[Leftist Critic is an independent writer, researcher, and comrade who cares about the world around them. Other than posting on radical subreddits, they also tweet infrequently at @leftistcriticabout about the murderous US empire, international solidarity with nations and peoples under attack, and provide necessary criticism of the Western “Left.” They can be reached at leftistcritic@linuxmail.org.] By Leftist Critic On […]
[With the recent renewed interest in Settlers, as well as the release from u.$. interment of the great Oscar López Rivera, we thought it might be prudent to provide our readers with a choice tidbit from the book in question. As the revisionists and the imperial left, devoid of real solidarity, decry the treatment of […]
Violence has always been an integral part of the successful revolutionary movements on some level or another, this is undeniable. From the 26th of July Movement to the Bolsheviks, we have been looking at a continuous history of struggle which has been incredibly violent in its successes as well as its failures. However, our job […]
We have long promoted and distributed certain works of J. Sakai as essential reading for revolutionary anti-imperialists, especially Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat. Its uncompromising look at Amerikan history as one of oppression of captive nations is a sharp contrast to the left patriotism of Howard Zinn, as a previous review by […]
Zinn's deceptively titled "A People's History" hinges on First World and White chauvinism. Even its cover is a nod and wink to "left-wing" Amerikan patriotism.
“A People’s History of the United States,” by Howard Zinn, is acclaimed within and without Amerikan academia and ‘left-wing’ circles as a hallmark of narrative history. It is required reading in many university History Departments and widely recommended by ‘progressives’ and ‘radicals’ of various shades and stripes. Beyond these accolades however, lies a narrative “of the American people,” not one of those perennially trampled beneath their weight. A “People’s History,” far from being subversive, is a hallmark of typical Amerikan, First World and White chauvinism in ‘leftist’ dressing. Zinn’s work serves much of the First World fake ‘left’ well precisely by obscuring the role of conquest, national oppression and imperialism in the development of the US.
One preeminent example is Zinn’s mountainous four paragraphs of “A People’s History of the United States” dedicated to the internment of Japan-descended people living on the western coast of the US during World War II:
“In one of its policies, the United States came close to direct duplication of Fascism. This was in its treatment of the Japan-Americans living on the West Coast. After the Pearl Harbor attacks, anti-Japanese hysteria spread in the government. One congressman said: ‘I’m for catching every Japanese in America, Alaska and Hawaii now and putting them in concentration camps…Damn them! Let’s get rid of them!’ Continue reading
