Howard Zinn: On History by Howard Zinn (2011) is a collection of previously published essays ranging from Freedom Schools in the 1960s, issues in scholarship, to the American Empire. Even though the essays were written over several decades there is a constant theme throughout the work—the activist scholar. Zinn feels that scholars should not be passive citizens concerned with their research alone, but active citizens that use their research to change society. Zinn, unlike other historians, is not afraid to place what he views as right and wrong into his scholarly work. In fact he sees nothing unethical about inserting his opinion or politics into his writing. The society of higher education teaches historians to be objective by removing the person from the reading—removing opinion from writing. Zinn feels that this is a fruitless enterprise, for in the end opinion and politics will enter writing. In Howard Zinn: On History the case is made that for a different kind of historian. Zinn challenges the traditional notion of an historian a more passive scholar that endlessly tries to remove himself, or herself, from their research. Zinn sees this as an impossibility and instead argues for a more active scholar. This is the central theme that runs through Zinn’s book, a theme that should run through scholarship itself.
In “Historian as Citizen (1966)” Howard Zinn first codifies his views of an opinion based activist scholar in terms of a historian. The first type of historian that he introduces is the mainstream version of the historian, “traditionally, he is passive observer, one who looks for sequential patterns in the past as a guide to the future (…) but without participating himself in attempts to change the pattern or tidy the d...
... middle of paper ...
...nges the traditional notion of the objectivity claiming that it is impossible. People cannot remove their biases and therefore are subjective in nature. Therefore, that objectivity is lost because the historian is no longer a “disinterested scholar;” however, that does not mean that the end result, i.e. research, cannot be truthful, and therefore, objective. Just because people are subjective that does not meant that truth is unattainable. The notion that “specialization” harms scholarship by making the “activist-scholar” impossible is simply not pragmatic. It is impossible for a single person to be a true holistic scholar, and, therefore, a panel of “activist-scholars” is a more practical solution to the issue of “specialization.” Howard Zinn’s book is his attempt to become a “activist-scholar” as he uses his research to try and change society for the better.
...r’s book, Cry Liberty may not be the most effective for teaching undergraduates in an introductory course. Hoffer shows the way that history is contested and constructed as an argument-based discipline. This book is also meaty enough to provide good grist for courses focused on historical methods or on historical memory. Hoffer did a nice job fitting so much history into 126 pages.
“Intellectuals and Democracy” by Mark Kingwell (2012) captures the essence of the commonality between higher education and philosophy and democracy. The author, who is a philosopher expresses his notion of the connection between the democratic system and that of the education system. Often, as the article expresses there is a preconception regarding the validation of careers promised with certain university degrees where other programs result in uncertainty or questioning from others. The use of rhetorical appeals used by the author throughout the article works towards building his article. I argue that through rhetorical appeals the author works his audience to grasp his personal stance of the education system as he attempts to persuade
...in our collaborative endeavors as progressive scholars in cultural studies, I had never considered until now just how much of my own work I would actually compromise if a circumstance similar to that of Toelken’s Yellowman tapes ever arose. Considering his position pushed me to identify a nameless discomfort that has left me uneasy about so much of the material I consume—“one party [enjoys] inherent advantages by virtue of controlling the infrastructure and the output.” In the end my own morality and the relationships I choose to maintain in my research will dictate the decisions I make in actually practicing praxis.
America is a nation that is often glorified in textbooks as a nation of freedom, yet history shows a different, more radical viewpoint. In Howard Zinn’s A People's History of the United States, we take a look at American history through a different lens, one that is not focused on over glorifying our history, but giving us history through the eyes of the people. “This is a nation of inconsistencies”, as so eloquently put by Mary Elizabeth Lease highlights a nation of people who exploited and sought to keep down those who they saw as inferior, reminding us of more than just one view on a nation’s history, especially from people and a gender who have not had an easy ride.
A People's History of the United States, originally published in 1980, as a work of non-fiction by the political scientist and American historian, Howard Zinn. Zinn seeks to show us American history through the eyes of common, everyday people rather the views of biased historians. A People's History is included in high school and college curriculum across the United States and is a favorite of American homeschoolers everywhere. It has drastically changed the focus of how history is now presented.
As we delve into the writings of Mr. John Dewey and Mr. Howard Zinn we notice a shared theme between the two authors, balance. However, both philosophers view the approach to reaching balance in different ways. In Zinn’s article The Uses of Scholarship, Zinn states that knowledge is a form of power. I find a great deal of truth in this statement. The presidential election of 2016 is on the rise. With that being said, even the most uninformed voter will elect the candidate he/she feels is the most knowledgeable to run our country, the candidate he/she feels is the most qualified to become the leader of our free world. Zinn writes that these people we elect in power, keep control by setting rules that are upheld by modern society. Zinn does not
...xpect nor want historians to agree in their interpretations of the past, for then new discoveries would never be made and our knowledge would be limited. It is through this synthesis of knowledge and constant dialogue between historians that the most comprehensive representation of the Progressive Era, and ultimately history in general, is created.
According to West, “the attitudes of white scholars in the academy are quite different than those in the past” (West pg. 303). In the dilemma of the black intellectual Afro-American intellectual often known better as “black’s” have a stressful time in being acceptance in whites universities and find themselves in one of the black educational institutions for potential black intellectuals. Many black’s begin their intellectual career with hopes of self worth and self confidence in a way that is in alignment with certain values. Under the effects of their own emotional pain however, some black’s become removed from those values, removed from the purpose behind their intellectual. Black’s can feel like a ship in stormy seas, floundering with nothing solid to anchor to. When black’s make demands, use criticism or labeling to be taken seriously as potential scholars and intellectuals in our universities and colleges to vulgar perceptions fueled by
“A high school graduate who has acquired Hirsch’s core knowledge will know, for example, that John Stuart Mill was an important 19th-century English Philosopher who was associated with something called Utilitarianism and wrote a famous book called On Liberty. But learning philosophy in college, which is and essential component of a liberal education, means that the student has to be able to read and understand the actual text of On Liberty”. (Murray
The Radical Reader: A Documentary History of the American Radical Tradition, ed. Timothy Patrick McCarthy and John McMillian (New York: The New Press, 2011), 584.
"You're a human being, not an animal. You have the right to be loved" (262). "Son of the Revolution" by Liang Heng and Judith Shapiro was a book that showed how inhumane many of the aspects of Chinese life were during the Cultural Revolution. The book followed Liang Heng through many of his childhood memories to his departure from China in his twenties. The book applied a real face to the important movements during the Cultural Revolution, the effects that "the cult of Mao" had on society and Heng, and the way the period affected Heng's personal family life.
Second, the historian must place himself within the existing historical debate on the topic at hand, and state (if not so formulaically as is presented here) what he intends to add to or correct about the existing discussion, how he intends to do that (through examining new sources, asking new questions, or shifting the emphasis of pre-existing explanations), and whether he’s going to leave out some parts of the story. This fulfills the qualities of good history by alerting readers to the author’s bias in comparison with the biases of other schools of scholarship on the topic, and shows that the author is confident enough in his arguments to hold them up to other interpreta...
In William Zinnser’s essay “Simplicity” he states that “clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can’t exist without the other.” He believes that people speak more complexly then they have to and that the key to good writing and speaking is simplicity. In his argument he goes on to say that often writers are not careful enough. They know what they are trying to say but do not know how to put it down on paper. They assume that the reader will understand what they are thinking even though their writing is not obvious to others. He does make several suggestions for improvement. Very easily one could make their writing easier to understand by simple corrections.
John Lewis Gaddis, in his book, The Landscape of History, generates a strong argument for the historical method by bringing together the multiple standpoints in viewing history and the sciences. The issue of objective truth in history is addressed throughout Gaddis’s work. In general, historians learn to select the various events that they believe to be valid. Historians must face the fact that there is an “accurate” interpretation of the past ceases to exist because interpretation itself is based on the experience of the historian, in which people cannot observe directly (Gaddis 10). Historians can only view the past in a limited perspective, which generates subjectivity and bias, and claiming a piece of history to be “objective” is simplistic. Seeing the world in a multidimensiona...
Nussbaum, Martha C. "Chapter 10 Democratic Citizenship and the Narrative Imagination." Why Do We Educate?: Renewing the Conversation. Ed. David L. Coulter. Comp. John R. Wiens and Gary D. Fenstermacher. Chicago: National Society for the Study of Education, 2008. 143-57. Print.