I didn't need a massive FBI file to convince me that Howard Zinn was a Communist. The massive tome he wrote was fairly persuasive on that point. For those who remain unconvinced, why would numerous unconnected people tell the FBI that Howard Zinn, then an unknown, was a member of the Communist Party? Read my piece @ City Journal that posits that like Zinn's A People's History of the United States, his '50s responses to questions from the FBI just don't add up.
Howard Zinn a Communist? Come on!! Next thing you'll be telling us is that Obama is not a Christian.
Boy, you should read some of the nasty comments that article elicited from Zinn's acolytes!
Smear...hatchet job...blah, blah, blah. Zinn's work stands on its own (he doesn't need to be here to defend his works just like any other dead historian...especially when he made it clear where he was coming from). I'd like to see Dan concentrate more on that than his FBI file (although to be fair, there's an entire section on Zinn in "Intellectual Morons")
Can't wait for another article on Noam Chomsky (you know, the guy who cites himself in his footnotes to bolster his arguments...who does that?) I'm sure it would bring out the zealots too.
To all those who claim Zinn wasn't a Communist...who cares? He was a Marxist and ubersocialist and they amount to the same thing. Stop quibbling over which bad theory he espouced. They're all equivalently stupid.
The U.S., like the Soviet Union of the Cold War era, is a state capitalist system that funnels wealth from the bottom 99% to the top 1%. This indisputable fact is reflected in empirical changes in income distribution from 1945-1979 and 1979-present. Bandying about terms like communist or Marxist are generally uninformative and are usually thrown around by people who do not know the literal meaning of those words.
The pertinent question is whether Howard Zinn was a totalitarian or a democrat, not whether he was a communist or capitalist. These conceptual distinctions, sadly, are lost on the simple stimulus-response organisms known as mainstream conservatives, right-wing libertarians, and teabaggers.
Of course, Howard Zinn fought bravely as a fighter pilot during WW2, which is more than anyone engaging in this petty, childish calumny against him has ever done for this country. How about you debate contemporary issues instead of dredging up this inane, unconstructive bullshit? Or is that too hard for you, Dan? Maybe you can come up with another top 10 music list or talk shit about your community theater again.
Everyone with an IQ of 100,as well as not being a committed Marxist knows the man was a marxist loser.
The uneducated, Hollywood left, defends the man, much in the same way they defended Marxist movements in central America in the 80's and Asia,as well as Africa in the 70's.
Hell, that dimwit Sean Penn ,loves as well as defends Hugo Chavez.
Zinn was a disgrace while inhabiting this earth,however, being a Christian I want to say RIP.
