Howard Zinn - Lecture 1 notes PDF

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Lecture notes covering Howard Zinn, A People's History...

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HISTORY IS A WEAPON - WHAT IS RADICAL HISTORY? 1970 Howard Zinn 1922-2010  Historian, social activist, political scientist  Civil rights activist and scholar o In air force WWII, antiwar views o Teaching in Atlanta, Boston Paris o civil rights movement o Worker's rights

Historians cannot be neutral. "The historian cannot choose to be neutral; he writes on a moving train." The things we read change us. "What makes us human is our capacity to reach with our mind beyond our immediate sensory capacities, to feel in some degree what others feel totally, and then perhaps to act on such feelings." VALUE-LADEN HISTORIOGRAPHY: acknowledging the sides of history and the morals behind them Ex. Black studies programs "do not pretend to just introduce another subject for academic inquiry. They have the specific intention of so affecting the consciousness of black and white people in this country as to diminish for both groups the pervasive American belief in black inferiority."  Empathy with fellow human beings  Affecting political consciousness  Inspiring political action What awareness in history writing can create humanistic movements in its readers? 1. SHARPEN AWARENESS OF WHAT IS WRONG. We can expand our perception of how bad things are for the victims of the world a. History can overcome our separation from knowing who is an aggressor and who is a victim b. Show us how other people, similarly situated, in other times, also ignored the present situations of poor neighbors i. History can be created by "the most articulate, most privileged members of society" which is a distorted view ii. There is no one true picture of a historical situation (HARDING'S STRONG OBJECTIVITY? ++), there is no neutrality b. "The point is not to omit the viewpoint of the privileged (that dominates the field anyway) but to remind us forcibly that there is always a tendency, now as then, to see history from the top c. We are increasingly separated, in time and space, from victims d. Two values in going back in time i. Our guard is down ii. Adds depth and intensity 2. EXPOSE THE LIMITATIONS OF THE GOV'T. "We can expose the pretensions of governments to either neutrality or beneficence" a. Showing that the government is either passive or perpetrators of violence drives us to act personally b. We cannot rely on the government to equitably distribute wealth or rights. i. American gov't didn't do much for black people, then and now

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The economic laws of the past clearly did not work, given the present. Demand something new and better b. Expose the limitations of governmental reform, gov't -- wealth + privilege, gov't -- war + xenophobia, law is presumed neutral i. Historical material adds the depth of time to info about gov't's failings ii. Government tends to maintain the same by any means 2. EXPOSE THE IDEOLOGY THAT PERVADES OUR CULTURE. Disrupt the rationale for the going order/mythology/logic a. Mystification is required to conceal what is wrong in church/school/written word i. "all simply do what comes naturally and what comes naturally is to say what has always been said, to believe what has always been believed" ii. Noble myths, pretenses, mystification of rhetoric, confusion of ideals and reality, symbols obscuring reality, double standards in history b. Use history to demystify instead of reinforce a framework with power. i. Recall the rhetoric of the past and measure it against the actual past to reveal discrepancies 2. MOMENTS IN THE PAST MAY SHOW THE POSSIBILITY OF A BETTER WAY OF LIFE. "To move men to act it is not enough to enhance their sense of what is wrong…one must also show that something else is possible." a. Show the possibility of change to spur us on b. We need to know that there have been people in the past who rebelled the way we should c. Genovese v. Lynd i. Historical specificity vs. universal values ii. "All men made equal" not really,,,, vs. it's important to strive toward it b. Which "true history" fits the "practical need for social change in our day?" 5. SHOW HOW SOCIAL MOVEMENTS CAN FAIL a. Avoid the traps of the past b. Make us critical participants in social movements (show how easy it is for rebels to back down from their claims) c. See eighteenth brumaire d. While history is not inevitably useful, "history can untie our minds, our bodies, our disposition to move to engage life rather than contemplating it as an outsider"...