Howard Zinn: A Competing Narrative Early March in Arkansas a Republican state Representative Kim Hendren introduced a bill to ban any book produced by Howard Zinn between the years of 1959-2010 in public schools. This ban included his bestselling book A People’s History of the United States that attempts to retell the typical historical narrative taught in schools from the perspective of the marginalized. This incident was not the first time that Zinn’s material had been targeted. Former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels had also attempted to remove Zinn’s work from classrooms in Indiana. In retort, the Zinn Education Project, an institution dedicated to promoting Zinn’s work into middle and high school classrooms, decided to offer free copies …show more content…
In the section titled Teaching the AHA states “Integrity in teaching means presenting competing interpretations with fairness and intellectual honesty...leading them toward the insight that history is a process of living inquiry, not an inert collection of accepted facts” (AHA Statement on Standards 11). Additionally, the AHA highlights that textbooks, course offerings, and public history presentations should represent “the diversity of human experience”, which is primarily the goal of Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States (AHA Statement on Standards 11). However, students hold the freedom to openly disagree with certain interpretations and it is not the role of the teacher to dismiss criticisms. The role of the teacher is to present conflicting interpretations and allow students to come to their own conclusions. Lastly, the section called Shared Values of Historians discusses the importance of creating critical dialogue. The AHA explains that “Multiple, conflicting perspectives are among the truths of history” (AHA Statement on Standards 5). Therefore, there is no objective history that could end the dialogue that historians have been a part of for so long. However, this does mean that there will be conflicting views and people have the freedom to accept these …show more content…
The AHA’s discussion of dialogue and truth connect to the ethical theory of Kantianism. Kantianism is a form of Deontology that provides us with the Universal Law Formula and the Humanity as an End in Itself Formula. The Universal Law Formula says that we should treat others in the way that we expect others to treat us. The Humanity as an End in Itself Formula explains that humans should never be used as a means to an end or we should simply respect humans. Through these formulas come the idea of imperfect and perfect duties. A perfect duty is moral truth that must be followed at all times, while an imperfect duty is one that should be followed some of the time depending on the circumstance. Kant expresses that we have perfect duties to respect other’s freedoms and we have a perfect duty to tell the truth. The AHA uses these two duties in their discussions on teaching and the shared values of historians. First off, the AHA states that presenting multiple perspectives on history are parts of the truths of history, therefore according to Kant we have a perfect duty to truth and presenting multiple perspectives. Secondly, the AHA explains the importance of dialogue and respecting opposing viewpoints. Kant argues that we also have a perfect duty to respect other’s freedoms including free speech, consequently we have a perfect duty to dialogue. In conclusion, the
In traditional history textbooks, or at least the ones that I have read, perspectives are one-sided, and the one side is that of the winner. The layout of these books (8.5 by 11 inch pages, justified small font for the length of the page) as well as simply the sentence structure and flow makes history textbooks less intuitive. Zinn’s perspective was largely that of the minority or that of the losers. Understanding his somewhat unbalanced perspective evened out with the traditional unbalanced perspective. However, if this book were to be perfect, it probably would be a bit more balanced.
The purpose Howard zinn had in writing this book was “in telling the history of the United States: that we must not accept the memory of the states as our own. Nations are not communities and never has been. The history of any country, presented as the history of a family, conceals fierce conflicts of interest (sometimes exploding, most often repressed) between conquerors and conquered, masters and slaves, capitalists and workers, dominators and dominated in race and sex. And in such world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, as albert Camus suggested, not to be on the side of the executioners”. From this quote I concluded that Howard Zinn was going to write this book from both sides in history
There are two sides to every story. This is especially true when it comes to the history of the world. The two textbooks that we read for this class, A Patriot’s History of the United States and The American People, are great examples of this idea not because they cannot agree on the events of American history, but because they have different viewpoints on the significance of events, and the impact of some controversial topics. This essay will discuss the similar and different perspectives of the two textbooks mentioned above, while talking specifically about Chapter 6 of A Patriot’s History and Chapter 10 of The American People. More specifically, this essay will cover the books contrasting interpretations of societal, political, and religious
The American Revolution was a political outbreak that changed the face of the nation. American colonies became independent and broke out of British rule to become its own country and formulated its own government to become what is known as The United States of America. The cause of the Revolution was to become independent and get out of the British’s treatment and rules and to develop their own method of ruling a nation. Howard Zinn had his own point of view and arguments on the events of the Revolution and what occurred behind the scenes. He opens a new angle to what actually happened and argues that the revolution was a substitution of one tyranny for another.
Howard Zinn uses historical writings to explain an imbalance in objectivity, perspective, and justice. History books are written by the victors not the vanquished which makes the perspective of the story teller biased. As the story of Christopher Columbus he has been hailed as a hero especially in public schools and recognized as an historical occasion to have a day off granted by the government. Many as we grow more educational find out this sinister legacy that was swept under the carpet because there is evidence that supports while in the “new world” he destroyed the native peoples of islands he explored and it devastated native populations. There is no justice being done when the perspective does not reveal a whole truth when the objective
History is made from stories, stories that have been passed from generation to generation, eventually written down and recorded as a record. Most often History is written by the powerful, the victorious, and so facts can become twisted and history can grow to not truly reflect reality. In context, the winners of a game may justly say they won but intentionally leave out the penalties they took or the goals the other team scored. Similarly, this happens in history and so history must be revised upon the discovery of new facts and evidence to be able to do justice to the reality of events.
Historian as a Citizen written by noted political science Professor Howard Zinn , regarding historian 's views of human behavior. The passage reminds the reader to critique their perceptions of history and politics. Making the compelling argument that the position of the historian keeps evolving with the times and sociopolitical landscape. Ultimately , the proper role of the historian is to understand how history affects the present. Zinn starts off by saying " Traditionally , he is passive observer, one who looks for sequential patterns in the past as a guide to the future, or else describes the historical events as unique and disorderly- but without participating himself in attempts to change pattern or tidy the disorder" (Zinn 43).
“In that inevitable taking of sides which comes from selection and emphasis in history, I prefer to try to tell the story of the discovery of America from the viewpoint of the Arawaks, of the Constitution from the standpoint of the slaves, of Andrew Jackson as seen by the Cherokees…” (Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, pg. 10). Society as a whole expects historians to be impartial, to report the events of the past as they happened, without incorporating their own thoughts into these events. We choose to believe that they are politically neutral, that they have no bias, and that they report history fairly and that everything occurred the way they say. However, as historian Howard Zinn points out in A People’s History, most historians have succumbed to the disturbing trend of glossing over and sugarcoating some of history’s most horrific events, excusing them as necessary for “progress,” and then moving on.
Did you know that Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes recently joined the eighth-grade curriculum after decades of banning? Challenging books has become a popular act; although one may not see the reason to do so in several of those books, there are hidden things that a simple eye cannot understand. In order to understand the meaning of banning and challenging books, one must identify the differences. Challenging is the act of expressing a point of view or simply a critic, usually with the goal to remove a book; while banning means the complete removal of the texts challenged. These removal methods happen mostly with good intentions, as to protect weaker audiences from offensive content.
The Dangers of Book Banning The practice of challenging or banning books has long been a strategy used to label reading materials as offensive on moral, religious, or political, grounds. Books are being banned for containing offensive materials. It is argued that people can become influenced by detrimental ideas. The First Amendment expresses that citizens have the right to freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
The United States of America is renowned for the endless freedoms the country offers, yet high schools are being deprived of the opportunity to include important pieces of literature in curriculum because of the controversial subjects highlighted within the books. One piece of literature that falls in this category is Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 which has been challenged prominently because of violence. Although the novel contains sophisticated themes and violent behavior, Fahrenheit 451 should be authorized for academic use in high school curricula because it promotes awareness and classroom discussion on the prevalence of violence in society. The majority of concerned citizens believe that banning books protects the youth, however, these
As the Loewen affirms in his books lies my teacher taught me. American history is full of an ugly past as to what is being taught as history in schools today. Teachers find dull history and lie easily to teach as compared to facts and unpleasant truth. Real history evokes many reactions from those
Board of education in 1954, focusing on the equal protection clause. Citizens depend on the constitution to make them feel safe and protected, but like Zinn said, “we risk our lives and liberties when we depend on that document to defend them. This is a bad idea that our democracy governs like this. One key fact that Zinn puts out is that the “1st amendment does not determine what we have a right to say and what we want, but it depends on if were courageous enough to speak up the risk of being jailed or fired”. People should not have to worry about losing their lives just because of the simple fact that they are standing up for their rights.
Kant’s various philosophical works and their contents are highly debated, and remain relevant in today’s society. As Kant’s discussion suggests, all humans the ability to follow the good will because of their ability to reason. However, one can suggest that some people are more inclined to follow the good will due to their individual traits. Kant proposes the categorical imperative that allows everyone to evaluate if their actions uphold the good will. Regardless of one’s position in the argument, it is apparent that moral law is applicable to all humans as rational beings, and therefore should be followed by all who possess the ability to reason.
American History Education Reforms The definition as well as the specific parts of accurate American history is a highly debated topic- especially in regards to educating children on American history. In “Let’s tell the Story of All America’s Cultures” by Yuh Ji-Yeon gives her point of view on the controversial topic of the success of American history education. As the author is a Korean immigrant she has a special connection to this topic, and is writing this article to giver her opinion in the debate of reforming education in America. Ji-Yeon successfully persuades the audience that American history education in the United States is discriminatory by using her personal experiences and emotions as she informs the audience of a possible solution