On the centennial of Howard Zinn’s birth in 1922, we are hosting a discussion with author David Detmer, who published a wide-ranging critique of the historian’s work, from the angle of its reception, titled Zinnophobia, the Battle over History in Education, Politics, and Scholarship (2018). Organized as a book club, this session will focus on A People’s History of the United States from 1492 to the Present (1980), and more specifically on chapter 16, “A People’s War?” which discusses some of the dynamics at play during World War Two.
The whole chapter is available at https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/zinnpeopleswar.html
For a negative critique of the chapter, see Sam Wineburg’s piece : https://www.aft.org/periodical/american-educator/winter-2012-2013/undue-certainty
David Detmer is a professor of philosophy at Purdue University Northwest.