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Vincent Van Goatse posted:Cause the Civil War chapter is practically Confederate apologism claiming the real cause of the war was conspiracy by Northern industrialists or some poo poo. Can't speak for the rest of the book but when it comes to the Civil War it's really bad analysis. The bad rap the book gets comes from the above and also from the traditional historian/academic crowd based in no small part to how Zinn frames a lot of his "proof" around second hand sources and selectively ignoring the portions of documents and studies he cites that contradict his claims. It's in the same category as Gun Germs and Steel, an engaging and interesting non-fiction novel that can be the gateway to people educating themselves but usually just becomes "oh well you need to read People's History, it'll open your eyes" and never discussed beyond that. In a better world people would read it, accept it for what it is flaws and all, and go on to read more in depth from better sources. There must be phenomenally good leftist/socialist historians who do a better job of keeping their personal feelings out of the historical narratives they construct. pentyne fucked around with this message at 23:59 on Jun 13, 2020 |
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Jun 13, 2020 23:56
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Vincent Van Goatse posted:And in the case of the Civil War, that's going to lead to create an utterly false narrative which, if you're trying to write a "people's history" (or any kind of history) is something you should avoid at all costs if you want to be taken seriously or at least not shouted at. The saga of the state of American History in terms of academic and publishing, commonly accepted "truths" was a largely dominate Southern apologia from the moment war ended until the 1970s when you finally had a wave of non-southern scholars rise up and call out the bullshit. Blassingame was a major step forward in finally forcing white academia to admit the horrors of slavery after someone finally (shockingly, it was a black man) just went ahead and collected actual authenticated testimonies of slaves and slave descendants that working plantations weren't some kind and generous system with a few "bad apples" but a brutal and oppressive regime of wanton abuse, rape, murder against what was legally deemed "property" at the time. Zinn being a product of his time, coming up in the 50s/60s when all the serious discourse on the South was apologia would be understandable but framing it as the results of rich Northerners meddling is pretty egregious when Zinn was a massive Civil rights activist and somehow didn't make the mental connection that rich vs. poor was not what made the Civil War happen.
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Jun 14, 2020 03:05
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SMEGMA_MAIL posted:I wonder how many people took my obvious discomfort with the thank you for your service thing as being overwhelmed with gratitude now lol My friend finished basic in Ft Benning, and was driving back up the east coast in his camos to head home for a bit. The first place he stopped was a McDonalds, and he said he was so embarrassed with how people treated him he didn't stop at all for the rest of the trip unless it was an emergency. He was just trying to get a burger and people were just coming up and fawning over him. He had to leave while some senior citizen was trying to give him a $20 to thank him.
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May 6, 2021 10:07
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