the "New
History" taught by himself and others as a perverse vindication of
his own belief in history's importance. "If history weren't so
important, people wouldnšt get so upset by it," he says. George
Orwell said, 'Whoever controls the past controls the future,š by
which he meant that history is incredibly important in shaping the
world view of the next generation of people."
Zinn hasn't been
content to merely write about historical change, but has often been
active in movements for civil rights and academic freedom, working
against the Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars. "I've tried to join my
writing with social issues," he says. "It was really my experiences
in the South, teaching at Spelman College and getting involved with
the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Com-mittee, that spurred me to
write A People's History. I could see history being made before my
eyes by ordinary people who are never written about in the history
books."
It's Zinn's fierce compassion for and belief in the power of
ordinary people that has characterized his work, turning A People's
History into a celebration of heroism rather than merely the litany
of government atrocities conservatives often accuse it of being.
"One of the right-wing groups, [Reed Irvine's] Accuracy in Media,
characterized A People's History as a 'Hate America' book," Zinn
says. "But the supposition there is that America consists of the
people on top. And while it's true that I take a very critical view
of the United States government in history, I take a very positive
view toward the mass movements of people in America who have fought
to make the country a better place.
"And that's where the left
hasn't balanced its act very well, either," he adds. "They've done a
very good job of illuminating the various bad policies of the
American government, but they haven't shown what people have done to
resist these policies, often successfully. And that's a critical
thing to do, to show people in the present day that they can fight
back and win."
Zinn admits that the current American landscape of
temporary workers, multinational corporations, and citizens'
increasing isolation from one another hinders the formation of his
cherished mass movements. "Building a movement is difficult, given
the fragmentation and isolation of people today and just the very
diverse nature of the United States," says Zinn. "But when peoplešs
outrage is felt strongly enough, a new social movement will be
born."
So despite a conservative political climate that has left
many longtime progressive activists depressed and demoralized,
Zinn's reading of history keeps him optimistic about America's
future. "I am hopeful," he says. "But hope rests on doing something.
If you're not doing anything to change things, you have no right to
be hopeful."
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