I remember zinn’s book was assigned reading in my US history course when I was completing my undergrad in 2009. This course was the sole reason why I lost so much enthusiasm to further study US history, At least in a formal university. The topic is still my favorite but I would never pay a lefty professor thousands of dollars to lecture me on something they clearly show so much disdain for.
@@bender9222222222 US history is nothing compared to the brutality of the ancient past. Slavery was around for thousands of years before Columbus ever set sail. We did not create slavery, but we fought a civil war to end it. No other nation can make that claim, ever! Before you lose faith in society, think about the things that the US got right instead of focusing on the flaws (flaws, btw, that will exist wherever humans live and breathe)!
@@Challagar yes, I agree that's why Howard zinn is a good read. Keeps us informed on some of the flaws so we can learn from them and try not to replicate those problems. Also, half the country fought to maintain slavery!
@@bender9222222222 "Also, half the country fought to maintain slavery!" So what? Half a nation fighting to end slavery is still more than in all of history before them. Which, by the way, is zero!
Oh, this looks good... We read "A People's History" in 11th grade US History class in the mid-90s. It wasn't what sucked me into critical social justice ("diversity credits" in college had that dubious honor), but it groomed me for that conversion. Now that I'm out of the woke cult, I'm very interested to learn more about the truth behind the book! #ioncewaswokebutnowimfree
33 years teaching, this book is in more classrooms than any other book I've seen. We are reaping the results of this un-scholarly and hateful book with the Woke generation.
As a parent, I am preparing my teenager to deal with this onslaught a couple ways. First, get out and study subjects before attending any college class - 4 or 5 books. [Seriously, and not from the same author]. Search out pre-war texts whenever possible: especially history. That helps ask better questions and keep from being blindsided/flatfooted. Like most, that lesson was learned the hard way. In my case it was an economics class. The textbook was [per the usual publishing racket] not available to the professor to read before making lesson plans - his plans were prepared from separate, undisclosed texts and the textbook (while used) was clearly an add on [if not an afterthought]. Then there was the test bank: ancient stuff from tertiary sources that did not mesh well with lessons or text.. I paid attention, took copious notes and thought I was engaged... and that [like half the class] yielded an F on the first test - the curve, having been blown out by a california blonde who was clearly more than just smart, had me drop the class and regroup later with a different professor who wasn't so... distracted. Second, take absolutely nothing personally: college is a third party certification exercise and if subject mastery is the goal, test arguments from time to time, but jump through their hoops. Personally, mastery comes later in life - as long as you keep reading. Treat it like Obama treated church for two decades: know thine enemy. It's not everybody on staff - that's mindless. But over a course of years, a couple professors encountered will be 'people of the lie' [if I may borrow the term], and spotting their nonsense early is important to avoid the mistake of eschewing subject matter where the real problem is a misanthrope at the mic who would do well to be hit by an asteroid. Should something really egregious be going on such as a professor abandoning course descriptions and twisting off into the ether, then its time to seek legal counsel - BEFORE engaging the administration, and bring some other students with. The mix of law and school rules needs knowledge of the law first: sometimes rules are structured in ways that tilt near the edge of not comporting with basic statutes. If, for example, students have been defrauded then the school keeping some fees collected may not be defensible - but first line comment of any administrator will be pointing to policy so they can keep the money. Third, school begins with an agreement - a contract of odd sorts. No other businesses functions as they do, and state laws at times allow leeway in conduct otherise prohibited to regular businesses. That, at present, is my homework... time to get busy, so I can pass it on. Think I'll pick through my state university policy first, as so much political correctness has tilted what I thought I was once vaguely familiar with.
@@fudgedogbannana the teachers are, they are coerced into the tenets of this book in CA Teacher Certification programs in the Cal State system and probably all other higher education systems. Teachers become true believers and pass that zeal onto the kids.
@@fudgedogbannana the teachers are. They are coerced into using this book in their Teacher Certification programs through the Cal State system, and probably through all higher education teacher training in California. The teachers become true believers and pass this crap onto naïve studentsl They then become the "woke".
@@bender9222222222 global history -the United States is by no means unique. Governments and government backed “corporations” have been killing machines since we crawled from the muck. I think that’s where people get divided on this topic. This is a repeated historical cycle. Man’s inhumanity to man. the United States is the current target/scapegoat. Then next and next and next.
@@skdewolf7606 I'm not sure what you're point is here? So there shouldn't be criticism of a nation because other countries have done bad stuff too? Other countries have done their inhabitants wrong, no debate from me but to say that America isn't uniquely suppressive and exploitative is laughable. Comments like these are why America will never reconcile with it's misdeeds.
@@skdewolf7606 I'm not sure what you're point is here? So there shouldn't be criticism of a nation because other countries have done bad stuff too? Other countries have done their inhabitants wrong, no debate from me but to say that America isn't uniquely suppressive and exploitative is laughable. Comments like these are why America will never reconcile with it's misdeeds.
Imagine a human heart. It's covered in maggots. It's flesh is festering with sores. It's flesh is blackened with decay. But somehow its still beating. That is the left. Only by meditating on that image can you understand what they do and what they believe and why.
If the book is “The People’s History of the United States,” it was the gateway to my indoctrination as a freshman in college. I was 18 and had no idea what was happening to me. I’m SO grateful that I was red pilled and I have never looked back!
@@monsterhunter445 Being a republican and not believing in one of the democrat's commandments does not mean that you support Native Americans being killed, the same way as if you agree with Nancy and Ilhan Omar on certain views then you must believe in the destruction of Israel and the Jews.
@@monsterhunter445 It's a rather generic term. You could say the loser in any battle was "genocided", although it's not a proper use of the word. Tribes committed genocide against other tribes if you follow the definition. The problem is one of how far back you want to go, since, in reality, there's no such thing as a "Native American". There were some who arrived, some who arrived later and killed off some of the first, and on down the line. I guess we're only supposed to be butthurt about the white ones, right? Seems a bit racist.
@@monsterhunter445 "You really believe Native Americans weren't genocided? Wow." You really believe America was responsible for Pearl Harbor? Double wow. Howard Zinn: spreading misinformation since the cold war.
Could you please cover what’s happening in Cuba this weekend? Next Monday the Cuban people will take the streets all over the world to end Castro dictatorship, socialism and communism in Cuba. We need all the support we can get. Thanks.
I hope by commenting on this here it bumps your comment up to the relevant section and gains attention. If you're reading this Prager please 🥺 we need this. We need America to see this. Cuba needs our love and support.
I hadn't heard a thing about it anywhere until you commented. All real Americans are pulling for the Cuban people, and more would be if there wasn't a media blackout on all things Cuban since they stopped letting them in. God forbid we let in people that have lived through the nightmare our politicians are trying to create here, or even let us hear about them.
Oh thank god (hug). Here's a MAGA hat and Trump button for you. Only trust Fox News and OAN from now on (Even though OAN was started by two Russians who worked for the state-run network there).
@@maskedmarvyl4774 the video explain why Zinn can not be trusted, but maybe you should watch it and goes, hmmm maybe I should look into this. I did that with many of the left "history" or "news" and many times it was an outright lie and when I object I'm a racist or far-right. With the conservatives they often cite resources and even encourages you to look it up. Doesn't that makes you even a little bit curious to look for the facts?
I read Zinn’s book and I lived in the area of one of the chapters. What he wrote was a complete fabrication and almost a complete opposite of the facts.
The worst part is that Howard Zinn so much as admitted that parts of the book were fabricated and that it was more important to teach the narrative truth or some other such crap. I encountered Zinn’s writing for the first time around 2003, and have disliked the man ever since.
Which was? What exactly was Zinn wrong about. It wasn't the fact that Columbus started the Atlantic slave trade and decimated the indigenous people of the America's?
@@monsterhunter445 there's a big difference between people who fundamentally hate America's institutions, laws and founders, and somebody criticizing curriculum in schools that teaches the next generation of citizens to see everything through a racial lens, that white people are inherently racist and how "whiteness" signifiers such as rational thinking and work ethic are part of an evil, dominate culture. If you can't tell the difference, I'll sit and ponder your own credence towards rational thinking.
Brilliant, and thank you! I was assigned Zinns book in a college class. After reading the back cover, and who endorsed his book, I knew it was garbage, so I dropped the class. This was in 91.
Can't handle how dirty and violent American history is huh? Did the prof a service to by dropping out. I bet you like the idea of free market place of ideas too, but can't tolerate them. Love it love it love it
@@bender9222222222 The world's history is violent and dirty. Civilization rests on the edge of a sword. Savages and barbarians (including those that exist inside of civilized nations, criminals and lawless people) are only kept at bay by force. All land is taken and held by right of conquest. Natives fought wars over land and resources. They killed and enslaved each other. Bad things may have happened during colonization by Europe, but the end result was that those tribes are no longer at each other's throats. They live in peace with each other. That peace between tribes was brought by colonialism.
@@cattraknoff lol wut. Are you familiar with the trail of tears? America has been engaged in multiple wars/conflicts since WW2. Where is this peace you speak of?
@@bender9222222222 You do understand that the past 50 years have been much more peaceful than most of recorded history, right? The USA has been involved in a number of wars, but did you notice a difference between those wars and almost all previous wars? Hint: the winner didn't gain any territory *unless* the winner wasn''t the USA. If the winner was the USA, they usually ended up rebuilding the loser (which is why Japan and Germany are very friendly with the USA today). As for the trail of tears, yes, people suffered. But that is hardly something special about the USA - people have been suffering across the world since there have been people. And the native Americans certainly were cruel to each other long before the USA existed. I suggest you do some more reading about history - and be more careful about which authors you chose.
PragerU Producer’s My intellectually honest liberal American History Professors told me to return Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” back to the book store. They said it was factually incorrect and extremely biases. Keep in mind my Professors voted majority in the Democrats favor. Thank you for this video PragerU. 🇺🇸
@@tomasmccauley569 if we're talking about books that tell the terrible truths without all the lies and slander, Coming of Age in Mississippi is quite a read. I took a course called American studies (combination of history and literature) and that was one of our assigned readings. Excellent course with excellent books.
Liberals are decent folks with some ideas conservatives disagree with. Leftists are NOT liberals. Liberals and conservatives share a common bedrock of belief in freedom and have much more in common than liberals and leftists.
Zinn was indeed a low resolution relativist thinker. He famously stated "objective thought is neither possible, nor favorable", which only a moron could state unironically. He also said we should never seek to advance humanity, because setting goals and priorities requires objective summarization. Seriously. Reading his combined works is hilarious. His works really only appeal to losers who are seeking desperately to justify their dispossession.
Howard Zinn is simply stating the anti-conservative propaganda line that has been on display in the U.S. since the founding of the country. Is his view also propaganda...? Yes, but there is no absolute true objective history of anything. Yes there are facts about things that happen...but when you get into the "why" they happened, you are transported into opinion and bias. There are at least 2 sides to every story.
except the guy often times said things that were simply factually not correct so you can't possibly make that argument. Perhaps the one I found astounding was the one where he claimed Thomas Jefferson didn't free his slaves because of his "Bigotry and racism" and that he "begrudgingly admitted that the slaves would be free some day." There is just so much wrong with that! As a lawyer in the state of Virginia, he fought to get slavery ABOLISHED! Did Tommie just take on bigotry as he got older? The simple fact of the matter is that the 2 reasons I can think of for TJ not freeing his slaves was a) the debt he was in and b) he feared that doing that would result in a massive war that the young country couldn't afford to fight. But TJ actually did a lot more for blacks than Zinn would admit. TJ ended American involvement in the slave trade. He also favored a solution that gradually freed the slaves. You can read this all on TJ's wikipedia page (with citations to boot). There are several instances but this is just one of them.
@@divinityofblackness6330 gradually freed slaves when they shouldn't of been there in the first place. it seems so far the people countering the SOURCES zinn pulls are just splitting hairs. How significant is it really for example if howard was wrong about the Japanese internment camps being secret at first...who cares they still happened under government approval and enforcement despite whatever protests were around it. It's like this new argument in florida that "slaves learned skills they otherwise wouldnt have under slavery" like yeah no sht, a slave kind of has to learn a assigned skill or be killed that doesn't make slavery good or not as bad all of a sudden.
It’s impossible to correct these people. They won’t read the facts because it disturbs their ideals. The Commie lie has gotten too powerful to expel just the facts. It’s sad really.
No, his writings have been debunked by respected historians over and over. He lied, he plagiarized someone else's lies and embellished them further, he just made stuff up, and he took Columbus' diary completely out of context by connecting quotes that had absolutely nothing to do with one another. Quotes that were days apart. He did this to spread the false lies that he wanted. And he has been very successful at that, sadly. Read Debunking Zinn.
HISTORY is a complex subject. That's why so many "students" absolutely hate that subject! But, once your able to visualize the complex series of interconnected links, the subject comes ALIVE! I live in a house surrounded by (literally) THOUSANDS of books. And a good portion of those are on History. Also remember: "Those who refuse to learn the Lessons of History are doomed to repeat them!" Zinn did untold damage to the American psyche. But, it can be repaired.
Agreed why are people so afraid of looking at history as a multi dimensional tapestry rather than a timeline? That being said, as a historian he did play fast and loose with primary sources. As is common.
@@skdewolf7606 Because that would require nuance and context along with critical thinking and empathy. All things the modern left is incapable of now with endless purity tests being part and parcel of the woke religion. Any sympathy for the complex nature of history to them means surely you must endorse the worst atrocities of those time periods. A lot of people don’t want to think anymore, they want to be told what to think.
@@thisismyyoutubecommentacco6302 And the right isn't guilty of the very same purity tests? It's functionally a personality cult for Trump and idolizes a highly sanitized version of America's past. Not to mention it brands anyone that doesn't toe the modern GOP line as a traitor and threatens them with violence. Hell, it calls for any view that disagrees with its rhetoric to be banned, because they know that an honest account of our history and a more accepting culture that doesn't tolerate the bullying of white reactionary christians won't make them look good politically.
Anyone who thinks Vietnam wasn’t basically genocide on the part of America is certifiably insane. They treated the Viatnamese like vermin. Committed every war crime imaginable, routinely. Slaughtered at least a million people. Carpet bombed half the country, dropped biological weapons over the other half. People are still dying there today from what the US did. And the US churns out heroic movies about the war which depict Americans as the victims. It’s no wonder the world hates you.
PragerU always astounds me with their ability to find people who can speak without saying anything remotely valuable. A true leader in the field of paralytic boredom.
What are you talking about? She was literally explaining that Zinn misrepresented a lot of data to fit his world view. I wouldn't say that people don't do that when interpreting history, but as she says in the video, he went pretty far to do what he did...
Zinns book was the first US History book I read as an adult, after realizing I should have paid more attention in school. I then followed it with A Patriots History of the United States. I remember explicitly talking to my now wife saying how the former was all about feelings with not much substance, I learned so much more from the latter.
@@DameOfDiamonds You’re both clearly lying. There’s no way you’ve read all 700 pages of a book that’s packed full of facts about colonization, slavery, sharecropping, Reagan cutting free lunch programs and blowing up the military budget, etc and then commenting “it’s all about his feelings”. Nope I don’t believe you’ve even read 10 pages.
I was at a local used book store the other day and overheard a young obviously modern leftist couple asking the worker if they had Zinns book. I cringed and wanted to recommend something else, like Paul Johnsons 'A History of the American People' but I opted not to. Didnt wanted to be called a racist white supremacist and be relentlessly questioned why I sympathize with Nazis and hate mexicans ect ect all whilst being recorded.
Yes because this has happened to so many people! Conservatives don't understand logic, which is why in this whole video there is not one single quote from Zinn. You guys just make up what people believe
This lady has made a career out of bashing Zinn. I wonder if she even read his books. The American Conservative even backs Zinn. I can be a Patriot and still think Vietnam was a war about American credibility. I can be a Patriot and still be disappointed in the way Colombus carried out his BRILLIANT AND BRAVE adventure to the New World. I can be a Patriot and still be upset that my country treated Japanese Americans horribly during the early 40s and didn't help Jews trying to escape Europe. More than one narrative can be true at the same time.
We should be thankful for the fact we had Howard Zinn in the first place, a person that had extreme courage to doubt the whole american establishment. Keep in mind, the people that question everything are our only saviours during the bad times such as current ones.
Zinn was a Communist professor and admirer of Joseph Stalin. When he signed up for World War II, he did not necessarily do it for America, but for the Soviet Union, which was the only Marxist-Leninist Socialist country on Earth at the time.
Zinn's work is factually accurate, but as he clearly states, he tells the stories of various groups of people that haven't had much of a voice. If you are a student of history, it's very worthwhile reading.
Exactly, this awful is saying that a book about oppressed peoples in America history should make sure that the oppressed and oppressed should be treated the same when that is completely off topic
Zinn provided exhaustive bibliography citing his sources, people getting butthurt because he spoke up for the silenced should get a life and deal with it.
"Petrone, for example, read De Las Casas’s original Spanish text, Historia de las Indias (History of the indies) and learned that those acts of cruelty were actually committed by Columbus’s arch-nemesis, Francisco de Bobadilla, who blamed Columbus in an attempt to unseat him from the office of Governor of the West Indies. Columbus successfully sued Bobadilla for libel in a court of law. However, those debunked charges were resurrected 500 years later by pseudo-historian Howard Zinn for his polemic The People’s History of the United States."
Great video. I fell for that book's propaganda. As a young man it made me feel empowered that I knew the "Real" truth. Thank God my love for history continued. I look back at that book as a youthful distraction. An outlet for youthful rebellion.
I have studies history my entire life and was forced to use hi book for a class. I read the garbage, rolled my eyes and got an A in the class. It taught me instructors cannot be trusted in what they teach. One of the best lessons of my higher education.
I read this book in college and presented on Howard Zinn. I was not impressed and knew he distorted so much. Especially since I knew so much about WW2 history.
I wrote a comment, then erased, and said, "Nah -- who cares -- I don't comment on these UA-cam threads!". But here I am again. I read this book at UCSB in the early 1990s. I loved getting a different perspective than the pro-American traditional view of US History. Could I recognize that Zinn was slanted? Of course. But I also read pro-west Profs like Terence T. Finn and his ilk. The idea that one book can influence an entire generation is a shortcut to thinking. I live in the middle. I am a moderate. The right always blames the left for being myopic -- and I love Prager's Site -- but in my humble opinion, this video commentary is off-base. The right is creating a fake boogieman. Lastly -- Grabar doesn't write her own book with her own ideas, but instead creates a longwinded critique.
As long as the critique is substantial, supported and justified this is just how we scrutinize information. The reason peer reviewed lends credibility to an argument or conclusion is because it has been scrutinized by the intellectual community at large.
Many High School/College students are too young/inexperienced to recognize Zinn's "slant". After reading Zinn, many young people have come to the conclusion that America is uniquely evil....as if every other Nation/Government around the World, hasn't displayed the same abuses & vices, sometime in its history. I was taught that Native American Indians were "peaceful people"; in tune with the Land and their Creator.....not realizing that various aggressive Tribes attacked peaceful Tribes. There is no place on Earth that hasn't been affected by the vices of Human Nature. America's not unique, in that regard. But even so, it still has some positive traits, from its inception, until now. Many people still want to emigrate here.... even amidst our flaws. When I encounter American Communists (and hard-core Leftists), I ask them which Country they'd feel happier living in... and why haven't they moved there? I never get a clear response.
We have Columbus's journals where he describes how he tortured and slaughtered natives (he fed them to dogs in some instances). How can she defend that?
Because American's are entitled monsters. I'm glad they are so public and so brazen with their lying, when the reprisals begin, and they snowball, this kind of thing will be used as evidence of the rightness of that country passing suddenly, and completely into history.
Because he descirbes feeling sympathy for those who enslave the Tainos, and he also details peacefully trading with them. If not for Columbus, think what else we would not have.
Because he describes feeling sympathy for the enslaved Tainos and also details peacefully trading with them. If not for Columbus, think what else we would not have today.
Once while substitute teaching an AP History class, I remarked dismissively about "People's History," that it would make me think negatively about America. To the teacher's credit, the next lecture, he spent a full period attempting to unpack my comments through a robust discussion of stark differences between Zinn's perspective and American Exceptionalism.
Howard Zinn did something that angers many people- he told the truth. There is nothing I've seen to indicate that he "hates America". To characterize America in terms so simplistic as good or bad is a mistake, as is thinking of it as a single entity to be judged. It's government has engaged in some foreign policy which has been brutal and destructive and some which has been heroic and beneficial. To pretend any different only denies it's members the opportunity to do better in the future. There seems to be a recent trend against acknowledging and teaching uncomfortable history (which may spur feelings of guilt, though it shouldn't). This is precisely what is most important to accurately teach, and the real guilt lies in NOT doing so.
"Petrone, for example, read De Las Casas’s original Spanish text, Historia de las Indias (History of the indies) and learned that those acts of cruelty were actually committed by Columbus’s arch-nemesis, Francisco de Bobadilla, who blamed Columbus in an attempt to unseat him from the office of Governor of the West Indies. Columbus successfully sued Bobadilla for libel in a court of law. However, those debunked charges were resurrected 500 years later by pseudo-historian Howard Zinn for his polemic The People’s History of the United States."
AP US History teacher made us read this in high school. I spent the entire year battling the teacher over the fallacies in the book, and got a C in the class. Took the AP exam and got the highest possible score, only me and two other kids in the class got the high score. I made sure to show my score to the teacher in front of the entire class.
@@Redmenace96 I remember overhearing two History Profs bragging about how they dodged the Nam draft. In the 80s/90s, we saw a lot of this. If their classes were "Essay test focused" it usually was difficult.
A year later. This is music to my ears. Teachers should always be challenged, especially if their teachings are based on false presumptions and/or sources that lack proper research. Good for you!! I may have missed the level of ideological indoctrination at college that is rampant now. But it is high time that people of all ages and backgrounds educate themselves if the schools simply cannot perform their intended functions. “An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.” --a quote often attributed to Thomas Jefferson.
I think PagerU already has similar videos for them. If not, they'll be in the works. You might have to look elsewhere to find them though. YT has a long history of banning Prager videos... like the one on the 10 Commandments... for absolutely ridiculous "reasons".
Lame teachers who just blindly follow what has been fed to them; instead of questioning. But, isn't this what we are dealing with now; never question follow? Excellent as always; thank God for Dennis Prager and his leadership
Those teachers have been conditioned and damaged by the exact same philosophy. Many of them have been trained to associate bad things with America automatically.
That "lame teacher" flew the final bombing mission of the European theatre in WWII. Without knowing, he had been ordered to drop Napalm on a largely civilian French town which the Nazis had occupied. Directly out of highschool he worked on the shipping docks, and only went to college after he got his G.I. payout. Howard Zinn is not some stuffy academic. He's a worker, and a veteran, and a damn good historian. Mary, as you know, there are countless people in this world who want us to believe countless things. You seem like a nice person. I want to encourage you to look up two things, and then let me know if your opinion on this video has changed: 1. Look up the list of major funders of the PragerU organization. 2. Look up the specific claims in Zinn's book which this video discusses, and check the citations given in the bibliography. As someone who was raised in a Catholic working class Kentucky family, and as someone who is currently reading Zinn, I will testify that the information Zinn presents is true even if disquieting.
I remeber hearing about that book in Good Will Hunting. I also remember the message of that film was the main character was an arrogant brat with zero life experience and that he should find someone who challenges him to find peace. Sounds like Zinns demographic.
Yep, there’s a girl in my class (in the class we have to read this BS) and she’s a full on Marxist, even quotes Marx in class. But if anyone, even the left-leaning, average young leftist kids try to challenge her on anything she throws a fit and calls them every __ist in the world
@@thatgirlray2765 I would recommend you talk to a historian or go to a American history museum and look at what they have to say about history, native Americans weren't all peaceful but neither were they all violent because there are different tribes with different ideology like how the Vikings and the French had different beliefs. Don't just say they're liberal indoctrination without checking them out first because it may interest you.
@@fredericku.c.klinsmann3388 "I would recommend you talk to a historian or go to a American history museum" I think the problem is an Academic community that habitually bestows the title of historian to Marxists and plagiarists like Zinn. One of the latest examples is giving the Pulitzer Prize to the 1619 Project creator Nikole Hanna Jones. Another Marxist with no academic fundamentals or critical thinking skills. whose work has already been debunked by other historians.
"That's like saying we America is perfect." Is it? Your sentence structure isn't even correct. Our current government is shit because of perverted demokkkrats who cheat and run everything into the ground. Misery loves company.
Yep. Zinn's book was the start of my leftist anarchist days lol, glad there is some light being shed on this book. History is complex and it's not so simple as just pure good or evil.
Zinn devotes a great deal of energy throughout the book to acknowledging how complex history is and pointing out that all historians write from a particular perspective/bias.
I've read (most) of Zinn's book back when I was a teen. A leftist relative insisted I read it. I classified it as the propaganda that it was within the first two chapters. Anybody who takes as simplistic a view of any history as Zinn did does not deserve to be taken seriously. His book really is as bad as this lady makes it out to be.
@@chessenthusiast When I had it assigned around 17 it seemed really unhealthy. It was just like a list of every bad thing that ever happened to anybody ever, and how $#!! people were. I was like: why are we focusing on these things instead of the good that was/is done? The potato famines and all this stuff was a super long ago by people and to people who all long dead, so I don't see any use in being resentful about it now.
@@TheJeremyKentBGross you need to learn about both good and bad parts of history. Howard Zinn only focuses on the bad stuff and dose not point out the positive.
@@sallyconnell9827 I don't anymore. But actually the video made me realize that I actually still have a Howard Zinn quote as the signature of my personal email from well over a decade ago that I totally forgot about. I'm not propagandizing anything. I just remember there was stuff I liked from him during a certain phase, but my initial introduction generated repulsion because he seemed to do little but drag up historical resentments that weren't relative to the modern context. I would say he's probably useful as a balance against someone overly jingoistic about American Exceptionalism, but I also remembering he was a fan of Marx, so he was almost certainly deliberately subversive, which was my impression at 17 when I knew nothing about him or Marx and had only been given reading assignments from A People's History. Now that I'm in my 40s, it's not a wonder I don't remember great details from a reading assignment at 17, or even what I revisited of his work in my late 20s. I do note that there's way too much hatred of America these days beyond what seems warranted, or at least it's for the wrong reasons. There's loads of corruption right now, but very little to nothing has to do with "huwhite supremacy" (unless it's the racists posing as "anti-racists" trying to undo color blindness and segregation etc etc). In general people want to come here from all over the world, and for good reason. And Marxist theories aren't going to fix what's wrong, in many cases they are a big part of what's wrong already.
Thanks for the recommendation. Will look it up. Zinn is what happens when parents don't get involved in what their kids learn at school. Virginia parents broke that trend.
@@hrossaman Thank you. I'll check them out, now that over twenty years have passed. Gotta wonder what they were thinking, and do they still think that way.
Going to read your book this weekend. I remember having his content stuffed down my throat in high-school. Thankfully my grandmother lived with us and would debunk the lies at the dinner table
I'm a proud, life-long patriot that loves American and I'm very proud of the US. For its ideals enshrined in the constitution and our struggle to live up to them, our force for good in the global stage, and for much of the innovation and influence that has flourished here. From the progressive eras to the waves of immigration, our industrial might in WW1 & our role in WW2, for the Marshall plan and the fight against communism. That said I'll admit that our history classes fail to criticize and clearly recognize our faults which have had many. From Andrew Jackson ignoring the Supreme Court Decision & leading to the Trail of Tears, to the Mexican-American War which we wrongly instigated, to the 49ers treatment of the Indians. We were basically more effective Nazis because we succeeded in largely destroying natives in the US. Then our imperial run, the Philippine-American war and all the war crimes we committed, the Union's failure in Reconstruction which allowed for the Jim Crow Laws to plague the South for so long, to our continued meddling in foreign affairs long past the time we should have. The Sedition Act in WW1 and McCarthyism during WW2, the Pentagon Papers and Vietnam. I love this country, but if can't constructively criticize or even acknowledge our faults then we are failing the same values that has made this country great. Like many countries we have done great things and we have done terrible things, to deny that is unpatriotic, to ignore our crimes is not American. I think it is important that we can criticize the US while proving we can still love our country even if we don't agree with everything it's done. I think teaching our whole history helps us realize how we can make our country better today.
Thankfully, my high school education predated Zinn, but the impact his work has had on today’s mainstream education narrative is clear. Too and Fwiw, “A People’s History of the United States” is actually the book highschooler “AJ” brought home as homework reading in the HBO series, The Sopranos! In the episode (season 4, episode 3), AJ reads a passage for his parents, whom rightfully recoil at the leftist narrative!
I’m about halfway through a ppls history of the United States rn and I really like it. and I have a theory about politics. I think one reason why people are conservative is because it is easier to be conservative. I don’t mean ur stupider, but leftist politics is just a lot of work. Like I read ALOT of books, like zinn’s in hope of figuring out how to fix our society. When I was a right winger, I was just that. Right wing politics isnt theory oriented, it’s just let’s keep things the way they are. Conservatives basically want things to stay the way that they are. Which is an easy position to hold because it’s the default. Take health care for example. If ur a right winger, u want to keep the current system, which is an incredibly easy position to understand. If ur liberal, u may want something like Obama care which comes with all its implications and complexities. If ur a leftist, u may want to entirely reformulante society from the ground up. The farther left u go the more theoretical it gets. I’m not saying leftist are correct, but one reason why there’s so few of us is simply because our politics is harder to do
When a history professor at a local community college assigned the class Zinn's book that we had to write a minimum of three essays after picking three chapters out of this book, I made a choice to take a hit on my grade and not touch that crap book. What is really sad is that Zinn was a World War 2 vet who had served in the European Theater. I'm still at a loss how he returned home and dumped all over America. Plus, anyone that is admired by Matt Damon is someone I can't be bothered with.
I haven't read his book, but if you study the history of other nations, they are much, much worse that ours by light years in comparison. yes, we made mistakes. But we don't hide them, we fix them. And millions are flocking to get into our borders, because they know how much better America is compared to where they came from.
@@Ironicuss Yet our medical advances and care far outstrip others in the world. I read enough horror stories where in England and its Common wealth nations will not treat certain health conditions until they truly become serious, on the hope of saving money that some of them will resolve themselves on their own. Meanwhile the patient suffers pain and quality of life issues. Right now if you have an immediate health emergency, you can walk into any US hospital, and they are by law to treat you regardless of ability to pay. Meanwhile compare human rights abuses, exploitation of children in sweat shops, freedom of speech, protest, to other countries around the world. China? Russia? North Korea? South America? Cuba? The Middle East? Even Japan, which is a homogeneous nation that will not integrate other ethic groups, and has a 100% conviction rate upon arrest because they are NEVER wrong. Denmark all but forbids immigration,becasue it can no longer sustain its cradle to grave social programs. I hope that gives you come perspective why America, for its faults, does not deserve Zinn's harsh judgement.
Yes, America is such a cesspit of imperialism. Remember when we won WWII and put a gun to the heads of the Japanese people, put our government in charge, and said "Japan, destroy our auto-industry?" Or when we toppled Saddam Hussein, we put our government in charge, put a gun to the heads of the Iraqi people said "Iraqis, elect Sadrists into parlaiment, deny us the right to leave any combat troops in your country in the 2008 SOFA, and let Russia use your airspace. Oh and make sure our preferred candidate, Allawi, barely has his candidacy register on the ballot." Yes, America is such a cesspit of racism. Remember how we made the most powerful man in the world (Barack Obama) and the richest woman in the world (Oprah Winfrey) out of a black man and black woman. Yes, America is such a cesspit of exploitation. Just ignore the median household income, measured in purchasing power parity, is higher than all but five nations, one of which is a micro-state (Luxembourg), and that for every four square feet of living space the average Western European has, the average American under the poverty line has FIVE.
"Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunk Christian." Be careful with who you make your bed with sir. Zinn may have wrote an unflattering depiction of America but I have yet to hear actual historians claim it to be outright lies.
Lincoln didn’t care about freeing slaves. He cared about saving the Union. Justifiably, he didn’t like it, but ending slavery wasn’t Lincoln’s primary objective. “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union.” A. Lincoln August 22, 1862
You understood it. The American people are being used for the wars that only benefits one group. People want fair trade and free travelling and peace on this earth. We are not supremacy to others to bring them "democracy". Today it has never been so obvious
This book was required in one of my college courses at Fresno State. It was taught by a lazy instructor who sat at her desk the whole time making PowerPoint presentations on how “terrible” America was while a soldier sat in the front row probably also forced to take this class. Worst class I’ve ever had payed for.
I never heard of Zinn before, that is okay, I never sought out negativity like some people do. Some people are weak and make mistakes but never admit them, they look to blame others. Thank you for letting me know where our young people are being brainwashed. We need more schools that teach things that people can actually make a living at.
Buy her book!!! It was a solid read, and I’ve even bought the books and other writings she referenced in her “Debunking Howard Zinn” and she in-fact accurately describes those other writings. Her book deserves a spot in any book collection/library (personal or public)dedicated to truth and true knowledge expansion.
Howard Zinn's book should not be generally banned as I am absolutely AGAINST any kind of censorship. But it should be banned from being taught in schools, high schools and colleges. By the way, CRT has in deed been BANNED from British public schools! In that sense: GOD SAVE THE QUEEN. 😊
Careful there-they’re now calling CRT "social emotional learning," so I recommend that parents of British public school students continue to closely monitor what’s being taught in the classroom. That said…*GOD SAVE THE QUEEN* 🇬🇧 👑
@@spiritmatter1553 True! Britain has the advantage of being governed by Conservatives for 11 years in a row now (and no end in view). In America the permant back and forth from left to right makes it almost impossible for any administration to have a lasting impact.
@@loganmyers1489 How exactly? I love these gotcha games especially when I already know I'm winning. So, you're sayingANYTHING can be taught at schools because bannign something there is censorship??? PLEASE! You lost that one from the get go.... ZERO chance, baby!
@@MarioStahl1983 There is a distinction between not teaching something and banning the teaching of something. One of those things is actually censorship. I’m sure that someone of your esteemed intelligence could comprehend that.
It is an inter-connected, integral world. The sooner we recognize this, the sooner we can start working together on a higher plane rather than quibbling over outdated ideologies. I
Why is it so hard to understand that all that happened in America was not good? Some people suffered and are still suffering in this country. Some things were good and we must discuss that also. There must be balance. I was taught all things in History that made Europeans look great only to find out that that was not true. We have no balance in History today.
Australian import to America and proud US citizen. I attended a Christian private school, and I never learnt anything negative about the States. My teachers were all proud of the Founding Fathers, the former presidents, the Nation's discoverers, the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, etc and made sure that we understood and appreciated the bravery and sacrifice of men and women in history and in the military. I'm a proud supporter of our active troops, our veterans, and our emergency responders to this day. ❤️ God bless America!
Mmm, good stuff! You should go back through and point out all the historical inaccuracies. Please cite them, I'd like very much to have all of the examples.
Thank you to those of you posting comments showing how you are now rejecting this man's distorted view of American history. It is so nice to see so many walking away from their PS and College indoctrination. This gives me hope for America.
From Good will hunting: “you want to read a book, read Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States, that book will f-king knock you on your ass.” I saw that movie when i was younger, heard that line and picked up a copy of that book, got home and read two or three pages and threw it away.
lol. I love praeger u talking about other things as propaganda….all while trying to convince scared, conservative parents that there children are reading some new anti-American book. 1.) this book was published in 1980. Why didn’t it corrupt the previous generations? Why wasn’t the high school class of 1983 “woke”? 2.) Howard Zinn is not being taught in high schools, I guarantee it. I’m a history major (from a university in a very liberal town) and I somehow made it through all 4 years w/out this book being taught. You guys are hilarious. Keep making videos for folks afraid of anything changing-the rest of the internet love getting to laugh Peace be with you ✌️
Also, why would you bring up a point about 10K south Vietnamese being killed (a tragedy in its own right), but not mention the one million-plus north Vietnamese civilians killed as a result of the war? …are we doing the same thing we are accusing Zinn of doing? 🤔
@@Soundwave142 If you burn books, you are exactly the same as Howard Zinn and his ilk. The answer is to debunk his books and expose him for the fraud he was.
@@jimfinigan1681 You right, I’ll just stick to using it as toilet paper, among other things. On second thought I’ll burn it anyway, *WITH THE FLAMES OF TRUTH!*
"A Patriot's History of the United States" by Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen is the best American history text ever. This is what we use homeschooling our children. It is incredibly accurate and encourages its readers to learn history from original source materials and not regurgitated propaganda.
I believe this is deep down the truth about all Marxists. Losers who are completely animated by jealousy, envy and bitterness. They hate those who are successful and have happy lives, so want to tear them down and poison them in revenge.
@@007kingifrit excellent point. It is exactly that. Envy, which includes unwillingness to shoulder personal responsibility, is the downfall of mankind.
Howard Zinn was as much of an American patriot as one can possibly be. If you are not aware of who this man was then do some homework. Howard Zinn spent his entire adult life teaching young adults, he was instrumental in the civil rights movement, the labor movement, and the anti war movement. There has been no person that I am aware of in our lifetime that gave more to this country than did Howard.
Oh I’ve heard of him. It’s not what he wrote- people can write or posit anything but the fact this polemic became a cause is the problem. It deserves a place in a curricula as how not to document history within its own context. Revisionism 101. How about a peoples History of the Ukraine?
It exposed the true history of America/ns, which obviously exposes you & all other racists & perceived white supremacists, bigots, hypocrites, and the likes. You can run forever, but eventually TMH exposes you! Get over it, your time is UP, so enjoy its remains HalleluYAH!!!!
Zinn was an anarchist. Not just leftist. I don't agree that he lies in his book but the book should be literally titled "Everything Wrong Ever America Did". It's like when you introduce your husband to your friends for the first time and you mention ONLY everything bad he said or did, taking everything out of context. History isn't black and white, it's grey. He showed only the black of American history. It's like portraing the ancient Greeks as mysogynistic, child molestors, who believed that slavery is moral, and not mentioning all the contributions of their culture to the world.
I remember that I was supposed to teach from it. Not only did I create my own curriculum, but over the years I threw the book away one at time. Kind of like Johnny Cash and building the car one piece at a time or Dufrene, (sp) in Shawshank Redemption who dug that tunnel with a rock hammer. Book was never used again even after I left the school, for it had mysteriously disappeared.
There it is: "People's". Whenever you see that word in a title or organization it almost invariably means it's Marxist in origin and purpose. A common variation is "For the People": "The People's Republic of China"; "Science For the People"; "The People's Liberation Army". ("Liberation" is another commonly used Marxist term - which means its exact opposite). These are just off the top of my head - there are countless others.
I worked for an Anchorage based bookstore chain in the early 80's when the People's History came out. Most of us considered ourselves left leaning, and I read a "return - damaged" we had in the break room. Even in that milieu, the propaganda was obvious - the "People's" history, after all. I'm appalled it's treated as gospel these days.
Did you happen to notice how amazingly convenient is that this woman fails to tell people like you that Howard Zinn started out his career as a pilot bombing the living daylights out of the Japanese. Yet we are supposed to somehow believe that this woman Mary knows more about this subject than a person who not only lived it and did it but knows what it feels like to regret it? There's not a single thing more important that you could've left out of this video then the fact that this man served our country by doing exactly what he was asked to do. Sorry......but......SHAME on this pro-capitalist talking points woman. No biased person of her intelligence and integrity would leave that out because doing so turns legitimacy into a headpiece and who on earth that is COMPLETEY unbiased would want to do something like that?
Bigger question still...... "What is truth", and..... "What matters to one, is of little or no importance to others.... Until it happens to they their selves".......
History teacher here, Sweden. Similar things trickle from the States to us here in Europe too. Even in nations such as mine. Heck I have a heard someone screaming colonism, racism argument towards Latvia & Estonia. Two nations we have been occupied by various empires and kingdoms for the last 800 years.
I had Zinn's book on my to read list for a bit. Goodread reviews tote it as a more truer representation of history. I suspected it was bias but not dishonest. I now have his and Mary's book on my list to to read together as a pair. Nice work Mary!!
Great way to form your our opinion on this, not with a 5 mins video on UA-cam, but by reading both of them and comparing them with each other and with your current knowledge, trying to form a consensus and opinion by yourself and not just blindly accepting what you're one-sidedly told! More people should do like that in this comment section, both from the left and from the right, from what I'm seeing.
Of course we should explore all viewpoints. Howard Zinn is an accomplished Historian with a massive list of citations ranging from historians of the time and individual recorded accounts. Mary is a coattail critic at best. No real unbiased exploration. Prager double speak.
Prager is procriminal corporate kleptocapitalist propaganda designed to prevent the scandalously exploited (and systematically underpaid) members of our nations abused working class from asking for more than poverty wages from their employing corporations greedy billionheir owners.
I ABSOLUTELY agree that you should read both books - however amazingly convenient is how this woman fails to tell people like you that Howard Zinn started out his career as a pilot bombing the living daylights out of the Japanese. Yet we are supposed to somehow believe that this woman Mary knows more about this subject than a person who not only lived it and did it but knows what it feels like to regret it? There's not a single thing more important that you could've left out of this video then the fact that this man served our country by doing exactly what he was asked to do. Sorry......but......SHAME on this pro-capitalist talking points woman. No biased person of her intelligence and integrity would leave that out because doing so turns legitimacy into a headpiece and who on earth that is COMPLETEY unbiased would want to do something like that?
This lady has a conservative and corporate bias. Read Zinn's book and decide for yourself. His history is the history that conservatives don't want you to know about, i.e., what company/corporate leaders (especially the Robber Barons at the turn of the 20th century) don't want you to know about the labor movements in this country and how ruthlessly the fat cats were in trying to suppress it, and how many people they killed to do so!
This video’s portrayal of Zinn’s reading of Pike is misleading. He does not use Pike as a source about North Vietnam, he uses Pike as source about the NLF which was a South Vietnamese communist insurgency organization. Specifically he gives two passages from Pike where he describes the NLF as a “mass-based political party” whose purpose was “to restructure the social order of the village.” Now if you think an admission of a party being “mass-based” makes one an admirer then you may have more communist sympathies than you choose to let on.
Mary could you please come to Wisconsin and help undo all of the crap that is going on in our schools. Please DM me. We really need a speaker and they claim that they don’t mind another side to be said. Let’s see what they do about it. I think we need you in the schools.
Huh . . . I always read Zinn in college as an opposite pole from jingoism; I could not take his words as truth. But here's a difference: I was half a decade older than my classmates and could think for myself.
I am from Venezuela and until recently I did not really know who Howard Zinn was, I did not even know that he was American, the intellectuals of the Latin American left constantly cite him as if he would have been the only reliable historian, his book is almost mandatory reading in universities , from Mexico to Argentina. I tried to read some of his articles and I recognized the language of the left, regarding the relationship between Columbus and the Tainos, the threat of the Caribs was very real, they were an extremely aggressive people who considered the other tribes their slaves and frequently practiced cannibalism, In Venezuela the piranhas are called Caribes, in Venezuela they were exterminated thanks to the alliance between the Spaniards and the Indians.
I remember zinn’s book was assigned reading in my US history course when I was completing my undergrad in 2009. This course was the sole reason why I lost so much enthusiasm to further study US history, At least in a formal university. The topic is still my favorite but I would never pay a lefty professor thousands of dollars to lecture me on something they clearly show so much disdain for.
US history is brutal, I would lose faith in a society too after learning about how violent America's past is.
@@bender9222222222 US history is nothing compared to the brutality of the ancient past. Slavery was around for thousands of years before Columbus ever set sail. We did not create slavery, but we fought a civil war to end it. No other nation can make that claim, ever!
Before you lose faith in society, think about the things that the US got right instead of focusing on the flaws (flaws, btw, that will exist wherever humans live and breathe)!
@@Challagar yes, I agree that's why Howard zinn is a good read. Keeps us informed on some of the flaws so we can learn from them and try not to replicate those problems.
Also, half the country fought to maintain slavery!
@@bender9222222222 "Also, half the country fought to maintain slavery!" Not quite, but don't let the actual facts get in your way.
@@bender9222222222 "Also, half the country fought to maintain slavery!" So what? Half a nation fighting to end slavery is still more than in all of history before them. Which, by the way, is zero!
Oh, this looks good... We read "A People's History" in 11th grade US History class in the mid-90s. It wasn't what sucked me into critical social justice ("diversity credits" in college had that dubious honor), but it groomed me for that conversion. Now that I'm out of the woke cult, I'm very interested to learn more about the truth behind the book! #ioncewaswokebutnowimfree
*Debunking Howard Zinn by Mary Grabar is also another good source.*
Zinn was a big plagiarist.
We need more stories about those who have escaped woke to compete with all those books about those who 'escaped white supremacist' groups...
Beware of the propaganda from BOTH sides. ;)
Great to have you on this side! 😀
@@tnndll4294 Was just going to mention this book.
33 years teaching, this book is in more classrooms than any other book I've seen. We are reaping the results of this un-scholarly and hateful book with the Woke generation.
Ya but who is doing this, who is bringing this book into those classrooms?
Yet it's more accurate then most books taught in school today..most us school history is straight trash.
As a parent, I am preparing my teenager to deal with this onslaught a couple ways. First, get out and study subjects before attending any college class - 4 or 5 books. [Seriously, and not from the same author]. Search out pre-war texts whenever possible: especially history. That helps ask better questions and keep from being blindsided/flatfooted.
Like most, that lesson was learned the hard way. In my case it was an economics class. The textbook was [per the usual publishing racket] not available to the professor to read before making lesson plans - his plans were prepared from separate, undisclosed texts and the textbook (while used) was clearly an add on [if not an afterthought]. Then there was the test bank: ancient stuff from tertiary sources that did not mesh well with lessons or text.. I paid attention, took copious notes and thought I was engaged... and that [like half the class] yielded an F on the first test - the curve, having been blown out by a california blonde who was clearly more than just smart, had me drop the class and regroup later with a different professor who wasn't so... distracted.
Second, take absolutely nothing personally: college is a third party certification exercise and if subject mastery is the goal, test arguments from time to time, but jump through their hoops. Personally, mastery comes later in life - as long as you keep reading. Treat it like Obama treated church for two decades: know thine enemy. It's not everybody on staff - that's mindless. But over a course of years, a couple professors encountered will be 'people of the lie' [if I may borrow the term], and spotting their nonsense early is important to avoid the mistake of eschewing subject matter where the real problem is a misanthrope at the mic who would do well to be hit by an asteroid.
Should something really egregious be going on such as a professor abandoning course descriptions and twisting off into the ether, then its time to seek legal counsel - BEFORE engaging the administration, and bring some other students with. The mix of law and school rules needs knowledge of the law first: sometimes rules are structured in ways that tilt near the edge of not comporting with basic statutes. If, for example, students have been defrauded then the school keeping some fees collected may not be defensible - but first line comment of any administrator will be pointing to policy so they can keep the money.
Third, school begins with an agreement - a contract of odd sorts. No other businesses functions as they do, and state laws at times allow leeway in conduct otherise prohibited to regular businesses. That, at present, is my homework... time to get busy, so I can pass it on. Think I'll pick through my state university policy first, as so much political correctness has tilted what I thought I was once vaguely familiar with.
@@fudgedogbannana the teachers are, they are coerced into the tenets of this book in CA Teacher Certification programs in the Cal State system and probably all other higher education systems. Teachers become true believers and pass that zeal onto the kids.
@@fudgedogbannana the teachers are. They are coerced into using this book in their Teacher Certification programs through the Cal State system, and probably through all higher education teacher training in California. The teachers become true believers and pass this crap onto naïve studentsl They then become the "woke".
I had never heard of this Zinn individual and where we are today makes perfect sense. Thank you for teaching me something today!
Nor have I heard of Zinn. Thanks for another wake up call.
Yep! It's the most popular book for a reason! Because it gives a broader context to how shady and violent American history is!
@@bender9222222222 global history -the United States is by no means unique. Governments and government backed “corporations” have been killing machines since we crawled from the muck. I think that’s where people get divided on this topic. This is a repeated historical cycle. Man’s inhumanity to man. the United States is the current target/scapegoat. Then next and next and next.
@@skdewolf7606 I'm not sure what you're point is here? So there shouldn't be criticism of a nation because other countries have done bad stuff too?
Other countries have done their inhabitants wrong, no debate from me but to say that America isn't uniquely suppressive and exploitative is laughable. Comments like these are why America will never reconcile with it's misdeeds.
@@skdewolf7606 I'm not sure what you're point is here? So there shouldn't be criticism of a nation because other countries have done bad stuff too?
Other countries have done their inhabitants wrong, no debate from me but to say that America isn't uniquely suppressive and exploitative is laughable. Comments like these are why America will never reconcile with it's misdeeds.
I consider Howard Zinn one of the most despicable and dishonest men in the history of academia, right up there with Noam Chomsky.
Don't forget Aleister Crowley and Adam Weishaupt...
Imagine a human heart. It's covered in maggots. It's flesh is festering with sores. It's flesh is blackened with decay. But somehow its still beating. That is the left. Only by meditating on that image can you understand what they do and what they believe and why.
They were also neighbours (Cambridge, MA)
Who wrote the most popular history text in the past half century? Ever ask yourself why this... might be?
@@bender9222222222 Mein Kampf was one of the most popular books in the first half of the 20th century... So I see your point. Zinn is pure evil.
If the book is “The People’s History of the United States,” it was the gateway to my indoctrination as a freshman in college. I was 18 and had no idea what was happening to me. I’m SO grateful that I was red pilled and I have never looked back!
You really believe Native Americans weren't genocided? Wow.
@@monsterhunter445 Being a republican and not believing in one of the democrat's commandments does not mean that you support Native Americans being killed, the same way as if you agree with Nancy and Ilhan Omar on certain views then you must believe in the destruction of Israel and the Jews.
@@monsterhunter445 It's a rather generic term. You could say the loser in any battle was "genocided", although it's not a proper use of the word. Tribes committed genocide against other tribes if you follow the definition. The problem is one of how far back you want to go, since, in reality, there's no such thing as a "Native American". There were some who arrived, some who arrived later and killed off some of the first, and on down the line. I guess we're only supposed to be butthurt about the white ones, right? Seems a bit racist.
Heck yeah! That book is total garbage.
@@monsterhunter445 "You really believe Native Americans weren't genocided? Wow."
You really believe America was responsible for Pearl Harbor? Double wow.
Howard Zinn: spreading misinformation since the cold war.
Could you please cover what’s happening in Cuba this weekend? Next Monday the Cuban people will take the streets all over the world to end Castro dictatorship, socialism and communism in Cuba. We need all the support we can get. Thanks.
I hadn't heard about that.
I hope by commenting on this here it bumps your comment up to the relevant section and gains attention. If you're reading this Prager please 🥺 we need this. We need America to see this. Cuba needs our love and support.
@@ladyseshiiria Appreciate you.
I hadn't heard a thing about it anywhere until you commented. All real Americans are pulling for the Cuban people, and more would be if there wasn't a media blackout on all things Cuban since they stopped letting them in. God forbid we let in people that have lived through the nightmare our politicians are trying to create here, or even let us hear about them.
@@enmiredbythelazy4401 Your English is not very good looking lmfao 🤣 PATRIA Y VIDA
Yep, can confirm, was poisoned by this book. Recovery took fifteen years, but was eventually complete.
Poison how so? like what did it make you believe? Also how did you change your belief about it?
Congratulations. I almost had to die during a teaching assignment in Iran before I came to my senses.
Oh thank god (hug).
Here's a MAGA hat and Trump button for you.
Only trust Fox News and OAN from now on
(Even though OAN was started by two Russians who worked for the state-run network there).
@@maskedmarvyl4774 the video explain why Zinn can not be trusted, but maybe you should watch it and goes, hmmm maybe I should look into this. I did that with many of the left "history" or "news" and many times it was an outright lie and when I object I'm a racist or far-right. With the conservatives they often cite resources and even encourages you to look it up. Doesn't that makes you even a little bit curious to look for the facts?
Howard Zinn’s factually honest history of the USA IS NOT poisonous.
I read Zinn’s book and I lived in the area of one of the chapters. What he wrote was a complete fabrication and almost a complete opposite of the facts.
The worst part is that Howard Zinn so much as admitted that parts of the book were fabricated and that it was more important to teach the narrative truth or some other such crap. I encountered Zinn’s writing for the first time around 2003, and have disliked the man ever since.
Kinda like WOKENESS?????
Which was? What exactly was Zinn wrong about. It wasn't the fact that Columbus started the Atlantic slave trade and decimated the indigenous people of the America's?
@@DietrichGarbo source?
That is wrong. Columbus played a small part of a much bigger problem. Watch ‘Christopher Columbus: An exaggerated evil’
And yet Zinn never left the country he despised so damn much.
He lived in Cambridge, MA for much of his life.
It's always the people that benefit the most from America who condemn it.
@@welderlogic1806 so people can't complain. Shut the hell up then why is Prager u up if you want your CRT free go out of USA then
@@monsterhunter445 And who can argue with THAT??
@@monsterhunter445 there's a big difference between people who fundamentally hate America's institutions, laws and founders, and somebody criticizing curriculum in schools that teaches the next generation of citizens to see everything through a racial lens, that white people are inherently racist and how "whiteness" signifiers such as rational thinking and work ethic are part of an evil, dominate culture. If you can't tell the difference, I'll sit and ponder your own credence towards rational thinking.
Brilliant, and thank you!
I was assigned Zinns book in a college class. After reading the back cover, and who endorsed his book, I knew it was garbage, so I dropped the class. This was in 91.
Who endorsed it?
Can't handle how dirty and violent American history is huh? Did the prof a service to by dropping out. I bet you like the idea of free market place of ideas too, but can't tolerate them. Love it love it love it
@@bender9222222222 The world's history is violent and dirty. Civilization rests on the edge of a sword. Savages and barbarians (including those that exist inside of civilized nations, criminals and lawless people) are only kept at bay by force. All land is taken and held by right of conquest. Natives fought wars over land and resources. They killed and enslaved each other. Bad things may have happened during colonization by Europe, but the end result was that those tribes are no longer at each other's throats. They live in peace with each other. That peace between tribes was brought by colonialism.
@@cattraknoff lol wut. Are you familiar with the trail of tears? America has been engaged in multiple wars/conflicts since WW2. Where is this peace you speak of?
@@bender9222222222 You do understand that the past 50 years have been much more peaceful than most of recorded history, right? The USA has been involved in a number of wars, but did you notice a difference between those wars and almost all previous wars? Hint: the winner didn't gain any territory *unless* the winner wasn''t the USA. If the winner was the USA, they usually ended up rebuilding the loser (which is why Japan and Germany are very friendly with the USA today). As for the trail of tears, yes, people suffered. But that is hardly something special about the USA - people have been suffering across the world since there have been people. And the native Americans certainly were cruel to each other long before the USA existed. I suggest you do some more reading about history - and be more careful about which authors you chose.
PragerU Producer’s
My intellectually honest liberal American History Professors told me to return Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” back to the book store. They said it was factually incorrect and extremely biases. Keep in mind my Professors voted majority in the Democrats favor.
Thank you for this video PragerU. 🇺🇸
@@tomasmccauley569 if we're talking about books that tell the terrible truths without all the lies and slander, Coming of Age in Mississippi is quite a read.
I took a course called American studies (combination of history and literature) and that was one of our assigned readings. Excellent course with excellent books.
@@tomasmccauley569 I think I might like the movie too. Especially on one particular scene.
Thank God there are some people with integrity in the universities. I appreciate hearing your comment.
Liberals are decent folks with some ideas conservatives disagree with. Leftists are NOT liberals. Liberals and conservatives share a common bedrock of belief in freedom and have much more in common than liberals and leftists.
@@Baron_Blue_Max Leftists are absolutely based.
Zinn was indeed a low resolution relativist thinker. He famously stated "objective thought is neither possible, nor favorable", which only a moron could state unironically. He also said we should never seek to advance humanity, because setting goals and priorities requires objective summarization. Seriously. Reading his combined works is hilarious.
His works really only appeal to losers who are seeking desperately to justify their dispossession.
Dispossession is what you all lose. Zinn exposed you!
Found the Marxist. ^^^^^
@@rasil4u you're clueless
#reharl
"objective thought is neither possible, nor favorable",
Is that objectively true?
H/T Frank Turek
@@rasil4u We lose “dispossession”. So we’re possessed? What an odd thing to say.
DAMN!!! Never heard of this Zinn guy. This video really makes him look like a cool guy. I will look into him!
I’ve actually read his book “A People’s History of the United States” and would highly recommend it. It’s a fascinating read
Ooooh look, a bad ass keyboard warrior who likes to play stick-it-to-the-man.
Caden Thatcher👈 Well stupid is as stupid does.
Howard Zinn is simply stating the anti-conservative propaganda line that has been on display in the U.S. since the founding of the country. Is his view also propaganda...? Yes, but there is no absolute true objective history of anything. Yes there are facts about things that happen...but when you get into the "why" they happened, you are transported into opinion and bias. There are at least 2 sides to every story.
You will not be disappointed!
He’s been spot on just because the truth paints a picture you don’t like doesn’t mean it’s not the truth.
except the guy often times said things that were simply factually not correct so you can't possibly make that argument.
Perhaps the one I found astounding was the one where he claimed Thomas Jefferson didn't free his slaves because of his "Bigotry and racism" and that he "begrudgingly admitted that the slaves would be free some day." There is just so much wrong with that! As a lawyer in the state of Virginia, he fought to get slavery ABOLISHED! Did Tommie just take on bigotry as he got older?
The simple fact of the matter is that the 2 reasons I can think of for TJ not freeing his slaves was a) the debt he was in and b) he feared that doing that would result in a massive war that the young country couldn't afford to fight. But TJ actually did a lot more for blacks than Zinn would admit. TJ ended American involvement in the slave trade. He also favored a solution that gradually freed the slaves. You can read this all on TJ's wikipedia page (with citations to boot).
There are several instances but this is just one of them.
@@divinityofblackness6330 gradually freed slaves when they shouldn't of been there in the first place. it seems so far the people countering the SOURCES zinn pulls are just splitting hairs. How significant is it really for example if howard was wrong about the Japanese internment camps being secret at first...who cares they still happened under government approval and enforcement despite whatever protests were around it. It's like this new argument in florida that "slaves learned skills they otherwise wouldnt have under slavery" like yeah no sht, a slave kind of has to learn a assigned skill or be killed that doesn't make slavery good or not as bad all of a sudden.
It’s impossible to correct these people. They won’t read the facts because it disturbs their ideals. The Commie lie has gotten too powerful to expel just the facts. It’s sad really.
No, his writings have been debunked by respected historians over and over. He lied, he plagiarized someone else's lies and embellished them further, he just made stuff up, and he took Columbus' diary completely out of context by connecting quotes that had absolutely nothing to do with one another. Quotes that were days apart. He did this to spread the false lies that he wanted. And he has been very successful at that, sadly.
Read Debunking Zinn.
Dude literally is proven to have misquoted figures and omit facts. How the hell is he “on point”? LOL
HISTORY is a complex subject. That's why so many "students" absolutely hate that subject!
But, once your able to visualize the complex series of interconnected links, the subject comes ALIVE!
I live in a house surrounded by (literally) THOUSANDS of books. And a good portion of those are on History.
Also remember:
"Those who refuse to learn the Lessons of History are doomed to repeat them!"
Zinn did untold damage to the American psyche. But, it can be repaired.
Agreed why are people so afraid of looking at history as a multi dimensional tapestry rather than a timeline? That being said, as a historian he did play fast and loose with primary sources. As is common.
@@skdewolf7606 Because that would require nuance and context along with critical thinking and empathy. All things the modern left is incapable of now with endless purity tests being part and parcel of the woke religion. Any sympathy for the complex nature of history to them means surely you must endorse the worst atrocities of those time periods. A lot of people don’t want to think anymore, they want to be told what to think.
@@thisismyyoutubecommentacco6302 And the right isn't guilty of the very same purity tests? It's functionally a personality cult for Trump and idolizes a highly sanitized version of America's past. Not to mention it brands anyone that doesn't toe the modern GOP line as a traitor and threatens them with violence. Hell, it calls for any view that disagrees with its rhetoric to be banned, because they know that an honest account of our history and a more accepting culture that doesn't tolerate the bullying of white reactionary christians won't make them look good politically.
Anyone who thinks Vietnam wasn’t basically genocide on the part of America is certifiably insane.
They treated the Viatnamese like vermin. Committed every war crime imaginable, routinely. Slaughtered at least a million people. Carpet bombed half the country, dropped biological weapons over the other half. People are still dying there today from what the US did.
And the US churns out heroic movies about the war which depict Americans as the victims. It’s no wonder the world hates you.
I dont. I love it. The good, bad and the ugly parts.
PragerU always astounds me with their ability to find people who can speak without saying anything remotely valuable. A true leader in the field of paralytic boredom.
What are you talking about? She was literally explaining that Zinn misrepresented a lot of data to fit his world view. I wouldn't say that people don't do that when interpreting history, but as she says in the video, he went pretty far to do what he did...
You ignore what they said. Zinn is a terrible scholar, an empty mascot.
Zinns book was the first US History book I read as an adult, after realizing I should have paid more attention in school. I then followed it with A Patriots History of the United States. I remember explicitly talking to my now wife saying how the former was all about feelings with not much substance, I learned so much more from the latter.
Yes! Larry Schweikart’s “Patriot’s History” is a great antidote to Zinn’s propaganda papers.
Yeah, because all Zinn wrote about was his "feelings." You definitely didn't read it.
@@sallyconnell9827 I did read it and it absolutely is all about his feelings
@@DameOfDiamonds You’re both clearly lying. There’s no way you’ve read all 700 pages of a book that’s packed full of facts about colonization, slavery, sharecropping, Reagan cutting free lunch programs and blowing up the military budget, etc and then commenting “it’s all about his feelings”. Nope I don’t believe you’ve even read 10 pages.
in excess of 700 USA military bases is zinn’s feelings. you are a liar
I was at a local used book store the other day and overheard a young obviously modern leftist couple asking the worker if they had Zinns book. I cringed and wanted to recommend something else, like Paul Johnsons 'A History of the American People' but I opted not to. Didnt wanted to be called a racist white supremacist and be relentlessly questioned why I sympathize with Nazis and hate mexicans ect ect all whilst being recorded.
I think if I were in your shoes I would have inadvertently unleashed an audible groan of despair.
Paul Johnson isn’t a U. S. citizen, he’s British. He can be objective.
@BA_Gen2 - Thank you for recommending Paul Johnson's book!
Yes because this has happened to so many people!
Conservatives don't understand logic, which is why in this whole video there is not one single quote from Zinn. You guys just make up what people believe
@@sallyconnell9827 😂😂😂
This lady has made a career out of bashing Zinn. I wonder if she even read his books.
The American Conservative even backs Zinn.
I can be a Patriot and still think Vietnam was a war about American credibility.
I can be a Patriot and still be disappointed in the way Colombus carried out his BRILLIANT AND BRAVE adventure to the New World.
I can be a Patriot and still be upset that my country treated Japanese Americans horribly during the early 40s and didn't help Jews trying to escape Europe.
More than one narrative can be true at the same time.
We should be thankful for the fact we had Howard Zinn in the first place, a person that had extreme courage to doubt the whole american establishment. Keep in mind, the people that question everything are our only saviours during the bad times such as current ones.
Zinn was a clown
@@tnoble cope
Zinn was a Communist professor and admirer of Joseph Stalin. When he signed up for World War II, he did not necessarily do it for America, but for the Soviet Union, which was the only Marxist-Leninist Socialist country on Earth at the time.
Zinn's work is factually accurate, but as he clearly states, he tells the stories of various groups of people that haven't had much of a voice. If you are a student of history, it's very worthwhile reading.
Exactly, this awful is saying that a book about oppressed peoples in America history should make sure that the oppressed and oppressed should be treated the same when that is completely off topic
Zinn provided exhaustive bibliography citing his sources, people getting butthurt because he spoke up for the silenced should get a life and deal with it.
howard zinn did something that angers many people - he lied.
there.
corrected it for you.
@@grayman7208 about what exactly?
"Petrone, for example, read De Las Casas’s original Spanish text, Historia de las Indias (History of the indies) and learned that those acts of cruelty were actually committed by Columbus’s arch-nemesis, Francisco de Bobadilla, who blamed Columbus in an attempt to unseat him from the office of Governor of the West Indies. Columbus successfully sued Bobadilla for libel in a court of law. However, those debunked charges were resurrected 500 years later by pseudo-historian Howard Zinn for his polemic The People’s History of the United States."
Great video. I fell for that book's propaganda. As a young man it made me feel empowered that I knew the "Real" truth.
Thank God my love for history continued. I look back at that book as a youthful distraction. An outlet for youthful rebellion.
Back in online school my teacher gave me this book to read. Read 3 pages and never touched it again
It might be worth picking out a chapter on a topic you enjoy reading about, rather than starting from the beginning.
@@inotterwords6115 Id like to read the chapter where they are sad that their communist ways arent in full effect yet.
Did you write a review on it? What do students say are do to avoid left wing teachers?
@@KittredgeRitter man tbh…. You can’t really avoid it. I just put in my AirPods and drown out the noise
I went to school in the 50's and 60's never heard of him glad i didn't he should have moved to Cuba
I have studies history my entire life and was forced to use hi book for a class. I read the garbage, rolled my eyes and got an A in the class. It taught me instructors cannot be trusted in what they teach. One of the best lessons of my higher education.
He said him self best way to radicalize people is to use history. It's funny how many people take his work seriously.
It's more funny just how blatantly stupid many people are, and how easily they are swept into fascist Lefty GroupThink cults.
@@CowboyRobot2000 definitely.
I read this book in college and presented on Howard Zinn. I was not impressed and knew he distorted so much. Especially since I knew so much about WW2 history.
I wrote a comment, then erased, and said, "Nah -- who cares -- I don't comment on these UA-cam threads!".
But here I am again. I read this book at UCSB in the early 1990s. I loved getting a different perspective than the pro-American traditional view of US History. Could I recognize that Zinn was slanted? Of course. But I also read pro-west Profs like Terence T. Finn and his ilk. The idea that one book can influence an entire generation is a shortcut to thinking. I live in the middle. I am a moderate. The right always blames the left for being myopic -- and I love Prager's Site -- but in my humble opinion, this video commentary is off-base. The right is creating a fake boogieman. Lastly -- Grabar doesn't write her own book with her own ideas, but instead creates a longwinded critique.
As long as the critique is substantial, supported and justified this is just how we scrutinize information. The reason peer reviewed lends credibility to an argument or conclusion is because it has been scrutinized by the intellectual community at large.
Many High School/College students are too young/inexperienced to recognize Zinn's "slant".
After reading Zinn, many young people have come to the conclusion that America is uniquely evil....as if every other Nation/Government around the World, hasn't displayed the same abuses & vices,
sometime in its history.
I was taught that Native American Indians were "peaceful people"; in tune with the Land and their Creator.....not realizing that various aggressive Tribes attacked peaceful Tribes. There is no place on Earth that hasn't been affected by the vices of Human Nature. America's not unique, in that regard.
But even so, it still has some positive traits, from its inception, until now. Many people still want to emigrate here.... even amidst our flaws.
When I encounter American Communists (and hard-core Leftists),
I ask them which Country they'd feel happier living in... and why haven't they moved there? I never get a clear response.
We have Columbus's journals where he describes how he tortured and slaughtered natives (he fed them to dogs in some instances). How can she defend that?
Because American's are entitled monsters. I'm glad they are so public and so brazen with their lying, when the reprisals begin, and they snowball, this kind of thing will be used as evidence of the rightness of that country passing suddenly, and completely into history.
Because he descirbes feeling sympathy for those who enslave the Tainos, and he also details peacefully trading with them. If not for Columbus, think what else we would not have.
Because he describes feeling sympathy for the enslaved Tainos and also details peacefully trading with them. If not for Columbus, think what else we would not have today.
@@frenchieplays7952 the chance of not seeing entire civilizations wiped out in north and South America
@@frenchieplays7952 what a load of utter trash. Absolute nonsense. He was a psycho, you are an apologist.
Once while substitute teaching an AP History class, I remarked dismissively about "People's History," that it would make me think negatively about America. To the teacher's credit, the next lecture, he spent a full period attempting to unpack my comments through a robust discussion of stark differences between Zinn's perspective and American Exceptionalism.
Howard Zinn did something that angers many people- he told the truth. There is nothing I've seen to indicate that he "hates America". To characterize America in terms so simplistic as good or bad is a mistake, as is thinking of it as a single entity to be judged. It's government has engaged in some foreign policy which has been brutal and destructive and some which has been heroic and beneficial. To pretend any different only denies it's members the opportunity to do better in the future. There seems to be a recent trend against acknowledging and teaching uncomfortable history (which may spur feelings of guilt, though it shouldn't). This is precisely what is most important to accurately teach, and the real guilt lies in NOT doing so.
howard zinn did something that angers many people - he lied.
there.
corrected it for you.
I see what you did there. Almost as clever as presenting a convincing argument.
Almost.
"Petrone, for example, read De Las Casas’s original Spanish text, Historia de las Indias (History of the indies) and learned that those acts of cruelty were actually committed by Columbus’s arch-nemesis, Francisco de Bobadilla, who blamed Columbus in an attempt to unseat him from the office of Governor of the West Indies. Columbus successfully sued Bobadilla for libel in a court of law. However, those debunked charges were resurrected 500 years later by pseudo-historian Howard Zinn for his polemic The People’s History of the United States."
@@herrdoktorprofessoreldritc3416Oh, thank you. I'm gonna look that up.
@grayman7208 snowflake
That book was handed to me on a college campus in 2000. I read a little but never got too into it. Thank God!
I had to read it in 8th grade
And, unfortunately, Zinn got it right - much more than PragerU ever could.
It's a neverending trail of tears.
No. He lied and left out things to paint the picture he wanted.
@@TritonsGuardNo, he wrote a book about oppression and conservatives are mad he didn’t scream “AMERICA GREAT” every 10 seconds
@@ChanceCourt
Nope. His book is full of lies and incorrect interpretations.
AP US History teacher made us read this in high school. I spent the entire year battling the teacher over the fallacies in the book, and got a C in the class. Took the AP exam and got the highest possible score, only me and two other kids in the class got the high score. I made sure to show my score to the teacher in front of the entire class.
You really learned something! History teachers are douchebags, and teachers are no barrier to success! Good work.
Kudos to you.
@@Redmenace96 I remember overhearing two History Profs bragging about how they dodged the Nam draft. In the 80s/90s, we saw a lot of this. If their classes were "Essay test focused" it usually was difficult.
And then the entire class stood up and clapped
A year later. This is music to my ears. Teachers should always be challenged, especially if their teachings are based on false presumptions and/or sources that lack proper research. Good for you!!
I may have missed the level of ideological indoctrination at college that is rampant now. But it is high time that people of all ages and backgrounds educate themselves if the schools simply cannot perform their intended functions.
“An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.” --a quote often attributed to Thomas Jefferson.
Excellent piece! Now can you do one on Saul Alinski? Or How about Margaret Sanger?
I think PagerU already has similar videos for them. If not, they'll be in the works. You might have to look elsewhere to find them though. YT has a long history of banning Prager videos... like the one on the 10 Commandments... for absolutely ridiculous "reasons".
A great counter to Zinn's twisted history book is entitled "A Patriot's History Of The United States" by Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen.
And, Skousen's books.
Lame teachers who just blindly follow what has been fed to them; instead of questioning. But, isn't this what we are dealing with now; never question follow? Excellent as always; thank God for Dennis Prager and his leadership
Those teachers have been conditioned and damaged by the exact same philosophy. Many of them have been trained to associate bad things with America automatically.
That "lame teacher" flew the final bombing mission of the European theatre in WWII. Without knowing, he had been ordered to drop Napalm on a largely civilian French town which the Nazis had occupied. Directly out of highschool he worked on the shipping docks, and only went to college after he got his G.I. payout.
Howard Zinn is not some stuffy academic. He's a worker, and a veteran, and a damn good historian.
Mary, as you know, there are countless people in this world who want us to believe countless things.
You seem like a nice person. I want to encourage you to look up two things, and then let me know if your opinion on this video has changed: 1. Look up the list of major funders of the PragerU organization. 2. Look up the specific claims in Zinn's book which this video discusses, and check the citations given in the bibliography.
As someone who was raised in a Catholic working class Kentucky family, and as someone who is currently reading Zinn, I will testify that the information Zinn presents is true even if disquieting.
So well done. It does my heart well to hear someone else also debunk this claptrap that’s poisoned our culture.
I remeber hearing about that book in Good Will Hunting. I also remember the message of that film was the main character was an arrogant brat with zero life experience and that he should find someone who challenges him to find peace. Sounds like Zinns demographic.
Yep, there’s a girl in my class (in the class we have to read this BS) and she’s a full on Marxist, even quotes Marx in class. But if anyone, even the left-leaning, average young leftist kids try to challenge her on anything she throws a fit and calls them every __ist in the world
@@thatgirlray2765 Yep!
@@thatgirlray2765 I would recommend you talk to a historian or go to a American history museum and look at what they have to say about history, native Americans weren't all peaceful but neither were they all violent because there are different tribes with different ideology like how the Vikings and the French had different beliefs. Don't just say they're liberal indoctrination without checking them out first because it may interest you.
@@fredericku.c.klinsmann3388 "I would recommend you talk to a historian or go to a American history museum"
I think the problem is an Academic community that habitually bestows the title of historian to Marxists and plagiarists like Zinn.
One of the latest examples is giving the Pulitzer Prize to the 1619 Project creator Nikole Hanna Jones.
Another Marxist with no academic fundamentals or critical thinking skills. whose work has already been debunked by other historians.
It was Matt Damon giving advice.
Big red flag there.
I have this book and it doesn’t advocate for hating America. He had lots of historical facts on his side.
I tried to read Zin’s book some years ago without knowing anything about it. Only got through a couple chapters. Left a bad taste in my mouth.
That's like saying we America is perfect and can do no wrong. People must admit we are not perfect and make mistakes, even government's.
"That's like saying we America is perfect." Is it? Your sentence structure isn't even correct. Our current government is shit because of perverted demokkkrats who cheat and run everything into the ground. Misery loves company.
Guilty as Zinn.
Yep. Zinn's book was the start of my leftist anarchist days lol, glad there is some light being shed on this book. History is complex and it's not so simple as just pure good or evil.
Zinn devotes a great deal of energy throughout the book to acknowledging how complex history is and pointing out that all historians write from a particular perspective/bias.
I'm glad someone is standing up and telling the TRUTH. All Howard Zinn wanted to do was balance the ledger...which needed to be done.
I've read (most) of Zinn's book back when I was a teen. A leftist relative insisted I read it. I classified it as the propaganda that it was within the first two chapters. Anybody who takes as simplistic a view of any history as Zinn did does not deserve to be taken seriously. His book really is as bad as this lady makes it out to be.
What is simplistic about Zinn’s view of history? (Yes, I’ve read APHOTUS, I’m curious as to your viewpoint.)
@@chessenthusiast When I had it assigned around 17 it seemed really unhealthy. It was just like a list of every bad thing that ever happened to anybody ever, and how $#!! people were. I was like: why are we focusing on these things instead of the good that was/is done? The potato famines and all this stuff was a super long ago by people and to people who all long dead, so I don't see any use in being resentful about it now.
None of you can go into detail on Zinn's book, nor quote Zinn in any respect. Why? Because you're propagandists. You don't know what Zinn wrote.
@@TheJeremyKentBGross you need to learn about both good and bad parts of history. Howard Zinn only focuses on the bad stuff and dose not point out the positive.
@@sallyconnell9827 I don't anymore. But actually the video made me realize that I actually still have a Howard Zinn quote as the signature of my personal email from well over a decade ago that I totally forgot about.
I'm not propagandizing anything. I just remember there was stuff I liked from him during a certain phase, but my initial introduction generated repulsion because he seemed to do little but drag up historical resentments that weren't relative to the modern context.
I would say he's probably useful as a balance against someone overly jingoistic about American Exceptionalism, but I also remembering he was a fan of Marx, so he was almost certainly deliberately subversive, which was my impression at 17 when I knew nothing about him or Marx and had only been given reading assignments from A People's History.
Now that I'm in my 40s, it's not a wonder I don't remember great details from a reading assignment at 17, or even what I revisited of his work in my late 20s. I do note that there's way too much hatred of America these days beyond what seems warranted, or at least it's for the wrong reasons. There's loads of corruption right now, but very little to nothing has to do with "huwhite supremacy" (unless it's the racists posing as "anti-racists" trying to undo color blindness and segregation etc etc).
In general people want to come here from all over the world, and for good reason. And Marxist theories aren't going to fix what's wrong, in many cases they are a big part of what's wrong already.
Read Debunking Howard Zinn by Mary Garber. This guy is a major liar.
Thank for the reference!
Thank you.
Just started it. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
Thanks for the recommendation. Will look it up.
Zinn is what happens when parents don't get involved in what their kids learn at school.
Virginia parents broke that trend.
The Zinn Foundation or Zinn Project is a major sponsor of CRT programs.
Turds.
"Practical Ethics" by Peter Singer is a book that poisoned a Generation, and it continues; Gen X had kids.
Singer, Jewish. As was Zinn.
Jesus was Jewish.
@@BlackEcologythis 🙌
I went to a private Christian School and I was taught this very heavily in my high school history classes
what school? Did they align with a denomination?
WHAT SCHOOL? Where? When?
@@OutnBacker Chattanooga Christian School, c 1997, Nondenominational
@@nathangelaonline2391 Chattanooga Christian School, c 1997, Nondenominational
@@hrossaman Thank you. I'll check them out, now that over twenty years have passed. Gotta wonder what they were thinking, and do they still think that way.
Going to read your book this weekend. I remember having his content stuffed down my throat in high-school. Thankfully my grandmother lived with us and would debunk the lies at the dinner table
I'm a proud, life-long patriot that loves American and I'm very proud of the US. For its ideals enshrined in the constitution and our struggle to live up to them, our force for good in the global stage, and for much of the innovation and influence that has flourished here. From the progressive eras to the waves of immigration, our industrial might in WW1 & our role in WW2, for the Marshall plan and the fight against communism. That said I'll admit that our history classes fail to criticize and clearly recognize our faults which have had many. From Andrew Jackson ignoring the Supreme Court Decision & leading to the Trail of Tears, to the Mexican-American War which we wrongly instigated, to the 49ers treatment of the Indians. We were basically more effective Nazis because we succeeded in largely destroying natives in the US. Then our imperial run, the Philippine-American war and all the war crimes we committed, the Union's failure in Reconstruction which allowed for the Jim Crow Laws to plague the South for so long, to our continued meddling in foreign affairs long past the time we should have. The Sedition Act in WW1 and McCarthyism during WW2, the Pentagon Papers and Vietnam. I love this country, but if can't constructively criticize or even acknowledge our faults then we are failing the same values that has made this country great. Like many countries we have done great things and we have done terrible things, to deny that is unpatriotic, to ignore our crimes is not American. I think it is important that we can criticize the US while proving we can still love our country even if we don't agree with everything it's done. I think teaching our whole history helps us realize how we can make our country better today.
Thankfully, my high school education predated Zinn, but the impact his work has had on today’s mainstream education narrative is clear. Too and Fwiw, “A People’s History of the United States” is actually the book highschooler “AJ” brought home as homework reading in the HBO series, The Sopranos! In the episode (season 4, episode 3), AJ reads a passage for his parents, whom rightfully recoil at the leftist narrative!
I’m about halfway through a ppls history of the United States rn and I really like it. and I have a theory about politics.
I think one reason why people are conservative is because it is easier to be conservative. I don’t mean ur stupider, but leftist politics is just a lot of work. Like I read ALOT of books, like zinn’s in hope of figuring out how to fix our society. When I was a right winger, I was just that. Right wing politics isnt theory oriented, it’s just let’s keep things the way they are.
Conservatives basically want things to stay the way that they are. Which is an easy position to hold because it’s the default.
Take health care for example.
If ur a right winger, u want to keep the current system, which is an incredibly easy position to understand.
If ur liberal, u may want something like Obama care which comes with all its implications and complexities.
If ur a leftist, u may want to entirely reformulante society from the ground up.
The farther left u go the more theoretical it gets. I’m not saying leftist are correct, but one reason why there’s so few of us is simply because our politics is harder to do
When a history professor at a local community college assigned the class Zinn's book that we had to write a minimum of three essays after picking three chapters out of this book, I made a choice to take a hit on my grade and not touch that crap book. What is really sad is that Zinn was a World War 2 vet who had served in the European Theater. I'm still at a loss how he returned home and dumped all over America. Plus, anyone that is admired by Matt Damon is someone I can't be bothered with.
Damn Howard Zinn explained America spot on, much better than prageru can anyway…
I haven't read his book, but if you study the history of other nations, they are much, much worse that ours by light years in comparison. yes, we made mistakes. But we don't hide them, we fix them. And millions are flocking to get into our borders, because they know how much better America is compared to where they came from.
@@blank557 Only developed nation without some form of universal healthcare ._.
@@Ironicuss Yet our medical advances and care far outstrip others in the world. I read enough horror stories where in England and its Common wealth nations will not treat certain health conditions until they truly become serious, on the hope of saving money that some of them will resolve themselves on their own. Meanwhile the patient suffers pain and quality of life issues. Right now if you have an immediate health emergency, you can walk into any US hospital, and they are by law to treat you regardless of ability to pay.
Meanwhile compare human rights abuses, exploitation of children in sweat shops, freedom of speech, protest, to other countries around the world. China? Russia? North Korea? South America? Cuba? The Middle East? Even Japan, which is a homogeneous nation that will not integrate other ethic groups, and has a 100% conviction rate upon arrest because they are NEVER wrong.
Denmark all but forbids immigration,becasue it can no longer sustain its cradle to grave social programs.
I hope that gives you come perspective why America, for its faults, does not deserve Zinn's harsh judgement.
@@blank557 Yeah, and it costs an arm and a leg to receive. Literally.
Yes, America is such a cesspit of imperialism. Remember when we won WWII and put a gun to the heads of the Japanese people, put our government in charge, and said "Japan, destroy our auto-industry?" Or when we toppled Saddam Hussein, we put our government in charge, put a gun to the heads of the Iraqi people said "Iraqis, elect Sadrists into parlaiment, deny us the right to leave any combat troops in your country in the 2008 SOFA, and let Russia use your airspace. Oh and make sure our preferred candidate, Allawi, barely has his candidacy register on the ballot."
Yes, America is such a cesspit of racism. Remember how we made the most powerful man in the world (Barack Obama) and the richest woman in the world (Oprah Winfrey) out of a black man and black woman.
Yes, America is such a cesspit of exploitation. Just ignore the median household income, measured in purchasing power parity, is higher than all but five nations, one of which is a micro-state (Luxembourg), and that for every four square feet of living space the average Western European has, the average American under the poverty line has FIVE.
The most evil & untruthful trash I ever read by accident. It temporarily destroyed my outlook on reality. Zinn should have been prosicuted.
How's that constitution thing holding up for you.
"Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunk Christian." Be careful with who you make your bed with sir. Zinn may have wrote an unflattering depiction of America but I have yet to hear actual historians claim it to be outright lies.
Thanks for the laugh PragerU!
Lincoln didn’t care about freeing slaves. He cared about saving the Union. Justifiably, he didn’t like it, but ending slavery wasn’t Lincoln’s primary objective.
“My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union.”
A. Lincoln
August 22, 1862
I actually like this book.
For me, it's not about 'America being bad', it's about the few controlling the many.
You understood it. The American people are being used for the wars that only benefits one group. People want fair trade and free travelling and peace on this earth. We are not supremacy to others to bring them "democracy". Today it has never been so obvious
Just like Communism
Amazing! How people choose to put blinders on and remain asleep.
yeah, let this billionaire funded operation tell you what to think, afterall they surely earned their wealth by pure ethical means.
This book was required in one of my college courses at Fresno State. It was taught by a lazy instructor who sat at her desk the whole time making PowerPoint presentations on how “terrible” America was while a soldier sat in the front row probably also forced to take this class. Worst class I’ve ever had payed for.
I never heard of Zinn before, that is okay, I never sought out negativity like some people do. Some people are weak and make mistakes but never admit them, they look to blame others. Thank you for letting me know where our young people are being brainwashed. We need more schools that teach things that people can actually make a living at.
David it's a history book and history is brutal. If you think America was founded in love and peace for all you are a fool or ignorant.
@@monsterhunter445 That's exactly what liberals believe every country other than America was founded on.
Buy her book!!! It was a solid read, and I’ve even bought the books and other writings she referenced in her “Debunking Howard Zinn” and she in-fact accurately describes those other writings. Her book deserves a spot in any book collection/library (personal or public)dedicated to truth and true knowledge expansion.
Howard Zinn's book should not be generally banned as I am absolutely AGAINST any kind of censorship. But it should be banned from being taught in schools, high schools and colleges. By the way, CRT has in deed been BANNED from British public schools! In that sense: GOD SAVE THE QUEEN. 😊
Careful there-they’re now calling CRT "social emotional learning," so I recommend that parents of British public school students continue to closely monitor what’s being taught in the classroom. That said…*GOD SAVE THE QUEEN* 🇬🇧 👑
@@spiritmatter1553 True! Britain has the advantage of being governed by Conservatives for 11 years in a row now (and no end in view). In America the permant back and forth from left to right makes it almost impossible for any administration to have a lasting impact.
“I’m not against censorship, except for when I am.”
- You
@@loganmyers1489 How exactly? I love these gotcha games especially when I already know I'm winning. So, you're sayingANYTHING can be taught at schools because bannign something there is censorship??? PLEASE! You lost that one from the get go.... ZERO chance, baby!
@@MarioStahl1983 There is a distinction between not teaching something and banning the teaching of something. One of those things is actually censorship. I’m sure that someone of your esteemed intelligence could comprehend that.
It is an inter-connected, integral world. The sooner we recognize this, the sooner we can start working together on a higher plane rather than quibbling over outdated ideologies. I
Thanks for the heads up , will check it out . Sucks that anything that does not paint America as the best is dismissed
Why is it so hard to understand that all that happened in America was not good? Some people suffered and are still suffering in this country. Some things were good and we must discuss that also. There must be balance. I was taught all things in History that made Europeans look great only to find out that that was not true. We have no balance in History today.
I wonder how many commenting here have ever actually read a history book cover to cover. Or any book, for that matter.
Yup, Zinn is 99% correct
false.
Delusional. Howard Zinn is up there with the greats. Rest in peace and thank you for teaching the people@@grayman7208
Australian import to America and proud US citizen. I attended a Christian private school, and I never learnt anything negative about the States. My teachers were all proud of the Founding Fathers, the former presidents, the Nation's discoverers, the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, etc and made sure that we understood and appreciated the bravery and sacrifice of men and women in history and in the military.
I'm a proud supporter of our active troops, our veterans, and our emergency responders to this day. ❤️
God bless America!
All the best to you!
😃 👍
Hey i read that book in college. About 17 years ago. Been brainwashed since and am finally opening my eyes.
Mmm, good stuff!
You should go back through and point out all the historical inaccuracies. Please cite them, I'd like very much to have all of the examples.
Thank you to those of you posting comments showing how you are now rejecting this man's distorted view of American history. It is so nice to see so many walking away from their PS and College indoctrination. This gives me hope for America.
This is less actual criticism and more prageru projecting itself
From Good will hunting: “you want to read a book, read Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States, that book will f-king knock you on your ass.” I saw that movie when i was younger, heard that line and picked up a copy of that book, got home and read two or three pages and threw it away.
Don't be so mad at yourself for being incapable of reading it. Not everyone is smart enough to understand and agree with his writing.
Snowflake
lol. I love praeger u talking about other things as propaganda….all while trying to convince scared, conservative parents that there children are reading some new anti-American book.
1.) this book was published in 1980. Why didn’t it corrupt the previous generations? Why wasn’t the high school class of 1983 “woke”?
2.) Howard Zinn is not being taught in high schools, I guarantee it. I’m a history major (from a university in a very liberal town) and I somehow made it through all 4 years w/out this book being taught.
You guys are hilarious. Keep making videos for folks afraid of anything changing-the rest of the internet love getting to laugh
Peace be with you ✌️
Also, why would you bring up a point about 10K south Vietnamese being killed (a tragedy in its own right), but not mention the one million-plus north Vietnamese civilians killed as a result of the war?
…are we doing the same thing we are accusing Zinn of doing? 🤔
Take his books and use them as toilet paper!
Or do a book burning with books like his.
@@Soundwave142 If you burn books, you are exactly the same as Howard Zinn and his ilk. The answer is to debunk his books and expose him for the fraud he was.
@@jimfinigan1681 You right, I’ll just stick to using it as toilet paper, among other things.
On second thought I’ll burn it anyway, *WITH THE FLAMES OF TRUTH!*
@@Soundwave142 "THE FLAMES OF TRUTH"! I like that!
@@jimfinigan1681 I wonder if the Salamanders have a “Heavy “Truth” Flamer?”
"A Patriot's History of the United States" by Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen is the best American history text ever. This is what we use homeschooling our children. It is incredibly accurate and encourages its readers to learn history from original source materials and not regurgitated propaganda.
Thank you for the reference. I look forward to reading this.
Zinn is the perfect example of envy, animosity and inequities. When you're a loser what else can you do but hate those who succeed.
I believe this is deep down the truth about all Marxists. Losers who are completely animated by jealousy, envy and bitterness. They hate those who are successful and have happy lives, so want to tear them down and poison them in revenge.
@@Julia29853 Hit the nail on the head.
@@Julia29853 yes communism is greed given manifesto
@@007kingifrit excellent point. It is exactly that. Envy, which includes unwillingness to shoulder personal responsibility, is the downfall of mankind.
You sound like an entitled snowflake
Why not let people read and make their own conclusion.
America the movie by Dinesh D'Souza is a must watch!
The book version also refutes Zinn and his allies.
🤢
You mean the guy who was convincted of fraud?
Howard Zinn was as much of an American patriot as one can possibly be. If you are not aware of who this man was then do some homework. Howard Zinn spent his entire adult life teaching young adults, he was instrumental in the civil rights movement, the labor movement, and the anti war movement. There has been no person that I am aware of in our lifetime that gave more to this country than did Howard.
Oh I’ve heard of him. It’s not what he wrote- people can write or posit anything but the fact this polemic became a cause is the problem. It deserves a place in a curricula as how not to document history within its own context. Revisionism 101. How about a peoples History of the Ukraine?
It exposed the true history of America/ns, which obviously exposes you & all other racists & perceived white supremacists, bigots, hypocrites, and the likes. You can run forever, but eventually TMH exposes you! Get over it, your time is UP, so enjoy its remains HalleluYAH!!!!
@@rasil4u hardly racist. You don’t know me. Projection.
Zinn was an anarchist. Not just leftist. I don't agree that he lies in his book but the book should be literally titled "Everything Wrong Ever America Did". It's like when you introduce your husband to your friends for the first time and you mention ONLY everything bad he said or did, taking everything out of context. History isn't black and white, it's grey. He showed only the black of American history. It's like portraing the ancient Greeks as mysogynistic, child molestors, who believed that slavery is moral, and not mentioning all the contributions of their culture to the world.
I remember that I was supposed to teach from it. Not only did I create my own curriculum, but over the years I threw the book away one at time. Kind of like Johnny Cash and building the car one piece at a time or Dufrene, (sp) in Shawshank Redemption who dug that tunnel with a rock hammer.
Book was never used again even after I left the school, for it had mysteriously disappeared.
There it is: "People's". Whenever you see that word in a title or organization it almost invariably means it's Marxist in origin and purpose. A common variation is "For the People": "The People's Republic of China"; "Science For the People"; "The People's Liberation Army". ("Liberation" is another commonly used Marxist term - which means its exact opposite). These are just off the top of my head - there are countless others.
Yeah, like the phrase "We the People"
I worked for an Anchorage based bookstore chain in the early 80's when the People's History came out. Most of us considered ourselves left leaning, and I read a "return - damaged" we had in the break room. Even in that milieu, the propaganda was obvious - the "People's" history, after all. I'm appalled it's treated as gospel these days.
Did you happen to notice how amazingly convenient is that this woman fails to tell people like you that Howard Zinn started out his career as a pilot bombing the living daylights out of the Japanese. Yet we are supposed to somehow believe that this woman Mary knows more about this subject than a person who not only lived it and did it but knows what it feels like to regret it? There's not a single thing more important that you could've left out of this video then the fact that this man served our country by doing exactly what he was asked to do. Sorry......but......SHAME on this pro-capitalist talking points woman. No biased person of her intelligence and integrity would leave that out because doing so turns legitimacy into a headpiece and who on earth that is COMPLETEY unbiased would want to do something like that?
Bigger question still...... "What is truth", and..... "What matters to one, is of little or no importance to others.... Until it happens to they their selves".......
History teacher here, Sweden.
Similar things trickle from the States to us here in Europe too. Even in nations such as mine.
Heck I have a heard someone screaming colonism, racism argument towards Latvia & Estonia. Two nations we have been occupied by various empires and kingdoms for the last 800 years.
The truth hurts,doesn't it,Mary. Howard Zinn, rest in power,my man!
I had Zinn's book on my to read list for a bit. Goodread reviews tote it as a more truer representation of history. I suspected it was bias but not dishonest. I now have his and Mary's book on my list to to read together as a pair. Nice work Mary!!
Great way to form your our opinion on this, not with a 5 mins video on UA-cam, but by reading both of them and comparing them with each other and with your current knowledge, trying to form a consensus and opinion by yourself and not just blindly accepting what you're one-sidedly told!
More people should do like that in this comment section, both from the left and from the right, from what I'm seeing.
Of course we should explore all viewpoints. Howard Zinn is an accomplished Historian with a massive list of citations ranging from historians of the time and individual recorded accounts. Mary is a coattail critic at best. No real unbiased exploration. Prager double speak.
Prager is procriminal corporate kleptocapitalist propaganda designed to prevent the scandalously exploited (and systematically underpaid) members of our nations abused working class from asking for more than poverty wages from their employing corporations greedy billionheir owners.
I ABSOLUTELY agree that you should read both books - however amazingly convenient is how this woman fails to tell people like you that Howard Zinn started out his career as a pilot bombing the living daylights out of the Japanese. Yet we are supposed to somehow believe that this woman Mary knows more about this subject than a person who not only lived it and did it but knows what it feels like to regret it? There's not a single thing more important that you could've left out of this video then the fact that this man served our country by doing exactly what he was asked to do. Sorry......but......SHAME on this pro-capitalist talking points woman. No biased person of her intelligence and integrity would leave that out because doing so turns legitimacy into a headpiece and who on earth that is COMPLETEY unbiased would want to do something like that?
This lady has a conservative and corporate bias. Read Zinn's book and decide for yourself. His history is the history that conservatives don't want you to know about, i.e., what company/corporate leaders (especially the Robber Barons at the turn of the 20th century) don't want you to know about the labor movements in this country and how ruthlessly the fat cats were in trying to suppress it, and how many people they killed to do so!
This video’s portrayal of Zinn’s reading of Pike is misleading. He does not use Pike as a source about North Vietnam, he uses Pike as source about the NLF which was a South Vietnamese communist insurgency organization. Specifically he gives two passages from Pike where he describes the NLF as a “mass-based political party” whose purpose was “to restructure the social order of the village.” Now if you think an admission of a party being “mass-based” makes one an admirer then you may have more communist sympathies than you choose to let on.
Everyone, buy the works of David McCullough. He is an honest writer and historian.
True! His books are wonderful and hearing him lecture is a real treat!
Zinn had good takes on war and trusting government.
Magnet Schools use book this as we speak
Mary could you please come to Wisconsin and help undo all of the crap that is going on in our schools. Please DM me. We really need a speaker and they claim that they don’t mind another side to be said. Let’s see what they do about it. I think we need you in the schools.
Huh . . . I always read Zinn in college as an opposite pole from jingoism; I could not take his words as truth. But here's a difference: I was half a decade older than my classmates and could think for myself.
Zinn was why Schweichart wrote his Patriot's History, so there's that.
I am from Venezuela and until recently I did not really know who Howard Zinn was, I did not even know that he was American, the intellectuals of the Latin American left constantly cite him as if he would have been the only reliable historian, his book is almost mandatory reading in universities , from Mexico to Argentina. I tried to read some of his articles and I recognized the language of the left, regarding the relationship between Columbus and the Tainos, the threat of the Caribs was very real, they were an extremely aggressive people who considered the other tribes their slaves and frequently practiced cannibalism, In Venezuela the piranhas are called Caribes, in Venezuela they were exterminated thanks to the alliance between the Spaniards and the Indians.
The more I read about Howard Zinn, the more it appears to me that he is a great hero in a hero-less modern society of America.