Debunking Howard Zinn

by Michael Sean Winters

View Author Profile

Join the Conversation

Send your thoughts to Letters to the Editor. Learn more

Over at The New Republic, my old pal David Greenberg reviews Martin Duberman's new biography of Howard Zinn. Here is a taste:

Duberman is exceedingly gracious toward Zinn, praising his warm heart, his honorable intentions, his noble commitments. One could almost miss the damning portrait of Zinn’s thinking that ultimately emerges. But damning it is: just as his thoughts on scholarship appear jejune, so Zinn himself—his measure taken in full—comes across as a lazy, conventional theorist, with an undeveloped political philosophy.

If you retain any fondness for Zinn, please read this essay. Taking on John Silber may be a noble endeavor, but it does not excuse bad scholarship.

 

Latest News

Advertisement

1x per dayDaily Newsletters
1x per weekWeekly Newsletters
2x WeeklyBiweekly Newsletters