To the Editor:
Bob Herbert’s Jan. 30 column about Howard Zinn, “A Radical Treasure,” is a wonderful tribute to a great man. We never met Mr. Zinn except through his books and films. Yet his death left us with a profound sadness.
There aren’t many people who speak truth to power and do so with as much grace, intelligence and compassion as Mr. Zinn. His “People’s History of the United States” should be read by all Americans. It’s our failure to understand and take responsibility for our arrogance that has led us into so many military mistakes and economic calamities. Thank you, Bob Herbert, for reminding us of what this world lost when this great man died.
Larry Barkan
Carol Barkan
Tempe, Ariz., Jan. 30, 2010
To the Editor:
Bob Herbert suggests that the fact that the late historian Howard Zinn was viewed as a dangerous radical by some people is a sad commentary on American intellectual life.
I could not disagree more. I never met Mr. Zinn, but I have seen, as a history professor as well as in my research on French anti-Americanism, the awful effect that “A People’s History of the United States” has had on several generations of students. In Mr. Zinn’s effort to tell “the other side of the story,” he dramatically distorted events on both sides and reduced the complexities of international politics to a struggle between good and evil.
An excellent raconteur, he was, however, determined to write history as a story of American malfeasance. The result, among students who embraced his ideas, is a sort of facile cynicism posing as sophistication, and, perhaps worse, the tragically fatalistic idea that American history is little more than a conspiracy against humanity.
Seth Armus
Long Beach, N.Y., Jan. 30, 2010
The writer is an associate professor of history at St. Joseph’s College and the author of “French Anti-Americanism, 1930-1948: Critical Moments in a Complex History.”
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 